Performance & Metrics
Results matter in the customer contact center. Learn which metrics to use, which training strategies to deploy, and which incentives to offer.
Price Still King, But Utilities Focus Turning to Customer Experience
April 10 by Brian CantorThough utilities firms believe price still represents the greatest differentiator for customers, when it comes to developing their customer management strategies, the more prominent focus is on expe...
FCR & Call Center Outsourcing: Clichéd? Yes. Significant? You Betcha!
April 04 by Brian CantorThanks to a consistent professional aspiration for innovation, topics like first call resolution and contact center outsourcing come across as unappealingly dated within customer management communit...
Burger King Plays Catch-Up with Competitors, But What About Customer-Centricity?
April 04 by Brian CantorExcuse me for not being impressed by Burger King’s revamped menu and marketing strategies. Sure, in the short-term, a minor sales increase seems at least fathomable as curious, cost-consciou...
Stop Patting Bad Social Customer Service on the Back
March 28 by Brian CantorIf you called a contact center with a customer support issue and were told, albeit nicely, that you needed to email or call a different representative to solve your problem, you would likely be a ta...
Can You Outsmart Your Customers on Pricing? Should You?
March 27 by Brian CantorA New York Times spotlight on pricing tells you all you need to know regarding consumer savvy in today’s marketplace: An item that cost Penney’s $10 in 2002 was typically marked up to...
Luster of Call Center Offshoring is Fading, But Are At-Home Agents The Answer?
March 22 by Brian CantorContact center outsourcing is nowhere near as obsolete as many critics allege, but it is decidedly less debatable that the practice has at least somewhat lost its luster. In an era overrun with co...
Pinkberry vs. Subway: Customer-Centricity vs. Efficiency
March 21 by Ayad MirjanPinkberry vs. Subway. Customer centricity vs. efficiency. Relationship vs. transaction. Customer experience vs. assembly line. That is what I see when comparing the two retailers. They are b...
Lying Might Work for Some Managers, But What About Your Customers?
March 19 by Brian CantorOur society maintains that "honesty is the best policy," but when it comes to the actual rewarding of that honesty, our tendency is to dismiss the practice as a fantasy of movies and television. B...
Avoid the Mistakes & Misconceptions of Contact Center Outsourcing
March 07 by Brian CantorThe most rudimentary of political debates has fueled a common conception of outsourcing: that it reduces costs and thus increases profits. As a result, there exists a tendency within customer man...
Are Your Customer Service Reps Human Beings or Cyborgs?
March 05 by David LeeOn the same day a while back, I witnessed examples of both ends of the spectrum. First, customer service rep as Cyborg and then the caring human being example… While waiting in line at an e...
Best Western, Crowne Plaza Won’t Stand For Bad Customer Experiences (And You Shouldn’t Either)
February 29 by Brian CantorIn a business world drowning in hype for the need to improve customer experience, it is refreshing to see organizations willing to walk the talk. Rather than loading brochures and social media acc...
Homeshore vs. Offshore: The Changing Landscape of Customer Service
February 27 by CCW DigitalOver the past decade, nearly 235,000 contact center positions have been shifted offshore. However, companies are now rethinking the offshore equation due to shrinking talent pools, rising wage rates...