No matter what type of contact center you run, from customer service to technical support to sales, eventually, your employees are going to have to deal with an angry customer. It’s never a pleasant experience, but there are steps that can be taken to make sure that the situation is handled as smoothly as possible, and that the customer hangs up feeling calmer than when he called.
Thorough training is imperative to prepare agents for these situations, and a cheat sheet with a list of tips at each station couldn’t hurt, either. It’s helpful to have a reminder in sight when emotions begin to run high. The most important thing of all, however, is for your employees always to keep in mind that the customer is not angry at them personally – that realization can go a long way towards helping them keep their cool while being yelled at.
Another thing that is vital for your agents to remember is that the customer is always right – even when they’re wrong. With that in mind, here are 7 tips to handling an angry customer:
1. Agents should never argue with a customer. Arguing will only make the situation worse. Even if the customer is clearly in the wrong, train your employees to remain calm, positive, and professional at all times. Their goal should be to calm the customer and resolve the situation in a way that satisfies him or her – not to prove them wrong.
2. Agents should listen more than they talk. You know the old saying about the reason we have two ears and only one mouth, right? Angry customers need to feel that their complaints are being heard; otherwise, they’ll become even angrier. Train your employees to hear them out completely, rather than jumping in with comments and suggestions right away.
3. Agents should empathize with customers. Once the customer has had a chance to voice their complaint, your employees should convey to him or her that they understand and empathize. This alone can sometimes diffuse the tension instantly. Letting the customer know they are on their side, and will do all they can to help them, will contribute greatly to the successful resolution of the situation.
4. Agents should be patient. Patience is a virtue, remember? And doubly so in a contact center environment. An emotional customer may need things explained more than once, or may repeat himself in an effort to make sure his concerns are understood, and it can be hard to remain calm and patient. But doing so will pay off immensely when your customer feels that things have been handled satisfactorily.
5. Agents should remain positive no matter what. Angry customers don’t want to hear about what agents can’t do, or what isn’t possible. They want solutions. Luckily, any negative statement can easily be turned into a positive one. For example, instead of saying “I can’t…,” agents should try, “What I can do for you is…”
6. After a negative call, agents should take a little time to de-stress. Even the most patient, positive, professional agent will need a few minutes to regain their composure after a tough call. Allow them to take 5 to get a cup of coffee or take a short walk around the office to shake off the stress. Their performance afterwards will demonstrate just how important this is.
If you are looking for a more efficient way to train your contact center workforce in areas such as customer service, why not take a look at KOVA’s Verint Media Recorder eLearning and Verint Media Recorder Coaching solutions? To find out how we can customize a solution for your call center, contact us today!
Effective UC (unified communications) solutions can play an integral role in streamlining the communication processes and outcomes for any contact center. As technology continues to evolve at breakneck speeds, a well-thought-out UC (unified communications) plan that allows for ongoing change can help your enterprise communicate more efficiently and ultimately, more profitably.
UC has long been a buzzword in the world of I.T., but what does UC mean? In his blog post on this very topic, Rick McCharles’ definition of unified communications is spot on. McCharles defines UC as “An evolving communications technology architecture which automates and unifies all forms of human and device communications in context, and with a common experience. Its purpose is to optimize business processes and enhance human communications by reducing latency, managing flows and eliminating device and media dependencies.”
Essentially, you have multiple people, having multiple conversations, using multiple devices, communicating in multiple formats, at different times and from different locations. Simply put, UC solutions can help make these conversations more efficient. It’s important to note, that there is no one-size-fits all UC solution. Most enterprises will need to integrate multiple UC solutions into their UC architecture plan.
If your enterprise is in the process of developing your UC architecture, and considering which UC solutions to incorporate into your UC plan, there are several key factors to keep in mind.
