Customer Experience and the Human Touch by John Turnbull

Customer Experience and the Human Touch by John Turnbull

Virtual Call Centers - The Outsourcing Solution

The trend of outsourcing inbound and outbound contact centers the past few years have become a billion dollar industry, the main issue here however are the growing acceptance by companies to move their outsourced contact center offshore. The large numbers of Filipino English speaking personnel, Indian technical expertise, and very low cost Chinese labor have proven to be a worthwhile management decision for a lot of industries.

There is no need to discuss the advantages of outsourcing contact centers when even the government itself has begun outsourcing a lot of their public service lines to outsourcing companies. The main discussion right now is how to manage the cost of the outsourcing business on the technology side in the meantime maintain the level of quality control level on the personnel side.

Outsourcing companies normally have technologies geared toward achieving this goal. The price for telecommunication hardware and equipment has been the main financial concern of most contact centers especially the outsourced ones.

There are also issues of connectivity, IPL reliability, and proximity to skilled workers. Positioning contact centers to highly skilled areas reduce the impact of having cheap labor by having additional costs on office maintenance and salary competitiveness.

If such a technology where a contact center queue can be routed to anywhere in the world at anytime even to a mobile phone, will it solve issues. To some it will. If such a technology exists and in spite of having agents work remotely from a contact center itself, will it resolve such issues? Maybe it does. If the technology still allows you to manage your agent's skill routings, live queue management, live quality control monitoring and call recording? Will that reduce the loss of quality control? Probably.
If the extra budget due to the reduction of sophisticated hardware and brick and mortar office are spent on US quality voice and not VoIP IPLs? Will that make the phone quality better? Most likely.

In the end, the virtual contact center technology has created as much questions as it has answered. It has solved a lot of problems yet created new ones. But aren�t these factors the same issues when outsourcing is still an infant? Aren�t these the same concerns when a company decides to go virtual? History has proven that it may not be for everyone, but if it�s for you. The impact to your business is enormous.

The technology is already here. It is ready, It can do inbound and outbound from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world. Monitor and manage real time anywhere in the world. The real question is. Would your business model benefit from having such technology on your side? What Do You Think?

Strategic Investment in Customer Experience

Your customer and how you approach your customer hold the key to successfully investing in your dynamic business model, but more importantly, in turning around the economy.

Wait a minute.

This suddenly got a lot larger than you may have thought…Read More...

Strategic Investment in Customer Experience

What Makes A Good Customer Call?

A recent survey by Ernan Roman Direct Marketing answered this question: What makes for a good customer service call experience?

71 percent—An easy menu to reach appropriate information
70 percent—A person who understands my issue
69 percent—A person who speaks clearly; is easy to understand
67 percent—First call resolution

There could be more than one answer to the question which is why the numbers don’t add up to 100 percent. Read More

7 Mistakes Bosses Make When Giving Criticism

Giving critical feedback to employees can be difficult, and it's one area that managers most often handle badly. Here are the most common mistakes managers make when delivering less-than-positive feedback...Read More

The Customer Perception

Have you ever been in a conversation where the customer service agent had no idea on what they were talking about? More importantly, in addition to their lack of knowledge, did you feel that you were treated as if though you were a burden to them? Unfortunately, this "type of agent" can be seen in all major companies within the customer service industry. One would figure that with the financial turmoil our economy is facing, the idea of providing excellent customer service would be a given.

The Good News is that more and more companies are realizing that this is a huge priority and that the initial "customer perception" will determine if that customer will do business with them or not increasing the likelihood that their competitors will be more than happy to fill that void.
The first and most crucial step in addressing customer percpetion is to fully understand the behaviors and thought process of "today's" customer. Customers are increasingly price sensitive searching for bargains at marketplaces like ebay or buying their groceries at discount markets. On the other hand, some enjoy branded and luxury goods and the finer things that life has to offer. In the end, customers have a vast choice of offers to choose from and regardless of what offer the customer chooses, the balance of power shifts towards the customer. Customers are widely aware of their greater power, which raises their expectations on how companies should care for them.

In this situation the development of a strong relationship between customers and a company could likely prove to be a significant opportunity for competitive advantage. This relationship is not longer based on features like price and quality alone. Today it is more the perceived experience a customer makes in his various interactions with a company (e.g. how fast, easy, efficient and reliable the process is) that can make or break the relationship. Problems during a single transaction can damage a so far favourable customer attitude.

