BEGINNER'S GUIDE

TO CONTACT CENTER MANAGEMENT

Insights into contact center technology, challenges faced
by call centers, and the role of omni-channel presence
Excerpts from Ameyo Callversations Blog

Francis Cyriac and Silky Sinha

Ameyo: Customer Interaction Suite

A Publication of

Table of Contents
Chapter 1- Introduction to Contact Center Technology

Chapter 2- Contact Center Challenges

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Chapter 3 Role of Technology in Contact Centers

35

Chapter 4 Creating the True Omni-Channel Experience

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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION TO CONTACT
CENTER TECHNOLOGY
How to Choose the Right Contact Center Software
Re-architecting your Contact Center Software
Customer Experience as a Business Strategy
Tips on Improving Customer Experience
Personalized Customer Engagement Getting Started

How to Choose the Right

Contact Center Software

Contact centers have been around for more than a decade and
continue to show slow but steady growth. However, for most of the
contact center setups, it is due to intermediaries, human errors or
other dependencies that such business usually turns into a bad
investment.

Broadly the three pillars of such businesses are:

Business Development and Customer management
Quality of Agents and operations
Connectivity and Technology

Historically, these start-ups are mostly entrepreneur driven businesses

and micro management of all the three pillars is done by a one man
team. Such entrepreneurs instead must focus on Business Development
and customer management rather than operations and fire-fighting of
technology issues. The latter should ideally be handled by hiring good
resources or finding good technology partners.

However cash-flow problems and stringent budgets in a small setup

push entrepreneurs to curtail expenses on basic infrastructure and
agent quality and thus the entrepreneur is always left to managing the
operations internally rather than focusing on business development.
Contact centers are primarily ITeS, and IT obviously plays one of the
most important role among the three pillars. Therefore it should not be
compromised to below hygiene levels

Technology options available:

Globally Renowned Solutions: A What makes them an unpopular

choice among the contact centers is the cost implications with each
seat costing around $2K+ dollars including other add on costs like
software OS/DB/Server licenses or hardware implications. Recurring
service and maintenance costs are additional pain areas.
Free or White Labeled Solutions: These are almost free solutions that
can be downloaded off the internet and sold or white labeled by few
companies at costs as low as $500 for limitless licenses in a setup
costing up to only $200 per seat. They are not meant for serious
business and are at most a short term fix. Sales or engineering oriented
teams download an open-source solution and either sell it as a service
or in most cases illegally white-label it in their name. The companies
selling this freeware usually deploy onsite engineers who do very
frequent site visits only to simply reboot the server and restart the
application rather than fixing the bugs.
So the bottom line is that the right solution should be one which
offers:
1)Robustness and Reliability
2)Intelligence - Predictive Dialer, ACD systems, AMD, Lead
Management, Call Back Management, CTI, Supervision and Reporting,
Voice Quality and VoIP Handling, Dynamic IVR.
3)Return on Investment
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Re-Architecting your
Contact Center

Did you know that two-thirds of your customers have hung up during
service calls before their particular issues could be addressed? And a
whopping 71% were extremely annoyed at not being able to reach out
to a real person on the phone, while 56% were infuriated because they
had to go through multiple phone loops to get the right information. Do
these figures ring a bell? If you want to be in business, you need to
evolve your process and re-architect your internal and external
systems. The company that offers a positive customer experience will
survive, while the rest will fade into oblivion.

Ways to Boost the Value of your Contact Center

Here are some steps that you can take to ensure that you contact
center adds value for your customers:
Start with the Staff: Go by the long standing ideology of the contact
center world happy employees equal happier customers. Agents, on
an average, attend 10,000 calls in a year from angry and upset
customers, and the negativity is sure to affect them at some level
unless the working environment is positive and cheerful. Begin by
hiring the right set of people, who dont not fit in with the needed
educational qualifications but also do exceptionally well in the soft
skills area. Then focus on their retention by providing them the right
environment, comfortable working area and incentives that actually
work.
Incentivizing it Right: Money cant buy love. So, plan your incentive
right. Do not tie up the agents performance to the number of calls a
day. Rather, choose a qualitative approach. Set a performance
evaluation parameter, based on customer complaint resolution in the
first call and the customers feedback. Reward agents for meeting or
exceeding performance metrics and let their focus be on enhancing the
customer experience.
Catering to training needs: To provide cross-channel customer
assistance, there is a need for cross-training on multichannel
interactions. This training will allow managers to pull agents off from
one area to assist in another, as and when needed. However, it is also
important to cater to the training needs of supervisors. Supervisor
training should focus on optimum utilization of agents, assessing their
training requirements, and motivating and leading their team to
success.
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Tackle the technology: A survey conducted by Velociti Partners points

out that the average customer care executive in a financial services
contact center uses seven or eight applications every day to resolve
issues. Moreover, the applications and databases connected to them
are siloed, which means that even the simplest processes takes extra
time and effort. As a result, call handling times, customer satisfaction
rates and even costs, suffer. Consequently, the first step to tackling
technology issues is breaking down silos and integrating data across
departments.
However, you can ensure the following to enhance long-term customer
and employee satisfaction:
Automate and synchronize customer data across multiple systems by
logging all customer interactions (regardless of the channel) and
automatically adding them to customer records.
Automate the delivery of cross-sell or up-sell offers to your customers.
You can do so by allowing employees to access data stored in multiple
applications, databases or servers from one application with a single
user-interface, and providing a means that generates automatic alerts
to agents when a high-value client is on the line.

Customer Experience as a
Business Strategy

For enterprises, business does not end with creating products and
being content at selling them. A great business strategy needs vision.
An added bonus is excellent insight of customers and the markets
which help a business succeed. Business requires more work than just
randomly making sales pitches to customers. It is about finding the
right customers and creating products and services for them. But where
are these exclusive customers?
Business strategies and marketing techniques
Physical retail stores dress up their windows with wares that attract
customers and allow retailers to interact directly with the customer and
gain their feedback. So far, this has been an effective strategy but it is
restricted to a physical area and depends heavily on foot traffic. Ecommerce sites however, have no such restrictions and global shipping
has brought markets in foreign countries closer than ever. So, retail
businesses should learn from them.

The first and foremost objective of every business strategy in ecommerce is Customer Experience Management (CEM). Any enterprise
that can manage to create differentiators in service delivery is able to
decipher the code of Happy Customers. Today businesses which are
aware of the best practices of CEM and are widely implementing
automation systems to optimize their service delivery methodology will
be considered smart.

