When did your Contact Centre last see the Doctor?

Most of us look after our health. Feel ill? See the Doctor. Need a check-up? See the Doctor.  So when did your contact centre last have its blood pressure or cholesterol checked? One thing we all know is that the only constant in a contact centre is change. So if things are constantly changing we….

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Video Customer Service is the new Black

If the number of Unique Australian Visitors [UAVs] on YouTube (15,000,000) is any indication, Australians love video.  Video is the new black of the customer service world – it’s cool, it’s fashionable, and it’s rapidly on the rise.   While more and more companies are creating ‘how to’ videos as an extension of their self-service offering, the real innovation….

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Matchboard Celebrates One Year

[Open letter to Matchboard Suppliers] On Sep.3, 2012, Matchboard launched its smart sourcing website to the market, and today, we celebrate our 1-year anniversary!   Thanks to every one of our suppliers, Matchboard has been able to meet market demand for a huge variety of products and services across the sales, customer service and back office….

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Customer Journey Mapping 101

What is a customer journey map? A customer journey map is a visual representation of a customer’s end-to-end experience with a product or service.  Creating these maps is often a revelation for organisations not used to looking at things from the customer’s perspective: broken, unfriendly or duplicate processes become apparent; service accessibility gaps are suddenly….

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The Power of Wellness

Looking after our health and well-being should be our first priority in life. Yet we forget how important and vital it is to be well. We think we have no other choice but to keep going, or that we’ll be all right if we push through. There are so many external demands placed on ourselves,….

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Multimodal Customer Service

It was just a few years ago that “multi-channel” became the buzzword of customer service executives around the world.  They proudly boasted of introducing a range of new channel options to customers, from social media service and web chat to two-way SMS, video and mobile self-service.  Customers could now pick and choose their “preferred channel”…..

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KPIs & metrics for Social Media Service

While social media is still a relatively small channel for customer care (versus telephone or online self-service), it’s growing by double digits in many organisations. Its importance as a service channel is further amplified because (a) it’s public rather than private, which means a post can instantly reach a massive audience as opposed to a….

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The Advent of the Pop-up Contact Centre

Everyone’s heard of pop-up kiosks and stores, even pop-up cafes and pop-up exhibitions.  Most of us have been annoyed at some point by pop-up ads online.  But how about pop-up contact centres?  We believe it’s about time this term came into our lingo, as it’s a phenomenon happening more and more in this age of….

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Kiosks as a Sales & Service Channel

The humble kiosk is an often neglected consumer sales and marketing channel, which can complement a call centre or online strategy with a face-to-face offering.  In person sales is the purest and oldest form of sales, and while costs are often higher than other channels, so are conversion rates higher, and customer intimacy is easier….

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Remove the P plates and let Agents drive.

Becoming a contact centre agent is a similar process to getting a driver’s licence. First you get your ‘L’ plates and spend time learning in induction training. The next step is you get your ‘P’ plates and can join the customer contact highway. Once you have passed the final driving tests, you get your full….

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A New Solution to PCI Compliance

The number of customers who still choose to pay by phone rather than the Internet is often underestimated. In Australia, 112 million Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO) transactions are made every year, representing 16% of all Card Not Present (CNP) transactions.  Three quarters of these are telephone payments.  Furthermore, the average value of post and telephone….

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5 Easy Steps to Boost Staff Morale

Experiencing low staff morale happens to every business at some point. The challenge is to ensure it doesn’t get out of hand. Poor morale is like the sniffles. It might not seem like much at the start however if you don’t deal with it straight away, it can leave you flat on your back! Some….

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16 Key Customer Experience Stats

Australian businesses lose $720 per bad customer experience. (Ernst and Young) Only 31% of organisations recognize and reward employees across the company for improving the customer experience. (Forrester Research) 71% of social media users tend to buy from the brands they follow on these platforms (CMO) In the US, women outnumber men in use of….

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Mobile Customer Service Trends

There is one word that captivates the agenda of today’s customer service, marketing and IT executives alike: MOBILE.  Mobile devices are outstripping PCs (in Australia, for example, more than two thirds of people own a smartphone), and in many markets, more customers interact with contact centres from a mobile phone than a landline.  Perhaps surprisingly….

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