Ever wonder how much of an impact “the little things” have on the customer experience?  Although many customer contact organizations are awash in data, most do not have the luxury of conducting scientific testing to find the answer to that question.  Until recently, CCC hadn’t conducted any tests either.  But, we had an opportunity this year to deploy a simple A/B test to test the impact of different rep behaviors on the customer experience.

In our experiments, both test groups received the same problem—and at the end of the day everyone got the same resolution outcome.  The only difference was the rep response. Read More »

I’m sitting at the airport waiting for a flight to Minneapolis where I’ll be attending a few CCC meetings.  I’m at gate B72.  Coincidentally, the flight at the adjoining gate—B74—is also going to Minneapolis (different airline).  The flights are scheduled only 10 minutes apart; I’m leaving on Airline A at 11am, and Airline B next door leaves at 11:10. 

Here’s where it gets interesting: although my flight is listed “on time,” Airline B is boarding the plane already—the one that is supposedly leaving 10 minutes AFTER my flight.  General confusion is breaking out at my gate.  One guy says the gate agent told him our flight is delayed—the plane won’t arrive for 20 minutes.  The people on my flight are now glaring at the gate agent—who has not made a peep—as we watch Airline B prepare to depart. 

This is an unfortunate situation, and one that could have been mitigated with up-to-date information.  (Incidentally, the announcement has been made that our flight is delayed and we should NOT try to board next door.  Now people are asking why the flight is still listed “on time.”) Read More »

We recently received an interesting inquiry from a member curious to know if other companies use actual customers as mystery shoppers to provide feedback on service interactions.  Based on responses from the membership, companies tend to see the value of mystery shoppers to assess rep performance– but there is a lack of consensus on who should do the mystery shopping.  Some noted that using customers is an innovative twist on the standard practice of having internal or third parties conduct this type of assessment. 

CCC members: Catch the entire peer discussion on mystery shopping in the Customer Experience Forum.

But if the goal of mystery shopping is to measure the quality of the interaction – don’t all customers have the potential to provide the same insight as mystery shoppers? So what additional value does an official mystery shopper program bring? Read More »

The CCC research team is about a month into our upcoming research study on quality assurance (QA).  One of the biggest trends we hear companies talking about is a major shift from a checklist-based approach to a subjective QA scorecard.  In other words, moving away from a “did you do it, check yes or no” audit to a “how WELL did you do it” audit.  The reasons for this shift could become a separate blog posting…but that’s for another day, another time.   

Today I’m focusing a little downstream from this objective–>subjective shift to talk about one of the potential implications of a subjective QA approach. Read More »

We’ve all been there.  Endless circles, no clear directions on how to get out, choices that are appealing but aren’t quite what you’re looking for.  No, I’m not talking about your last trip to Ikea.  I’m talking about IVR h*ll. 

Let’s face it: even if you have the best IVR around, your customers probably inwardly groan as soon as they hit your intro message.  What I’ve found in helping companies with IVR design is usually some very quick fixes exist to help alleviate at least some of the pain that customers associate with the IVR. 

According to CCC data, the two statistically significant drivers of customers experience related to the IVR are speed and ease of use.  Customers are saying to you, “make it quick and painless, please!”  Just like our work on customer effort in the live phone channel – eliminating unnecessary effort is the key.  Read More »

It’s college graduation time, and that means the inspirational commencement speeches will start to circulate in the press—providing tips on everything from wearing sunscreen to pursuing your passions.  Most college grads will, I’m sure, feel confident their four years of studies have prepared them well for whatever life offers them.  

On the flip side, what about the folks who shunned the classroom for a  “real world” education?  Turns out that some of them have been pretty successful too.

Time Magazine recently published a list of the Top 10 College Dropouts, pointing out that several wildly successful individuals never got their diplomas.  Some names on the list are predictable: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, to name two.  A few others were news to me: Tom Hanks left school to become a theater intern, and Harrison Ford abandoned his philosophy studies to try acting.

Certainly the reputations of these people makes one at least momentarily pause to reconsider the time and expense of higher education as a necessary component of success.  What is it about experiential, non-classroom learning that drives similar outcomes? Read More »

CCC is kicking off our latest research project.  As with the beginning of every research project, we have a lot of questions right now, along with a few strong opinions.  And while we explore this subject in more depth across the next few months, I thought it might be a good idea to share some preliminary thoughts and begin to gather feedback.

So…what will be the future of quality assurance (QA; a.k.a. quality monitoring)?  Well, to answer that question, we need to first understand what our current state is.  A few things here:

Click to Enlarge | What is the Focus of Your QA Scorecard?

1. A legacy focus on productivity: Although most companies have shifted the majority of their focus to quality rather than productivity, many QA processes are still aligned to a cut and dry mindset that is very reminiscent of “just do it” productivity KPIs. In fact, a recent CCC survey revealed that 64% of companies use regimented performance criteria for QA (as opposed to encouraging a more tailored experience).  In other words:  Did the rep use the proper greeting?  Check.  Say the customer’s name?  Check.  Identify a sales opportunity?  Check. Read More »

While creating CCC’s recent Train-the-Trainer seminar for improving supervisor coaching skills, we developed a number of role play exercises to help illustrate just what world-class coaching looks like.  We had exercises that taught things like active listening skills and tailoring coaching to personality/learning styles, to name just a couple.  And I have to say, coming up with the role play scenarios and instructions was challenging!  Not only is it hard to come up with realistic examples, but it is tricky to make sure that role plays are both:

• effectively illustrating the intended lesson
• easily understood

At times, I felt like Goldilocks—exercises were just too hard (for example, “Is that situation describing Personality A or Personality B?  Seems like it could be either – or both.”) or too easy (you know, coaching 101 stuff).).  In the end, I think we delivered some useful exercises for companies to use in their own training sessions with supervisors.  Read More »

While some of my colleagues may be focused on the NCAA Tourney this time of year, I’m enjoying another annual (US$700 million) phenomenon…Girl Scout cookies!  

I’ve encountered two separate troops recently at my grocery store, and the difference in sales approaches was remarkable.  The first troop was standard, consisting of Scouts timidly trying to approach busy people (who were, in turn, avoiding eye contact and looking guilty).  The second troop, however, clearly had their game faces on.  Not only were they confident in their approach (even offering handshakes to shoppers), but they were actually offering free cookie samples!  Talk about getting people interested in your product!

In watching that exuberant second troop, I had to wonder if they had some extra motivation…something was making them work harder.  Kudos to that troop leader for knowing her sales force well enough to find an effective incentive.  After all, it’s not just ANY incentive that makes someone work harder, it’s the RIGHT incentive.  Read More »

During Washington, D.C.’s recent “Snowmaggeddon” blizzard, I (like many of my colleagues) found myself working from home.  It was great for a day or two, and I felt very productive. But by day five, I felt, well…isolated.  I think this was different than your run-of-the-mill cabin fever…the isolation I felt was connected to my workplace engagement.

This naturally led me to think about contact center reps who work from home full-time.  Whenever I speak with companies who are considering a work-from-home program, people are aware that it is tricky to keep remote staff engaged, but no one knows how to get over that hurdle effectively. Read More »