Hold times.  Doesn’t matter if they’re on the phone, on a chat or in a store for that matter: they have a huge impact on the service experience.  Or do they?  As it turns out, they’re not nearly as important as you may think. 

Check out the chart to the below. 

As one of my colleagues blogged earlier this year, CCC data shows that customers seemingly expect to wait for at least 30 seconds, and only after about 50 seconds of wait time does the customer experience really begin to suffer.  Yet many member organizations still have aspirations of achieving answer times of 20, or even 10, seconds! Read More »

How many times have you deflected the inevitable approach of a salesperson in a fill-in-the-blank (clothing, furniture, electronics) store with the simple reply of “No”?  Hundreds?  Thousands, maybe?  And the issue here isn’t that you’re rude or that you’re not interested in buying something in said store.  The real issue is that the salesperson tried to learn something about you by asking the age-old opening question, “May I help you?”.

And you, not wanting to be bothered or not wanting to engage with this person, replied with the simplest of responses, “No”.

Read More »

Myers-Briggs, DiSC^®, Insights, HBDI.  All of these programs (and others like them) introduce the concept of individual personality styles & assist learners to not only understand their own personality style, but also those of the people around them.  The outcome of these programs?  The ability to understand how your own personality interacts with other personality types.

This skill, being able to recognize and “flex” to other personality types, can have tremendously positive results in service organizations including boosts to employee engagement & customer experience, improved coaching interactions, and financial benefits, too, like reduced callbacks and better selling success.     

I’ve worked with hundreds of companies in workshops around the world to train trainers on these techniques, and the enthusiasm for this approach to service is universally positive.  Companies rarely have difficulty justifying the implementation of personality-based service and the rollout of the training is not only engaging and exciting, it’s a heckuva lot of fun, too!  But getting this personalized service approach to stick has been a challenge for some.

So how do you make this behavior stick? 

Read More »

Many organizations find themselves neck-deep in budget planning season, and many of the projects that needed funding in 2009 and 2010 are back in play for 2011.  And recently I’ve had a number of conversations with companies wanting to make investments in their IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system.

What’s most surprising to me, though, is that many organizations are looking to invest significant money in a technology that has a small population of customers who like and use the IVR. 

And not only is the population of avid IVR users not growing, many of the customers who do use the IVR don’t like it and are very vocal about their displeasure.   I mean, what other technologies have spawned Web sites like www.gethuman.com, which provides consumers with step-by-step instructions on how to reach a live agent by circumventing t Read More »

My favorite American football team, the Washington Redskins, is preparing to kick-off the 2010 season with a new coach, Mike Shanahan.  Mr. Shanahan was hired earlier this year to replace Jim Zorn, who was fired last year after coaching for only two seasons.  Mr. Zorn’s successful career as a player (he was a quarterback in the National Football League and threw for over 20,000 yards during his career), however, was not a very good predictor of his success as a coach: in two seasons as head coach the Redskins were an abysmal 12-20, including an embarrassing 4-12 last year.

How could a former player, someone who seemingly knows the game so well, fail miserably as a coach?  Well, like brokerage statements say: Past performance is not an indication of future success. Read More »

I’m 35, balding & overweight.  So, I recently decided to get a grip on the one attribute over which I have considerable control (and, no, I didn’t get hair plugs).  I began exercising, and I hired a personal trainer to assist me through my “get-in-shape” journey.

My trainer is providing me with guidance on where I can get better (shed some unwanted weight), and how specifically to do that (which exercises to perform, along with a proper diet). 

And this kind of guidance is exactly the same sort of help many contact center leaders are looking for now that the 2011 planning season is under way.  Interestingly enough, though, few companies have an effective way to identify and narrow their list of potential initiatives for the coming year.   

Instead, often companies have “strategic” brainstorming sessions resulting in a laundry list of initiatives to tackle.  This list includes “pet projects” and well known opportunity areas, but often doesn’t reveal what to tackle first, and rarely uncovers previously unknown opportunity areas.  It’s similar to a person in my situation (wanting to get in better shape) going about it without a plan or a solid understanding of what to improve/how to make those improvements.  Read More »

Last week a manager at a member company told me, “We’re having trouble making consistent decisions about terminating staff.  How do you know when you’re overinvesting in one person, to the detriment of the rest of the staff, and you should just let someone go?”

The first thought that struck me?  Gardening.

I have a bit of a green thumb … not a “should’ve been a horticulturist” green thumb, but it’s pretty good.

And this time of year is prime season to decide “grow it, or get rid of it” with my plantings.  Some are thriving, others are obviously goners, and some reside in between.  These plantings may do well with some nurturing, or may be too much trouble, and I need to decide quickly, lest they cripple their soil-mates.

Now, this particular manager finds himself in a similar situation with his staff.  Managers need to invest energy into diagnosing and addressing staff members’ behaviors in order to improve performance, and while it’s certainly important to dedicate time and energy to coaching and upskilling, it’s important to know how much is too much. Read More »

I just returned from a vacation at the beach, and even though I had grand plans for my days away from the office (reading a good book, catching a summer action movie with my wife) I found myself doing something that I wish I did more: observing my 5- & 3-year old children.

Too often I find myself involved in activities with my children where I’m just too close to the action, but this past week I was able to just sit back and watch.  And there were some terrific learnings.  For instance, my 5-year old is fearless and she’s a leader.  She has no problem walking up to children and opening the conversation with a zippy statement, like: “I’m 5 years old & I’ve lost 2 teeth.  How many have you lost?”

Also, I learned that my 3-year old is a bit more reserved, but she has an innate sense of humor with a penchant for one-liners & comedic timing that would make the cast of Second City envious.  Like when she told her 13-year old cousin to “Lock it up” because he wouldn’t stop talking.

And I learned these little insights from just sitting back and watching … not interjecting every 2 minutes like I normally do! 

Read More »

In the late 90s and early 00s the Food Network achieved incredible popularity with shows like “Iron Chef” & “Emeril – Live”.  Both shows featured entertaining, but difficult to replicate creations often requiring a laundry list of ingredients and difficult to execute cooking techniques. 

In the past couple of years, though, the network has found shows with a simpler message to be just as, if not more, compelling to audiences.  Semi-Homemade Cooking & Ten Dollar Dinners have simplified cooking for viewers and convinced aspiring chefs it doesn’t take a Culinary Institute degree to be successful in the kitchen.     

A similar timeline illustrates the rise in unnecessary complexity and the subsequent back-to-basics approach for the Quality Assurance function at a few service organizations I’ve spoken with recently.

Read More »

My colleagues and I travel a lot for our jobs.  Not like “George Clooney in Up in the Air a lot”, but quite a bit.  And one of my peers who was traveling in Europe recently was a victim of the volcanic ash cloud disaster that impacted so many travelers.    

By the way, if you haven’t been paying attention, the volcano that erupted in Iceland has disrupted air travel at least three times in the past month or so, and as recently as just a few days ago.  

Alright, so my friend was stuck in France and it literally took trains, busses, a ferry ride and one plane trip to ultimately return to the States, and in his seven days of travel he had multiple daily interactions with contact centers. Unfortunately, he reported that most of the organizations he interacted with were woefully unprepared for handling this event, had massive wait times, and provided little in the way of resolution. 

Read More »