Common Myths Related to Small Contact Centers

In the world of contact centers, bigger centers are in a position to offer visible benefits like a potential for voluminous sales and better profit margins. Most vendors look towards these for solutions and the small to medium enterprise (SME) contact centers get afterthought and hand-me-down products.
We thought it might prove useful to discuss some misconceptions existing in the market in the context of small contact centers.

Small contact centers are small just because of their size.

This is not true. Small contact centers face a unique set of business challenges. Their rewards are measured differently too. They need to be managed with much fewer resources than their larger counterparts. Their functional operations are also quite different.

Having a smaller workforce facilitates more training activities.

Large contact center solutions often require comprehensive training. It is imparted to all agents in a systematic manner. In contrast, smaller contact centers require most of their agents to play multiple roles. This leaves them with very little time to get formal training.

The SME contact center workforce needs solutions that are intuitive, easy to administer, and quick to implement. Big contact centers have specialized personnel while SME contact centers have many generalists.

It’s easier to manage problems in small contact centers.

The quality of customer service expected of smaller contact centers is much the same as that of larger ones. No direct correlation is possible between the number of agents and the volume of problems.

In fact, the many hats that an agent is required to don makes handling problematic issues even more challenging.

You can remove features from large technology solutions and sell them as small contact center solutions.

Though this tactic is commonly adopted, the end result hasn’t gone down too well with members of the SME contact center industry. The products appear more as token efforts with many gaps instead of being specialized ones.

Small contact centers cannot offer customer service on par with large contact centers

Enterprise size is irrelevant. Contact center organizations of the smallest size can largely impact businesses of all sizes. What’s critically important is maintenance of customer goodwill.

Challenges faced by SME Contact Centers

According to the manager of an SME contact center which services relatively large companies, the biggest issues they face revolve around technology solutions. She said that almost all the solutions available at present are very big, very cumbersome and very high-priced. It’s not possible to scale them as required so options become really limited. They do need similar resources, but smaller dimensions are required.

She said they also faced training issues related to new technologies and products. There weren’t enough agents to handle calls and putting them through intensive training was not possible. The team needed to depend largely on its own creative thinking abilities.

In conclusion, you can say that there’s definitely a market for specifically designed solutions for SME contact centers. It’s time the market stepped up to fulfill this need.

A Conference Call (in Real Life)

Does your Mobile Marketing Campaign Comply with the Latest TCPA Regulations?

You may already be aware that in the year 2012 the Federal Communications Commission revised the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) with the objective of adding new guidelines to protect the interests of mobile wireless consumers. These regulations have been in effect since October 16th, 2013.

The revised TCPA presents both challenges and opportunities for mobile marketers. According to the new guidelines, marketers cannot send autodialed text messages for advertising purposes without the express auditable and written consent. Of course, this is not good news for mobile marketers. But before you press that panic button, remember that the changes also present a great opportunity to launch a smarter and more creative marketing campaign. 

If SMS is an important part of your cellphone marketing strategy, you will definitely want to explore newer and more effective ways to encourage more and more people to subscribe to your messages.

Make it fun and relevant

Depending upon the scope and nature of your campaigns, you may have to re-opt potential consumers. If you intend to include other advertising methods in addition to this campaign, you will probably have to do a double opt-in. This can sound daunting. But it is also an opportunity to start fresh.

What you need to do is to launch user friendly mobile opt-in campaigns to allow consumers to express their interest by giving you their phone number and/or email address and permission to send messages to them. Remember that quality and quantity are not always mutually exclusive. You cannot expect consumers to opt-in if you do not give them something of value.

Offer content to gain consent

Under the revised TCPA guidelines, a straightforward web page can serve as written consent. This allows you to easily leverage existing resources. Offer a free app, a song download or movie clip to encourage consumers to opt in. Include a checkbox and your terms and conditions in straightforward language. When consumers check the box, they also agree to receive your text messages at the cellphone number they have provided.

