Furloughs for L.L. Bean Call Center Workers
Outdoor gear and apparel merchant L.L. Bean will furlough about 75% of its staff - all but 50 of its 200 workers - at the Bangor, ME-based call center starting in May, according to the Kennebec (ME) Journal/Morning Sentinel....
Training Phone Reps to Upsell
Many call center reps see themselves as order-takers or processors or helpers, not as salespeople, and they can be fearful--and in some cases, downright negative--about selling. So the approach of teaching reps to “make the ask,” as fundraisers call it, instead of asking them to “sell,” often creates less resistance....
Increasing AOV on the phone
What's the AOV this week? How's the AOV trending? When marketers start talking about average order value, I can't help thinking of Garrison Keillor's...
Helping Phone Reps Increase AOV
You can do a few things to increase your average order value. But you’ll have to work for it. Most customers calling to order have chosen their merchandise before they dial; some have even calculated their order total. So triggering the impulsive act of adding on to an order will take a little bit of advance planning....
Forecasting Workloads for Special Events
Does your company’s call volume fluctuate according to seasonal buying, catalog drops, or other special events? If you’re like most catalogers, the answer is yes. And that means your workforce management software needs forecasting capabilities if you aim to have the right number of agents in their chairs at the right times....
Surveying Call Center Success
The long-term success of any organization, and particularly a service organization such as a call center, depends upon continuous improvement. Most call centers have numerous measures of individual, team, and overall call center performance. ...
The Lowdown on Bottom-Line Ergonomics
At almost every seminar I teach or attend I get asked, “How can I justify investing in the agents’ work space?” When I was managing contact centers, this was a very “iffy” situation. But the field of ergonomics has since blossomed, and the return on investment has been significantly substantiated....
Putting a Cap on Calls Resolution
You know why you should strive for first-call resolution, and if you read our last article (http://multichannelmerchant.com/opsandfulfillment/advisor/first_call_0129/index.html), you know how to do it. This week we’ll focus on limiting the number of calls to or from a customer it will take to resolve any problem or issue....
THE NEW SCHOOL
Thinking of buying a new CRM system? Save your money until your employees know what they're talking about. Technology alone won't help you provide customers...
Call Center Customers: The Waiting is the Hardest Part
The gap between customers' perception of waiting time and actual waiting time has been clearly conceptualized but rarely measured. ...
Elfing It Up at Lands’ End
To liven up the holiday order experience for both customers and telephone representatives, Lands’ End’s three contact centers are participating in a new company promotion, “Elf of the Day,” which began Nov. 28....
Calculating Contact Center Productivity
Everyone in your contact center must understand how you calculate productivity. Without an agreed upon calculation, you can never truly trust the numbers. ...
Top 10 Tech Tools for Call Centers
Technology has revolutionized the contact center in recent years, and there’s no shortage of must-have systems to choose from. But what’s the equipment centers can’t or shouldn’t live without? ...
Voice Recognition Technology Hits the Desktop
Voice recognition software has long been used to collect customer information for the customer service agent prior to the live connection of the call. But voice recognition software in use on the agent desktop is now showing promise in its ability to lower costs by reducing call handle times and provide a better service experience for the customer and agent. ...
Making a Budgetary Case For Your Contact Center, Part Two
Multichannel contact centers must be prepared to perform at a high level, which requires funding. But you need the support and buy-in of senior management to make your case to get the funding. ...
Is this New Delhi?
Haband is doing it. So are Home Decorators Collection and Creative Irish Gifts. Dell's still at it — even after customers told it to stop. What are these merchants doing? They're outsourcing all or part of their incoming calls to overseas call centers....
Making a Budgetary Case For Your Contact Center, Part One
Today’s changing contact center is multichannel, multimedia, multisite, multitasking, often creating multimeltdowns. The leaders in today’s centers must be prepared to perform at a high level, which requires funding. To access the funding, you have to make a case. But we must have the support and buy-in of senior management to accomplish our goals. ...
Eye on Offshore Call Center Outsourcing
The worldwide market for customer service outsourcing hit $12.2 billion in 2007, compared with $8.4 billion in 2004, according to Gartner Research.
The main reason it’s so popular? Marketers can save around 40% of their call center bills by outsourcing overnight or overflow calls, says Art Hall, principal with management consulting firm Marsel and Alvarez. ...
The Skinny on Call Monitoring
Managers typically monitor their agents' performance in responding to telephone calls, e-mail, etc. for purposes of quality control and training. Research shows that best-practice contact centers monitor 5 to 10 calls per agent per month. ...
Customer Intimacy: Getting Past the First 15 Seconds
Most call centers these days are tailoring their opening by balancing the requirements of their strategy and what their customers prefer. The best-in-class standard is not so much "agent first and last name" or "first name only" but rather what fits into the company strategy and customer segment. ...
Dark Days for Offshore Service?
Have you off-shored any of your customer contact operation? If so, how do you ensure there are no “dark and stormy” nights in your agents’ or customers’ experience?...
Should customer service reps sell?
Customers love to buy. We love when someone helps us solve a problem, meet a need, satisfy a desire, or do something nice for ourselves. If it's true,...
Study: Southerners more likely to register a complaint
According to a recent Customer Experience Impact Report by Harris Interactive on bad call experiences 80% of customers will go to competitors after a bad call--up from 68% in 2006. But an interesting breakdown in the report was the bad call experiences by geographic regions and the behavior associated with geography....
Optimizing the Customer Experience
A recent survey published in USA Today, indicates that 45% of customers identify customer service as the biggest influence on remaining loyal to a company. Clearly customers will stop doing business with companies due to the quality of the experience. ...
Transforming Agent Training Through Performance-Based Learning
An approach called “performance-based learning” provides companies with a better alternative to traditional, academic style training. PBL improves and accelerates the learning experience, thereby shortening time-to-proficiency, which results in training cost reductions, quicker revenue capture, improved agent satisfaction, and increased longevity on the job....
