Silos may be a great way to store grain, but can cause problems when silo mentality runs unchecked in a company. We have all seen functional silos at work in individual departments, regional offices, different channels and even in different management levels within an organisation. Silos are not necessarily a bad thing; they can be….
Social media has revolutionised so many aspects of business, and the recruitment function is no exception. Just ask the Australian Defence Force, which has the world’s most popular YouTube recruitment channel, with over 5 million hits!(*) Or consider the fact that 70% of people look on social media when looking for employment (**). But what is “Social recruitment”,….
Since this interview, Michelle Redfern has left NAB. Please consult LinkedIn for up-to-date information. As Head of the Supplier Relationship Management program for National Australia Bank (NAB), Michelle Redfern is one of Australia’s foremost experts in outsourcing, offshoring and supplier management. She leads a high-performance, highly engaged team which thrives on diversity, in a complex and sensitive….
“We’ve invested in, and trained our people, so why aren’t we seeing a significant lift in (KPI) scores?” This was a question put to us by leaders at one of Australia’s largest companies. The context was a roll-out of a major new customer-first methodology, as well as a proposed multi-million dollar sales training program –….
It’s only just gone July, but savvy online retail executives have already begun planning for Xmas. And one of their highest priorities is ensuring they have the right customer experience mechanisms in place to convert the swell of consumer interest into sales. Customer experience is often a tug-of-war between marketing, operations and IT silos, resulting in a fragmented, disorganised….
B2B lead generation has come a long way since the days of cold calling, and the constantly-evolving digital realm is really hotting up. We are surrounded by a wealth of new opportunities; however, too many options can be confusing both for marketers and the clients they are vying to reach. The secret to smashing your sales….
Customer feedback software platforms measure key customer experience metrics – such as customer effort, customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS). The technology can be implemented across multiple channels in contact centres and online. “Please rate the performance of your customer service representative,” or so the message goes at the end of a call to….
Proactive outbound is a platform for outbound customer engagement which goes beyond telephone-based cold calling to encompass “warm calling”, email, SMS, web chat, mobile app, instant messaging, and social media communications. Organisations that contact their customers proactively benefit from reduced churn, greater share of wallet and revenue growth. Further, customer experience improves when customers receive….
Successful customer loyalty programs have the capacity to attract and retain high-value customers who drive advocacy, and in turn help transform the brand. The world’s best loyalty programs have 3 things in common. They are: Simple – to join, participate, understand Emotional – by making members feel pleasure; important as individuals; and a sense of belonging to something meaningful Valuable –….
It’s been a big year for creative new solutions in the customer engagement space. Matchboard has picked five top innovations which build bridges between the contact centre and marketing to deliver great customer experience – and business results. Smart lead allocator In a telemarketing environment, imagine a tool that enables you to get the right….
The term culture can at times be the elephant in the room. All managers will boast that they have the best culture or that they need to hire staff who fit in culturally. But what does this really mean? How does an organisation find people who are in tune with its direction and the behaviours it wants exhibited? Let’s….
Calls are going through the roof, your social media assets are on fire, and you’re in panic mode…sound familiar? Every day, this scenario plays out somewhere around the country – after all, no organisation is immune to surges in customer contact, whether planned or unplanned. The good news is that through Rapid Deployment and planning,….
Peaks and troughs in call traffic have historically been considered something contact centres just have to deal with, through effective workforce management strategies. But what if the tables were turned and there was a way to smooth out those call arrival times in the first place? A simple technology interface now offers just such a….
Since this interview, Brian Beveridge has moved to a new role. Please consult LinkedIn for up-to-date information. Brian Beveridge, Head of Customer Service at Staples Australia/New Zealand, speaks with Matchboard in our series of exclusive client interviews. What are the most important metrics to your contact centre? Our Customer Service teams cover a broad range of….
Let’s put things in perspective: we’ve all heard about social media crises, and what companies need to do to prevent them. However, if we look at the definition of a crisis: “a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger”, we need to be careful not to create storms in teacups. Not every negative comment on a company….
