Technological advances have made relationship building easier than ever. Nonetheless, it’s crucial to remember that although these advances provide us with tools to assist us in what we call Relationship Architecture™, these tools, in and of themselves, are not what building a business...
Tag(s): people, customer service
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 21 Hours, 18 Minutes ago
One of the biggest challenges managers face is hiring new team members. It’s like placing a bet on red at the roulette table in Vegas: Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes a new member picks up the job functions quickly but never acclimates to the team concept, and thus never...
Tag(s): people, professional development, team building, teamwork, employee engagement, leadership
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 21 Hours, 7 Minutes ago
Support center analysts have a tough job. Maybe a customer (whether internal or external) has just received a new product and can’t understand the installation directions. Maybe the customer’s network connection is not working properly and it’s just one week over the computer’s warranty. Or...
Tag(s): people, customer service, practices and processes
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 21 Hours, 15 Minutes ago
It’s no secret that customers really want just two things from their interactions with the service desk: speed and accuracy. They want someone to answer the phone quickly, someone who can help them with their problems, and someone who can provide solutions that are correct and helpful. So, if...
Tag(s): customer experience, service desk, staffing
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 21 Hours, 5 Minutes ago
While the total number of incidents/service requests, the potential impact of restricted access, and ease of automation will all vary by service, type of support, company, industry, etc., automation is subject to the greatest variability. Executing on a vision is certainly easier said than done,...
Tag(s): automation, self-service, service desk, outsourcing
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 21 Hours, 4 Minutes ago
In any service and support situation, the relationship between service providers and consumers is mechanically bounded by the service terms and conditions and a set of agreeable payment terms. What’s often missing in outsourcing-based provider-consumer relationships is a set of business rules...
Tag(s): cloud computing, outsourcing, business intelligence
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 21 Hours, 3 Minutes ago
I’ve coached hundreds of individuals in customer support and in blended sales-service environments, and, as a coach, I’ve experienced success and failure. Invariably, when coaching is successful, it’s because of a human or emotional connection to the team member and the team member’s emotional...
Tag(s): coaching
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 20 Hours, 11 Minutes ago
For UBM Tech, HDI’s parent company and a global live media and B2B communications, marketing services, and data provider, innovation is one of the four underlying corporate values leading the company down the path to be the best—and biggest—event business in the world. UBM Tech’s David Michael...
Tag(s): business value, leadership, support center
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 21 Hours, 1 Minute ago
Contractors can provide value in projects—by adding a skill not present on the team, by providing basic labor for less-valuable tasks, or by “backfilling” the desktop support team’s day-to-day tasks to free team members up for project work—but they aren’t suitable for all projects.
Tag(s): workforce enablement, staffing, desktop support
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 19 Hours, 56 Minutes ago
In one way or another, all organizations teach. Businesses train new employees on their cultures, technologies, and processes. In IT, training often accompanies a large roll out or new initiative. In fact, many IT departments have a training department or make explicit assignments to teams to...
Tag(s): coaching, training
Date Published - Last Updated 7 Years, 215 Days, 20 Hours, 8 Minutes ago