In any working environment, earning your employees’ trust can mean the difference between good and great results.
But in a workplace like a contact center, which can suffer from high turnover and low employee morale, building that trust can be a challenge.
This is exacerbated by the fact that there are often hundreds of employees, many of whom are part-time. How can you even achieve the face time that’s required in order to build a trusting relationship?
No matter the situation, building trust takes time - but there are lots of things you can do to improve your relationship with your employees, and earn their trust one step at a time.
Model the behavior you want to see in your employees.
The first place to start when working on building trust is with yourself. If you want to be trusted, be a trustworthy person - that’s as true in the workplace as it is in your personal life.
If an employee confides something in you, don’t betray that confidence (unless, of course, there’s a compelling reason why you must, like criminal activity or fear for the employee’s safety).
If you make a mistake, own up to it right away. If you make a wrong judgment, apologize. Your employees notice a lot more than you may think, and they’ll be unlikely to respect you or your authority if they notice you transferring blame or dodging responsibilities.
Be honest, straightforward, and transparent.
While it can be difficult to offer feedback that’s anything but positive or neutral, know that employees will trust you a lot more if they know you’re telling the truth - even if it’s something they don’t want to hear.
Let’s say an employee isn’t meeting his KPIs, for example. That’s an issue that merits discussion, and that employee will probably expect to hear about it at some point.
But if you just make note of it to yourself, without speaking to him about it, that employee may either think you’re not paying attention, or that you’re storing that shortcoming away to address later. Either way, they won’t be inclined to trust you.
Being straightforward and transparent about employee reviews, KPIs, and measures of success is vital to becoming a trusted leader. And this doesn’t just apply to employee performance, either. Try to share as much information as you can about company developments, so that employees don’t start filling in the gaps themselves with rumors and hearsay.
Show that you care by forging personal connections.
According to the Harvard Business Review, as a person’s power increases, their perceived trustworthiness decreases. To combat this effect, it’s important to let employees know that you care about them and what they do for your company.
One very obvious way to do this is simply to show interest in your employees’ lives. What do they like to do outside of work? Do they have significant others or children? Do they play a sport or have a hobby?
But asking these questions alone won’t earn your employees’ trust, especially if the information goes in one ear and out the other. You have to become truly vested in your employees as individuals and care about their success - both at work and in their personal lives.
One-on-one coaching can be a great way to become more involved in helping your employees succeed. Making the time for coaching can be challenging, but it can certainly be done. Many organizations implement workforce optimization or workforce management software, which can free up time that was previously spent on administrative tasks like scheduling.
Another highly effective way to earn trust is to join your employees in their daily tasks now and then. Taking a few calls here and there will show the people who work for you that you want to know what their workday is like, and what problems they face on a regular basis.
However, there’s an added benefit to doing this as well: Acting as a call-taker can give you greater insight into areas that may need attention, improving your own performance and ability to manage your team.
Earning your employees’ trust is a vital part of being an effective manager. To learn more about keeping your employees happy in the workplace, read our post “24 Unique Ways to Reward Your Employees for a Job Well Done.”
With the many mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and attacks on police that we’ve seen in the past few years, it’s clear that policing is becoming an ever more difficult and complex job.
In the past, police officers fought crime with a police radio, their weapon, and problem-solving skills. Today, that’s no longer enough. As criminals have gathered on the internet, coordinating like never before, we’ve seen the need for advanced technology grow.
There are plenty of companies working hard on creating new, better policing technologies every day - and some of what is available sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie. Here are 4 police technologies that are changing the state of policing for the better.
Drones
Drones have been in the news for their military and recreational use, but they’re also being used more and more by police organizations.
These unmanned aircraft are equipped with cameras that can be connected to a live feed, so that officers on the ground can see everything the camera sees. This has uses in all kinds of situations, from active shooter to missing persons. The video from a drone can also be aggregated with information from multiple other sources, like license plate readers and facial recognition technology, to provide a more complete picture of a crime.
