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 National Association of Call Centers
In Queue
The fun, informative, and unique newsletter for the call center industry
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Welcome to the August 2017 issue of the NACC In Queue newsletter!
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It's A Bot Time - And Money
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Walk
into a party early and suddenly realize that it’s only you and Bill
Gates in the room. Congratulations – on average, you are a billionaire!
This
logical twist underscores how averages can be misleading indicators –
how using averages can lead to some poor conclusions.
However,
Bill Gates and you do have the same amount of one thing: Time. You’re
both constrained by 24 hour days, 7 day weeks, and 365 day years. With
all his wealth, Bill still hasn’t found a way to bend the space-time
continuum. (Although he has made some great charitable contributions.)
Time
is the most critical considerations in any undertaking. A process may
produce wonderful results – but if it takes too long to get there –
people may never exhibit the patience to take the journey.
Similarly,
time is the most critical element in any customer care scenario. Almost
every innovation in contact centers technology in the last 40 years was
designed to attack the issue of time savings. Computer-Telephony
Integration, Interactive Voice Response, advanced routing – you name
it. Time and its cousin cost – were the two primary motivating
factors.
The next wave of innovations is well underway. This time, the means to the end is an exciting new 
array of capabilities lumped into a category called “bots, AI, and
machine learning.” These are critical set of enablers that deliver a
true “next generation” customer experience.
Here’s how they fit in the customer-care equation:
- Bots:
A broad set of capabilities that automate and assist with routine tasks
for search, discovery, and interaction. They save time for customers
and lower costs of operations.
- AI: A set of capabilities that emulates cognitive functions in humans. AI will be embedded into bots to make interactions natural.
- Machine Learning: The ability for software to adapt without outside programming. This will speed improvements in customer-facing applications.
Earlier
this month, Cisco announced its intent to acquire AI startup MindMeld,
which “helps businesses to build conversational interfaces with
cloud-based service.”
The
most powerful question a person can ask another is “How may I help
you?” It’s a “bot” time customer care started by asking that question
also! (Stay tuned.).
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How To Have Fun In Inbound & Outbound Customer Care & Telemarketing
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Shannon Svasek, Operations Manager, Quality Contact Solutions, shannon.svasek@qualitycontactsolutions.com
Let’s face it, telemarketing isn’t always “fun”. As an operations manager in an outsourced telemarketing
agency with agents in a brick and mortar setting as well as in an at
home setting, I know first-hand what it takes to make the job fun for
the agents. But before I tell you my secrets, let me take you through
the job. It’s not easy work. It takes dedication, self-motivation and
the drive to want to succeed. Think about these items when creating
incentives:
Ask Yourself the Right Questions
Making
calls for eight hours a day, speaking to hundreds of potential
customers each week, attempting to generate excitement and interest in
a product on every call starting from scratch with each customer takes
passionate persistence. Not to mention the stress of refusals,
how to overcome them, how to achieve success, all to achieve that big
goal set before you, can be overwhelming. If you are thinking that
would be tough to do day after day and not loads of fun, you are not
alone. Sales can have its ups and downs so how do we keep those “downs”
from dragging us down? That takes some creative thinking for sure, it
also takes input from your agents! What motivates them? What makes them
feel fresh, not worn down and stay dedicated to do their very best on
every call? What makes them hungry for success? For some it’s simple,
they are just competitive by nature, have that drive to succeed and be
number one. They are motivated by goals and numbers. Some need constant
motivation, pats on the back and words of encouragement. They are
motivated by positive reinforcement.
Be Creative
But
what makes the job fun for all types of personalities? I’ve had tons of
success with games and incentives. But the trick is to keep it fresh.
You have to switch it up and switch it up often. Play different kinds
of games. Some that have lots of involvement and moving parts like
Bingo where each square is a different milestone. Some games should
require less effort on the agent’s behalf to play such as tracking
individual progress. But even those need multiple moving parts to keep
it fun, not just one milestone, but multiple milestones so there is a
possibility of multiple winners. Having multiple winners is actually
very important because everyone wants to think they have a shot at the
prize. Colors are very motivating and trigger emotions, so make sure
you make it colorful. If your games are on a marker board, chalk board,
or if they are on a drab spread sheet for your agents, they will be
less likely to be intrigued, curious or drawn in to want to
participate. Bring out your creative side!
