Adaptive IVR Blog

Companies are being inundated with data about their customers, which is being churned out by myriad internal systems as well as external outreach (social media, for example). The Internet of Things, with millions of connected devices and sensors, is exponentially increasing this data flood.

One major – though often overlooked – data source is the interactive voice response (IVR) system used by most contact centers to handle phone-based voice self-service interactions. Thousands or millions of calls per month to the contact center generate huge volumes of customer analytics information – a rich but potentially overwhelming resource.

The trick is making sense of this data, and powering it for your organization. If that’s the case, is too much data really too much?

Customer Service Agent productivity has its ups and downs. The foundation you put in place to manage and incentivize your team can feel like a board game – to optimize agent productivity it’s best to practice making the winning moves and creating the right responsive game plans. Take Monopoly for example. Whoever collects the most real estate gets more “bank” to help them gain an advantage, but 
one wrong step can put you on a losing streak.

No matter how outstanding your contact center technology may be or how excellent your customer experience strategy may appear, the foundation of your contact center lies in the engagement and productivity of your agents. The following steps can make or break your agent productivity game plan.

Analyst Guest Insights: Paul Stockford of Saddletree Research, Inc. shares insights about how to best maximize your contact center technology investments. For example, read more about how WFO and IVR investments can be better leveraged to improve your results.

Besides my gig at Saddletree Research, the company I founded 18 years ago, I also work under contract as research director for the university-based, not-for-profit National Association of Call Centers (NACC), which provides me a deep reach into the end-user community for research and discovery regarding industry trends, issues, concerns, purchase intentions, etc.  While the majority of the research we do at the NACC is quantitative, for our 2016 year-end study we decided to focus on qualitative information.  To get a feel for what contact center issues customer service professionals are most concerned about going into 2017, I conducted 20 interviews in December.  In a nutshell, I asked the study participants what issues are keeping them up at night when thinking about their contact center(s) in 2017.

What we discovered during these interviews were two overriding concerns for 2017. 

As you close out the calendar year, catch up with these top articles and videos.

The calendar year may be coming to a close, but customer service is only picking up for many of us.

So what does that mean for you? Has your customer service been naughty or nice this year? And next year, are you planning to be on the” good list” or the “very, very good list?” (Hey, if there was a “very, very good list,” you sure would target it, wouldn’t you?)

One thing’s for sure, we are absolutely committed to helping you stay at the top of the “very, very good list,” and look forward to supporting your business in the future.

Customer Service is no longer just about answering the phone; it’s about being responsive to voice, social media, messaging, video, email, digital web and mobile.

Addressing today’s digital consumer-centric environment is now table-stakes and your Contact Center technology has to step up and keep pace.  Working with clients struggling with outdated telecom and contact center infrastructure while others seize market advantage by embracing advanced multi-channel integrated cloud platform solutions is an eye-opening experience.  The conclusion is clear.  There’s only one-way to go.  That’s forward – and fast.

Perhaps you remember the refrain from the popular sitcom, “Cheers,” “Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.” Everyone wants to be treated as an individual.   And now big companies also are trying to make you feel like someone special.  Even McDonald’s, which owes its decades of success to conformity, is testing a create-your-taste menu.