Throwable robotic cameras
These futuristic-looking little robots are tough enough to be thrown into spots where police officers can’t go. Operated by the police officer using a remote control, robotic cameras can explore dangerous or inaccessible crime scenes and relay what they see back to a monitor. Many are equipped with infrared sensors, so they can record even in total darkness.
These cameras have all kinds of applications. They can find suspects at a greater distance, map a building’s layout, identify hostages, or locate contraband.
Situational awareness tech
Situational awareness technology involves aggregating information from security systems, video feeds, license plate readers, and other technology to enable police to respond to incidents in a more prepared manner. The data from the various systems is then pulled together and made accessible in one single interface.
For example, take a look at the Verint Situation Management system, Verint SMC. This software solution integrates a huge array of sources, including:
Using situational awareness technology like the SMC can affect entire cities. When this system is used in conjunction with devices like smart streetlights, ShotSpotter technology, and mass notification, it can help city managers, police officers, and others run cities more safely and efficiently.
Synchronized body cameras
Body cameras have been in use for several years, but new technology is making them more effective than ever.
A new product called WatchGuard Video syncs an in-car camera and police officers’ body cameras, allowing officers to record video from multiple vantage points. What’s more, the cameras are all aware of each other - when one starts recording, the others start recording, too.
This way, if one officer forgets to press record or doesn’t know he or she needs to be recording, an officer’s partner can initiate the recording process from either the car or a body camera.
Once video is recorded, the files from each of the synced cameras is uploaded to a database and linked together, making it easy to find all video from a single incident.
This could have major impact on cases in which there’s a question of whether an officer acted correctly, or whether someone was armed. This kind of video recording could help answer those questions more definitively.
Policing is a difficult job, but technology is helping make our police officers and citizen safer. For more on how technology is changing public life, read our post The Importance of Public Safety Technology for Public Spaces.
If you’re a contact center executive considering taking your contact center operations to a global level, you’ve doubtless spent a lot of time thinking about logistics, necessary technology, hiring qualified agents, and the other considerations that global operations require.
Scaling up from single-country operations to multi-country can be an overwhelming proposition. If you go in unprepared in even a single area, it can negatively impact your contact center back home, and the company as a whole.
Here are 4 things to consider when you’re taking your contact center global.
1. Make sure that your phone technology can handle international calls without lag time.
One issue that customers experience often with international contact centers is a lag on the phone line. This is due to the fact that many vendors serve their international clients from a single data center located in one part of the world - meaning that when a call is happening, the sound has to go from the caller’s phone to a data center in, say, Nebraska, and then from there to the country where the contact center is located. The same is true when the contact center agent speaks.
This can create a noticeable lag, which negatively impacts the quality of the call. Not only can it disrupt the agent’s ability to assist the caller, it can also make an organization sound unprofessional and unpolished. To get around this issue, make sure your cloud provider uses regional data centers, instead of just one.
2. Make sure your agents understand multiple languages and cultures.
You can’t underestimate the importance of culture when it comes to customer service - even in calls as simple as a caller needing a copy of their account number.
When you’re taking a contact center global, you’ll need agents who have a grasp of anywhere from two to a dozen or more different cultural norms and languages so they can serve customers from those countries correctly.
This requires quality training that gives agents substantive information about how to interact with customers from different parts of the world. While this kind of training can take time, neglecting it can mean lower customer satisfaction, and even unintentionally offending someone.
In addition to training, agents should have access to a knowledge base with information on key cultural or language issues. This way, they can refer this information in real time, as needed.
3. Ensure agents in every country speak your brand language.
When contact center agents are located in another part of the world, it can be more challenging to ensure that they speak your brand language.
Just like cultural norms, brand language is something that agents need to be well-trained in. Ideally, someone from your company’s headquarters should perform the training in person, traveling to the new location for a few weeks or months to oversee the center’s setup.
If this isn’t possible, there are plenty of videoconferencing options that can allow you to connect with your new managers and agents virtually. Make sure to stay in touch after the initial training, too - keeping your global contact center managers in the loop regarding product changes, changes in brand language, and more will ensure customers have a consistent brand experience no matter who they’re put in touch with.
