Unified IT: Improving the Customer Experience by Moving Beyond the Customer Satisfaction Survey

To truly understand customer expectations and perceptions (internal and external), and deliver services that not only add value and increase satisfaction but also satisfy the business’s needs and help it reach its goals, IT must go beyond the customer satisfaction survey. The ultimate goal...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Think You Know Your Customer?: Six Truths About the Customer Experience

What are we talking about when we talk about the customer experience? Are we really just talking about customer service? If you’re service-centric, you probably look to service-centric metrics to define the customer experience, metrics like first call resolution, customer satisfaction, and...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Tech Trends: Customer Relationship Management

ITSM and customer relationship management (CRM) are industries, frameworks, technologies, and approaches that have traditionally been applied to very different business processes, workloads, and segments of the organization. But with the degree of consolidation and standardization taking place...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

The Technology Café: A Face for IT Support

You have a successful support organization. Your contact center receives a high volume of calls each month. You’ve considered, tested, and/or offered other instant communication channels (email support, live chat, maybe even video chat). Your metrics look good: the service desk is efficient, and...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Ten Ways to Engage Your Team

In this article, I will present ten engagement techniques you can use to impress upon your employees the importance of their contributions and help them align their activities with your company’s strategies and vision. As you review the techniques, keep in mind that many can’t be performed...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Seeing Stars: Hollywood and the Keys to Continuous Improvement

Organizations often rush to kick-start improvement efforts without first completing a thorough analysis. All too often, improvement exercises are either reactive—knee-jerk responses to what others have done—or conceived in response to the passionate advocacy of a charismatic (and usually senior)...
Date Published - Last Updated February 25, 2016

Driving a Quality Customer Experience from the Front Line: Implementation Considerations

Many companies rely on their service management organizations (SMOs) to manage customer requests for products and services. A well-managed SMO understands its clients and works with them to create a quality customer experience. Through the implementation of a customer quality environment (CQE),...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Driving a Quality Customer Experience from the Front Line: Strategic Considerations

For companies large and small, achieving high customer satisfaction is a challenge. One common obstacle involves revamping normal business operations and implementing change that improves the quality of the customer experience. However, by implementing an upside-down strategy where the customer...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Pencils Down!: Testing Keeps Employees' Skills Sharp and Customers Happy

When a major component of your team’s job is handling calls from some of the most high-profile customers in the world, how can your company ensure its employees keep up with a constantly changing information landscape and the nonstop needs of its customers?
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016

Mitigating Multichannel Mayhem: Six Best Practices for Complex Contact Centers

Today’s multichannel contact centers are anything but simple. According to ICMI, almost 86 percent of today’s contact centers are multichannel. While voice is still predominant, one channel is no longer enough. Consumers want to engage with technical support and customer service through multiple...
Date Published - Last Updated February 26, 2016