Customer service is an ever-changing industry that evolves with the consumer. Contact centers that want to be successful have to keep track of changing trends and new technology. And one of the best ways to do that? Keeping up to date by attending conferences and conventions.
Since contact centers have a growing presence in the job market both in the U.S. and internationally, there are plenty of conferences for employees and supervisors to attend. Here are just a few of the conferences scheduled in the U.S. in 2017.
Temkin Group Workshops
Held in various spots around the country, these events, created by Customer Experience Professionals Association co-founder Bruce Temkin, stress interactivity and networking.
The speakers work to engage the attendees and talk about cutting-edge developments in customer service.
There are currently dates scheduled in Miami in March, San Diego, and Alexandria, Virginia in April and Boston in June.
Next Generation Customer Experience
March 27-29
Park Hyatt Aviara Resort
Carlsbad, Ca.
This year’s lineup of speakers at the NGCX’s convention includes Micah Solomon, author and customer service expert; Tabitha Dunn, vice president of customer experience at Concur; and Christopher Barefoot, vice president of communications and guest relations at Opus One Winery.
Experience 2017
April 18th-21st
Las Vegas, NV
Hosted by customer-experience management firm Medallia, this expo-style event will feature over 300 different customer-service companies and over 800 attendees taking in strategy sessions, dynamic speakers and multiple networking opportunities. Medallia bills this conference as “The Customer Service Experience Event of The Year.”
The 13th Annual Customer Contact, East: Leveraging Customer Contact as a Strategic Asset
April 23-26
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Hosted by the growth-partnership firm Frost & Sullivan, this conference stresses collaboration. It’s a one-of-a-kind meeting of professionals from the fields of customer contact, customer care, customer service, customer experience management, call centers, and operations experts.
International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) Contact Center Expo & Conference
May 22nd-25th
Walt Disney Resort
Orlando, Fla.
ICMI’s massive conference is expected to host over 1500 attendees and more than 100 vendors.
The event will features tours of successful Orlando contact centers, extensive case studies of various effective call-center programs and more than 75 guest speakers.
National Credit Union Call Center Conference
October 16th-18th
Harrah’s
Las Vegas, NV
A more narrowly-focused conference, this event focuses on the nation’s financial services sector, specifically credit unions, and how they can improve the customer-service experience for their members.
The agenda includes seminars on improving job satisfaction for contact center employees, better understanding the credit union members, exhibitor demos of new technologies, and roundtable discussions on best practices for contact centers.
2017 Best Contact Center Practices
June 20th-23rd
Rosen Plaza
Orlando, Fla.
One of the more interesting elements of this conference is that in addition to the expected seminars on technology, customer engagement, IT and employee satisfaction, the Best Contact Center event features a seminar on social media, and the role it could play in the reputation and growth of your contact center.
Call Center Week Conference & Expo
June 26th-30th
The Mirage
Las Vegas, NV
First, a bit of background on the week this event centers around: Rather than focus on a couple of days, the IQPC (International Quality and Productivity Center) hosts a full week of events meant to honor and educate those working in contact centers around the world.
The centerpiece of this week is the expo, which spreads various seminars, tours and vendor shows across five days. This conference is one of the biggest in the world and typically features a dazzling array of speakers.
This year is no exception. In addition to site tours, awards ceremonies and workshops, a glance at the conference agenda includes speeches by Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber, Disney Institute Vice-President & General Manager Jeff James, MGM Resorts International Chief Marketing Officer Lili Tomovich, and two speakers from the AARP, Customer Experience Design VP Celika Caldwell and Experience Strategy VP Michelle Musgrove.
Contact center managers and supervisors know they have to stay on top of developments in customer service to remain competitive. For more on the latest trends impacting customer service, read our post “Customer Service Trends for 2017.”
The year is young, but 2017 already has a full slate of conferences for public security companies and employees all over the country.
Various organizations have posted their plans for conferences regarding everything from technological developments in the industry to honoring public safety telecommunications workers to massive expos with a long list of vendors.
Here are just a few of the conferences for PSAPs and public safety companies and professionals.
APCO (Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials) International-hosted Events
The non-profit, member driven APCO organization has five events listed for 2017:
Feb 28th-March 1st
North Hilton Raleigh
Raleigh, NC
This two-day conference will pack in a lot of information for attendees, summarizing new developments in public safety technology.
National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week 2017
April 9-15
Every year, NPSTW is held to honor those who work with telecommunications in public safety. PSAPs around the country are encouraged to take this time to honor 911 dispatchers, 911 call-takers, and other front-line workers who have made a difference in the lives of others in their communities.
