Tag: customer service

Business, Customer Experience, Customer Focus

The big contact centre disconnect

We’ve all got our opinions and we all feel that we’re sometimes experts in fields that we might appear to know little about. However, we are all customers of someone. That probably places us as expert customers?

So why is it we’re increasingly seeing declining customer service satisfaction, and increasing numbers of customer complaints?

Is it because we have more opportunity to be more vocal and by publicly complaining via social channels. And given that they are emotional experiences, often it moves other people to join in and stoke the fires with their own similar hideous experiences?

It’s all about expectation.

We are rapidly accelerating into a society of immediate gratification, reducing our levels of patience, such that even microwaves appear slow these days.

Pair this up with businesses constantly looking to do more with less, and it’s a ticking time bomb.

This need not be the case, with a higher degree of awareness within the servicing company, in understanding exactly what the customer experience is for their customers. Additionally, we’re an increasingly digital population and many businesses still struggle on their journey to a blend of digital and analogue services.

So what is the answer?

You might be surprised to hear me say that this is not necessarily about technology! However, it’s more to do with how the technology is brought into play and in what scenarios. But ultimately it’s about the people and process and creating much more personalised experiences for your customers.

I’m here to help, so let me know if this resonates and I can help you and drop me a line ⬇️

Drop me a line
Business, Customer Experience, Customer Focus, productivity, Social

Contact Centres – YOU ARE THE WEAKEST LINK, GOODBYE

Contact Centres – YOU ARE THE WEAKEST LINK, GOODBYE

Change or die is the message here. Progress means change is inevitable, yet we often see reluctance from business in this regard.

Changing gradually, is more of an evolutionary path and generally means a less bumpy and more controlled transition.

Change for the sake of change is questionable, however, change because your customers are demanding it is smart and clearly demonstrates customer-centric behaviours. It says “we are listening, and we are implementing the services you’re telling us are important to you”

A business’s inability to evolve generally results in frustrated customers, and ultimately customer defections.

It does increasingly feel like businesses make it difficult for you to contact them, doesn’t it, and although many of them are embracing digital channels like social media to broadcast their marketing messages. Ironically, this opens up new channels for customers and, yet those same organisations have so far failed to embrace the two-way nature of the communication that it enables. Broadly speaking, this is because these have become siloes that are unconnected, and unregulated, and staffed by unprepared team members.

There is no excuse for this, because the technology to rapidly deploy a connected omni-channel solution is available today. And to meet customers on their chosen channel without needing to rip and replace existing investment can be in place within days.

Business

Pinch punch it’s October 1st – 192 days into lockdown

The latest in my Pinch Punch series of posts. It’s my clumsy attempt at poetry, aiming to capture the moment of the Covid lockdown, along with my own passion for Customer Experience excellence and the technology landscape that either enables or thwarts this

Customer Experience, Customer Focus

Pinch punch its September 1st!!

The latest in my Punch Punch series of posts, where I attempt to describe what’s going on under the Covid crisis using my finely honed poetry skills, 

😜
Pinch punch, it's September 1st
Covid 19 has made the workforce dispersed
 
Working remotely is now the new way
But for many they're excited for the office return day
 
Life's been a bit different for a large part of the year
And I've read that we're all drinking more beer
 
Social distancing continues to be followed
And facemasks are being bought by the load
 
We're yearning for our cancelled events to reopen
Going to concerts that evoke our emotion
 
Business as usual is no longer the case
We're meeting by video and not face to face
 
Communication tools have become more critical
As they're bridging the gap to replace the physical
 
As we increasingly use our digital options
Business must accelerate their adoption
 
Meeting customers the way they want to engage
Before you send them into a rage
 
Don't make us queue for hours and hours
Give us the tools and self service powers
 
We don't need to wait to get something done
We want to do it ourselves whilst on the run
 
When you make it easy, we're as pleased as can be
Calling is ok but but it's not always for me
 
WhatsApp and other asynch channels are a boon
They save me holding and queuing and feeling like a buffoon.
 
