Over the last few decades, the contact centre industry has seen many waves of restructuring. Many industrialised countries first saw their contact centres re-locate where labour costs were lower, to see them come back after customers complained about the quality of service. Continue reading
In the 1920s, Danish mathematician Erlang created the eponymous formula. A pioneer in queuing theory, his work is still the foundation of any network analysis and switchboard staffing. Continue reading
Analysing a contact centre data is crucial to monitor its performance and highlight areas that need improvement. However, with the amount of collected raw data available, it is easy to lose track of what is really significant. Here are our tips not to lose focus. Continue reading
It costs 4 to 6 times more to acquire new clients than keeping existing ones; an existing customer is 14 times more likely to buy more products or services from you, and 73% are more likely to recommend you. Yet, despite these crystal-clear statitics, businesses’ priority is still very often about capturing new clients to the detriment of existing customers. Continue reading
Did you know that 20-40% of all retail sales happen in the last two months of the year? How well a retailer does in this time will largely determine the shape of their finances for the following year and it is therefore crucial that they put in place everything they need to maximise sales. Continue reading
Training your contact centre staff is essential to conveying your brand’s message, delivering outstanding customer service, create a knowledge base in your company and motivating your staff. However, for many contact centres, training is limited to learning how to use systems and listening in to calls next to a more experienced agent for days. Continue reading
First things first, what is shrinkage? Shrinkage is the amount of time an employee isn’t available to work during paid time. As far as contact centres are concerned, this means not being able to take calls. Continue reading
For large organisations and companies, handling calls is a sizeable part of their budget and call centres are often scrutinised to find areas where savings can be realised.
A common strategy is to reduce staff, but this also usually has the unwelcome effect to lower the quality of the customer service you can provide. The trick is therefore to reduce telephone demand effectively so that you need fewer agents without compromising on service. Continue reading
The quality of service provided by your contact centre will be highly dependent on being adequately staffed. Too few agents will lead to longer waiting times, but too many will affect your profit, so how do you find the right balance? Continue reading
Unless it is a legal obligation in their industry, SMEs are often reluctant to record customer calls. They may hesitate for financial reasons, because they doubt that they will be useful or because they are unsure whether doing so is legal. Continue reading