For those with contact center experience, do you remember your first big decision? Regardless of the outcome, how might your decision have been affected if you knew in advance precisely how much money it would save or make? To survive and prosper, contact centers must quickly secure the financial...
Forbes reported that poor customer service costs businesses more than $75 billion annually. For many customers, the last few years have witnessed a business’s contact center becoming their only point of communication. It’s an uphill struggle. Year after year, little to no change in CSAT score...
Content of this article is based on live customer deployments and outcomes. In the 1990s, NASA launched the Martian Climate Orbiter to study the atmosphere of Mars and relay messages from the Mars Polar Lander. And while everything appeared in good order, there was a problem: The Orbiter relied on...
The classic debate whether contact centers are a revenue center or cost center. If they’re a revenue center, then they should be managed with less concern over spending. If a cost center, then focus on achieving service levels for the lowest cost. It’s a serious consideration. In a...
One of the major initiatives abuzz in the Contact Center industry is agent empowerment and how it will improve performance and CX. The concept is simple. Agents who feel empowered are comfortable making decisions on their own, which gives them a keen sense of ownership with every customer interac...
Every business unit plays a vital role in its company’s success. From HR to R&D, all are important. But just because a business unit is important does not mean it cannot be outsourced or have budgets cut—in 2021, the growing outsourcing market was estimated at $246 billion. And as the wor...
It is no secret contact centers are under constant pressure to improve performance while reducing costs. A recent study by Bain & Company found that 86% of contact center leaders want to do that. One of the ways they manage operations is to track agent time. However, as contact centers handle...
In today’s contact centers the average agent uses more than 8.5 platforms each day. Without these solutions, most contact centers would never be able to operate at the volume and velocity required to hit service levels. But what is the most financially efficient way to optimize technol...
When I ask contact center leaders how they rationalize financial decisions, I consistently hear one key metric pop up “Cost-per-Contact.” And after much research I’ve learned it’s a good-looking measure. But… it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is not about cos...
Many contact centers rely on averages to base decisions, i.e.: Average handle time (AHT) Average cost-per-contact (ACC) Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) But the thing about averages is they should not be overly relied upon. From the Harvard Business Review article, The Flaw of Averages: Cons...
Optimal decision making requires the right insights based on the right information, but often we lack the right information until after the fact. How often has it been said, “If only I knew then what I know now”? And while contact centers are managed by smart people, they many times lack the...