1. Cost Justification. UC solutions can come with a hefty price tag, and your leadership team will need to know how this investment will pay off and how soon. In other words, what return on investment (ROI) can you expect to see after implementing your UC architecture plan and over what period of time? What ongoing costs are associated with your plan? After assessing your enterprise’s operation, your potential UC solution vendors should be able to help you answer this question, so be sure to ask. This information will also be helpful when comparing one vendor’s solution to another’s.
2. Adaptability. We have all seen how quickly technology changes, and today’s great innovation will be old news before we know it. When evaluating UC solutions, look for technology and vendors that are looking toward the future. In other words, can the solutions being offered today be easily updated as technology evolves? How well will different solutions work together? The adaptability factor is crucial for protecting your investment.
3. Reliability. This factor is especially important for emergency contact centers, where mere seconds can mean the difference between life and death. How reliable is the solution and how reliable is the vendor when it comes to resolving issues with the solutions they provide? What back up systems are included should the main solution fail? How helpful will the vendor be when the need to integrate new or different technology arises? Ask for references and talk with all of them before signing on the dotted line.
4. Roll-out Process. You will also want to talk with potential UC solution vendors about how they manage the roll out of a new installation – whether it’s a solo vendor or multiple vendors working together. An experienced UC solution provider should understand the need to avoid workflow interruptions for contact center agents and be flexible in scheduling installations during non-peak hours and in phases where appropriate.
At KOVA Corporation we work with our enterprise clients to develop flexible, custom, enterprise contact center and workforce management solutions that accomplish their specific needs and goals. Contact a KOVA representative to learn more.
With a growing number of organizations taking advantage of the cost savings associated with at-home, or remote call center agents, managers are learning new ways of overseeing and guiding these employees. Best practices associated with managing remote agents are similar to what works well in leading traditional contact centers: hiring the right people, who are not only qualified, but motivated, as well as, providing the right work environment and technology needed to do the work. However, at-home agents also need to be skilled enough to be able to figure out minor issues on their own. Additionally, if you're not careful, the old adage "Out of sight, out of mind", will hold true for your remote agents. Contact center managers must be careful to not forget about remote agents, keeping them looped in to any new changes, developments, procedures, etc. so that they can operate at the same level as in-house agents.
Here are a few other best practices to follow when leading a remote staff.
1. Include assessment tools in the hiring process to evaluate potential candidates making sure they not only have the necessary contact center skills, but that they are also self-starters and be able to work well independently.
2. Consider establishing a trial period for a designated amount of time to make sure the agent can do the job well remotely.
3. Utilize eLearning/coaching software applications to offer training programs on the products, processes, company objectives, and so on. Provide remote workers with the same training opportunities they would get if they worked on site.
4. Clearly document and communicate company policies and procedures as well as job responsibilities and requirements, procedures and policies for remote workers.
5. Develop a formal communication program for supervisors and remote agents. There should also be a clearly defined process for escalating inquiries to supervisors.
6. Be sure to provide remote agents with access to all online or printed product and service information. This may require you to ship documents to remote agents when they come on board.
7. Set regular quality monitoring sessions for remote agent performance evaluations. As with all agents, be sure to provide regular, scheduled feedback and don't forget to involve remote agents in all department-wide quality monitoring and training activities.
8. Be sure to recognize remote agents for a job well done.
9. Always include remote agents in all team meetings and training activities. If your staff is 100% remote, conduct team meetings at least once a week to ensure that your team is connected and interacting well with one another. Try to be creative in identifying ways to create a sense of connectedness and team work.
Contact centers can be costly to an organization if they aren't structured to operate effectively and efficiently. In addition to operational excellence, contact centers must also be able to retain good employees by providing a positive work environment that supports personal and professional growth. To ensure that your contact center is functioning well on all these fronts, and is also a valuable contributor to your organization's bottom line, there are a few best practices to help you get there.
Draw a roadmap for achieving your goals
As a contact center manager, it's imperative to have a firm grasp on what the goals are for your operation so that it can be clearly communicated to those responsible for making it happen. These goals should represent your company's business objectives. How your call center supports these objectives can be determined by asking questions such as:
Having an understanding how the work carried out by your contact center impacts the entire organization is a best practice that will drive how and who you hire and the service standards you set.