4. Ensure your global contact center managers and agents have the technology they need to be successful.
As with domestic contact centers, the right technology is key to ensuring that your customers’ needs are being met. Software solutions like Workforce Management, Customer Experience Surveys, and Enterprise Feedback Management allow managers to ensure that agents’ skills are being used efficiently and that customer satisfaction remains high.
With a global workforce, the technological scaling can be a challenge - but with the right solution partners in place, contact centers that are going global can achieve major success.
Running a contact center isn’t an easy job, and sometimes you’ll run into problems that you need a little help with. Don’t hesitate or feel embarrassed that you don’t know the answer. Just hop online and check out one of these fantastic blogs on contact center operations. Everything from hiring to software is covered in these blogs, so you’ll always have somewhere to go when you need a hand. Here are the best of the best.
1. International Customer Management Institute
The great part about this site is that it isn’t just a blog. It has white papers, newsletters, webinars, and downloadable WFM that supply you with a wide range of content. You aren’t just getting some advice when you go there, you’re getting an entire learning experience. Check it out and see what ICMI.com has to offer you.
2. Call Centre Helper
As you may have guessed by the spelling, this is the UK’s premier contact center magazine. Call Centre Helper is the perfect place to research topics, find new tips and tech, or even look for job postings. It’s not just a blog, so take some time to check out their full website and discover everything they have to offer.
3. Fronolo Customer Service Blog
Up and running since 2010, the Fronolo Customer Service Blog covers all the latest trends and practices for contact centers, customer service, and the customer experience. They’ve got webinars, articles, videos, and demos all targeted at customer service professionals looking for some new tips.
4. Destination CRM
Destination CRM focuses on a broad range of customer relationship topics including tech, finance, communications, advertising, and healthcare. Customer relationship management should be an important piece of any contact center’s strategy, and this is the ideal site for companies looking to enhance customer value.
5. Service Untitled
Founded in 2006, Service Untitled posts multiple times a week about topics related to customer service and customer service experience. They post practical and relatable content, saying that, “Service Untitled focuses on pragmatic and simple solutions to real customer service problems. Service Untitled’s goal is to focus on the practical and not write about problems from an “academic” point of view.” Sometime you need content that’s based on years of personal experience, and not just what someone thinks will work out for you.
These blogs all offer fantastic information for solving some of your contact center problems. But if you can’t quite find what you’re looking for, then contact KOVA today. We offer contact center software solutions that can help out any contact center in need.
Only a few years ago, studies showed that while many contact centers were interested in moving their operations into the cloud, a significant number felt that there were still significant obstacles. Security concerns, questions about integration with existing systems, and concerns about a loss of investment in current on-premise systems were all reasons that organizations cited for being reluctant about making the switch to cloud services.
Today, those concerns are rapidly shrinking. Contact center solution vendors have been increasing and improving their cloud offerings, focusing strongly on those issues that contact center managers have felt to be barriers to adoption.
The result has been an increase in the number of contact centers recognizing the advantages of cloud-based services, for both customer service and operations. Here are some of the reasons that contact centers are moving into the cloud.
One of the biggest advantages of using cloud-based services as opposed to on-premise systems is startup cost. Instead of purchasing hardware and software, organizations can simply purchase subscriptions. This means there’s no initial capital investment, as there is with an on-premise system.
In addition, cloud services can be canceled without losing much of your investment - other than the time you spent training employees on the system.
According to Fortune magazine, the technology that many contact centers rely on is growing old - about eight to 10 years old, to be precise. This means that many centers are at a point when they need to decide whether to upgrade their systems, or purchase new ones. Executives are faced, therefore, with the complexity and cost of upgrading an on-premise system, both of which can be significant.
Since cloud services don’t require hardware updates, many executives are seeing them as a better option.
One reason that many contact centers wait as long as possible to upgrade old technology - in addition to the capital investment - is that executives don’t want to risk the lengthy downtime that can arise when installing new on-premise systems.
This can be managed well if you have a reliable vendor, but there’s no denying that cloud services can be deployed much faster. Whereas on-premise systems can take a few weeks to a few months to be ready, cloud services can be ready to use in as little as a few days.