2017 Public Safety Broadband Summit
May 16-17
Renaissance Hotel
Washington, DC
The summit is a forum for experts in technology, policy makers, service providers and other professionals, centered around the launch of the new FirstNet public broadband network.
Public Safety Communications Leadership In Policy Awards Dinner
May 17th
Renaissance Hotel
Washington, DC
The dinner takes place in the same location as the Broadband Summit, but it focuses on honoring those who advocate for the public-safety industry. It’s also a networking-heavy event that lets industry leaders connect.
APCO Annual Conference & Expo
August 13th-16th
Denver, Col.
Considered APCO’s most important event of the year, the Expo will feature vendors on the cutting edge in public-safety equipment and innovation, It’s also the most wide-ranging in terms of attendees. Everyone from public safety officials to telecommunications employees to com center managers will be there.
ACI (Airports Council International) event
The 2017 ACI-NA Public Safety & Security Committee Conference
March 27-30
Las Vegas, Nev.
This convention will allow members of the airport public safety industry to meet with officials from TSA and the FAA to discuss the changing face of airports in North America.
The ACI expects a wide range of attendees, from Airport Security Coordinators to law enforcement professionals to airport legal representatives.
Regional events:
The North Carolina National Public-Safety Communications Conference
Sept. 10-13
Harrah’s Cherokee Casino & Resort
Cherokee, NC
This conference is hosted jointly by the North Carolina branch of NENA (National Emergency Number Association) and their sister group, the NC chapter of the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials.
It will include education sessions on three of the four days, a vendor expo, a dinner and networking event, and a closing banquet.
The Texas Public Safety Conference
April 9th-12th
Galveston, Tex.
The Texas branch of APCO’s convention is unique among regional public safety conferences because they expand their reach to include border security officials.
It’s one of the largest regional gatherings of its kind in the country, and includes training in telecommunications, database technology, leadership & management, and educating the public.
NENA Nationwide Conferences
In addition to various events held by local chapters, NENA also holds several national events.
NENA Annual Conference & Expo
June 3rd-8th
San Antonio, Tex.
This conference features multi-day education sessions, several different keynote speakers, large-scale networking opportunities, and one of the biggest expo halls in the country with dozens of vendors.
9-1-1 Goes To Washington
Feb. 26th-March 1st
Marriott Crystal Gateway
Arlington, Va.
This conference is designed to exert influence on the policy makers in national government, drawing attention to funding and development of public safety programs.
It’s more of an advocacy conference than a sales or technology event, encouraging attendees to take in speeches by members of Congress, while learning about emerging issues in the public safety field. There will be an actual march on Washington to the halls of Congress folded into the event.
At KOVA, we’re committed to helping public safety officials do their jobs better with the help of cutting-edge technology. To read more about what KOVA can offer your PSAP, take a look at our public safety software solutions.
We live in a time when technology is one of the most used words in our language.
Tech has quickly worked its way into almost every part of our daily lives, as well as work and school environments. And it can be easy to hand off responsibility to new tech innovations—many times, it’s beneficial to all involved. Collecting and analyzing data can lead to important discoveries about industries, even turning generally accepted notions on their heads.
Whether it’s figuring out the way to advertise in order to reach consumers, or analyzing phone calls to identify common issues with customer service, the use of technology and data analysis in the workplace can be a welcome addition.
But that doesn’t mean we should lose the human element of decision making entirely. When we look to the past, it’s clear to see that new technology sometimes blinded people to risks or gave them too much confidence in the technology itself.
Decisions made with too much faith in technology sometimes have a way of backfiring when that faith turns out to be misplaced. The Titanic was a modern marvel. Unsinkable. Well, we all know how that turned out.
The tech that you use in your contact center isn’t the Titanic, granted.
But it is important to remember that all the useful data and innovative technology advances in the world don’t replace good decision making from people who are competent and engaged in their work. The data gives you the ability to make good decision and set the right course for the future, it doesn’t guarantee that you will.
And when it comes to customer service, the human element is still quite important for customer satisfaction. Even with the rise of self-service options for customers, the satisfaction of being able to connect with a real person is irreplaceable.
Think about the frustration that people feel when they call customer service and get a completely automated reception. “Press 1 for questions about…” It’s a commonly-used setup in commercials that are advertising the quality of their customer service.
“At So-and-So, you can talk to a real person.”
And we take this as a sign that the company is making an effort to provide better customer service, because you can talk to an agent who can listen to your problem, make decisions autonomously, and quickly react to different information.
At the end of the day, while technology is great at streamlining processes and providing data for major decisions, it still doesn’t have that human element that makes for a satisfying interaction. And it certainly can’t make management decisions for you.