Some of the best practices of CEM are as below:

Minimization of routine enquiries by proactive outreach: Everyday
customer queries like order status, confirmations etc., can be
minimized by an effective outreach system that proactively connects to
the customers via multiple communications channels including phone,
SMS and e-mail.
Not missing even a single customer call: Any e-commerce business just
cannot afford to miss calls. The missed call could mean a lost business
opportunity, or further annoying a dissatisfied customer which could be
disastrous for any B2C business.
Giving special attention to repeat calls: It is very important that an ecommerce business is keeping a close watch on the kind of customer
calls they receive. If there are repeat calls from a customer, connecting
him/her to the right agent can make all the difference to the
experience he/she takes back home.
Measuring experience across platforms: Businesses should be able to
monitor and analyze the service delivery across the entire business
applications infrastructure. Each technology component facilitating
business processes plays a crucial role in customer experience delivery
and needs to be measured effectively.
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With an excellent customer experience management strategy

enterprises can add the power of proactive customer service to their
day-to-day business operations. A robust contact center solutions allow
this value-add to enterprises. The experience going forward is a good
one and spreads through word-of-mouth bringing you repeat and new
business from the same customer base.

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Tips on Improving
Customer Experience

Experiences have become value propositions for every firm because

every company struggles in delivering customers experience that hits
the spot. And hitting the right spot has become a herculean task for
many enterprises because of a myriad of customer touch points made
available through the advent of technology advancements. Long gone
are the days where customers judge the brand, product or the
company from the price, performance or the quality of the product. We
exist in an era where experience matters; experience is the quarterback
of every company and will never cease being the Most Valuable Player.
Like it or not, consciously or unconsciously, customers evaluate
business relationships every time they touch the company.
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You should be capable to manage each and every touch point to build
and maintain customer relationships of customers that are empowered
to be brand agnostic and effortless switchers. On the same note,
constancy can also be a firms pitfall, because the customers are able to
reach your company through various touch points that constantly
evolves. Delivering consistent experience at all possible contact points
has become a requirement rather than a perquisite.
Having an effective contact center in your organization is valuable in
providing satisfying customer experiences, but there are companies
that still live in the past. Impersonal communication, unskilled agents
and long waits on hold can be frustrating for the customer that drives
him to do his business elsewhere. Contact centers are the main point of
customer interaction and are to be powered-up to provide unsurpassed
customer experience. Contact centers, the front-line of most
businesses, have made and lost revenues, not on price or performance,
but to the quality of experience.

Here are a few customer service tips that could be

implemented to improve your customer experience.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) : CRM software are now
top priorities for additional spending on enterprise applications. CRM
tools are focused on customer retention, satisfaction and attracting
new customers. CRM software integrated with Computer Telephony
Interchange would display the details of the customer that is on call,
which lowers the average call handling time, which in turn helps the
customer in getting the issue resolved in minimum time with little or no
verification details, improving their experience. CRM technologies help
companies to develop a more meaningful relationship with the
customers rather than merely running marketing campaigns.

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One view of the customer: One of the best ways to kill customer
experience is through maintaining customer information silos . Each
department should be able to view the customers information and
his/her previous interaction history that has been lodged in any of the
department in the company. Requesting the customer to repeat the
issue is a risk that would most likely make the customer frustrated. In
customers perspective every interaction that he makes with the
company is one single experience. Companies should ensure that this
experience is not broken down when the customers navigate across
multiple channels.
Invest in your agents: Agents are most influential point of customer
contact for your organization. They account for almost half of your
contact center costs, therefore they are to be optimized to deliver
experience that impacts the customer for future sales. Agents are to be
trained, motivated and acknowledged for their efforts. They are not to
be treated as mere machines or robots. Agents in most of the
companies, are the only voice that the company has.
Social Media Integration: Social Media has transformed itself in being
an ecosystem, where individuals and customers share their emotions,
mainly grievances to the rest of the world. Companies ought to invest
in social media monitoring to address these grievances, because there
are instances where these grievances have made the companies lose
millions of customers. Complaints aired in social media have the
potential to grow into a social outbreak reeking havoc on the company.

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Monitor effectiveness: Evaluating your contact center periodically is

important for its improvement. Stagnant and unattended contact
centers prohibits growth and customer engagement. Companies should
adopt an aggressive and proactive approach to explore the myriad of
data available. Reporting tools are to be implemented to measure KPIs
and the effectiveness of the contact center. The company should
leverage on metrics and analytics to identify opportunities to improve
agent productivity and performance.
Invest in state of the art Contact Center Technology: Contact Center
technology is not cheap, but definitely worth every penny paid. Now
the most important question facing such companies becomes what are
the technology options available to the companies and what
parameters should serve as a yardstick for choosing an optimal solution
which offers a decent ROI. One has to follow the methodology of doing
it right the very first time therefore a hit and miss method is highly
unadvised.
By implementing top-notch customer service solutions, your company
can create a better overall customer experience. Higher Customer
Satisfaction scores translate into long term loyalty and strategic
business objectives like bolstering brand image and building revenue.
With this solution in pace, opportunities for continuous improvement
and redefinition of service processes for the future can be attained.

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Personalized Customer
Engagement: Getting Started

Personalized customer engagement is not a one-time occurrence, it is a

course of improvement and advancement that requires a tenacious
workforce and infrastructure. Once you have a persistent workforce
and infrastructure lined up, you can begin the journey of personalized
customer engagement.
Organizations aim to deliver world-class, second to none service, to
meet the increasingly demanding customer base, who are well aware
of their alternatives. Technology has now empowered the customers
more than ever. It has changed the game, and the customers have
changed the rules. Customers are now digitally connected, socially
networked, and always game for technology revolution. They have to
access to social networks, mobile applications, technology devices
where they are able to connect and access information on the move.
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Once the commitment has been made to provide personalized

customer engagement, start where the biggest impact can be made:
Contact Center. Contact center is the face of your organization, so make
sure it is presentable to your customers because this is where you
interact most with them.
One of the challenge is the unpredictable nature in the mode of
communication. Customers will decide when, and how to communicate
with you, and they expect to be appropriately responded through the
same with no delays. Organizations should aim at delivering consistent
customer
experience
at
their
preferred
mode
of
communication. Another challenge is to gain a comprehensive view of
the customer when handling queries and resolving complaints.
Customers expect to be known, acknowledged, and respected for their
queries. Customer dialogue is not a series of discrete, unique
experiences, it is a part of an ongoing relationship. Violating this
relationship will result in profound consequences.
Arm your agents with the right technology tools and customer
information to provide them with a 360 degree view of the customers,
thereby allowing them to instantaneously obtain customer information
from multiple systems that typically exist in departmental silos. A
contact center technology will seamlessly integrate information from
multiple silos and creates comprehensive information without
exhausting the time of agents toggling between multiple systems.
Developing such a paradigm of exceptional service with personalized
customer engagement, might seem as an overwhelming and daunting
task, but once the process has been initiated the goals of increased
loyalty and long term revenues can be achieved.

