All posts by Peter Lyle DeHaan

Peter DeHaan is the president of Peter DeHaan Publishing, Inc., (https://peterdehaanpublishing.com) the publisher and editor of Connections Magazine, AnswerStat, TAS Trader, and Medical Call Center News. Peter DeHaan (https://peterdehaan.com) is a published author and blogger.
Articles

How Remote Video Calls Can Transform the Customer Experience


By Rama Sreenivasan

We all know how important customer experience is to call and contact centers. After all, 76 percent of customers say they would stop doing business with a company after a single bad experience. Among the top candidates for bad experiences? Phone calls.

It’s no secret that phone communication can be tough. In many industries, customer service requires that we communicate complex information without the benefit of physically seeing anything. We can’t see the customer, and we can’t see the problem.

At the end of the day, this can lead to miscommunication, increased hold times, and unnecessary escalations that even the best training programs, scripting services, and other workforce management tools can’t solve on their own.

There’s a solution: remote video technology. Let’s take a look at how this technology helps call centers become more agile and responsive to customer needs—and transform the customer experience in the process.

What Is Remote Video Technology?

Imagine that a customer calls in with a dishwasher problem. They’re having a tough time describing the problem, and the call center associate can’t quite identify the issue. It’s no one’s fault. There’s simply a communication barrier.

The associate texts a link, the customer clicks it, and both are looking through the phone’s camera together. The customer joined a video call in seconds as they didn’t have to download, register and login to an app like Teams, Zoom, or Webex from the app store.

The associate immediately sees it’s a broken spray arm mount, circling the problem area right on the screen. They offer to ship a new part, the customer agrees, and the call ends, all within a few minutes. The customer is happily surprised by the efficiency, and the associate is already answering the next call.

That is the power of remote video support.

Remote video technology gives associates “eyes in the room,” but it’s more than just a video call. This is an important distinction: remote video technology for call centers includes additional tools to improve customer experience. This includes:

  • Augmented Reality: Associates can use on-screen tools to annotate and “point” directly on the customer’s device, showing what they may not be able to communicate verbally.
  • Optical Character Capture: This feature captures those inevitable long strings of numbers—such as a serial number, a model number, or a part number—and delivers them to associates, saving time and reducing the risk of error.
  • One-on-one and Group Calls: Associates can quickly add team members or supervisors to calls, all without disrupting the interaction with the customer. This helps with both support and training.
  • Resolution Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Catalog associate actions, video, and images from sessions for future reference. AI can then prompt associates with resources from prior calls that successfully resolved similar issues.

The Benefits of Remote Video Technology

The most obvious benefit of remote video technology is that it makes troubleshooting faster and easier, which improves the customer experience.

Customers equate long complicated phone calls with poor customer service. Remember the Consumer Reports study that found that nearly 60 percent of respondents had hung up in frustration while talking to a customer service representative without a resolution.

Let’s look at some of the top complaints from that report and see how remote video technology could have mitigated the situation and tallied up those resolutions.

Rudeness and Condescension to Empathy: Seventy-five percent of respondents cited rudeness or condescension as a top complaint. Visual support humanizes customer interactions—for the customer and the associate. It’s called visual empathy, the human connection that forms with face-to-face interactions.

Both sides can see facial expressions and body language, reducing the risk of miscommunication and misread tone. Barriers break down, bonds strengthen, and customers feel cared for. What might be read as rudeness or condescension now becomes empathy, something more than 50 percent of customers want out of their customer care calls.

Transfers without Resolution to Seamless Support: No customer wants to be passed from associate to associate with no resolution. Being transferred to someone who can’t or doesn’t help was a top complaint for 70 percent of respondents.

Sometimes transfers happen because associates are having trouble diagnosing the problem, often due to miscommunication. Video assistance empowers associates to diagnose problems quickly with their own eyes. But when support is needed, a team member or supervisor can join the video call. Therefore, instead of sending customers down a different path, help comes to them, reducing friction. This can be done silently, so troubleshooting with the customer is not disrupted.

Useless Remedies to First Call Resolution: When customers call into a contact center, it’s usually a last resort. They’ve already tried to solve the problem on their own or it’s an issue that needs immediate attention. The last thing they want is to hang up with an ineffective solution, but 65 percent of respondents cited this as a complaint.

Remote video technology creates an environment where both associates and customers can resolve issues on the first try. This is called first call resolution (FCR), and it’s often a better barometer for stellar customer service than other key performance indicators (KPIs), such as average handle times (AHT).