With so many contact centers now using remote agents for a percentage of their workforce, cloud services are becoming a necessity. With cloud operations, agents can access all the information and services they need through their own computer, with nothing but a simple login.
As using remote and at-home agents allows contact centers to access wider pools of talent, as well as offer more competitive jobs, there’s every reason to believe that the growth of these types of positions will only grow.
With so many high-profile data security breaches - Target, Yahoo, the Democratic National Committee, and more - in recent years, contact center executives have justifiable concerns about whether their organization’s security would be more at risk by migrating to the cloud.
Cybersecurity is always an issue, and as more organizations move into the cloud, more security breaches will occur. This is simply because there will be more data available, not because the cloud is inherently less secure.
Cloud service providers are consistently improving security and responding to threats as they emerge, but there’s another option for contact centers that have concerns. Many of these organizations are choosing a hybrid model, which allows stored data to be shared between on-premise servers and the cloud. This can alleviate some of the anxiety that IT professionals and executives may have when choosing whether to migrate to the cloud.
In the end, contact centers must choose the solution that’s right for them, be that cloud, on-premise, or a hybrid of the two. If you’re considering changing your data systems, contact us at KOVA - we work closely with contact centers to create custom workforce management and workforce optimization solutions that fit their needs.
Any contact center manager today knows that analytics are key when it comes to monitoring your agents’ performance.
Thanks to the benefits of technology, data is everywhere - and if you have the right contact center software solutions, it’s easy to collect. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like call abandonment rate, first call resolution, and others can be easily viewed with a simple click of a button.
However, it’s not the monitoring that will lead you to improved results and better service. It’s what you do with those KPIs that will have a real effect on the way your contact center operates. Alone, KPIs are just numbers - but if you can interpret those numbers in a wider context, you can figure out how to achieve the positive results you’re looking for.
If you’re going to gain actionable insight from your KPIs, you need to make sure you’re monitoring the right ones.
You’re probably already monitoring some of the basic contact center KPIs like average handle time and average speed of answer. These are important ones for every call center manager to keep an eye on.
But there are others that you can choose to monitor based on the issues you’re trying to address. Is agent absenteeism a problem? That’s a KPI you should be watching.
Are you noticing your agents taking longer to answer calls? You may want to start tracking Average After Call Work Time, which is the length of time it takes an agent to finish recording information, updating databases, and performing any other necessary tasks after hanging up the phone.
Once you’ve started monitoring the right KPIs, you’re on track to improving your customer service.
If one of your KPIs is less than satisfactory - call abandonment rate, for example - it’s time to look more closely at what’s going on.
If lots of customers are hanging up before reaching an agent, there’s a reason. Look at your other KPIs: is agent absenteeism rising? Is agent turnover higher than it used to be? Is the after call work time too long?
Looking at these KPIs can help you decide how to address the problem you’re having. If your After Call Work Time numbers are high, maybe your agents are having to spend too long after calls documenting the information they received. This means that they’re spending less time answering phones, which contributes to a longer hold time, which is most likely why your call abandonment rates are high.
You could do many things to address this problem. You could change the way after call work is performed to make it faster and easier. You could assign after call work to different agents, freeing up others to get right back on the phones. Or perhaps you need to improve your knowledge management so agents have access to the information they need during calls.
To get a good idea of where your contact center stands, compare your numbers to industry benchmarks. This will give you a better perspective on which issues actually need attention. It could be that a number you’re not happy with is fairly standard for contact centers of your type.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to improve it, of course, but it will help you form more realistic expectations.
If you want to get the most out of your KPIs, share them with the rest of your organization. If agents are being asked to improve a certain function, they’ll be more likely to do so if they can track their own progress.
In addition, if they can see how what they do affects the contact center at large, agents will feel more vested in their work. This, in turn, will lead to a more positive workplace and better customer service.
Are you struggling with how to monitor KPIs at your contact center? Read our post “The Contact Center KPIs You Should Be Tracking.”