Target recently tested the efficiency of this method by allowing people to download a song for free. People who were interested in downloading the song had to call a certain number to receive a message that contained a link to a landing page. The campaign asked them to check a box and reveal their email address before they could download the song. This strategy enabled Target to quadruple consumer engagement.

Launch contests and sweeps that pair social and mobile

The revised TCPA guidelines are not applicable to one time campaigns where you ask users to call or text a number to receive a message that includes a hyperlink to download a song or an app, a sweeps entry, or a single coupon. These campaigns are exempt provided that they do not contain additional advertisements. That means by adding sweepstakes to your existing marketing efforts, you can reap rich benefits. Sweepstakes can be implemented pretty easily. They are also a great mechanism to measure the efficacy of your media placements.

Here is how Wendy took advantage of this: To promote their new sandwich launch, Wendy offered their customers several prizes for uploading a video clip shot with a mobile phone. They launched a mobile-optimized website for the campaign, included a hashtag and allowed participants to upload the video on Twitter, Vine, or Instagram. The participants had an opportunity to win an American Express gift card worth $6,000. The campaign was hugely successful.

There is a certain degree of ambiguity and uncertainty around recent regulatory changes. But launching marketing campaigns that comply with the guidelines are not all that difficult.

 

5 Key Metrics that Customer-Centric Support Centers Need to Measure

Contact centers need to measure what matters rather than what moves. It is a well-known fact that customer influence is now at an all-time high. Contact centers can no longer rely on metrics such as Average Handle Time and Number of Calls Attended per Hour. Of course, such metrics might have been important until a few years ago, but now customer care has changed dramatically.

Today's customers demand quick and stellar service. A quick response is appreciated only when it is delivered in a personalized and professional manner. In addition, you have to carry out what you have promised to do.

That said, straight productivity measures such as AHT are still important. For example, these measurements can be used to identify training and workflow issues.

However, customer contact centers that understand the need to provide top notch customer service have shifted their focus to 5 far more effective metrics.

Service Level

Your contact center needs to be accessible. Accessibility problems will definitely frustrate customers and often determines the tone with which they interact with the customer care agent. The number one accessibility metric has always been and will always be Service Level (SL). It reveals the percentage of calls that were answered in a specific time span usually measured in seconds.

Service Level is a more accurate accessibility metric than the Average Speed of Answer (ASA). Since ASA is an average, managers may wrongly assume that customers have difficulty (or no difficulty) reaching an agent promptly. For example, ASA of 30 seconds doesn't necessarily mean that all callers had to wait 30 seconds to talk to the agent. Many calls were answered in much less time. Several callers had to wait much longer.

First-Call Resolution or FCR

FCR plays a huge role in determining customer satisfaction, costs and agent morale. Studies have revealed that customer satisfaction decreases by 35-45 percent when they have to make a second call for the exact same issue. However, accurately measuring FCR can be difficult. Contact centers ought to strive to measure this important metric as best as they could. They also need to equip agents with all the techniques and tools they need to improve FCR.

Contact quality and customer satisfaction

These two metrics are intrinsically connected and the most successful contact centers measure them properly. You cannot measure contact quality without incorporating the customer's perspective into the equation.

The best customer care organizations measure their agents' quality scores using a combination of customer ratings and internal compliance results gathered from the post-contact customer satisfaction surveys. This comprehensive approach allows the contact center to gain a more realistic view of Contact Quality. This will not be possible if only internal monitoring was used. What's more, this approach allows the contact center gather critical customer satisfaction data.

Employee Satisfaction or E-Sat

Those who ignore the importance of employee satisfaction as a vital metric may find it difficult to achieve customer satisfaction and cost containment. There is an important relation between agent satisfaction and their performance. If customer agents are unhappy with their work, you can’t expect them to make customers happy. Any failure to improve employee satisfaction will lead to bad customer experience and high employee attrition levels. Both factors can increase the costs for a contact center. Smart centers typically survey their staff through a surveying agency at least one or two times a year to find out whether they like their job.