Even when the call takes a little bit longer, FCR prevents follow up calls or support visits and the customer hangs up with their problem solved.

Finding a Remote Video Technology Partner

Not all remote video technology is the same. The best remote video technology for call and contact centers integrates seamlessly into the center’s current workflow software and requires no app downloads or installs, extra equipment, or extra steps on the part of the customer.

The technology should also be flexible. Does it have on-screen tools? Can it automatically adjust call bandwidth? Does it work on Wi-Fi?

Remember, the goal is to provide empathetic and seamless resolution for customers. Likewise, the last thing your associates need is another unnecessary technological step, because faulty tech is a top stressor among call center associates.

Rama Sreenivasan is co-founder and CEO of Blitzz, a live, remote video support and inspection platform. Sreenivasan has led the company through its initial inception, launch, and subsequent growth to several million video support minutes per month.

News

Wisconsin State Journal Names Amtelco a Top Workplaces, 2023

Amtelco Cloud-Based Platform Solution

Amtelco announced that it has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2023 honor by the Wisconsin State Journal Top Workplaces. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage, LLC.

The confidential survey uniquely measures fifteen culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection.

“Earning a Top Workplaces award is a badge of honor for companies, especially because it comes authentically from their employees,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “That’s something to be proud of. In today’s market, leaders must ensure they’re allowing employees to have a voice and be heard. That’s paramount. Top Workplaces do this, and it pays dividends.”

Amtelco, a family-owned business located in McFarland, Wisconsin, has been a trusted name in call center systems, software applications, and secure texting technologies for over forty-five years.

Founder Bill Curtin, II, and Amtelco have received more than 30 U.S. Patents for telephony software, data handling methodologies, and telephone switching devices. Millions of calls are processed every day by Amtelco systems around the world.

Mr. Curtin’s ingenuity and generous spirit are reflected throughout the company. Amtelco has earned industry praise with its award-winning products and proudly supports local and international charities.

Both employees and customers are treated like family. Matt Heron, president, and CEO of AnswerFirst, an Amtelco customer, states, “Working with the Amtelco folks has always been a pleasure, and I can’t say enough about you all. I am always impressed at your success in creating a strong culture, lasting relationships, and people-first support.”

Amtelco and Telescan

 For more information, visit Amtelco.com.

Articles

Artificial Intelligence in the Call Center

3 Responses to Using AI to Serve Customers

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D.

Predictions about the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) have been with us for decades. But until recently they only showed up in science fiction books and movies—usually with dire results. Such is the basis for good fiction.

Yet in recent months, advances in artificial intelligence have surged forward, reaching into every industry, including the call center and customer service sphere. With AI, just as with any technological advancement, there are three responses.

Ignore It and Maybe It Will Go Away

The first reaction, which is really a nonreaction, is to dismiss it. Maybe you’re already sick of the hype or maybe you’re not aware of it. Yet assuming a computer algorithm has no place in your call center is not a wise conclusion to make.

The risk of this approach is getting left behind. You will find—likely in short order—your call center operation and your company competing with others who have thoughtfully integrated artificial intelligence into their operation.

They will serve customers in a way you cannot and save money you’re not able to.

Gung Ho Adoption

The second response is the opposite. It’s to go full speed ahead in adopting artificial intelligence technology for the call center. Yet this is also fraught with peril.

The news is filled with artificial intelligence going awry. In recent months, companies have been publicly embarrassed and their stock has taken a hit, not because of human error (at least not directly) but because of computer error. These occurred from AI applications running unchecked and without restraint.

If you’ve ever used text chat to submit a customer service request, you’ve likely interacted with a chat bot, which is an artificial intelligence application. In my experience they’re unlikely to solve my problem, but usually they collect some preliminary information and route me to a real person who can help.

Yet just recently, a chat bot took me down the wrong path, leaving me with two unacceptable options: agree that the chatbot had solved my problem or pay to upgrade my service. End of discussion. But it wouldn’t allow me to start a new chat session until I concluded the first one by picking either of its two unsatisfactory answers.

I also think artificial intelligence was involved in a recent near-miss with an email support effort. I had submitted a service ticket, but a couple hours later I figured out the solution on my own. I sent a follow up email to cancel the ticket. The response told me how to cancel my service with the company. This may have been a human error by an agent who scanned and didn’t read my email, but I suspect it was artificial intelligence which responded wrongly to the word cancel. Fortunately, the AI bot didn’t take the initiative to close my account.