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CHAPTER TWO
CONTACT CENTER CHALLENGES
Unpredictable Customer Traffic- Top Most Challenge of a
Contact Center
4 Most Familiar Call Center Problems You Must Avoid
10 Most Common Customer Frustrations that Every
Call Center Should Avoid
7 Common IVR Mistakes you should Avoid
3 Common Contact Center Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

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Unpredictable Customer
Traffic- Top Most Challenge of
a Contact Center

About 48% of the companies that have adopted the contact center
technology believe that unpredictable customer traffic is one of the top
most challenges they have to face. While it may be high on some days,
it could be incredibly low the other days. The customer traffic can even
differ according to the days of the week and also the timings of the day.
Although it is difficult to predict this customer traffic, contact centers
should be able to organize their resources in order to attend all the
calls in a satisfactory manner, without any delays.

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Call centers are mostly cost centers and their success depends on how
well they reduce these costs. The performance will be low, be it an
over-staffed call center and an under-staffed call center. It is therefore
important to analyze the customer traffic over time, find out the day of
the week and the time of the day where the call traffic is high and then
hire accordingly. Most employees in call centers work on shifts, which is
a good thing. Accurate planning can help the managers strike the right
balance between handling customer calls and reducing the overheads
of the call center.

How to handle unpredictable customer traffic in call

centers?

If customer traffic could be accurately predicted, call centers would

never have to face any challenges at all. However, although you can
have a rough idea, this cannot be predicted accurately in reality.
Following a few tips given below can help call centers to become
capable of handling this unpredictable customer traffic:
During peak hours it often becomes unavoidable to put the customers
in queue. It should be understood that todays customers hate to wait
and will most likely abandon the call if they are made to wait for too
long. At such times, it is better to put some rules in place. For instance,
the waiting time has to be reduced to 20 seconds. If the call cannot be
answered within this time, there could be a system where the agent
calls back the customer. Also, the average time that is needed to attend
a call can be cut down during these peak hours so that each agent will
be able to handle more customers.

If the call centers are able to analyze the day of the week during which
the call traffic may be higher, they will be in a better position to handle
customers. This can be made possible by reducing the absenteeism on
that particular day or by adding in another batch of staff for that day.
By rewarding the agents who appear at work on that day, call centers
can motivate their employees to handle customers efficiently.
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If the peak timings of each day can be determined, call centers can take
measures to cut down the breaks during those hours in order to handle
the traffic.
Measures should be taken to increase the loyalty of customers. This
includes hiring agents with good communication skills, reducing the
call-waiting times and improving the customer experience.
Having an intelligent IVR system in place can lower the burden during
peak hours. Its ability to route the call to the right agent with
appropriate skills can definitely save the time of both the customer and
the agents.
Customer service is the key to survival for contact centers today. It is
important for the agents of every contact center to work towards
enhancing the customer experience, even when they are handling peak
traffic calls.

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4 Most Familiar Call Center

Problems You Must Avoid

Most customers consider it a pain to contact a call center. First of all, it

takes quite a bit of time to reach the concerned person, since you have
to select the right options. Moreover, things like call transfers and call
waiting can add up to your frustration and waste your precious
minutes. To top it all if the call center representative you get to talk to,
doesnt possess good communication skills, it could take a long time
just getting your point across. If a contact center understands these
problems, it might be in a better position to serve the customers.
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Not all customer service representatives are bad in a call center.

However, it is still considered as an unpleasant task to call a contact
center because of four major problems:
#1. Language Barriers: Often customers will have to communicate with
agents who cannot speak good English. Or even if they do, it might be
difficult to understand because of their accent. Communication is the
main thing in contact centers and they need to understand this before
hiring people. Apart from language fluency, they should also consider
accent evaluation as a criterion while hiring employees.
#2. Being kept on hold: Time is the most precious thing in the life of
todays customers. No customer would like to be kept on hold for a long
time. Call centers should ensure that a call is transferred to the
concerned person immediately. One more option is to go for virtual
hold where in the customer can hang up and the representative will call
him back, as soon as he/she is free.
#3. Call transfer: Customers usually want their queries addressed by
the person who receives their calls. Some of them just cant accept call
transfers. As far as possible contact centers should train their
employees to deal with standard queries. They can also organize their
employees into universal agents and specialized agents. If the customer
has a specialized query, his call has to be attended by a specialized
agent through the options that he/she selects.
#4. Repeating information: Often the customers will have to repeat the
information every time their call gets transferred to a new agent. This
can be quite frustration for anyone. Call centers have to go for IVR
solutions through which customer information can be collected and
accessed by their agents. Sometimes when call transfers are
unavoidable, IVR solutions can help the agents of a contact center to
attend to the customers in a better way.

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Call centers do need to take time to train their employees and invest in
solutions that will help them handle customer engagement in a better
manner. There are a lot of things they need to check for in their
employees before hiring them:
Personality: A call center agent needs to have a pleasing personality. A
smile on the face while talking to a customer can make a whole lot of
difference.
Attitude: Polite attitude is a must in Call centers. At no point should a
customer care representative be rude to any of the customers,
irrespective of how he/she is treated.
Tone of Voice: A warm and friendly voice can bring a smile on the
callers face, which is what call centers need to keep in mind while
hiring employees.
Communication skills: An agent needs to have good communication
skills. He/she needs to know what to speak and how to put things
across to a customer.
Listening abilities: Unless a representative listens to customers,
he/she will not be able to understand their queries or concerns, which
is why listening abilities are important
Language fluency: Agents who are too slow in communication or
those who are not fluent in the language they are supposed to
communicate in cannot be assets to contact centers.
Accent, if any: Even with excellent language fluency and
communication skills, an agent may not be understood well by the
customers if he happens to have a heavy accent. This is something that
needs to be evaluated at the time of hiring.
Willingness to help: Attending to the customers queries and seeing to
it that they are satisfied is a main function of a customer care
representative. He/she has to possess a willingness to help.
Patience: Work at call centers involves receiving lots of phone calls,
listening to the same kind of complaints and attending to them. If a
representative doesnt have the patience to do all this, he/she just
cannot fit into call centers.
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10 Most Common Customer

Frustrations that Every Call
Center Should Avoid

Customers forgive, but never forget

Calling any call center can be a nightmare for the customer. And
telephone being the most popular and preferred mode of customer
support, the stakes are high. With alternatives available at every
corner, organizations should eliminate the trivial methods of customer
support and come up with strategies and technologies that could
transform their call center to a customer experience management
system. Optimizing on customer support can improve customer
retention, customer acquisition, and sales.
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One way to provide excellent customer support and customer

experience is to avoid frustrating the customers when they contact the
support team.