Selling the Incentive
Don’t
forget, you have to sell your game to your sales agents! Your games and
incentives need to have multiple attractive features that draw them in,
many benefits that make it worth their while to participate and they
must be attractive visually to catch their attention initially. Some
challenging but yet rewarding games to play with your agents that yield
results are
• Poker
• Russian Roulette
• Football
• Jeopardy
• Bingo
• Egg Hunts
• Candy Land
• Chutes and Ladders
These
games can all be played without the agents running around off the
phones whether you are in a virtual setting or traditional brick and
mortar facility. Remember you only get out of it what you put into it,
so get creative and let the fun begin. What incentive will you run
next? How will you make it attractive to every personality type? What
kind of creativity can you draw out of yourself? And how will you sell
it to your agents?
Having
fun in telemarketing can be tough and extremely time consuming to come
up with new ideas. But the end results pay off. The time and effort you
put into incentives and fun activities pays off. Quality Contact
Solutions has evaluated 100s of call centers across the U.S. and we
pride ourselves in the ability to strategically match our clients with
a vendor that not only match their culture but are flexible, easy to
work with and get results.
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Knowledge Management For The Masses
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Paul Stockford, Research Director, NACC and Chief Analyst, Saddletree Research, Paul.Stockford@nationalcallcenters.org
On July 19, 2017, Verint
introduced Knowledge Management Professional, which we have dubbed
“Knowledge management for the masses.” Verint’s other knowledge
management solution, Knowledge Management Enterprise, is a
richly-featured, highly-functional solution that is referred to by some
as the Ferrari of knowledge management in the contact center industry.
While I imagine we would all aspire to owning a Ferrari at some point,
there are financial and other constraints that make Ferrari ownership
just a pipe dream for most of us. In my case, for example,
whatever I drive has to be able to haul a loaded three-horse trailer or
I can’t use it. That pretty much leaves a Ferrari out of the
picture for me.
Verint Knowledge Management Professional has been designed for those in
the industry who don’t really need a knowledge management Ferrari, or
are limited by financial constraints. Based upon Knowledge
Management Enterprise, Verint’s Knowledge Management Professional is
still highly featured, but it is easier to use and carries a lower
price. The Saddletree Research analysis of this new product can
be found here, or downloaded from the website at www.nationalcallcenters.org.
Our current Saddletree Research/NACC survey of end-users reveals a
great deal of interest in knowledge management in the industry.
We asked survey respondents if they were currently users of
knowledge management software and, of not, did they plan to implement
knowledge management in the future. The results are below:
Knowledge Management promises to continue to occupy a position of
importance in the contact center through the remainder of the decade.
As a result, we believe Verint’s Knowledge Management
Professional offering will be of interest to those in the market who
have not yet committed to a knowledge management solution, and to those
currently using knowledge management who have interest in upgrading
their solution.
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Call Center Comics
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If you like this comic and would like to see more, write Ozzie at callcentercomics@yahoo.com and visit his website at http://callcentercomics.com
or just click on the comic to tak you to his page. The NACC appreciates
Ozzie letting us use some of his comics in our newsletter.
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In This Issue...
- It's A Bot Time - And Money
- How To Have Fun In Inbound & Outbound Customer Care & Telemarketing
- Knowledge Management For The Masses
- Call Center Comics!
Pearls Of Wisdom
“As
we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the
highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them."
~ John F. Kennedy
Reports From NACC
The
NACC has been burning the midnight oil and typing until our fingers are
sore to bring out reports to our members. Each is listed below. If you
are interested to see what we are writing about, click on the links
below and download the executive summary of each. If you like what you
see, join the NACC so that you can view these reports and others that
will be coming out soon on our website. These reports will ensure that
you know the latest trends in the industry.
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Did You Know That NACC...
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Offers a job board where top employers & candidates go to find their next call center rock-star! Click here for more...
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To advertise with the NACC, please contact the NACC at: Tel:
601.447.8300 | Fax: 601.266.5087 | Email: Click Here
To view past issues of In Queue, please click here.
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© 2017 National Association of Call Centers
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