It's easy to do with software in the cloud
No rip and replace need to be allowed

And It's ready in hours rather than weeks
The solution is exactly what everyone seeks

Make the move now, don't get left behind
Your customers will appreciate you're that way inclined

Koopid AI is leading the surge
And they're poised and ready for when you get the urge
Business

Pinch punch it’s August 1st

The latest in my Punch Punch series of posts, where I attempt to describe what’s going on under the Covid crisis using my finely honed poetry skills, 😜 with a slant on prevailing Customer Experience for us all

Pinch punch it’s August 1st
Lockdown is easing, being reversed

Businesses and offices are now resuming,
Pubs and bars welcoming people consuming

We want to stay safe away from the virus
The isolation however is starting to try us

Inspite of the crisis we’re currently enduring
Technology projects are rapidly maturing.

Agents working hard to service their customers’ needs
Customers queuing because no alternative feeds

Automation is desirable, else customers you’ll lose
Give them digital channels and see what they choose

Access when they need it to check something out
Agents are free when the complex ones shout

Human to human and voice is the best
And intelligent automation for the rest

Almost half will leave you if you don’t improve
This lack of choice and automation will force customers to move

So act right now and give us a call
To serve customers better not the few, but them all.

Business, Customer Experience, Customer Focus, remote working, working from home

AI. Pinch punch it’s the first of July

I was thinking about the new month on Friday and always have a race to be the first to say “pinch punch”, especially with my cousin, and I begin to start dreaming about this in context of the current Coronavirus crisis and here’s the result. I hope you like it.

Update .. Added video here https://bit.ly/Trust-Pinch-punch

Pinch punch it’s the 1st of may
The days are flying by, dissolving away

Covid-19 has kept us locked down
And sadly for many they’re wearing a frown

The frustrations are plenty, reaching out for response
Call volumes are soaring, cant meet their wants.

Staff are furloughed, unable to work
They’re being sent home but not to shirk

The questions keep coming, but nobody is there
Automation could help but it’s relatively rare.

Businesses struggling with too few staff
The calls go unanswered, are they having a laugh

Wait times growing lengthy running to hours
We just need something processed to feel empowered

First choice is the smartphone to connect and reach out
But it’s hard to feel valued when you mess us about.

Your site says no contact, you’re all in turmoil
You’re not on your own, we are all going to boil

Nobody is winning, we are all coming last
We need you to help us and please do it fast

Instead of a human perhaps use AI
To automate process with a robotic guy

And when it’s all over, we would embrace IT
Mundane to the robot for access and speed,
And human to human, as its best, we’d accede

Business, channel, Compliance, Customer Focus, Leadership, partnership, Sales

Accreditation – A burden or a blessing

Vendor accreditation programmes – who are they really for?

1. Customers?
2. Channel partners?
3. Vendors?
4. All three?

Why does a customer care if their supplier is accredited by the vendor of the product, solution or service?
Why does a channel partner care whether they are Bronze, Silver, or Gold certified?
Why does the vendor need to create training and certification material, courses, tests etc?

It all sounds a lot of work, so why does anyone bother?

There must be some significant value in order to motivate everyone to care enough to get engaged – so what is it?

Customers are what this is all about! Customers require good advice from well informed representatives from the channel community and the channel community cannot rely on the resources of the vendor at every engagement they have, so the channel partners need to become equally well informed – This requires training and testing, which is great for the vendor, because they end up with well informed channel partners representing them and provides the scale required to develop more market coverage. In addition, an accreditation programme usually has a volume\revenue related metric, which rewards the successful sales partner – more of a value component than a quality component and an often thorny topic for engineering heavy partners with lots of skills but not too many new sales. Customers are usually able to see for themselves what partner accreditations are for channels and select based on a value\quality blend. In reality most customers want to know they will be well looked after rather than well sold to.
For the vendor, an accreditation programme provides a sense for channel partner commitment levels and focus on their portfolio, and training enables current knowledge to be maintained and product knowledge to be broadly well ingrained. The more a channel partner commits to one vendor programme, the less time and resources they will have for competing offers – stands to reason. So vendors see this as an important dynamic for developing partner commitments. Ultimately this enables scale and quality delivery for the customers and commitment for the vendor, with the reseller having the ability to wrap services and complementary products to their solution.