Imagine seeing these examples extended to telephone calls at your call center. Yet it’s already happening.

I recently read a report of artificial intelligence telling human agents how the solve customer problems and what to say. The AI then grades the agent on compliance, penalizing agents who use common sense to override the AI’s bad guidance.

Then the common excuse of “I was just following orders,” becomes “I was just doing what the computer told me to.” May it never be.

Cautious Implementation

The third response—the one I recommend—is a balanced perspective. Investigate the use of artificial intelligence in your call center operation. Make an informed decision as to how to best use it. The wise application is to implement artificial intelligence to better serve customers. Don’t pursue AI merely to save money, even though this should emerge as an expected outcome.

Seek ways where artificial intelligence can make your agents’ jobs easier. Look for ways where AI can help your human staff better serve your human customers. A guiding principle in this is to keep AI in an advisory capacity. Give your agents final say. They should be able to control the AI, not have the AI control them.

As you appropriately implement artificial intelligence in your call center, the goal should be to offer better customer service, improve response times, and lower payroll costs. But don’t look for AI to replace your staff anytime soon. And my advice is to resist the urge to blindly implement AI, lest you end up with a public relations nightmare, lost business, and a decrease in new customer acquisitions, all through AI run amok.

A good baseline requirement to guide your use of artificial intelligence in the call center is to empower your agents to control it, not let AI replace the common sense and empathetic problem-solving ability of real people.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Connections Magazine. He’s a passionate wordsmith whose goal is to change the world one word at a time.  Read more of his articles at PeterDeHaanPublishing.com.

Articles

Making Contact Centers More Secure


By Donna Fluss

Many years ago, when I was managing a credit card customer service contact center, one of our clients threatened to bomb our office. The agent who received the threat followed protocol and the issue was immediately brought to my attention, as the head of the department. I assessed the risk—per guidelines—and made the decision to keep everything going.

My evaluation of the situation was based on many factors, most importantly the risk to my employees, which I determined to be non-existent, as I knew this caller and his frequent issues very well. (To put this into perspective, when the fire alarm went off a few weeks later due to a fire drill that we had not been notified of, we immediately emptied the contact center, as the risk was perceived to be high.)

The world has changed a great deal since I ran that contact center, and so have the guidelines. Bomb threats and other types of warnings to a business/institution/government agency and its people happen too frequently. Organizations have established protocols, policies, and resources to assess risks, which include notifying a risk assessment team that makes the decision about how to handle the situation; this judgment is no longer left up to the department manager.

Contact Centers are Points of Vulnerability for Enterprises

A contact centers is fraught with risk since its purpose is to invite the outside world in to interact with a company. It’s a natural point of vulnerability; its physical site(s), employees and customer data must be protected. Companies need to have plans in place to protect all customer-facing functions, as the risks are growing with each passing year.

There are many types of risks and attacks that contact centers face, including:

  • Physical threats to people and property: bombs, shootings, ramming cars/trucks into buildings, etc.
  • Human-engineered phishing attacks: hackers breaking in and stealing customer information
  • Ransomware attacks: hackers breaking through a company’s security and freezing access to their systems and accounts unless a ransom is paid
  • Phone-based attacks: a fraudster (or a group of people working together) calling repeatedly until they get the information they need to access specific customer accounts
  • Attacks through the self-service solution: a fraudster accessing a specific customer’s account via a website, interactive voice response (IVR) system, intelligent virtual agent, or other self-service solution
  • Compromised employees: having an employee who is either a fraudster or is paid to collect and share customer information with a thief
  • Many more

Establish a Security Framework

Contact centers need to establish a security framework that minimizes the risk of fraud, as there is no known way to eliminate it completely. This begins with the contact center’s underlying network architecture. Today, especially with the increase in work-from-anywhere staffing models (for agents and other contact center personnel), the recommended approach is based on a Zero Trust configuration. Zero Trust requires continuous authentication of all network devices and users and limits network access to the least privileged level.

Contact centers can also apply a Zero Trust approach to customer authentication, which takes 2-factor verification a step further. It means that customers who were verified in a self-service solution must be “re-verified” if they transfer to a live agent. Or if a customer is transferred from one agent who verified them, they must go through the verification process again when they speak to a second agent. (The customer will be put through a 2-factor verification during the first contact with a self-service solution or live agent and only a single-factor authentication for the second contact.)