Here are 10 most common customer frustrations that

every call center should avoid.
The IVR abyss: IVR system that is annoying and difficult to navigate can
make the customer extremely hostile. Placing the customer to a no
man land after lengthy prompts can irate the customer to the point of
hanging up and bringing up the issue to social medias.
Long holding time: There is nothing more frustrating than putting
callers on hold. Customers wish to have the call center agents
undivided attention, and when he/she is being put on hold, the agent is
killing the most valuable commodity-time. Social media channels are
swarming with distressed customers venting their frustration with
holding time.
Agent has inadequate information to resolve queries: Why do
customers normally call call centers? To answer queries, resolve issues,
ease a complex process, etc. But what if the call center representative
is not equipped with the necessary information to handle such a call.
Unlimited Call transfers: Shuffling the customers from one rep to
another can end up in a very heated situation. And the only thing
worse than being bounced around from one agent to another, is asking
the customer to do the bouncing themselves. We are unable to
resolve your query. Kindly call xxx-xxx-xxxx to speak with a
representative
Mechanized agents: Call centers have entered an uncanny valley of
robotized interactions and mechanized call center services, where
there is zero or minimum human interference. The agents follow scripts
to handle every kind of customer call, making the call less personable
and empathizing.

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Asked to repeat information: Customers might contact call centers for

various purposes, and being asked to repeat personal information at
every call can get under their nerves. Blame departmental silos for this,
but customers couldn't care less for the organizations paucity of
integration and infrastructure.
Follow-up calls: Mistakes happen, and customers call when they are
unable to resolve the issue themselves. But if the problem persists,
then there is something seriously wrong with the product or the
company entirely. Having to call the call center again and again for the
same reason can be a huge aggravation for the customers. 65% of
customers agree that it is the largest flaw of the customer support
system.
Being told to head to the website for efficient service: This is a
common routine in most contact centers. While the customer is on
hold or in IVR, an automated message is played that directs the caller
to visit the website for efficient service. Here, organizations fail to
comprehend that the customers must have visited the website prior to
call. Or simply prefer calling or have a unique query that cannot be
resolved via the FAQ section. Organizations do this to improve traffic in
their websites, but ultimately kills customer experience.
Agents promises they will get back to you, but never do: Not all
problems can be resolved in the first call. There will be queries that
requires additional information or authority to execute. Customers
hang up the call expecting the agents to call back once they are
equipped with the tools and information. But, they never do.
Rude Customer Support: Call Center agents job is to serve customer
concerns and complaints, and it might not be their fault if an issue
arises or a mix-up happens. But the agents need to remember they are
getting paid to manage concerns and complaints, while customers have
already paid for the service.

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By avoiding these common customer aggravations, contact centers

have the opportunity to really improve customer support by building
their customer service skills. Now that you have an idea about the most
common frustrations, your task is to deal with them. Since contact
centers are customer-centric departments, it is worthwhile to invest on
resources and technologies that can help eliminate theses common
customer pet peeves.

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7 Common IVR Mistakes you

should Avoid

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) has transformed the way businesses

handle customer calls. It has a huge role to play when it comes to
customer care, managing incoming calls, and routing calls to the right
customer support representatives.
A well-designed IVR can reduce the companys cost, boost productivity,
and raise the quality of customer support drastically. But it is easy to
get it wrong.
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Here are the most common mistakes you should avoid

committing while designing an IVR for your business.
1. Too many options in the Menu and Lengthy Introductions
Dont confuse your caller by providing unnecessary options as human
memory runs out of capacity after listening to more than 5 options. The
callers might get frustrated while figuring out the right button to press
in order to get their issue resolved. Customers looking for immediate
response will definitely abandon the call in this situation as they dont
have patience. This might also end up with the caller choosing to speak
with a live agent and the whole purpose of an IVR is lost.
2. Inappropriate and Repetitive on-hold messages
Call centers often play advertisements or other promotional messages
while the caller is stuck in a queue. But irrelevant and unnecessary ads
can irritate your customer. And if the on-hold messages are repetitive,
the situation gets even worse. Listening to the same message every few
seconds instigates the caller to hang-up the call. Make sure that the
messages are appropriate for the customer and the music isnt too
loud.
3. Poor Voice Quality
Make sure that your callers clearly understand the options by playing a
recorded voice that sounds appropriate-neither too fast nor too slow.
Ensure that the voice is not very friendly nor too formal. A lack of
clarity in voice can frustrate the caller and they might lose
interest. Also, avoid using different voices and volumes and maintain
consistency in pitch and timbre throughout the call journey so that the
caller does not get distracted.

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4. Ignoring the Previous Engagements of a Customer

Providing every caller with the same set of menus and recorded
messages is simply unappealing. You must take into account the prior
engagements of a customer and serve them accordingly. Improve the
customer experience by delivering personal messages to them based
on their previous interactions and route the call to the appropriate
agent, if required.
5. Not Providing a Request a Call-Back Option
An IVR cant serve all the callers and cant resolve every issue. It should
definitely provide an option to the caller to either talk to a live
representative or request a call-back.
6. Not Prioritizing the Options Smartly
Based on past trends, you can come to know about the top reasons as
to why a customer is calling and what are they looking for. May be it is
for making payments, checking current offers/discounts and so on.
Identify them and make sure you are offering that option at the top of
your IVR list. It will become easier and quicker for callers to find the
solution and accomplish their goals.
7. Not Reassuring your Customer
You need to reassure a customer that his/her query or issue is being
processed and would be resolved as soon as possible. Most of the
customers are often not comfortable in talking to a machine and always
want to talk to a real person. So, send them immediate SMS or email
and assure that you are taking care of them.
Avoid these mistakes and minimize the extra work that gets routed to
your reps because of an inefficient IVR. If configured and managed
properly, an IVR can definitely boost your service levels and improve
customer experiences.
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3 Common Contact Center

