It’s that time of year again. Super Bowl Sunday is this weekend. Regardless of which teams happen to be playing in the big game, the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers in this case, it is must-see TV. People watch for various reasons. They want to watch the game itself, they just care about the commercials and the halftime show, or they just want an excuse to hang out with friends on a Sunday night. Whatever your reasoning for watching the Super Bowl, the bottom line is that millions and millions of people tune in who normally would not be tuning in if it were any given Sunday. With the most-watched sporting event worldwide looming on the horizon, let’s have a look at how you can handle volume spikes in your contact center ACD.
Are the Kardashians Hurting Your Business?
You have a bunch of agents you’d like to keep busy, but call volumes are low. You can’t send anyone home, because it might get busy later. You’ll go broke if your agents spend most of their time discussing their favorite Kardashian.
Do you have to wait for people to call in? Continue reading “Are the Kardashians Hurting Your Business?”
Calling Web Services in Your Asterisk IVR
CRM or data integration aren’t things that you often associate with your inbound IVR. That usually happens at the agent screen level. Sometimes, it’s handy to be able to pull data from an external data source and redirect the call based on the result. Continue reading “Calling Web Services in Your Asterisk IVR”
Making Your Inbound Queues Personal
It almost goes without saying that the gold standard of inbound call centre technology is a proper skills-based routing ACD. That’s the best way to ensure that the right agents get the right calls at the right time.
Would You Like PBX Dial Notifications for Incoming Calls? You Can Have Them!
These days, more and more people want to stay in the loop as much as possible. With cell phones being almost a necessity, this statement holds true even more. We all want to be notified in one way or another when something of interest happens, whether it’s a Facebook message or a Twitter DM. Using PBX dial notifications can help keep you in the loop if and when you are on the go and not currently at your PBX extension’s location. I know I’m stepping out of the contact center realm with this PBX-specific topic and that’s ok. Let’s talk about these dial notifications. Continue reading “Would You Like PBX Dial Notifications for Incoming Calls? You Can Have Them!”
Hold For the Holidays: How to Not Annoy Your Holding Customers
The 2015 holiday shopping season is well under way. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, and now we’re into the home stretch before the holiday break. I’m keeping a loose eye on Twitter and it appears that a lot of people are tweeting out to companies about being on hold for an atrociously long period of time and they are, of course, not happy about it. Nobody wants to be stuck on hold any longer than they need to be, so I can sympathize with these people. Contact centers should be prepared to handle the influx of calls that are no doubt going to happen during this time period and should be able to adjust accordingly. Continue reading “Hold For the Holidays: How to Not Annoy Your Holding Customers”
Stop Giving Your Q/A Team Your Client’s Credit Card Numbers
Have you ever had someone ask for your credit card number over the phone? That question always makes me uncomfortable. My personal policy is to never give it out if I’m the one who was called. If I have called in, and it makes sense in the context of the call, I give it out over the phone. Continue reading “Stop Giving Your Q/A Team Your Client’s Credit Card Numbers”
Are You Recycling Your Leads Correctly?
Have you ever gotten a call from a call center, then gotten another call from the same number 5 minutes later? Maybe you were screening your calls, or you saw the caller ID come in while you were on the other line. Anyway, super annoying. Chances are that you weren’t too happy. Did their call center software break? Did they have you in their list multiple times? Or are they straight up incompetent? It doesn’t matter. They upset you. Continue reading “Are You Recycling Your Leads Correctly?”
Preparing for the Fallout: Ways to Avoid a Contact Center Disaster
Bethesda’s latest installment in the Fallout franchise, Fallout 4, releases in four days. I know a lot of people who are incredibly excited for this game. I’m actually not one of the them, as of now, but that could certainly change. With that in mind, let’s talk about a few of the options you have for avoiding a contact center disaster. Continue reading “Preparing for the Fallout: Ways to Avoid a Contact Center Disaster”
Can You Spot Problems In Your Call Center Software?
Every call center has issues from time to time. You could have an issue with audio quality, calls sitting in queue without being answered, or calls not even reaching the queue in the first place. You may be the greatest diagnostic genius ever, but if you don’t have better system access, the data you need may be out of your reach. Continue reading “Can You Spot Problems In Your Call Center Software?”