This process reduces fraud risk and losses but will frustrate and annoy legitimate customers because of having to be verified multiple times when transferred between devices and agents. Therefore, this approach should be applied only when necessary for certain types of sensitive transactions.

Making a Contact Center Secure

I’m sorry to say that there is no perfect way to protect a contact center, its employees, or customer data. Fraudsters who are intent on getting information will keep at it until they find a weak link in the system. Companies need to put in place systems, guidelines, and policies to minimize the risks and encourage their agents to report potentially fraudulent activities, without upsetting customers.

Contact center agents need to perform their primary job—delivering a great customer experience—but must do so keeping both eyes open in today’s world.

Donna Fluss, founder and president of DMG Consulting LLC, provides a unique and unparalleled understanding of the people, processes and technology that drive the strategic direction of the dynamic and rapidly transforming contact center and back-office markets. Donna can be reached at donna.fluss@dmgconsult.com.

Articles

Contact Center Software Boosts Agent Productivity

SingleComm: cloud-native omnichannel TAS solutions

No matter what you’re selling or where you’re located, the same issues tend to arise when it comes to providing excellent customer service. Perhaps your agents spend twice the amount of time they should interacting with customers. Or maybe your virtual call center’s employees are on different time zones and struggle to efficiently communicate with each other. Or it could just be that new hires can’t find the information they need to properly assist your clients.

No matter what your challenges are, implementing call and contact center software could drastically improve your business.

It’s not always easy keeping your call center organized. Many companies feel their employees aren’t being productive. In fact, an estimated 75 percent of managers in the customer service industry are dissatisfied with their agents’ performance. However, they could just be lacking the right tools. In this article, we’ll look at what contact center management entails and how contact center software can boost productivity.

What is Contact Center Management?

A contact center is a hub for inbound and outbound calls designated to assist existing customers and reach out to potential clients. Having a contact center and managing one aren’t necessarily the same. Contact center management entails professionally training each agent, making sure they have access to necessary tools, information, and real time analysis to ensure that customers’ problems are being solved.

Without proper management of your onsite or virtual contact centers, you may encounter several problems that send your employees running and leave your clients unhappy. Fortunately, there are affordable solutions that can prevent you from hitting these roadblocks.

Is Contact Center Software Necessary?

If your business caters to more than five people, then your company would benefit from software for call and contact centers. Without it, you could be complicating your employees’ jobs and increasing their turn-over rate.

Consider the following pain points. Are you faced with challenges like these? Do your agents:

  • stay on calls longer than needed?
  • have multiple tabs or applications open while handling a single customer?
  • require time-consuming training for each product?
  • often miscommunicate with each other?
  • say they don’t have access to the information they need?
  • face frustration with long training times?
  • complain about their day-to-day tasks being too complicated?
  • tend to quit soon after being hired?

Your contact center agents are often the first and last point of human contact for your clients. If they feel overwhelmed or underappreciated, this will reflect poorly on your business itself. It’s crucial that they are not only in line with your company’s goals, but also have the tools to be efficient workers. By simplifying their jobs, you make your organization work more smoothly and pave the way toward success.

Boost Contact Center Agent Productivity

The average contact center agent turnover rate is upwards of 50 percent. In addition, it costs a minimum of $5,000 to train just one employee, ramp-up time is six to nine months, and only 20 to 50 percent of training content gets implemented on the job.

By taking away unnecessary busy work and simplifying their jobs, agents are likely to produce better quality work and be happier with their jobs. This translates into higher sales, more personalized customer service experiences, and longer-term employees.

When it comes to empowering and optimizing agents’ productivity, streamlined call and contact center software is the solution. The right software eliminates the need for infinite open tabs, providing your agents with all the necessary information on one screen. Also, be sure to choose solutions that work for both onsite and remote agents.

The right technology helps simplify agents’ workflow while increasing their productivity and job satisfaction. They can easily provide more clients with a compassionate, individualized customer service experience.

SingleComm: TAS solutions

To find out more about how to increase contact center agent productivity, visit SingleComm, request a demo, or call 800-960-7153.