Hiring, Training and Coaching
Attrition rates can be high in contact centers posing major challenges for managers in attracting and retaining good agents. To make better hiring decisions, you should first know the answers to questions like:
Make a list of the qualities your best agents possess and work with HR to develop ways to screen for those qualities. Once you've hired the right person, you must train them to be able to carry out their duties. Investments in training will pay off if you make good hiring decisions. Once you've provided training, coaching is the next step to make sure agents continually improve in their work. Consistent feedback, performance coaching and recognition for good work is key to making sure you get the most from your staff and that they will see your organization as a long-term career opportunity.
Morale Management
Another call center best practice is morale management. Your goal should be to create an atmosphere where employees consistently bring a willingness to help and a drive to reach business goals with them to work. When morale is low it can reverberate throughout the contact center creating discouraged, bored and irritated agents. Create a positive mood by:
We here at KOVA are thrilled to announce that our partner, Verint Systems, Inc., was recently honored with a 2013 Market Leader award from Speech Technology Magazine in the Speech Analytics category. In order to determine who deserves this prestigious prize each year, the publication considers the following criteria: affordability, customer satisfaction, ease of use, accuracy, depth of functionality, and company direction.
Verint’s win was based on its Verint Media Recorder Speech Analytics solution. Paul Stockford, chief analyst at Saddletree Research, and a judge on the awards panel, had this to say: “Verint’s solution is highly accurate and extremely easy to use and administer, and the ROI has been proven and well-documented over the past several years…Verint is highly regarded in the end-user community. Its reputation for customer satisfaction is exemplary.”
Verint Media Recorder Speech Analytics, a part of Verint’s Voice of the Customer Analytics portfolio, helps companies sift through recorded customer calls to uncover information that is important in creating effective strategies for improved customer experience, customer service, revenue generation, and cost containment. It enables businesses to quickly and easily see trends and opportunities which help in the identification of their strengths and weaknesses. Once these are better understood, they can more effectively be taken advantage of, or addressed, helping to decrease costs and enhance products, processes, competitive advantage, and the overall customer experience.
With Verint Media Recorder Speech Analytics, companies gain a better understanding of customer behavior by categorizing and analyzing call content automatically to explain why customers call, to reveal the core cause of perceptions, and to home in on competitive threats and opportunities. It also provides a focus on companies’ quality monitoring programs, by automatically pushing calls that involve key business issues to management for review. Importantly, it does all this using fewer resources, by sharing intelligence across the enterprise with automated workflow tools.
This solution also helps companies support demands pertaining to their Big Data initiatives, by making use of key capabilities of Verint’s Enterprise Workforce Optimization Suite. By giving companies a holistic overview of the customer journey and experience, this software allows them to use the voice of their customers to turn their new knowledge into action.
“We’re delighted to mark our place in the winner’s circle in this year’s Speech Technology Awards program,” commented Oren Stern, global vice president, voice of the customer analytics, Verint Enterprise Intelligence Solutions. “The distinction complements the award we received earlier this year from its sister publication, CRM. It also highlights the strengths in the solutions that comprise our analytics portfolio, including customers past and present that have been recognized by Speech Technology’s ‘implementation honors’ for advances in their businesses based on the use of our solutions.”
We here at KOVA are also delighted at Verint’s recognition. If you would like more information on how Verint’s award-winning Verint Media Recorder Speech Analytics solution can help your business, contact KOVA today! We have representatives standing by to schedule your discovery session, so that we can customize a solution that’s just right for your company.
A spring 2013 study by CMIQ shows that more contact center stakeholders are either planning to install or investigate new cloud and hosted technologies in 2013 and 2014, but some major factors still stand in the way. In their Spring 2013, Executive Report on Call Center Technology, Adoption, Reliability and Usability, CMIQ surveyed 111 contact center and customer management leaders from the likes of Best Buy, American Express, GlaxoSmithKline, John Deere and more, representing contact centers of various sizes.
