Peggy Carlaw
Peggy Carlaw
Peggy Carlaw is the founder of Impact Learning Systems. Impact helps companies develop and implement customer service strategies to improve the customer experience. Their consulting services and training programs help organizations create a customer-focused culture while producing measurable business results. Peggy is also the author of three books published by McGraw-Hill including Managing and Motivating Contact Center Employees.
Tracking Customer-Focused Metrics
For years, contact center managers have been measuring operational metrics like average handle time, average hold time, turnover, sales per representative, average time to...
Upselling and Cross-selling by Customer Service and Support Teams
As the economy recovers, many companies are looking for opportunities to claw their way back to pre-recession sales levels. And companies that fared well...
Tailoring Customer Service and Support to Different Personalities
Fess up, now! There some customers you just love to talk to and others that you can't wait to get off the line, right?...
Proactive Customer Service and Support
You've heard of First Contact Resolution, right? Hopefully, you're taking concrete steps to resolve as many issues on the first contact as possible. Following...
Crowdsourcing Customer Service and Support
If you're not already crowdsourcing your customer service and support, it's time to consider doing so. Why? Smart businesses are always looking for ways...
Monitor Your Customers, Not Just Your Agents
Companies are reframing customer service as a strategic method for gathering important information to inform marketing direction and product development. While you can obtain...
FCR and Customer Satisfaction: A Match Made in Heaven
When you call a support center to get help on an issue or have a question answered, will you be more satisfied with the...
Sales Skills: Training (Nurture) or Personality (Nature)?
The age-old debate—nature versus nurture is a common theme that pops up for managers who are seeking the right sales candidates. It's an important...
Churn to Retention: How You Can Make the Switch
We live in a world of cutthroat competition. If you want to grow your business and stay ahead of your rivals, your mantra better...
Differentiate Yourself With Customer Service
Companies that are vying for the burgeoning cloud computing and hosting business have some fierce competition against industry heavyweights. Amazon, Google, Microsoft. Yep. That's...
What’s Wrong With Customer Service?
Bob Cowen at Snowfly alerted me to the upcoming July, 2011 issue of Consumer Reports Magazine. On page 16, there's a list of the...
Average Handle Time — Does It Matter?
Metrics. Numbers. Data. If you feel inundated by numbers and are wondering how to sort through the various metrics you need to be tracking...
Benchmarking
To benchmark or not to benchmark—is that a question you're facing? If you oversee call centers or work frequently with metrics, benchmarking to determine...
Voice of the Customer and Net Promoter Score: What’s the Difference?
At a CCNG meeting a few weeks ago, a discussion arose about the difference between customer satisfaction (CSAT), Voice of the Customer (VOC), and...
Is Your “Loyalty” Program Actually Giving Value to Loyal Customers?
Ahhh. The loyalty program. The multiple keychain cards for supermarkets that your keys clang against. The loyalty credit cards that bump against your license...
Improving Customer Satisfaction: Would Miss Manners Approve?
If you're in the field of training customer service representatives, or if your job description contains the phrase "help improve customer satisfaction," this post...
Customer Satisfaction and Voice of the Customer: Is There a Difference?
At a CCNG meeting last week, there was quite a discussion about the difference between customer satisfaction (CSAT) and voice of the customer (VOC),...
5 Ways to Tie Customer Service Training to Measurable Business Results
Imagine your next review session. You're sitting in your boss's office, going over your accomplishments since your last review. Picture your boss's reaction as...
Call Center Coaching – How Far Do Responsibilities Go?
Someone asked the other day if we thought they should hold their call center supervisors accountable for the performance of their teams. This is...
Stop Yelling at Me!
It seems to me that John Q. Public is getting more angry and rude as the months go by. Starting in the middle of...