Staffing and managing an internal call center is both challenging and costly. For many direct-to-customer businesses, it can represent as much as 3% of net sales, or even more. And there is no way to put a price on the frustrations involved....
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Have you ever wondered about the difference between multi-channel and omni-channel communications? Multi-channel offers multiple lines of communication individually, while omni-channel combines all those channels into one single experience. They may...
When a customer contacts your company to ask product questions, place an order, or get tech support, they assume they are talking to your people. They may not even realize they have contacted a “call center.” In fact, that's the goal, that they...
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms can (and should) play an important role in customer relations. Here at The Connection®, we always recommend that companies integrate call center and CRM technologies. Doing this enables call center...
Speech analytics software has become a vital tool for contact centers. The data you capture from speech analytics can be much more nuanced than the usual hard performance numbers, providing deeper insight to grow your business by improving customer...
Outsourcing is a common and highly-scalable business practice these days, but the partner you choose to shoulder part of your company’s workload will have a direct effect on your bottom line. Even more important, though, the contact center partner...
In this day and age of cutthroat competition, it is ever more critical to provide great customer service, and to ensure that the quality of care that you provide is viewed positively by your customers.
Assessment testing can greatly enhance the hiring process for any call center. If created well, these tests can identify a candidate’s existing skills and knowledge. From customer service assessment to technical proficiency tests, it's important to...
One thing contact center managers can count on is that call volume will fluctuate. Much of that is predictable, thanks to ever-improving forecasting tools. But, what if the business frequently receives large influxes of calls? What can you do so...
Not every candidate who is hired to work in a call center comes with customer service experience. They may be friendly, outgoing, and patient, but they likely do not (yet) have the knowledge and call center-specific skills they will need to succeed....