The researchers focused on both cloud (Internet-based, including benefits associated with Internet resources) and hosted (requiring a direct data link) solutions. Of those surveyed, 46.4 percent are using and 62.5 percent are investigating cloud solutions while 57.6 percent are using and 26.9 percent are investigating hosted solutions. They found that both solution styles were gaining headway, for the most part, due to the ease of adding new channels as well as cost effectiveness.
Reluctance to Adopt Cloud and Hosted Solutions for Some
While cloud and hosted solutions are a good fit for some contact centers, there are still a significant number of holdouts. The biggest concern regarding cloud solutions is security (50 percent) with level of investment in on-premise technologies (25 percent) and concerns about integration with current on-premise technologies (25 percent) tying for second place.
The contact center leaders considering hosted solutions have the same concerns, but at different levels. The primary inhibition here was loss of investment in legacy on-premise technology (50 percent), followed by security (38.9 percent) and potential for integration issues with current on-premise systems (16.7 percent).
Choose Your Vendor Wisely
The study also found that here was minor concern about losing control when handing over the reins to an outside vendor in both scenarios: 8.3 percent for cloud solutions and 11.1 percent for hosted solutions. While the study did find that vendor reliability wasn’t a concern for most of those surveyed, finding a quality vendor who you can trust should help ease those concerns that are important to you and your enterprise.
When you do decide to start investigating new cloud and/or hosted solutions, interview recommended vendors and ask for references. Integrating any new contact center technology will take from months to years to plan, install and launch. Make sure the vendor you choose demonstrates these qualities:
One of the biggest benefits of cloud and hosted technologies versus on-premise systems and solutions is the flexibility to integrate new technologies as they develop. This should be a big part of the conversation you have when interviewing vendors.
What steps does your company take to help my company protect this new investment and make it viable and adaptable for years to come?
At KOVA Corporation we develop custom, enterprise contact center and workforce management solutions unique to the individual organizations we serve. We can help your enterprise determine which solution – cloud, hosted, on-premise – or combination of solutions would work best in your environment. Contact a KOVA representative to discuss your options.
KOVA is excited to announce its latest offering: Our brand new Mobile Recording Solution! Finally, professionals on the go have a way to use their smart phones to capture critical information on site, such as interviews and photos, categorize that data on the spot by assigning it a name or number, and then instantly transmit that information to their office’s central database for storage.
Our Mobile Recording Solution has nearly unlimited potential for those whose jobs require them to visit homes, businesses, or job sites, and document their findings. Below are just a few example use-cases:
Insurance Adjusters can arrive on the scene of a car accident, or show up in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and use this new technology to document the damage and losses with their smart phone. Every picture they snap will be sent immediately to their home office for secure storage, so there’s no delay in processing. And adjusters can easily assign claim numbers to those photos from their phone as well, organizing them for easy retrieval when needed. Any necessary interviews or phone calls can also be recorded and saved instantly.
Health Inspectors can head into restaurants and other institutions with their smart phone, confident that the photos they take during their inspections will be sent directly to their database, and that any interviews they perform will also be captured on-site and transmitted to their office, categorized by institution name, case number, or any other identification method they choose.
Construction or Transportation Inspectors can enter job sites and record their inspections of projects, roads, bridges, and assets with their smart phone, easily categorizing and submitting the data to their home office instantly.
Social Workers can take advantage of most people’s familiarity and comfort level with smart phones to use it for casework, as they capture interviews and document house visits. And since the information is easily organized on the phone itself, and immediately saved in their main office’s system, this new technology will make their lives that much easier.
Our new Mobile Recording Solution also captures every possible detail about each call or interview recorded. Along with the actual audio, it also transmits caller ID data, the actual dialed digits, and the phone’s GPS location at the beginning and the end of each call or interview, to an organizations’ central database.