Mistakes and How to Avoid
Them

Did you know 82% of consumers say that getting their issue resolved
quickly is the #1 factor in great customer experience? This is what a
recent survey by LivePerson revealed.
Another study by Forrester validates these statistics, saying that 45% of
US consumers will abandon an online transaction if their questions or
concerns are not addressed quickly and a whopping 89% will go to your
competitor following a poor customer experience, says Harris
Interactive. So, can you afford to make the common mistakes that many
contact centers make and lose customers to competition?
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Heres a look at the three most commonly made

mistakes and how you can avoid them.
Putting Callers on Hold: According to Harris Interactive, 69% of
customers complain of being put on hold for too long when seeking help
from a company. This heightens the dissatisfaction level and thus
brings down the customer service experience provided by your contact
center. So, make sure that all the required information about the caller
is available for the agent while he attends the call. Additionally, to
address a customers query promptly, without having to put them on
hold, all the FAQs or the other reference data should be displayed on
the agents screen. Also, you can incorporate the call-back feature if all
your agents are occupied. For this, out-bound dialers can do the trick. If
a study by Forester is to be believed, 75% of consumers agreed that
call-back is an appealing factor. All these efforts offer undivided
attention to your customers and show that you value their time.
Inadequate Training: Research by Frost & Sullivan shows that 60% of all
repeat calls are process or training driven. But usually contact centers
have such a high turnover rate that business-owners often overlook the
need for training and development. With ever changing demands of
the consumer, it is important that your agents can cater to their
different needs and levels of queries and can also handle omni-channel
communication. So, periodic assessment, demo-sessions, training in
multi-channel and technology like outbound dialers, auto and
predictive dialers, and CRM software is a must. Also, reward and
recognition is crucial to keeping your customer-service team happy.
This happiness will then rub off on the consumer.

33

Faulty Performance Measurement Metrics: A call center usually

monitors the performance of the agents on the basis of the number of
calls attended per hour or the limits to which they exceed the average
expectation of calls in a day. Performance and services here are
associated with quantitative factors rather than the quality of customer
service. The call center should focus on evaluating agents on the basis
of problem resolution in one call (First Call Resolution). This will
motivate agents to offer enhanced customer service and customerissues will be addressed and resolved more promptly.
According to Harris Interactive, 60% of your consumers are willing to
pay more for a better experience. So, give your best to your customer
and the best will come to you.

34

CHAPTER THREE
ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN
CONTACT CENTER
How Contact Centers Should Use Technology to
Benefit Customers
Guidelines for Building a Smart IVR
15 Call Center Software Must-Haves
Enhance Productivity through Predictive Dialers
How to Eliminate Dropped Calls with an Intelligent
Outbound Dialer

35

How Contact Centers Should

Use Technology to Benefit
Customers

According to Louise Robinson, Sales Director of CG Consulting, If you

have 50 prospects on your list, maybe half of those, some 25, are worth
your time. Of these, 12 will result in a conversion with the correct
person, and of those 12, maybe seven will result in a proposal being
submitted, and two or three will lead to an actual sale. So what
measures should a contact center take to enhance this skewed
conversion ratio of 50: 3?
The solution lies within the realms of technology. Contact centers must
focus on feeding a relevant database in the CRM system and then
opting for cloud based telemarketing systems for best results. The use
of dialers, such as auto dialers and predictive dialers, can further
enhance efficiency.

36

Here is a look at technology that can help you achieve

better customer engagement through improved
services:
Bank on email marketing: Did you know that 72% of North American
consumers rank email marketing on #1 when it comes to permissionbased promotions? Ensure that your website and social media page
have a form that gathers consumer enquiries and information and also
grants you permission to send them promotional emails.
Ensure mobile presence: Since 48% of emails are accessed on a mobile
device these days, it becomes important for businesses to be present in
the space where consumers are looking for them. Your website must be
optimized for mobile devices, along with laptops and PCs. Additionally,
you can come up with some targeted marketing campaigns via social
media platforms.
Use the power of social advertising: Create highly targeted and
effective campaigns on Facebook to engage your audience. Also utilize
the power of other social media sites like Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus
and Instagram to connect with your audience. Make sure the
communication flow is always two-way. You can even plan out some
interesting contests for customer engagement.
Technology to your rescue: Enhance the efficiency of your contact
center with the use of auto dialers and predictive dialers. This will bring
down your agents lag time and call drop-outs to a considerable degree.
It will also aid in achieving the maximum number of out-bound and inbound calls per hour, thereby enhancing productivity manifold.
Create a differential advantage to stand out in the crowd. Experiment
with different ideas that have the ability to strike a chord with your
consumers and drive your sales. It is always best to plan out your
marketing strategy based on the solution that you offer to treat a
particular pain point of the consumer.

37

Guidelines for Building a

Smart IVR

Building a Smart and Intelligent IVR is a complex procedure and

requires great deal of understanding of the human psychology,
business processes/domain, and customer life cycle. If you do this
effectively, only then you will be able to anticipate a callers need and
deliver a differentiated experience to the customers. The call flow
design of an IVR has to be structured in a way to attain the desired
outcome of providing excellent customer experience.

38

Listed below are few things you must consider before

starting to design an IVR:
Know your Customers Thoroughly
Gain a knowledge of your customers with proper segmentation of
customer profiles in terms of demographics, preferences, and value
based segmentation. Track when and how do they contact you- their
preferred channel of communication, time of call, etc. And also, why do
they contact you, list out the reasons- is it related to complain, issues,
upgrades, faults or others.
Go for Simplicity with Meaningful Options while Designing
Avoid confusion among the callers by keeping the options simple that
hit right at their needs. If your IVR is not able to cater to the callers
need or is providing them with an unwanted solution, then this will
lead to customer frustration to a great extent.
Also make sure that the design is not over complicated with lots of
options in the menu that confuses your customer and make it hard for
them to navigate and find a solution. The design should be such that it
does not create a burden on your IT team neither does it irritates the
customer.
Build an Architecture that Supports Business Agility
Make sure that your design architecture is able to adapt to dynamic
business needs with a minimal turnaround time. It should not require
much change in the core IVR design with change in business logic.
Improving the Customer Experience with Smart IVR Analytics
It should be an end-to-end call assessment solution that captures,
tracks, and evaluates every callers experience during the entire call
and create customer dashboards to quickly and accurately measure
effectiveness. Smart analytics can help organizations in identifying
various IVR issues and make those modifications or enhancements to
its current IVR solution accordingly in order to make it easy for
customers to use.

39

Ensure that you measure the effectiveness of your IVR by correlating

the IVR performance analytic outcomes with customer surveys.
If well thought through and perfectly built, an intelligent IVR
system can definitely help organizations gain competitive edge by
delivering superb customer experience hence ensuring increased brand
loyalty.

40

15 Call Center Software MustHaves

Call Center managers looking to be at the top of the game should

leverage the tools to do so. But how do you know what the best tools
are? This post lists the top 15 tools that a progressive call center cannot
afford to work without. If it is on this list and you dont have it, you are
definitely missing out.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Every industry would have a few interactions that are common and
which can be automated. With increasingly mobile consumers wishing
to manage their own interactions, IVR has helped in automating
routine interactions and reducing the cost of operations.