Thanks to technology and globalisation, many of us are working in a “virtual world” – from virtual offices, with virtual project teams, and participating in virtual events. This virtual world gives us access to knowledge, international markets and diverse resources like never before. Let’s look at how. Virtual offices A good virtual office in Australia….
Offshoring contact centre and back office operations requires a lot of planning and understanding of cultural differences. A simplistic “let’s drop it into Manila” approach is geared for failure. Here are some tips for effective knowledge transfer into Asia. Why knowledge transfer is important Assuming that the offshore talent acquired is on target, knowledge transfer….
Popping up a web chat box on your website works best when it is targeted to users who are most likely to need help. Initiating a chat session with every user not only creates an atmosphere of intrusiveness, alienating some customers, but also is very costly and often a wasted effort. The key is to….
Looking to replace or review your contact or call centre technology or telephony platform? Here are some simple tips to set you on your way. Understand your business requirements Most companies look at the capabilities of their current technology and operational processes, and use this as the basis for their business requirements. This approach inevitably….
Online customer reviews and ratings are surging in importance for consumer businesses. It’s no wonder. Research shows that 92% of Internet users read product reviews when investigating a service or product, with 89% saying they influence their purchase decision. In the travel industry (where hotels, airlines, resorts and even the choice of food in the….
Since this interview, Carlo Leonessa has moved to a new role. Please consult LinkedIn for up-to-date information. In the third in a series of exclusive client interviews, Matchboard speaks with Carlo Leonessa, General Manager, Service Delivery at Healthdirect Australia. What role does Healthdirect Australia fulfil in delivering health information and advice to the Australian public? Healthdirect Australia designs….
Effective workforce management (WFM) is essential if you want your contact centre to fulfil both business and customer objectives and engage your staff. Yet too often, workforce management activities are passed from one person to another without being properly taught. On top of this, many leaders responsible for workforce management don’t know the fundamentals, preventing….
Every so often, a new three letter acronym appears in the world of sales and service, which is a game-changer. Web Voice Synchronization, or WVS, is a hot new technology which is catching the eye of call centre and digital marketing executives alike. Essentially, it allows call centre agents to view the caller’s online behaviour before….
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Since this interview, Bill Kanellis has moved to a new role. Please consult LinkedIn for up-to-date information. In the second in a series of exclusive client interviews, Matchboard speaks with Bill Kanellis, Head of Contact Centres at Australian Unity. Calls to health insurance providers can be very personal and emotional. How do you manage this human dimension of….
COVID-19 has put the spotlight firmly on IT and how it handles the mass shift from office to home working – and the Service Desk is the very visible face of IT. Service Desks need to manage demand quickly and efficiently and ensure employees get what they need to stay productive. Here are 6 tips….
Many people view Quality Assurance (QA) as a necessary evil within their call centre, “ticking the boxes” against relevant legislative and compliance requirements. But a good QA program also analyses the overall call flow and framework to design the recipe for a “perfect call”. In this article, we examine the ingredients of a successful outbound….
Are you drowning in a sea of CX (customer experience) jargon and feeling a little bamboozled by smart data, personalisation, the Internet of Things (IoT) and customer journey mapping? Our CX Jargon Buster provides some quick definitions of the latest terms used in the world of customer experience. Co-creation Co-creation is the process of a business….
An executive from Australia Post recently stated its contact centre was converting telephone customer service agents to digital agents at the rate of 12-15 people every two months. Such is the growth in consumer demand in using email, social media and web chat to communicate with companies. However, it’s unreasonable to expect telephone customer service….
Net Promoter ScoreSM (NPS®) is the most popular customer experience metric measured by companies around the world, however many NPS programs don’t translate through to the desired gains. Let’s look at several tips and traps in NPS deployments. An NPS survey ask customers to rate an organisation on a scale of 0 to 10. Customers are then….