Tech Support Teams – Can’t Live Without Them

You might think that “tech support” involves some lowly and dismal tasks. People in this department have to deal with irate, screaming voices. They’re sometimes aware of how a problem can be resolved, but cannot do so because they don’t have the required authority.

Tech support jobs are for the poor slobs without alternative job prospects, true? If you think so, you’ve got your tech support concepts upside down. You're overlooking important channels for sales, marketing, and product development.

Your company’s unexpected face

Most of us have been jarred by a person’s voice not matching his picture at some time. A similar thing can happen when rosy things depicted on your company website do not hold true. You keep your home page as your company’s public face. But do things stay in tandem when you actually start speaking?

Tech support is possibly the single human interaction most customers will have with you. Can you leave this task to the least paid, least-qualified and worst-treated employees?

Tech support generates sales

One tends to think the reason for having a tech support team is to answer questions and sort out confused people. But we feel that the objective of tech support is making customers do a fantastic job which involves your product.

This implies that you don't simply help them find a menu command–you try to figure out what they’re trying to achieve and assist them with it. You don't simply apologize for a missing feature – you suggest a workaround.

When you enable your customers, you’re not simply adding value to your product – you’re enhancing your entire company’s image. If you help your customer become awesome, he’ll pay you to stay awesome always. Now doesn’t that increase sales?

Good tech support - a pleasant surprise

Most people have negative things to say about tech support. When you want to know how fonts are changed, they ask you to restart the computer. If you want your billing address changed, you’re presented with three products you could buy. And other things like navigating complex menu options, waiting long periods and typing the same serial number multiple times.

A pizza supplier can earn bonus points if he delivers an unexpected free box of garlic bread with your pizza. Similarly, when tech support surprises a customer pleasantly with something additional which benefits him (not you) he’s going to be happy. He might post great tweets about your service, start following you on social platforms and encourage friends and followers to do so too.

Oh gosh! It looks like tech support has better social media outreach than your regular program of hiring interns to post gracious comments on blogs randomly. Does this surprise you?

It has been said that the best way to reach a customer’s heart is to under-promise and over-deliver. Most people don’t expect much from tech support anyway! Agreed super-fabulous tech support is great, but even merely acting like a human being puts you ahead. Answering an email with a support executive’s name at the end works better than sending an automated response.

Why give up such easy opportunities to make customers happy? Pleasant surprises are quite rare in business and if your company gets a reputation of giving them often, don’t you stand to gain?

What Does the Revised TCPA Act Mean for Telemarketers?

The Federal Communications Commission (FC) amended the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in February 2012. The revised TCPA Act requires telemarketers to obtain written consent from consumers before sending them automated telemarketing calls. The revised TCPA act went into effect on 16th October 2013. Here is an overview of the new rules and guidelines:

Telemarketing calls to cellphones

According to the old TCPA act, prior express consent - written or oral - was required for sending pre-recorded telemarketing calls to cellphones.

The new act says that prior express written consent is required. That said, verbal consent may be enough if the calls are purely informational.

Telemarketing calls to residential telephone lines

Prior express consent - it could be verbal or written - was required for making automated marketing calls to residential telephone lines, unless of course, the caller had an 'established business relationship' with the consumer. The new rule has eliminated the exemption for 'established business relationships’. Now prior express written consent is mandatory for all automated telemarketing calls. Here again, no consent is required if the call / SMS is purely informational.

In other words, the new rule has made prior express written consent necessary for both mobile and residential calls. There is still an important difference. Verbal consent is still necessary for informational and non-marketing calls to mobile lines.

What exactly is meant by telemarketing calls?

The term telemarketing calls is used to refer to those calls that are made with the objective of promoting products and/or services to potential consumers. Any call made to encourage people to buy a product or service, will be considered as a telemarketing call. In general, all text messages or calls which are not informational in nature constitute telemarketing.

What are dual purpose calls?

These calls serve two purposes. They are informational in nature. They also serve a telemarketing purpose. Examples are: calls or SMS text messages send to customers to remind them that their coupons or gift certificates are going to expire. These calls, too, are considered as telemarketing calls.