Security is our highest priority – that’s why our Mobile Recording Solution features 1024-bit encryption, secure file transfer from phone to headquarters, as well as digital fingerprinting of all files to guarantee their authenticity.
And once back at headquarters, the speech analytics built into our mobile recording software can even “listen” to the content of all calls and interviews, reporting on any trends or links.
For any business that requires employees to venture out into the field to collect data, KOVA’s new Mobile Recording Software is the answer. Rather than dealing with cameras and recording devices, or experiencing the hassle of transferring files manually from one location to another, it is now possible to streamline the entire process, making it hassle- and worry-free. For more information on this exciting new product, and how it can help your business run more smoothly and efficiently, contact KOVA today.
In the software industry, when we talk about Workforce Optimization (WFO) we’re generally referring to tools that are developed to enhance employee efficiency, streamline tasks and organizational processes, and simplify business management within the company.
At KOVA, we offer a full suite of tools to facilitate those efforts that include Verint System’s Workforce Management, Quality Analytics, Desktop Analytics, Voice of the Customer Analytics and Performance Management. But tools, while completely necessary, have to be used in conjunction with what is called a WFO Center of Excellence (COE). A successful WFO program can certainly transform the way your organization does business, but in order for it to be fully optimized it must be properly supported.
The Agile Elements blog, “What is a Center of Excellence,” quotes John Strickler, who said, “A Center of Excellence (COE) should, at a most basic level, consist of a team of people that promote collaboration and using best practices around a specific focus area to drive business results.” A WFO COE is the people that enable and execute a successful WFO program. They typically carry out key functions such as:
A good Center of Excellence is able to create and share best practices, develop system-wide learning and usage processes, ensure these functions adequately meet business objectives. The COE needs to be able to answer questions that deeply probe WFO programs to determine their efficacy and what, if any, changes need to be made to improve or enhance performance.
The Center of Excellence should also be behind all the decisions and steps taken so that when a new process is implemented, the tools can provide a single source of performance data like a dashboard that manages staff, work, and processes. The Center of Excellence also ensures that the business is using all tools and processes effectively and efficiently and seeks to gain a ROI on the Workforce Optimization program.
When implementing a WFO program, it may be assumed that COE responsibilities are already built into a particular department’s role; however, it’s a challenge for organizations to know or anticipate problems that could arise without having designated oversight of integration of a WFO program. These multi-faceted, multi-layered initiatives require a significant amount of attention and focus.
Instead, specifically define what responsibilities fall under which department—or if there are shared responsibilities, what is the procedure for sharing information among departments? With your management team, list out your departments and define what the responsibilities are for each. Is the responsibility appropriate for that department? Does one department have too many responsibilities? Use this information to make intelligent changes that will lead your company to an overall source of excellence.
Remember that nothing works forever, so once you have found your ideal, continue to benchmark and make improvements (quarterly, bi-annually, or annually) to ensure that your center remains one of excellence. All cars need an oil change every now and then to stay in peak performance!
Contact the experts at KOVA and we will work with your team to help define, designate, and deploy WFO responsibilities within your organization—before rolling out a program. The extra time spent in this phase helps to improve the overall experience for your customers.
Kova is proud to announce that our partner Verint Systems tops the Ventana Research 2012 Value Index for Agent Performance Management (VIAPM) tools. Verint delivered the highest value on an overall weighted-evaluation measure, coming in ahead of other industry heavyweights like NICE Systems, VPI, Envision, CallCopy, OnviSource, KnoahSoft, Genesys, inContact, Aspect, and LiveOps.
Ventana’s Value Index is an analytic representation of how well vendors’ products meet buyers’ requirements for software tools that enable and support Agent Performance Management.
The VIAPM evaluated the tools in seven key categories:
Product-related:
Customer assurance
Using the VIAPM evaluation framework, they examined the operational and performance activities and processes in organizations. The research is impartial and authoritative: It is geared toward any organization looking to assess, validate, and/or improve its APM investments and technology. The firm recommends the Value Index be used to support a comprehensive evaluation process.
