However smart we get with Workforce Management, the nature of the contact centre means there will always be peaks and troughs in demand. Most contact centres tend to write this time off, but what if you could harness those moments and deliver value to customers? Or use them to drive business and advocacy. Surely that would be a more productive (and profitable) use of your agents’ time.
To Keep Clients Outsourcers Must Deliver on Their SLAs
The title of this post may sound obvious, however, it is the challenge all Contact Centre outsourcers face every day. When pitching for new business promises have to be and 0utsourcers need to not only live up to them but also demonstrate them to their clients.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) vary from contract to contract and depend on both the client’s industry and the task/function being outsourced. However, in general SLAs fall into four categories:
- Time to Answer/Respond
- Abandon Rates
- Number of Contacts Made
- Number of Positive Outcomes
Failure to meet any of these will, at best, invoke a financial penalty but, at worse, a terminated contract. Outsourcers must therefore take every possible step to ensure they hit their KPIs.
How social media is changing the Customer Service landscape
Very interesting infographic from Our Social Times around the impact of social media on how people use social channels to solve problems and voice grievances.
With the rise in popularity of these channels both for general communication and customer services, Contact Centres need to be aware of where their customers are talking or finding out information about them, their products or their services.
Keeping Customers by Exceeding SLAs
Even if you don’t have formal SLAs in place with your customers, in their own mind they will have expectations around the speed, quality and the effectiveness of the service you deliver.
Fail to deliver against these expectations and your customers will feel they’re not getting the level of service they deserve or have paid for. At best, they’ll wait for the appropriate opportunity and vote with their feet, and at worse they’re going to share their views with others, impacting your new business drive and potentially influencing others to join them as they march towards the exit.
Connecting to Customers by Vocalcom
Your chance to attend UC Expo for free
The Unified Communication Expo is being held in a few days at London’s Olympia and we will be showcasing our Contact Centre solution. We’re offering you the opportunity to register for free (typical registration is £30).
Unified Communications is all about connecting you to your customers and a contact centre is an extremely important part of that.
Vocalcom launches it’s award winning Contact Centre software to the UK
Paris headquartered Contact Centre specialist Vocalcom officially launches its web based unified contact centre software to the UK market at UCExpo. Already with over 4500 contact centre clients in Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas it has finally chosen this year to launch its UK operation based in Guildford, Surrey.
Mike Adolphy, Managing Director of Vocalcom UK, said “The UK is a a well-developed and mature market, so we know that in order to be competitive we need to launch with a product that is going to redefine how people think about Contact Centre technology. We are very excited about the impact we are already making in the UK and in fact many companies who have had a demonstration of the software expressed their astonishment at its innovative approach and to how much it can achieve for them as well as questioning why it had never been offered before.”
Know them before you talk to them
Customers are individuals and prefer to be treated as such. When dealing with large volumes of contacts however, it can be difficult to provide perhaps a more personalised experience that makes them feel that they are actually a very valued customer.
How Do I Identify My Customers?
Identifying a customer contacting your company is recognised as an essential ingredient to ensuring a successful and memorable contact experience. This is perhaps amplified by todays challenging market as it’s those existing customers that will keep your business successful.