The following calls are not considered telemarketing calls:

·         Calls made on behalf of nonprofit organizations are not deemed telemarketing calls.

·         Debt collection calls

·         Any call made for political purposes

·         Any call made by a loan servicer regarding a home or consumer loan modification

·         Refinance calls made by a loan servicer

·         Calls made for non-commercial purposes. These include airline notification calls, school / university notifications, bank / credit card balance or fraud alerts, survey or research calls, package deliveries etc.

What is meant by 'Prior Express Written Consent'?

The term 'prior express written consent' refers to a written agreement that authorizes the seller or other person acting on behalf of the seller to send telemarketing messages using an automated system to the person who signed the agreement. A digital or electronic signature that is recognized by the federal law is also acceptable. This includes permission obtained through a webpage or email.

Written consent checklist

The telemarketer needs to identify each company / seller to whom the consumer is giving consent. The written consent should include an affirmative statement like I agree or I consent. It should reveal that the consumer is permitting the telemarketer to send telemarketing calls or message using automated technology. The consent form should obtain a handwritten or electronic signature. The consent form should also reveal that the consumer is not signing the form as a condition of buying any goods, property or services.

What about existing customers?

Businesses can no-longer rely on verbal forms of consent. Businesses that already have prior written consent from their consumers should evaluate whether they have obtained all the necessary consents. If any of the consents required by the revised TCPA act are missing, they will have to obtain them.

TCPA best practices

Specifically tell consumers that you plan to send promotional SMS text messages. Obtaining written consent early in the relationship is advised.

Specifically identify all sellers in the consent form.

Encourage online consumers to manually check a box after reading the clearly provided disclosures and/or click the submit button after entering their telephone number manually.

Use phone lists directly obtained from consumers. Exercise caution while buying phone lists.

The Changing Face of SEO in 2014

It looks like SEO finally matured in the year 2013. The year witnessed nearly 500 algorithm changes. While keeping pace with these updates was both confusing and frustrating for some people, others seem to have gained valuable insights.

The rapid pace at which Google launched algorithmic updates in 2013 suggests that SEO experts need to shift their focus from keywords to content.

Secure search and its impact on SEO

In September 2013, Google made 100% search keyword data "not provided."This finally forced experts to reconsider their strategies.

SEO changed for good in 2013. While Google has been trying to reward good content for a long time, the search giant's Hummingbird update released in 2013 reiterated the need to create great content that users would want to like and share.

Google's Panda update in 2011 clearly indicated that it was shifting its focus to content. The gradual increase in 'not provided' keywords also suggested a shift to a ranking model based on content. When Google made all keyword data 'not provided', it made adapting to change a necessity rather than an option.

Is SEO dead? Many marketers still seem to believe so. There are also some marketers who believe that while SEO has changed, they do not have to change the way they work. These are dangerous perceptions.

Before Google made all searches secure, online marketers had access to traffic and conversion rates data by keywords. That data is no longer available. That means you need to shift your focus to other areas. Rank checking tools have also lost their importance.  In 2014, if you really want to reap success you will have to move from old tactics to new tactics and you will have to implement them across your pages, search, content, and social channels.

Future SEO

The Hummingbird update puts a renewed focus on great content. Also, secure search made it necessary to measure business performance at a page level. Now you have to make the pages on your site, the pillars of your SEO. You can still pull relevant data from your analytics software at a page level and it is still possible to know which pages bring in visitors.

Integration of multiple channels

A lot of factors including search, mobile, social, local, and global determine your position in SERPs. The truth is that now you can't afford to ignore any of these channels. While keyword data is no longer available, achieving a greater rank for your page is still essential. You also need to measure rank and conversion by the type of the device because they vary on phones, tablets, and desktops.

In 2014, you will have to approach your content the Hummingbird Way. Ultimately, it is the content that attracts visitors. That requires analyzing your content at a page level. You also need to integrate and work with Google Webmaster Tools to correlate your keyword and page data.