“Ventana Research sees Agent Performance Management as a step beyond workforce optimization to include capabilities covering all aspects of managing employees handing customer interactions,” said Richard Snow, Vice-President and Research Director. “Organizations therefore need to be clear on their specific requirements and assess which vendors meet them. The APM Value Index is therefore an essential tool to help them carry out this task.”
According to a Ventana Research press release, the VIAPM examines the maturity of software vendors and their products, providing a baseline of knowledge organizations may use when aligning business and IT to manage and improve agent performance.
This comes as great news because investments in APM greatly improve an organization’s performance as a whole. And we know that Ventana’s methodology evaluates aspects of product functionality and suitability-to-task in great detail. It also looks at the effectiveness of vendor support for the buying process and customer assurance, translating to success on all fronts for our powerful workforce optimization solutions.
The benefits of Ventana’s research for your enterprise is that it reflects the value offered by a vendor and its products through a clear thermometer graphic using a precise index maturity percentage. Technology vendors earning the highest “Hot” and “Warm” Vendor classifications are those that Ventana Research certifies as the best in delivering buyer value based on a thorough evaluation and audit.
We’re proud to report that Verint topped the list as hottest!
This new research-based undertaking is fully independent. It is neither sponsored nor influenced by technology vendors and is conducted solely in pursuit of Ventana Research’s mission to provide value to business and IT through benchmark assessments, workshops, and advisory services. Ventana Research’s goal is to guide organizations to optimal efficiency in their use of technology investments for business and IT.
For more information on how KOVA can help your organization deploy an industry-leading APM solution, contact our team of experts for a complete needs assessment.
The thought of conducting a call center audit may seem like a daunting task, but audits are a great way to determine how best to enhance your customer service operations. Through a methodical examination, audits allow you to identify areas of improvement and opportunity and take the necessary steps to put strategies and structural changes in place to reach your desired business objectives.
There are many good reasons to conduct an audit within your contact center. They generate awareness of improvements that can be made and help to drive necessary accountability and, ultimately, positive changes by providing an honest look into your organization’s weaknesses and strengths. The goal of an audit is to identify gaps within an organization and, using the data gathered, make recommendations to correct these gaps. Gaps can come from various areas of your organization, so conducting an audit will allow you to collect information on all areas. Each area can be evaluated separately, but this is not necessary. Audits can also:
Depending on your needs, your organization can decide to conduct a “general” audit, which looks at the entirety of the organization, or a “specific” audit, meaning that just one factor, department, or program of your organization can be audited. For example, a performance enhancement-focused audit would look at service objectives and their performances or the effectiveness, efficiencies, or maximization of existing services. These precisely focused audits can look for new opportunities or preexisting weaknesses/gaps. An audit can also be conducted as a review on the performance of management and their staff, identifying weaknesses or potential capabilities. Other options include:
Before launching an audit it’s imperative to have a well-defined plan. Without one, the data collected will be meaningless. Your audit needs a defined purpose: What are you looking for (objective) and what do you hope to gain from the audit (insight, suggestions, feedback)? These two pieces will be the foundation for your audit and help focus your questions as you go throughout the process. As part of your audit you should also:
Evaluating Audit Findings
A successful contact center audit means that findings can be translated into actionable solutions that contribute to the success of your organization.
A good audit report should include a “Gap Analysis,” which compares potential/desired performance with actual performance. This comparison can help you set realistic goals to make your actual performance grow and meet your goals. You’ll also want to make sure that your company meets or exceeds industry standards and best practices. Your audit can also help you determine if you are.
The audit will provide you data that you can analyze and, based on this information, create detailed recommendations for improving one or multiple areas of your organization, from departmental policies to overall procedures. Ensure that these recommendations include measurable outcomes and goals to reach.
At Kova Corporation our team of contact center solution experts can help you identify your organizations areas of opportunities to better manage customer retention and maximize your customer satisfaction. Contact us for a needs assessment and introduction to our proven contact center solutions.