41

Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)

ACD will help leveling call spikes and optimally managing call center
employees by effectively directing calls to available agents improving
customer experience and reducing agent idle time.
Predictive Dialer
Predictive dialers intelligently dial outbound calls to customers based
on inbuilt algorithms, placing the call when an agent is available and at
the best possible time. This has a measurable impact on agent
productivity and call ratios.
Skill Based Routing (SBR)
SBR routes call to specific agents based on business rules, agent skill
set, and/or customer preference. This reduces call transfers to a great
extent, which minimizes the cost of operation and improves First Call
Resolution.
Call Recording
Call recording automatically records calls and stores them to be played
for a later time. This tool can help managers evaluate agent
performance during a call, and tweak them to be better.
Click-to-Call
Click to call tool allows agents to easily place an outbound call by
merely clicking on the phone number.
Screen Pop-ups
This tool automatically displays the caller information in the agents
screen as soon as a call is connected. This helps the agent to have a
preview of the customer, without having to swap multiple applications

42

Real-time Reporting
Real-time reporting displays metrics (call rates, agent idle time,
customer holding time, abandonment rates, etc) in real-time. This helps
managers to make data-driven decisions that can have an immediate
impact.
Historical Reporting
Historical reporting tool allows managers and supervisors to track the
performance of their campaigns, departments, agents, etc to gain a
comprehensive understanding of their performance. This helps them in
accurately forecasting call volumes and staff their agents accordingly.
Voice Broadcast
This tool helps call centers to effectively communicate to a large
audience by simultaneously placing an automated call to every contact
in a targeted dialing list.
Workforce Management (WFM)
WFM tool helps managers in predicting call volume fluctuations and
staffing agents accordingly. Understaffing will result in high
abandonment rates and customer frustration, and losing business and
overstaffing results in a huge waste of money.
Business Tool Integration
Call center software with API that are capable of integrating with thirdparty applications allows call centers to leverage advanced business
tools with synchronized information across the entire system.
43

Local Presence Caller ID

Local Presence Caller IDs customizes your outbound caller IDs with local
area codes increasing your connection rates. When agents match their
caller ID to the local area code of the contact they are calling, the
contact will more likely answer the call, or return the call if he fails to
answer.
Automatic Machine Detection (AMD)
AMD tool helps dialers in identifying answering machines when the call
is connected. This tool enables the system to connect the agent to the
outbound call only if a human voice is heard at the other end of the
call. This increases the productivity of the agent extremely, because
most of the calls made by call centers are answered through answering
machines.
Multimedia Integration
Multimedia Integration allows call center agents to communicate with
customers
in
their
preferred
mode
of
channel
(Email/SMS/Chat/Call/Social Media). It empowers your agents to
handle all types of customer interactions across multiple
communication channels.
Call Center managers ought to leverage advanced tools and
technologies to be the best-of-the-best in the industry. The top 15 tools
in the list should be a benchmark for organizations and managers when
selecting the right call center software.
44

Enhance Productivity through

Predictive Dialers

Did you know that on an average, for every 100 calls manually dialed,
only 14 reach the right person? Predictive dialers can automate the
handling of these failed calls, and this feature alone could lead to a
150%to 400% rise in the productivity of your contact center agents. An
intelligent outbound auto dialer has features such as a setting for
maximum call drops, automated message to a dropped call, revert on
dropped calls, and setting time parameters for each call.
Customer care centers operate by the dictum that retaining a customer
is more economical than getting a new one. So, there is a need for
technology to gauge customer satisfaction levels, as well as a platform
for providing feedback and important information, such as changes in
service to the customers. This facility, when coupled with cross-selling
and up-selling initiatives, the calls serves as a pipeline to future sales.

45

How does it work?

Implementing predictive dialing technology or the effective outbound
customer care strategy involves advanced call processing and utilization
of CTI technology. However, this alone will not guarantee success. The
entire contact center environment, which includes people, processes,
and technology, should work together as a single unit to make this
happen.
Technological Considerations
Implementing outbound customer service should focus on some
primary components, such as:
Routing calls to and from the agents via a high-speed telephone switch.
A server or CPU for executing the programs, dialing system software
and data to be transformed.
Gauging productivity of the contact center with a workforce
management system that monitors and reports the performance level
of agents.
Need for data networks to provide relevant information to the agents.
Other important aspects include:
The foundation of any outbound call management system is the pacing
algorithm that controls the dialing rate. Here are some other
considerations that are crucial:
To maximize and optimize the agents talk time, they should have
higher control over nuisance or abandoned calls. The features that
enhance an agents productivity and drive customer engagement
include high-speed voice detection and precision answering machine
detection.
The auto dialer system must be able to access external databases to
identify the callers before they reach the agent. This can be achieved
either by using Automatic Number Identification (ANI) or Dialed
Number Information Service (DNIS).

46

For exceptional database capability; a database support must include

the ability to handle multiple users, real-time updates, provision for
connecting the caller to the most qualified agent, and should also offer
support
for
record-query
searches
and
updates.
There are times when the agent may not have the required
information or knowledge to handle a particular query. For such times,
the predictive dialer system should have a seamless call transfer facility
to the appropriate department.
If the contact center, apart from inbound customer service, plans to
offer outbound customer service as well, call-blending technology is an
important consideration. The blending feature allows a single call
center operation to manage the inbound and outbound functions,
simultaneously. It further enhances the efficiency of the contact center
by transferring agents between inbound and outbound calls, as per the
call volume. However, implementing this feature requires an
enterprise-wide commitment, training, extensive planning and
management.

47

How to Eliminate Dropped

Calls with an Intelligent
Outbound Dialer

Did you know predictive dialer technology can enhance an agents

productivity by 150% to 400%? This is possible because a predictive
dialing campaign effectively avoids dropped calls by connecting them to
a rollover IVR solution. This eliminates the lag time for customers due
to absenteeism of the agent at the concerned desk. An intelligent
outbound dialer has features such as:
A maximum call drop timeout setting.
Provision to play automatic message to a dropped caller.
Preventing dropped calls from being called back within a set period of
time.
Preventing calls from being made outside certain time parameters.
A maximum percentage of dropped calls within a 24-hour period.