All Data is Connected

In 2014, you will have to use more and more sources to get a complete picture of how your SEO efforts are performing.

You will have to utilize all data at your disposal. Use multiple sources like Google Analytics and Majestic SEO. You can restore keyword visibility to a certain extent by utilizing your Webmaster Tools data. And by integrating data pulled from different sources, you can still create keyword reports.

Conclusion

It has become imperative for online marketers to adapt to change. Search optimization has always been and will always be the most predominant factor in online marketing. If there is anything that has changed, it is people's perception of SEO.

Profitable Blogging with Increased Affiliate Income

So you have a blog and are trying to make money via affiliate marketing. Haven’t seen a decent share of success?  We’ve done reasonably well, so we'd like to share some practices that we've followed over the years.

Don’t rely only on the sidebar

Under-monetized blogs often have lovely ads in the sidebar, but sales don’t pour in. We’ve seen that sidebar ads result in the lowest sales compared to other affiliate advertising methods on my blogs. So, if that’s your blog’s sole affiliate marketing method, you need to make some changes – right away. 

 

Start micro-tracking regarding what brings in sales

You can track affiliate links on the basis of their placement using SID codes. These codes are parameters related to your affiliate links which track performance. You may track display ads in the sidebar using “sidebar” as the SID code and affiliate links within reviews using “review” as the SID code.

This helps you make more money because you get information regarding ads and links that work and those that don’t. It also enables split (A/B) testing for finding out the display ads which work best for the specified audience.

Offer solutions

We agree it’s great to post awesome, new ideas on your blog which will make you stand out from the rest. But when we’re looking at affiliate income, We've found that understanding the audience’s existing problems and resolving them has contributed to a large part of my revenue.

When you offer solutions and create affiliate links to products or supplies required to execute them, you’re sure to strike affiliate gold. There are some good, free tools that can help you know the questions, needs, and problems of your audience. 

Don’t overlook SEO

Search engine optimization is powerful so make sure you don’t ignore it. You need not be a hyper aggressive SEO expert. Just make sure your blog follows the basic SEO best practices. As readership increases, you’ll get links, authority, and social signals. When page SEO is good, you can utilize these to the best extent possible.

Each post should not attempt sales

Don’t appear greedy or desperate. If your blog comes across as an extended and repeated sales pitch for each product, your readers will get alienated.  And no readership equals zero sales. It’s important to understand the difference between recommending products and selling them.

We make it a point to post a few genuinely useful posts which don’t have review focuses between those that do. By being helpful, you increase readership, and subsequently sales.

Write in depth reviews of appropriate products

We think reviews are the best way to generate affiliate income from a blog. So try to make them meaningful. Recommend products that you love, and use and show proof that you actually use them. Offer details about both pros and cons. Ensure you mention how a product solved a problem or fulfilled a particular need.

Though products mentioned need not have exact relevance to the blog topic, they need to have relevance for readers. For example, if yours is a cooking blog and the audience comprises of mostly women and many of them have kids, then advertisements of the “Mommy” kind won’t be too off the mark.

Build mailing lists

Once you’ve got people on a site, you must try to get their email addresses. Email is a great way to remind people of your presence without needing to find them again. This also becomes an additional channel for making affiliate recommendations.

Simple Guidelines to Boost Your Social ROI

You can effectively connect with potential customers via social media, but only when you make use of it in the correct way. A survey conducted by a business community resulted in the finding that though more companies engaged in the use of social media in the year 2012 as compared to the preceding year, only about 40 percent got an actual return on investment.

Here are some simple steps that can help you get maximum benefits from the money and time you spend. These easy-to-apply approaches can help in increasing both efficiency and engagement:

Organize your social profiles

The Lightspan Digital (Chicago) President, Mana Ionescu, is of the opinion that small businesses often waste considerable time arriving at a perfect post or tweet. To save this time, her agency came up with Daily Social Media Workout, a tool which included some specific tasks, like re-posting a couple of good tweets and sharing pictures, so action plans can be formulated and best practices learned alongside.