News

nCall v4 Released

Gives Performance, Security, and Resilience

The result of nearly two years’ work, nSolve released nCall v4, Jan 2023. It is a significant rework of the suite bringing performance, security, and resilience. Major enhancements include:

Operator Console Offline Mode: If the operator’s console detects a connection dropout with the nCall central server, it automatically switches to offline mode. In offline mode operators can continue to handle calls and take messages, even if the connectivity loss is multiple hours. When the console detects connectivity has been re-established the calls and messages taken offline are automatically synchronized to the central server. The console then reverts to its normal mode with no operator input required.

Console-Server Security: Console to server connections are now secured by SSL certificates. This provides extra data privacy protection. In the long term it removes the need for a private network connection (VPN), along with associated IT administration savings.

Built in Web-Browser Updated: nCall v4 now uses the Edge Browser. This allows support for more modern websites and scripts. It also provides security and performance improvements.

Rebuilt with Newer Development Tools: While invisible to the user, nCall applications are now created using up-to-date compiler tools. This ensures better long-term support to the nCall suite.

Softphone Encrypted Audio Added: Improvements to the nCall Buzz softphone include allowing the audio calls to be encrypted and the SIP server to be verified using TLS certificates.

For more information contact sales@nsolve.com or visit nsolve.com.

News

AnswerNet Expands Traditional Answering Service to Include Text Support


AnswerNet launched AnswerMyTexts, the first true business text answering service solution. AnswerMyTexts lets business owners handle texts on their business phone number or have those texts handled by AnswerNet agents. The goal of AnswerMyTexts is to allow businesses to use their answering service for non-voice channels for the first time, and to encourage all businesses to text-enable their business phone lines.

AnswerMyTexts, allows the business owner to manage their own texts and leverage support in three ways, with Scheduled Answering, On-Demand Answering, and Overflow Answering.

As part of this new service, AnswerMyTexts has created an easy-to-use system to text-enable any landline number in minutes. If a business does not have an existing number, AnswerNet will provide a new one.

“The use of texting-to-business numbers has been slowed because there has been no solution that allows the business to handle its own texts, or to have a third party handle them when the business is unavailable”, said Gary Pudles, CEO of AnswerNet. “With the AnswerMyTexts service, AnswerNet is leading the revolution in helping businesses move seamlessly into text communications.”

Today, statistics show that nine out of ten consumers prefer communication with companies via text, which leads to a better customer experience and a higher perceived customer satisfaction. 

Headquartered in Willow Grove, PA, AnswerNet is a full-service provider of inbound, outbound, automated, and BPO call center services. Founded in 1998, the company has over 30 sites with 2,000 full-time employees across the U.S. and Canada.

Articles

Developing Your Callback Strategy

Design a Callback Strategy That Works for You and Your Callers

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D.

Though not every caller will use it, many appreciate the option to have you call them back instead of waiting on hold. As with any technology, your implementation of your callback strategy has probably evolved over time. If so, look at what you’re currently doing to see if it still makes sense, to ensure it’s the optimum execution to best facilitate communication between you and your callers.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you look at developing your callback strategy. Follow these tips to achieve the best results.

Where Are They in the Queue?

A much-appreciated courtesy you can give callers as they wait to talk to you is to let them know where they are in the queue. In short, how long before they can talk to somebody?

This is vital information for someone to know as they contemplate whether they should accept your offer of receiving a callback. If they can stay in queue and talk with someone in a minute or two, most people will be happy to wait. But if the delay is much longer, most will opt for a callback.

What about Your Callback Queue?

Once someone asks for a callback, do they go into a separate queue or is it integrated with your new-call queue? Having separate queues, allows for dedicated agents. Most will handle new calls and the rest will handle callbacks.

Alternately you can prioritize callbacks, moving them ahead of new calls. Or you can prioritize new calls, moving callbacks to the end of the queue. There may not be one universally right answer here, but there is a right answer for your operation. Just be sure to make an informed decision.

What Is Your Maximum Callback Time?

Another consideration is if you want to set up a maximum threshold to make the callback. If you wait too long, your customer may have mentally moved on to something else and isn’t ready to engage with your agent. Yet trying to place callbacks too quickly could jeopardize new-call responsiveness.

Consider what seems reasonable for the caller and doable for your operation.

What If You Can’t Make the Callback the Same Day?

Also develop a policy for what you’ll do if you get to the end of the day and there are still pending callbacks to make. Will you have staff stay late to make sure they happen?

Or will you roll those pending callbacks into the next day? If you do this, consider your customers’ reaction. It may not be good.

What If the Customer Isn’t Available When You Call?

Your customers are busy people, perhaps as busy as your agents. There’s a chance that when you call them back, they won’t be available. What should you do?