As a result, companies have refocused their efforts in the idea of training, coaching, mentoring and analysis. Customer perceptions are influenced by a variety of factors (did the product or service deliver the expected function, did it fulfil their need and was it a pleasent and efficient interaction). The analysis on what is working and not working within the customer service team environment now even becomes more important in fully understanding of how the "customer perception" is being affected. Once it has been determined on what areas need attention, the idea of meaninful and valuable feedback becomes ever so crucial in the improvement of delivery to the customer.

In this case, Training, Mentoring and Coaching will drive the needed elements to improve on the customer perception that can revolve around greeting, empathy to the issue, creating relationship with the customer, language and terminology used, use of customer's time, providing accurate information, offering of additoinal assistance, energy and enthusiam throughout the interaction, etc. The goal behind this continued approach would be to develop a customer service team that is tenured, qualified, and enabled leader that would drive change and a positive image to the organization that builds toward long lasting customer relationships.

Customer Perception is a powerful reality that will determine the future of major companies.

John Barton, Appointed New CFO

Fort Myers, FL – J.Lodge Corporation, a Florida based quality outsourcing service provider, is pleased to announce the appointment of John D. Barton as its new Chief Financial Officer and Company Vice President.John joined J.Lodge Corporation on July 6, 2009 and brings a wide range of experience in financial operations and executive management. His most recent position was at Ultrapure Scientifics, a sterile water systems manufacturer, where he served as the Chief Financial Officer overseeing the finance, accounting and investment activities of the organization. Under his leadership, he drove an aggressive strategy that resulted in $7 million annual sales with unprecedented profitable gains.

Prior to Ultrapure, John led financial operations at Floriken E.S.A. as financial controller overseeing $50 million in annual sales. He also served as CPA for Barton Associates for 6 years where he gained an invaluable knowledge of company financial operations. John is a graduate from Stockton State College in Pomona, New Jersey and received his BA in Accounting in 1987.

“With over 20 years of experience in the financial management industry, we are certainly excited on John’s appointment to our team and on the processes and procedures he will implement that will help further grow our company, “ says Mike Schrider, J.Lodge President and CEO.

Virtual Call Centers, The Wave Of The Future?

A virtual contact center saves on facility costs and the pay scale is generally 5% to 15% lower than in-house agents, according to a recent report from Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc*. Also, when implemented properly the virtual aspect often allows your business to utilize a more experienced, educated employee. Not everyone who happens to be home for a period of time is qualified to work from home. At home employees must be hired with extreme discretion. A qualified at home employee understands while they are on the clock they are at work, not at home. The at-home-agent/analyst needs to have a place in the home where they can be alone; away from distractions such as children and pets. Virtual call centers mainly provide the opportunity to put the best people in the right place to make a difference; the ability to cut costs is a great bonus.

Read more at: http://tiny.cc/vnPqk

J.Lodge Corporation Gives Disable Americans A Platform To Succed

In today's economic environment, many companies are finding ways to downsize their businesses to make up for the challenges that our nation is currently facing. This is not the case at the J.Lodge Corporation in the Gateway Business Park located in Fort Myers. FL.

Founded in 1999, J.Lodge is an industry leader in the science of call center quality assurance that includes call monitoring, call center operations and call center employee leasing. President and co-founder, Mike Schrider, has credited his company’s success to a unique employee model that hires physically disabled Americans who are college educated with 5 or more years as business professionals. This expertise and model allows J.Lodge to provide quality assessments in customer service to its clients at prices that rival offshore providers.

With close to 300 employees nationwide, J.Lodge provides a platform for these physically disabled individuals for a well-paid career as quality analysts, call center consultants and quality managers; some even work as mystery callers to test the quality of leading customer service agents in major companies.

As a result, major corporations have recognized this unique employee model and have begun contracting J.Lodge’s services to aid them in improving their quality operations, increasing sales opportunities and reducing unnecessary costs within their call centers. With its growing business, J.Lodge has launched 2 new divisions, Stateside Call Center & All America Works, which will provide even more jobs for physically disabled Americans.

For more information, please visit: www.jlodge.com