A surge in disappointed customers is no time for gaps in customer service infrastructure to add to the problem. Follow these tips to turn a negative post-holiday customer contact into a positive outcome:<\/p>\n
Tap your best agents to share their experiences<\/strong><\/h2>\nChances are the customer already has tried to get answers or resolve the problem on their own through self-service, so by the time they reach out emotions are running high. Some agents are great at diffusing the tension and guiding the customer to calm resolution, while others fall short; American Express also found the top ways consumers would like to see customer service to improve is addressing needs more quickly (40%) <\/strong>and making a personal connection (18%)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n![\"Outstanding](\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/outstanding-agents-1000x664.jpg\")
<\/a>Having your best agents share knowledge, solutions and tips across the workplace help better your business.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCapturing and sharing the tips and insights of outstanding agents helps drive success across the board. Collaborative contact centre<\/a> solutions provide\u00a0an easy platform to share knowledge across the workforce as they develop. As new issues emerge, agents can post and share solutions with other agents.<\/p>\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tContact Centre 2.0: Rise of the<\/span>\r\n\t\t\tCollaborative Contact Centre<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t
Get the full report on how digital transformation is making contact centres unified, collaborative, and intelligent.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\tGet your copy here<\/a>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\nConnect customers with experts<\/strong><\/h2>\nWhen questions are complex, it pays to escalate an inquiry to the internal expert with all the answers. After all, in a Deloitte survey<\/a> of customer centre executives rated the accuracy and quality of information<\/strong> as the most important attribute of the interaction for consumers.<\/p>\nAgents must be able to instantly, seamlessly hand off the customer to a knowledgeable associate \u2014 not just product experts, but those in billing, stores, distribution, or others not typically part of the customer support hierarchy. Easy hand-offs also are key to support new hires by shifting challenging calls to more experienced agents. This requires a robust collaboration contact centre solution<\/a> that incorporates routing capability. Deloitte found 49% of contact centres<\/strong> plan to make a strategic investment in routing solutions by 2019.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nBe available any way the customer wants to reach out<\/strong><\/h2>\nConsumers are quickly embracing new communication channels such as social and mobile chat. According to Gartner<\/a>, 25%<\/strong> of customer service and support operations will <\/strong>integrate\u00a0virtual customer assistant\u00a0(VCA) or\u00a0chatbot\u00a0technology <\/strong>across engagement channels by 2020, up from less than 2% in 2017. Other research finds video chat<\/a> is also on the rise.<\/p>\nPost-holiday can be the busiest time for a retail contact centre. Leveraging cloud-based contact centre solutions enables retails to easily add agents without requiring more seats, supporting contract or home-based agents. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/blockquote>\nRetailers must not only offer a wide variety but be able to seamlessly transition from one to another and pick up the conversation. Unfortunately, just 36% of contact centres can currently do this, according to IBM<\/a>. Solutions also should allow the customer to reconnect with an agent they have worked with previously.<\/p>\nExpand Your Workforce as Needed<\/strong><\/h2>\nPost-holiday can be the busiest time for a retail contact centre. Leveraging cloud-based contact centre solutions<\/a> enables retails to easily add agents without requiring more seats, supporting contract or home-based agents. Top talent-related initiatives retailers need to address in their contact centres in 2019 include: using analytics to better align staff (73%), <\/strong>expanding training programs (63%) and flexible work arrangements (53%), according to Deloitte.<\/p>\nLeverage analytics<\/strong><\/h2>\nRetailers must improve the way they track and analyse trends in a customer contact activity, as well as improve how issues are resolved, in order to better address evolving customer needs. Then next year\u2019s post-Christmas will be even more successful than the current one. Another key capability is accessing contact centre performance in real time, so managers can make changes in response to real-time trends. Advanced analytics<\/strong> is the number one strategic initiative retailers plan to invest in by 2019, cited by two-thirds of respondents to the Deloitte<\/a><\/p>\nPost-holiday customer support is where retailers are challenged to turn a negative into a positive. Supported by the right tools, agents can quickly connect customers to the solution, save the sale, boost the brand\u2019s image, and drive loyalty to keep shoppers coming back all year long.<\/p>\n
Learn more about how\u00a0contact centre technology can create a better experience for customers and agents<\/span>Learn more<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/a>Capturing and sharing the tips and insights of outstanding agents helps drive success across the board. Collaborative contact centre<\/a> solutions provide\u00a0an easy platform to share knowledge across the workforce as they develop. As new issues emerge, agents can post and share solutions with other agents.<\/p>\n\t Get the full report on how digital transformation is making contact centres unified, collaborative, and intelligent.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\tGet your copy here<\/a>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\n When questions are complex, it pays to escalate an inquiry to the internal expert with all the answers. After all, in a Deloitte survey<\/a> of customer centre executives rated the accuracy and quality of information<\/strong> as the most important attribute of the interaction for consumers.<\/p>\n Agents must be able to instantly, seamlessly hand off the customer to a knowledgeable associate \u2014 not just product experts, but those in billing, stores, distribution, or others not typically part of the customer support hierarchy. Easy hand-offs also are key to support new hires by shifting challenging calls to more experienced agents. This requires a robust collaboration contact centre solution<\/a> that incorporates routing capability. Deloitte found 49% of contact centres<\/strong> plan to make a strategic investment in routing solutions by 2019.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Consumers are quickly embracing new communication channels such as social and mobile chat. According to Gartner<\/a>, 25%<\/strong> of customer service and support operations will <\/strong>integrate\u00a0virtual customer assistant\u00a0(VCA) or\u00a0chatbot\u00a0technology <\/strong>across engagement channels by 2020, up from less than 2% in 2017. Other research finds video chat<\/a> is also on the rise.<\/p>\n Retailers must not only offer a wide variety but be able to seamlessly transition from one to another and pick up the conversation. Unfortunately, just 36% of contact centres can currently do this, according to IBM<\/a>. Solutions also should allow the customer to reconnect with an agent they have worked with previously.<\/p>\n Post-holiday can be the busiest time for a retail contact centre. Leveraging cloud-based contact centre solutions<\/a> enables retails to easily add agents without requiring more seats, supporting contract or home-based agents. Top talent-related initiatives retailers need to address in their contact centres in 2019 include: using analytics to better align staff (73%), <\/strong>expanding training programs (63%) and flexible work arrangements (53%), according to Deloitte.<\/p>\n Retailers must improve the way they track and analyse trends in a customer contact activity, as well as improve how issues are resolved, in order to better address evolving customer needs. Then next year\u2019s post-Christmas will be even more successful than the current one. Another key capability is accessing contact centre performance in real time, so managers can make changes in response to real-time trends. Advanced analytics<\/strong> is the number one strategic initiative retailers plan to invest in by 2019, cited by two-thirds of respondents to the Deloitte<\/a><\/p>\n Post-holiday customer support is where retailers are challenged to turn a negative into a positive. Supported by the right tools, agents can quickly connect customers to the solution, save the sale, boost the brand\u2019s image, and drive loyalty to keep shoppers coming back all year long.<\/p>\n Learn more about how\u00a0contact centre technology can create a better experience for customers and agents<\/span>Learn more<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collaborative Contact Centre<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t
Connect customers with experts<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Be available any way the customer wants to reach out<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Post-holiday can be the busiest time for a retail contact centre. Leveraging cloud-based contact centre solutions enables retails to easily add agents without requiring more seats, supporting contract or home-based agents. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/blockquote>\n
Expand Your Workforce as Needed<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Leverage analytics<\/strong><\/h2>\n