Thomas Laird
10 Unique Use Cases for Speech Analytics
10 Unique Use Cases for Speech Analytics For those of you who use speech analytics and want to expand the ROI for them, this is for you. They are a unique tool that has become more and more accessible and less expensive. 1.Proactive Customer Service…
The ONE Technology that will be Revolutionizing the Customer Experience
Call Center pros think I am crazy, but I think I found the technology that will be changing the customer service and customer experience industry to levels we have never thought of. Currently, we are using call center technology to either gauge the CX (CSAT,...
10 Unique Use Cases for Speech Analytics
Speech analytics is evolving to have use cases not yet thought of. For those of you who use speech analytics and want to expand the ROI for them, this is for you. It is a unique tool that has become more and more accessible...
7 Falsehoods About Outsourcing Your Call Center
Outsourcing is not for everyone, and we have been very open about that, in fact, we did an entire episode on 10 reasons why you should NOT outsource. These 7 falsehoods though are topics that organizations that are new to call center...
Tips for Lowering Your Call Centers Handle Time
Talk Time vs Handle Time First, let’s define the difference between handle and talk time. Handle time is the entire cradle-to-grave time period that a call was handled. An agent picked up the phone, spoke with the customer, and hold time or mute time is...
How to Manage Your Call Center Outsourcing Partner Properly
1. Do Not Treat Your Outsourcer Like a Vendor Your relationship with your BPO is too important to treat like a vendor. Your customer service outsourcer is not just some company that you are buying a piece of software from, they are speaking to your...
Remembering the Call Center of 1985
I have read and written many articles on the future of customer service and the future of the contact center. I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and try to get a discussion on the “old” days. The...
My Five Favorite Call Center Reports
1. Daily Summary Report Daily Summary Reports need to be available every single day whether you are an internal call center or you outsource. It is not enough to be able to make adjustments during the game, you need to be able to see trends...
10 Reasons You Should NEVER Outsource Your Call Center
All-day long I could talk about why you should outsource. Today I will be playing devil’s advocate and give you ten reasons as to why you shouldn’t outsource your call center. These are some of the reasons why outsourcing fails, why your experience with...
Its Not the Call Centers Fault! Introduction of Customer Journey Mapping
The importance of customer journey mapping… Have you ever been called in by your boss as the quarterly statistics are being presented to the Board of Directors, and think that they will be applauding your team’s hard work? Have you ever been slammed by...
Making Call Center Culture Tangible and Tips for Associate Engagement
1. Call Center Culture The first step to having a company culture is to define it in a couple of words or pillars. Creating a tangible call center culture can be used as a tool to define work expectations, improve your center, improve engagement and...
Purchasing a New Call Center Platform- Everything You Need To Know
Whether you are in the market or will be in the market for a new call center platform, we will go in-depth into the different types of providers, what are must/should-haves you should purchase, tips on saving money, tricks the platforms sometimes play, how...
HR and Corrective Actions in the Call Center Environment
A lot of you have reached out and asked me, how do I deal with reps that are not putting in the effort, come in with a bad attitude, or just do not feel like working today? Now that we are in an at-home...
5 Key Traits of an Awesome Call Center
There’s five things that I think we look for when we see a high-producing call center and something in my call center that we really try to stress. And some of them might be self-explanatory but others might be a little bit,...
The Truth About AI in the Call Center in 2020
The role of AI in the contact center has been a topic that has been brewing in the industry over the past year. The trend I have been seeing is senior executives, senior management, or even the people in charge of budgeting saying, “Let’s...
Deep Dive into Your Call Center: 21 Questions We Ask When Call Center Consulting
When we are consulting in another call center, there is a list of questions that are asked every time. We discuss them ourselves at least once a year at Expivia. If we came in for a consultation for you, we would talk to reps,...
10 Policies Every Call Center Operation Must Have
Whether you are setting up a new call center or updating an older one, there are certain policies that you need to have in place. Most of these policies come from the need to keep your organization as secure as possible. Keep in mind,...
Crystal Ball – The Call Center of the Future: 2025
Let’s talk about the future. Technology is evolving so quickly that every year there is something new that will make our call center life easier. Some of these trends are coming quickly, but many won’t be widely accepted for another few years. ...
Call Center Workforce Management 101
We often get questions about different aspects of workforce management (WFM). "How do we make sure we have the right number of agents available to take calls?" We know that our center cannot be overstaffed or we run the risk of having...
7 Metrics to Benchmark Your Call Center for Efficiency
When considering what metrics make up a world-class call center, there are many points to consider. Let’s focus on the agent’s side of things. What do you need to measure to be as efficient as possible, while still giving your callers all of...