The worst reaction is to hang up and forget about them. You could leave a message and let them call you back. Or you could hang up and call them back in a few minutes. Even better would be to leave a message and call them back.

Should You Allow Scheduled Callbacks?

Putting callbacks in a general queue or having a separate callback queue supports optimum call center efficiency. But what about your customers waiting for you to call them back? Though it may be more work for you to let them schedule callbacks, it’s a smart customer-centric move.

Just be sure that someone calls them back when they request it.

Callback Strategy Summary

Offering to call customers back when you get busy is a feature that consumers increasingly expect call centers to offer. If they look for it and you don’t provide it, you’ll disappoint them. Disappoint them too often and they’ll take their business elsewhere.

Instead, follow these suggestions in developing your callback strategy, and you’ll score with your callers who expect you to call them back.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Connections Magazine. He’s a passionate wordsmith whose goal is to change the world one word at a time.  Read more of his articles at PeterDeHaanPublishing.com.

News

Amtelco Adds Staff to Support Increasing Customer Base

Amtelco Cloud-Based Platform Solution

Amtelco announced that several new positions have been added as part of a growth program to develop new innovations and provide even better service to their growing customer base. These include additions in various departments, including implementation, software development, project management, customer support, and administration.

Recognized as a Top Workplaces employer, Amtelco is committed to designing outstanding innovations, providing the tools to help customers run their businesses more efficiently today, and software to help them build their businesses for the future.

Amtelco was founded in 1976 to provide communication solutions to the answering service and healthcare communications industry and is a leading supplier and trusted name in contact center systems, software applications, and secure texting technologies. Amtelco is focused on innovative contact center solutions that meet or exceed customer expectations and are backed by top-notch service and support. For more information, visit Amtelco.com.

Articles

Contact Center Pain Points

SingleComm: cloud-native omnichannel TAS solutions

Tips for Improving Processes or Adopting New Technology

Submitted by SingleComm

While process-improving technology is a must for contact centers that want to stay competitive and improve customer experience, putting new technologies to use can mean growing pains, slow implementation, and frustrated employees. Patient experience ensures that your agents can connect patients to providers efficiently and securely.

In this article, we’ll discuss some common pain points contact centers experience when adopting new technologies or processes.

What Is Process Improvement?

Process improvement involves identifying, analyzing, and improving existing business processes to optimize performance, meet best practice standards, or improve user experience.

Often, the catalyst for process improvement comes in the form of a new technology solution. For example, the printing press allowed the production of books to increase drastically because the process of how books were made fundamentally changed.

How Technology Improves Business Processes

A large part of improving processes involves identifying inefficiencies and, when possible, streamlining them. These are two things that tech solutions excel at.

Tech applications can shine a light on redundant sections of processes and have the capability to automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks. This enables contact centers to reduce the cost of operation, save time, focus on other tasks, and speed up business operations.

Common Pain Points

Identifying opportunities and successfully managing through change can be painful but failing to innovate can be a death sentence for a business. With that in mind, here are some of the most common pain points organizations must work through when adopting a process change or new technology.

Cost

Cost is a significant factor in a contact center’s decision to adopt new technology. By quickly identifying deficiencies and enabling contact centers to make fast, efficient changes that optimize time-to-market, helps users to reduce their costs by about 40 percent.

Employee Buy-in

When a team member is unsure of a new technology or process, there is a good chance they will avoid embracing it fully, making the technology seem ineffective and causing the team member to become even more skeptical of the new solution. It’s a cycle that can be incredibly harmful to innovation.

Employees can have a variety of reasons for being hesitant about embracing new technologies or processes:

  • Lack of awareness about the purpose and reason for the change.
  • Adherence to an old methodology that they feel comfortable using.
  • Belief that the new process or technology might make them redundant.
  • Too busy to devote time to learning a new system.

Adoption Speed

The time between deciding on a new technology solution and having it fully implemented can be a tedious journey. Waiting for agents to become proficient with a platform can end up having the opposite of the desired effects of the new technology. Instead of happier customers and decreased call times, you end up with agents fumbling through a new interface and customers spending extra time on the phone.

Lack of Resources and Support

Even if there is complete buy-in from every agent, a lack of proper training and support can stymie the adaptation of new technology.

SingleComm is the cloud-based all-in-one call center software solution that helps contact centers train agents faster, turn data into actionable insights, and save big on operating expenses.