5 Ways to Reduce Your Contact Center’s Average Time in Queue

Posted by 3CLogic on Aug 3, 2021 12:19:39 PM

When it comes to waiting on hold, studies have shown that callers don’t have a ton of time to spare.

A recent survey from Arise Virtual Solutions reveals that over 65% of customers are only willing to wait on hold for a maximum of two minutes before hanging up. What’s more, over 13% of respondents said that hold time, no matter how long, is unacceptable altogether.

Read More

Topics: customer service, contact center software, CRM, contact center solution, call center software, customer support, high call volume, contact center solutions, time in queue, customer service team, wait on hold, on hold, waiting on hold, customer service rep

5 Secrets to Smarter and More Successful Sales Prospecting

Posted by Rachel Brink on Feb 12, 2016 9:06:48 AM

 

It’s no secret that sales prospecting can be a difficult task—in fact, the average sales rep makes 8 dials per hour and prospects for 6.25 hours to set a single appointment, a reality that can quickly demotivate to even the most-qualified and hardest working sales teams. And when one considers the fact that more than half of a sales rep’s time is unknowingly wasted on unproductive prospecting, the problem at hand quickly becomes clear. So how can sales teams work smarter rather than harder with their existing resources to boost the success of their sales campaigns, and increase the odds of a successful close? A few suggestions:

Read More

Topics: contact center software, predictive dialer, outbound sales, sales, cold calling, sales prospecting

Top 6 Contact Center and Customer Service Trends for 2016

Posted by Rachel Brink on Dec 18, 2015 8:58:00 AM

The contact center space is changing—so what should one expect in 2016?

top-2016-contact-center-trends.jpg1) Businesses will create a stronger alignment between sales, marketing, and customer service—and their corresponding technologies

Stronger alignment between sales, marketing, and customer service teams, and their corresponding technologies, will perhaps be one of the greatest opportunities for businesses to grow and monetize their existing relationships in the coming year. According to Aberdeen group, highly aligned organizations achieved an average of 32% year-over-year revenue growth, while their less aligned competitors saw a 7% decrease in revenue. But despite the astounding potential, only 8% of companies state they have tight alignment between sales and marketing (Forrester). With a heavy focus on understanding the entire customer journey, businesses will likely integrate more aspects of their business, from departmental data to SaaS solutions (marketing automation, CRM, contact center software), to help to ensure their employees are operating efficiently and are working with greater insight into their customer base in 2016. Check-out how our partner, W-Systems Corp., is helping organizations achieve this.

Read More

Topics: customer service, contact center software, contact center, call center software, customer service trends, contact center trends, contact center solutions, call center solutions

3 Tips to Effectively Train your Call Center’s Agents

Posted by Rachel Brink on Feb 26, 2015 11:47:43 AM
Costing roughly $5,800 annually, employee acquisition and development is one of the more expensive and time-consuming line items on any company balance sheet. As it relates specifically to the call center space, an industry that has long been associated with extremely high employee turnover rates and low employee engagement, many managers have increasingly sought to mitigate the impact of low employee retention by enhancing the quality of their training programs. And with just a moderate 2% increase in employee productivity generally covering the entire cost of any training initiative, it’s hard to argue against the investment.
Read More

Topics: contact center software, call center software, best business practices, virtual assist, agent productivity, agent retention, agent training, agent turnover, business intelligence, gamification, employee turnover, employee engagement, agent attrition, agent coaching

Improving Customer Service within Your Call Center

Posted by Rachel Brink on Nov 5, 2014 8:56:00 AM

Consider the Following: 

  • 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.
  • Roughly 9 out of 10 U.S. consumers say they would pay more to ensure a superior customer experience.
  • 80% of companies want to use the customer service/experience as a way to differentiate themselves from their competition.
  • On average, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase. 

Today, it’s not just about servicing your customers—it’s about offering a memorable experience and creating a long lasting relationship. But while 80% of companies believe they deliver “superior” customer service, only 8% of customers agree. And when you consider 86% of consumers will quit doing business with a company following a single bad customer experience, the challenge facing contact centers quickly becomes clear.

Read More

Topics: customer service, contact center software, call center, multichannel contact center, multichannel call center, contact center, customer satisfaction, first call resolution, self-service, workforce optimization, customer relationship

Contact Centers and First Call Resolution

Posted by Rachel Brink on Jul 25, 2014 10:22:00 AM

According to a recent study, customer satisfaction ratings are 35-45% lower when a second call or interaction is required to address the same issue (Customer Relationship Metrics).  And with 82% of clients rating speed-of-service as one of the primary drivers behind their satisfaction ratings, with 45% abandoning transactions when expectations aren’t met (Forrester Research), the challenge facing contact centers seems fairly obvious.  Provide quality service fast.   So why is that contact centers still fail to address 32% of all incoming customer inquiries and concerns on the first go-around (SQM Group) despite the clear need to do so? 

One has only to consider his or her own experience with a sales or support representative to quickly list how the service could perhaps be improved.  Granted, not all customers are reasonable, nor can every inquiry be easily addressed in a single call or interaction.  However, if someone wants to upgrade their service, follow-up on a support ticket, discuss their bill, or review a possible purchase it shouldn’t be painful or difficult.  But for those of you who need a little more to justify the value of first call resolutions (FCR) then consider the following:

Read More

Topics: customer service, contact center software, crm integration, customer support, best business practices, SaaS, IVR technology, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, first call resolution

Is Your Contact Center Truly Redundant?

Posted by Guillaume Seynhaeve on Mar 24, 2014 1:30:00 AM

Over the weekend, the weather finally changed, with temperatures in the high 60’s on Saturday.  It’s not something I generally get excited about, but after this year’s brutal winter I took advantage of the break from the cold to go on a long run with friends.  It was on this run that someone asked me, “How is it that my home phone never goes down but that a number for one of Ashburn’s biggest data centers can, and recently did, with only a busy tone for those trying to get through?” 

Knowing what I do for a living, he went on to explain that one of the employees at the data center had been fired and chosen to turn off the switches before walking out, which brought the whole center to a standstill.  In fact, not only was he able to bring down all of the managed hosted services, but the VOIP-based PBX system was also shutoff, which prevented the entire support staff from making or receiving calls.   To make matters worse, every client who tried to call customer support heard nothing but a busy tone.  Doesn’t help when one of those clients is the state government.

Read More

Topics: fully redundant software, contact center software, call center, call center scalability, 360 view, call center software features, call center software, cloud based call center, technical support, cloud customer service, redundant systems, customer support, scalability, fault tolerance, service delivery, IVR technology, VOIP

3CLogic Contact Center Software: Always on, always innovating

Posted by David Rastatter on Feb 5, 2014 9:00:00 AM

Software continues to evolve every day, harnessing human creativity and technological innovation in a process that adapts to an ever changing environment. But as with all types of evolution, this process is not without its hiccups. This is specifically true when it comes to contact center software. Any flaws in a system’s development can have a direct impact on the success of that business. That being said, software upgrades are not a bad thing. Upgrades fix bugs, enhance existing tools, and add new ones, but upgrades can also be a double edged sword. How many times have you upgraded your smart-phone software and had problems? You may be happy with the overall upgrade, but some things don’t measure up. The same concept applies to contact center software.

Read More

Topics: cloud security, cloud based contact center, contact center software, cloud call center, scalability, no centralized server

Posts by Topic

See all