48

What Outbound Dialers Can Do For Your Business

Predictive dialers adapt quickly to dynamic conditions, answer calls

within seconds, and accommodate various combinations of traditional
switched telephone networks (PSTN) and IP (VoIP). Not only this, they
also offer access to numerous VoIP services, manage telephone lists
and bring flexibility on capacity increase. If you are still considering
whether you need an outbound dialer, heres a look at how they help:
Enhanced Agent Efficiency:
The time and effort required to dial a number, listen to voicemail, deal
with busy tones and no-answer or schedule call backs eat away 10-15
minutes of talk time per hour. This, in the long run, affects the
productivity of the organization to a great extent. With the outbound
dialer, the average agent can contribute 40 or 50 minutes in the hour,
which increases productivity to 200%-300%. Moreover, it ensures
response to a fixed number of calls per hour, which translates to the
highest possible agent talk time with a very small percentage of
dropped calls.
Increased Productivity with Blended Campaigns:
Predictive dialers offer the ability to deal with inbound and outbound
calls simultaneously. With an auto dialer, the agent remains connected
to clients via a blended campaign, in which the same team of agents
handles both outbound and inbound calls at the same time. It
automates and balances the process of switching between inbound and
outbound calls, with features like call queuing and variable dial ratios. It
also allows flexibility for multi-tasking, which positively boosts their
morale, especially in high throughput predictive dialing campaigns.

49

High Rate of Prospect to Client Conversion:

Once the data is uploaded to a dialer manually or via database
synchronization, the hot prospects need to be contacted on a priority
basis. Agents need to call the prospects promptly, more so in the case
of sales leads. Auto-dialers ensure this, while also automating the
process of recycling (calling back) voicemails, busy numbers and
calls not answered. Thus, a large percentage of leads are followed up
on very quickly and professionally within a short span of time,
increasing the sale conversion rate substantially.
The companys ability to address customer issues promptly and
professionally, can offer a substantial differential advantage. Moreover,
it also enhances the agents morale by streamlining their work,
enhancing their productivity and accelerating the sales or debt
collection rate. This also translates into better incentives and
recognition for them. And we all know that happy employees ensure
happy customers!

50

CHAPTER FOUR
CREATING THE TRUE
OMNI-CHANNEL EXPERIENCE
Live Chat: A Powerful Tool, Not just a Widget
Your Customers are Demanding Omni-channel
Communications. Are you Game?
Demystifying Digital Channels with Call Center Software
Social Media Monitoring - Basics
How is Social Media Transforming Customer Service Model

51

Live Chat: A Powerful Tool,

Not just a Widget

I think we can all agree on the fact that Live chat is a power tool for
organizations. Not all, but organizations that strive to improve their
customer experience. There are so many companies out there that
solely depend on live chats to increase their level of customer support,
minimize inbound calls for problem resolutions, customer assist, etc.
But only a handful comprehends the leverage they can pull from Live
Chat.
Mostly organizations leverage live chats to minimize their customer
interaction costs. Because when customers call customer support
desks, which are ideally to be operated 24/7/365, it increase the
operational and labor costs manifold. Live chats on the other hand,
increases call center agent's efficiency by allowing live chat reps to
handle multiple chats simultaneously. This has a prodigious impact on
the bottom line.

52

Live chat can assist customers when they are indulged in complex
purchasing decision, because the customers normally interact with the
agents to know more about the product. They reduce the dissonance
behavior of customers too, when alternatives are out there in the open.
There are multiple other benefits that live chats can offer to the
organization, providing a smooth business experience to the customer,
reinforcing his purchase decision, etc.
A study called Making Proactive Chat Work conducted by Forrester
Research found Many online customers want help from a live person
while they are shopping online; in fact, 44% of online consumers say
that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of
an online purchase is one of the most important features a Web site can
offer
Live chat, unlike other modes of communication (except call) provides
immediate customer response. Customers can easily raise questions or
concerns while browsing in the companys website. 65% of online
American customers engage in live chats before they make a
purchasing decision. Live chats have generated much traction, that
organizations have integrated video chat with live chat support to
create a more interactive, and personalized customer experience.
Providing customers with the option of live chats are extremely
beneficial for business development and lead nurturing (inside sales).
Leads that are generated through webchats have a 40% more
probability for conversion than other leads. This figure is not minute for
organizations to turn their heads.
This tool has been optimized by renowned companies to enhance their
customer experience, to cross-sell, up-sell, and finally minimize
operational costs. And by receiving priceless feedback from customers,
companies can augment their customer facing services, products, etc.
53

Your Customers are

Demanding Omni-Channel
Communications.
Are you Game?

Did you know that 89% of your customers can be retained with an
omni-channel customer engagement strategy in place? This is in
comparison to 33% of companies with weak Omni Channel strategies,
says a recent studies by Aberdeen Group Inc. Customers today expect
more. They seek seamless and consistent customer experience online.

54

A survey conducted by Lordhouse on 7,000 customers across 7

countries shows that 67% of online shoppers have made purchases
that involve multiple channels in the past 6 months. Consumers do not
want to be restricted to a single communication channel. They are
demanding technology that will allow them to start communicating on
one channel and then smoothly glide on to another without having to
restart the conversation. In other words, they are asking for omnichannel communications, but the real question is are you ready for
this?

Why and How Brands Must Go Omni-channel

MITs recent report, Beyond the Checkout Cart, states that the omnichannel consumer is the central force shaping the future of e-commerce
and brick-and-mortar stores alike. It further suggests that 80% of
store shoppers check prices online, with one-third accessing the
information on their mobile device while inside the actual store. The
figures indicate that the consumers are approaching retailers from
multiple angles. So, a contact center needs to gear up to stay ahead of
the curve with the following strategies:
Redefine Your Brands Digital Presence: Test your conversion path and
optimize your landing pages, both online and on the mobile web. If you
are about to establish your social presence, device a creative strategy
that is tailored to suit the specific needs of your consumers. Utilize all
social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, G+, Instagram, blogs,
YouTube and Google Hangouts. Make sure you are present everywhere
that
your
customers
might
look
for
you.
Prioritize your Search Strategies: Implement a search and optimization
strategy to enhance brand search and ease of accessing your agents.
Float
content
that
drives
customer
engagement.