But it’s not all dire warnings when it comes to innovative technology for your contact center. If you’d like to read more about how new, beneficial tech in the customer service industry can help you out, then try our article, “How The Right Technology Can Make You A Better Manager.”
Effectively managing a contact center takes a lot of organizational knowledge, people skills, and foresight. It takes more work than many people may realize to keep things running smoothly, and there are quite a few moving pieces that you have to be keeping an eye on at any given time.
Technology in the workplace, and especially in customer service, is quickly evolving to empower its users. If used properly, there are a number of different technologies available that can help you become a better manager, and keep things running smoothly.
Scheduling Software
Gone are the days of paper calendars filled with handwritten notes and covered in post-its.
Similarly, it doesn’t quite cut it to just email a spreadsheet with the weekly or monthly schedule. Using dedicated scheduling and management software to make, and keep track of, schedules doesn’t just give you peace of mind, it helps your employees by enabling them to instantly access their schedule, request changes, and stay posted on updates.
You have more control over scheduling, and can cut down on mix-ups and miscommunications that drive managers crazy.
Electronic Calendars
Scheduling software keeps you and your team on the same page when it comes to the monthly scheduling, but what about your own schedule?
This is where electronic calendar apps can bring some much-needed coherence to your schedule, and help you organize yourself better. Paper calendars only let you jot down a few brief notes before they’re full, but calendar apps allow you to leave detailed notes to yourself, and quickly zoom from an overview of the month or week to a specific day and hour.
A well-organized manager is a better manager, and you’ll quickly notice the difference when you make the switch to a more intuitive calendar system.
Project Management Software
Project management software is perfect for any manager looking for a way to communicate effectively with a number of team members over an easy-to-use platform.
Good communication, or its absence, can make or break any project or initiative that you’re working on in your contact center. As anyone with experience can tell you, communication is the key to any good relationship—and the relationship between management and employee is no exception.
Enterprise Feedback Management Software
In order to manage your contact center efficiently, you need to have a way to reliably track customer satisfaction and their overall impression of your customer service. Then you can quickly identify and react to problems, providing better customer service and increasing your customer’s satisfaction.
You’ll be able to unify disparate systems, and bring together a complete view of customer feedback through different channels. With that information on hand, you have what you need to provide better management and direction to your contact center.
If you’d like to learn more about adding technology to your contact center, and how you can convince upper management, then we’d suggest reading our post, “Achieving Upper Management Buy-In For New Technology.”
As technology evolves and consumer demographics shift, customer service trends have a tendency to either grow quickly, or fall by the wayside. But that’s not ideal for many businesses who are looking to stay up-to-date with those current customer service trends. At this point, knowing what’s coming is half the battle. So take a look at some of these customer service trends that we can expect to see in 2017.
Chatbots
Chatbots are going to continue to be a trend in 2017 as the technology behind them gets better, and businesses get better at using them to help customers.
It’s a plus for everyone when a machine can chat online with a customer and resolve their issue. But we also know that there are still plenty of limitations on what a chatbot can do and how far they can go before it becomes necessary for the customer to speak with a real person.
In a perfect scenario, the chatbot would recognize that it could no longer help, and would give the conversation over to a human representative in a smooth, seamless transfer. This is part of an overall push towards AI that also shouldn’t be ignored—both in terms of helping the customer, and assisting the representative providing customer service.
Omnichannel
Bringing to bear a comprehensive omnichannel strategy is an ideal proposition for customer service, but if you’ve researched it for your contact center, you know it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Allowing customers to use several different channels of communication for customer service can be difficult to implement.
Still, having quality customer service on all channels—and providing customers with the ability to switch seamlessly between those channels—is worth it in the long run. Customers want to have their questions answered quickly, no matter what channel they happen to be using. It’s a challenge, but it’s more important than ever in 2017.
Self-Service
This is partially driven by changing consumer demographics and attitudes, and self-service is going to keep trending in 2017.
That’s in part because of the attitude that Millennials—now the largest living generation in the U.S.—have towards customer service and problem solving. Most would rather attempt to figure out a problem using web resources on their own, before they make a phone call or send an email.
Providing the resources consumers need for self-service is a win-win, as it empowers them and increases satisfaction when they are able to figure something out on their own.
You can use that to your advantage, as well, by monitoring your FAQ section and any other self-service resources you provide. It will give you valuable insight on recurring problems and what information customers find most helpful.
It certainly seems like technology is pushing into the realm of traditional customer service and turning some aspects upside down. For more information on what the future may hold for contact centers, check out our post, “Are Social Media and Digital Tools Making Traditional Contact Centers Obsolete?”
