It’ summertime again and I’m sure you’re looking forward to some relaxing reading by the beach (or on the couch for those of you taking a staycation this year). A surefire way to have more fun reading this summer is to mix some thought-provoking, work-related reading to those relaxing beach reads. Don’t believe me? Research suggests that an interruption in a pleasurable activity (such as reading for fun) actually increases your pleasure.

So, in the spirit of furthering yourself on a professional level this summer, we have culled together a few suggestions—resources that you shouldn’t miss: Read More »

Training is a topic that comes up often during our conversations with members. We’ve seen a recent uptick of questions regarding training in our discussion forums, with questions about how to increase training engagement as well as training on language skills.  Considering this, I thought it might be helpful to spend some time here outlining a few findings from our research about the good and bad sides of training.

Specifically, CEB Customer Contact research has found that coaching is a better driver of staff performance than training—and that when it comes to developing staff skills, it’s better to focus on coaching and to deemphasize training. There are a few key reasons to keep training short and limit the volume of information that staff learn:

1.       It’s hard to retain information taught in training

If employees don’t use information soon after they learn it in training, they are likely to forget it. In fact, our research has found that 87% of training is forgotten in a matter of weeks.

 2.       Training doesn’t lead to skill mastery

The ideas and concepts introduced in training need to be continually reinforced before staff are able to comfortably exercise these new skills.

 3.       Training can create a false sense of understanding

When staff don’t remember exactly what they learned in training, they may retain a sense of knowledge and still think they know what to do for customers.

Despite all of those downfalls, training does have an important role in developing staff and is valuable when it’s used in the right time and place. In particular, training is most effective during new hire onboarding and to help staff learn new product knowledge.

Once training is finished, coaching is vital to help reps use new skills and develop good habits. Effective coaching is heavily integrated into reps’ workflows and takes advantage of everyday occurrences to find opportunities for skill development.

CEB Customer Contact has developed coaching resources to help you teach your supervisors the skills they need to provide targeted, effective coaching. Our supervisor coaching modules include training materials, exercises, and tools designed to help teach supervisors how to use an integrated coaching approach.

We’re always interested in the innovative things are members are doing; how have you been thinking about training at your organization? Let us know in the comment section below!

Related Resources:  

• Training
• How to Develop Staff Skills
• Identify the Right Opportunities for Training
• Accelerate Training by Focusing on the Most Common Customer Inquiries
• Teaching Supervisors Best-in-Class Coaching

Recently, a CNN Money article boasted that by adding functionality to automatic teller machines (ATMs) banks may increase self-service foot traffic and reduce costs, too.

The article describes a few “new-fangled” technologies and other changes that will improve the ATM experience and prevent customers from having to enter a branch.  One of the technologies that the article described is a video-chat feature with a live teller (presumably sitting in a centralized contact center) that customers can choose to help execute more advanced functions, like withdrawing amounts in $1 or $5 increments.

Here’s my question, though: is adding more functionality really what your customers want? Read More »

“It is just the way we do things around here.”

Certainly a phrase that is not uncommon to overhear in offices around the globe.  But, what is this ‘it’ that everyone refers to?

Well, that’s pretty hard to pin down. It can be the tribal knowledge shared informally across peers, the unspoken norm that everyone adheres to, even the feeling an outsider gets when they step inside the office walls.

But, if I had to take a stab at an all-encompassing way to describe it I would use one word.

Culture.

Specifically, your company’s organizational culture, as defined by the deeply held assumptions and beliefs of a company and its employees.

Every company has a culture – some may emphasize free-flowing collaboration and innovation while others encourage strict compliance with company rules.  Some cultures are very strong and salient; others are weak and not clearly identifiable at first.

No matter what your company’s culture is, though, we hear consistently that culture is not something that you as service organization leaders can change.

And, we tend to agree.  When we took a look at culture in our latest research, we found it takes a long time to shift engrained assumptions and beliefs at the company level.  So, culture evolves slowly over long periods of time and is difficult for one function to influence on its own.

But, don’t worry – all is not lost. Read More »

IRS blames recent political scandal on “poor customer service” [Washington Post]

[24]7 mixes customer service with social media and sales in acquisition of Shopalize [Silicon Angle]

Apple ranked number one in computer customer service, according to Consumer Report [Gotta Be Mobile]

Mercedes USA CEO to make customer service his legacy [Automotive News Europe]

I am sure that all of you have had a busy year thus far, and now that summer has come you may be planning to block some time off to recharge yourself. Maybe you are thinking of having a nice spa day, cooking your favorite food, or taking a vacation. But we have another idea: how about taking some time this summer (when perhaps things in the office are quiet while your colleagues are at the spa or on vacation) to browse through CEB Customer Contact’s available resources?

To help you get started, we compiled a list of the 3 most downloaded resources that our Utilities folks are using to help craft their service strategies.

Top 3 Most Downloaded Resources for Customer Service Professionals in the Utilities Industry Read More »

I recently came across an interesting article that describes a world of banking sans local branches.  The traditional concept of customers descending upon local branches to deposit pay checks or take out loans is becoming more and more viewed as an antiquated model as more than 2,000 branch locations in the US have closed within the past year.  When 80% of service organizations state that they’ve been adding more and more choice, it seems the financial industry has chosen to move in the opposite direction in eliminating these centers of customer service.  Obviously, cost reduction was a major consideration.  And I can’t help but think that some banks reacted due to competitive pressures.  But what are the implications as it pertains to the impact on the overall customer experience?  Almost 90% of service organizations we’ve spoken to have never eliminated a channel.  How do we know that we’re doing the right thing?  What is the business case?

Read More »

This post, and the related research brief, was recently written by our colleagues of the CEB Sales Leadership Council. 

A CRM system is not only an integral part of the sales (and customer support) workflow, but is the lifeblood of the sales (and support) process, providing reps with the right information for the right customer at the right time.

The deep integration of CRM with the sales process has led some executives to take CRM for granted. Yet, these systems require huge yearly investments, and should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other investment. However, “How do you track the ROI of your CRM?” is a question no Sales Ops executive wants to, or can easily, answer.

Such was the case when we took this question to four member organizations. Most of the conversations began with a laugh or a sigh as we proceeded to uncover the complexities of each members’ processes of tracking and reporting the various elements of their CRM. We asked four main questions: Read More »

Customer service and support organizations undergo significant changes in staffing models for various reasons, including organizational redesigns, employee role changes, and technology changes.  While practical concerns around plan execution may be at the front of your mind, addressing the emotional needs of your employees is not a trivial factor to ignore. 

Fears of losing jobs, uncertainty about the future, and costs associated with upskilling new employees can add unforeseen – and unnecessary – complications to your plans. 

Read More »

• How Zappos creates the ultimate customer experience [Forbes]
• 5 jobs that your company will need on your customer service teams for the future [B2C]
• How Big Data can improve customer service and marketing [CIO Magazine]
• Spirit Airlines gets rid of its toll-free customer service line [Gadling]
• 7 customer service lessons from the founder of Virgin Group [Forbes]