Gateway for Cancer Research, an institution placed in Schaumburg, Illinois, managed to increase their fans on Facebook by over 160 percent in 8 months using the tool and working regularly on social media. It also saw a four-fold increase in the number of followers on Twitter. Marketing specialist at Gateway for Cancer Research, Ashlee Landis, said the tool encouraged working smarter in place of harder. She used the list every day to find content efficiently and post details that were likely to engage followers and fans resulting in a saving of 3-4 hours weekly.

Coyote Logistics got similar results by making use of the tool for topic and organization coverage. Within a period of 18 months, the company without a previous social presence had 2,300 followers on Twitter and over 2,400 fans on Facebook.

Use tools for time saving and efficiency

Social media manager of Fusion92, Arlington Heights, Illinois, John DeLuca, feels the use of free scheduling tools can help businesses set up tweets, pins and posts in advance to make sure accounts don’t get neglected when days are busy. Tools like Hoot Suite enable users to see multiple network streams simultaneously so they can track posts from various platforms easily. DeLuca also suggests using Feedly and Netvibes as RSS readers for quickly organizing content for online sharing.

Strategically offer a freebie

Rather than spending large amounts on direct mail pieces which normally have a low rate of conversion, Joe Chura, advised a client Fisher Auto at Boulder, Colorado to offer oil changes for subscribing to the company’s email and posting Facebook "Likes". Chura, CEO at Launch Digital Marketing feels that both exposure and revenue can be increased by investing money in online giveaways.

 

There was a 30 boost in Facebook likes, which resulted in $2,700 worth of free oil changes, but there were $6,000 of additional sales during the visits. The promotion campaign was ready in a few hours as compared to the several weeks required to put together direct mail pieces. Chura is of the opinion that people need to offer their most popular services or products as freebies since this would probably create maximum interest in the brand and promotion.

3 Social Media Blunders to Avoid

If you use the right strategies, social media has the power to drive tons of visitors to your website. But very often, webmasters and online marketers commit some grave mistakes that send their followers packing. For example, littering your Twitter feed and Pinterest boards with shamelessly self-promotional and sometimes even insensitive posts won't help your site or your brand. Overtly self-promotional strategies will only ruin your reputation and scare your followers off. Would you be interested in following a feed that is only about promotions?

 

Let's take a look at some social media mistakes that overly enthusiastic webmasters often commi:

1. You only talk about your own services and products

Of course, you are here to promote your stuff. That is the only reason you spend hours on Twitter and Facebook. There is absolutely nothing wrong with promoting your stuff. But every now and then you must also write about other people's products and services. The best part is that if you promote other people's stuff, they will also promote yours. On the other hand, if all of your status updates, pins, and tweets revolve around you or your brand, you will soon alienate your fan following.

 

Social media experts suggest that you follow the 80 - 20 rule to improve engagement with your potential customers over social media. What this means is that 80 percent of the stuff you post or share should address the problems of your customers. You can also share stuff they may find interesting. You can devote the remaining 20 percent to talk about your brand. By consciously 'downplaying' your brand, you build trust and improve engagement.

2. You don't share your follower's content

You are damn certain that your content is worth sharing, but if none of your followers click on those share buttons, it is time to review your social media strategies. Social media is all about building relationships. In the real world, you can't expect people to help you if you don't help them, right? In the virtual world too, don't expect your followers to share your content if you don't share theirs. Therefore, express a sincere interest in what your followers share. Retweet, share, or pin their content that your target audience may care about. By doing this, you foster a sense of community and engagement within your social circles. You may also exchange friendly messages with your followers. This helps build relationships.

When you share other people's content, they will also share yours. This will increase your brand exposure.

3. You post insensitive comments about sensitive topics.

This is a grave mistake. It is worse than the other two. By posting insensitive comments about sensitive topics, you not only alienate your followers, but also encourage people to trash talk your brand over the social media. As far as possible, avoid posts that are political or religious in nature. If you must, you could perhaps post them on your personal Facebook or Twitter profiles. You must also refrain from posting offensive or obscene content.