Blog

The challenges of 2020 put contact centers agility to the test. And with a lot of those challenges continuing in 2021, many contact centers are still struggling to manage with a variety of issues.

Many contact center directors and managers are already familiar with sophisticated workforce management solutions, like NICE Workforce Management (WFM), that automate forecasting and scheduling. But leaders often haven’t considered other workforce management functions that are ripe for innovation in enterprise technology.

The digital customer journey is very different from a physical shopping experience, yet it is very much the same. With the ever-changing needs of the consumer, it can be difficult for businesses to keep up and ensure that customers have a seamless buying journey from start to finish and beyond.

The quality of service delivered by small business call centers used to be limited by the functionality of their PBXs or VoIP services. Modern call center software features that can transform the customer experience (CX) were only available to the big guys with their big wallets.

Some time ago, my very first job entailed typing up handwritten customer cards for a UK shoe company. Each day a big pile of handwritten cards would be dropped on my desk, and I would proceed to manually type up names, area codes, and dates of birth. I made countless mistakes and by the day’s end, it felt as though some of my brain cells had shut down. Needless to say, after a month I resigned.

Sometimes contact center professionals become so focused on agent-assisted customer service methods that they forget many customers just want to help themselves. A personalized interaction with a competent and engaging agent can be highly satisfying but it isn't always a customer's first choice.

Organizations can train and incentivize employees until the cows come home and still not achieve the performance goals they desire. Furthermore, employees may be trying their best to meet KPI goals and receive the promised rewards, yet they still fall short and are not sure how or what to change. In situations like these, performance coaching can make all the difference.