55

Site Retargeting to Attract Existing Customers: Collate and analyze the

data of the consumers searching for the products or services you
represent. With your CRM database and the queries/complaints
addressed at your contact center, generate a list of features or services
the consumer is looking for or value most in the brand you represent.
Improvise your service/product pitch accordingly. Devise relevant and
personalized information, targeting the existing customers encouraging
them to repurchase.
Connect the Dots with the Mobile Web: The mobile web allows
retailers to connect and reach consumers at any time of the day. Devise
a mobile marketing plan, with the help of mobile applications, coupons,
live-assistance and so on to drive customer engagement.
Your omni-channel will work if you:
1. Support collaboration of internal omni-channel by investing in
marketing, sales and technology teams that are aligned to the
companys goals.
2. Think about the context and content before launching your
marketing campaign. It should be the right mix of communication
medium with content that assures customer engagement.
Leverage the changing consumer behavior pattern by repositioning
your brand and value proposition. Steer clear of the conventional
approach that might make you lose market share or cut down on
profitability. Create a seamless, holistic and uniform channel of
communication to stay ahead in the race.
56

Demystifying Digital Channels

with Call Center Software

Today's digital channels, especially social media and mobile

technologies have dramatically changed the way consumers
communicate, interact share and spread information. Proliferation of
smart phones has a huge role to play for this transformation. But, while
the public adores the emergence of new consumer technology, it can
give customer experience executives a heartburn.
Social medias have been able to transform communication pathways in
such a way, providing customers a power that they were quite unaware
a decade ago. This power is been leveraged for better customer service
and better quality. A small fraction of anger or frustration can turn into
a harsh 140-character rant with a global reach. Bad reviews posted
socially can have a drastic impact on the brand and reputation of
companies, it may even risk their survival.

57

Most of the companies have realized the potential impact of social and
mobile technologies, but only a few have tend to think about them in
the context of customer service and overall experience. Many
companies still view these technologies as a platform for marketing and
communication responding selectively to vocal customers. Companies
should come out of their shell where they merely use mobile
technologies in the context of mobile applications for corporate
branding and messaging. They should understand that mobile users are
immune to such means of communication and they prefer actual
customer service as and when they wish, rather than being redirected
to customer support.
Social and mobile technologies holds many opportunities to reach out
to customers at precise moments of need to serve them better. Social
and mobile has their own unique strengths and capabilities; social
media has the one-to-many approach, allowing your companys voice
to be heard by millions, whereas mobile has the power to provide
personalized attention to customers. Companies should start investing
in these technologies to leverage each channels strengths to meet
business objectives.
To deliver great customer experience requires personal and consistent
approach, and for this purpose, the agents are to be armed with
context and customer information to interact and resolve customer
queries. Each channel should be tightly integrated and should reflect
this purpose. This can be made possible only by implementing an
advanced call center technology that seamlessly integrates multiple
channels of contact. Companies should make sure that agents do not
interact with their customers blindly, which may lead to high attrition
rates. When customer tweets, the agent should be able to know who
tweeted, their previous interactions over the phone, email, chat or
mobile, their previous issues and resolutions.
58

Social Media MonitoringBasics

A common social media issue for companies around the world is: if one
of my customer posts something that requires immediate corporate
response on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network, will the
message even be heard, or will it be buried in the overwhelming
amount of posts online? Many companies face this issue and the lack of
real-time visibility in social media interactions is a blind-spot in
customer experience.
As the immense amount of social posts increase daily, contact centers
need a social monitoring and analytical tool to listen, respond and
report the social interactions of their customers. Lack of proper social
media monitoring will result in unresponsive customer service,
increasing rate in customer churn and the spread of negative word of
mouth. And there is no other media like social media that can reach a
mass population at such a pace.

59

Recent surveys report:

71% of online complaints are due to traditional service delivery
failures
82% of customers are more likely to cease spending money for a
company that they have had negative experience with
If you fail to pay attention to customers on social media, you are
delivering an incomplete customer experience. This will result in
frustrating your customers, and frustrated customers will not wait for a
second try, they would take their business elsewhere. As a result, your
customers will go to your competitors if you are not meeting them at
this critical digital channel. But with so many customers to look after,
and the immense amount of their social posts makes it difficult for
companies to filter out the non-relevant interactions from missioncritical posts that requires immediate action. For this purpose, most
companies use leverage on social media monitoring tools to listen and
respond, but many companies use manual tools that makes it a tedious
and inaccurate task since they lack sophisticated analytical capabilities
that are required. Due to this, 86% of customer feedback or posts are
missed.
Latest social monitoring tools are equipped with advanced analytical
functionalities that are capable of understanding the intent of
customers. Understanding customer intent is critical in gaining
customer insights that will facilitate in responding to the customer,
identifying the core issue and optimizing social channels.

60

How is Social Media

Transforming Customer
Service Model

Social networking has proved as a golden egg for many businesses. And
this statement is backed by a plethora of research and facts. Studies
conducted by leading market research firms indicate that more than
three-quarters of prospective customers rely heavily on social
platforms to make decisions about their purchases. Also, more than
eight out of ten individuals get influenced by a friends comment or
post.
According to Marketing Tech Blog, an average American spends
approximately 37 minutes a day on social sites. And this half hour is
sufficient to influence the success of businesses.
61

Apart from the role of customer engagement and customer service; the
social medium has bestowed business recognition and success in areas
relating to:
1. Promotions and discounts,
2. Product development and related information,
3. Entertaining content, for identity development, and;
4. Platform for feedback
Tapping the Social Medium is Extremely Important
The main characteristic of social networking is that it has changed the
definition of transparency. Before this medias popularity, companies
were able to contain dissatisfaction or frustration experienced by a
customer. However, social media has given the customer a lethal
weapon to voice opinions. And hence, it is the consumer alone who
controls the conversation around customer service.

An In-depth Look
Communication

at

the

Changing

Face

of

Here are five areas where the customer service model is being
transformed to accommodate a spike in the use of social media.

1. More Accountability and Efficiency: Social media has now become a

support channel, which demands efficiency and speed. When
customers publicly ask questions and leave feedback, they expect
instant answers, just like a call or chat. A study by Social Habit showed
that over 42% of the customers expect a response with an hour.
2. Higher Negative Reputation Stake: In a world ruled by the social
platform, negative reputation has a greater reach. While a satisfied
feedback might reach a maximum of 3 people, a discontented customer
might reach out to as many as 15 people.
62

3. Customer-centric: Irrespective of the brands presence on the

Internet, the megaphone of reputation always remains on social media.
Brands that fail to incorporate a social reach will face a lack of control
of customer support. This is a vital solution process.
4. Reduced Frustration among Consumers: After an in-depth focus on
negative reputation, this might come as a surprise. However, the
media-sphere has fostered positive customer engagement. Customers
are able to stay connected and be informed, and this helps ease off
frustration.
5. A Sense of Authenticity: In an age of filtration and window-dressing,
this media space has an authenticity that cannot be drawn by other
channels. It feels unbiased and personal to the customer; and does not
feel commercial, even if it is.
There are undeniably various benefits associated with the use of social
media by businesses. However, it has also assigned an important task
to
a
contact
centers
responsibility

reputation
management. Customer engagement via online mediums needs to be
considered as a core activity.

63

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