Thomas Laird
CustomerThink
Erie, PA, United States
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Past articles by Thomas:
Purchasing a New Call Center Platform- Everything You Need To Know
Whether you are in the market or will be in the market for a new call center platform, we will go in-depth into the different types of providers, what are must/should-haves you should purchase, tips on saving money, tricks the platforms sometimes play, how to negotiate the price, and what you should be looking to pay per seat. UCAAS vs CCAAS UCAAS means “Unified Communications as a Service” and… → Read More
HR and Corrective Actions in the Call Center Environment
A lot of you have reached out and asked me, how do I deal with reps that are not putting in the effort, come in with a bad attitude, or just do not feel like working today? Now that we are in an at-home model, how do I deal with that when I cannot physically be there to look over my reps? Whether it is through monitoring or a message sent, how can I tell the tone of the messages your employees… → Read More
5 Key Traits of an Awesome Call Center
There’s five things that I think we look for when we see a high-producing call center and something in my call center that we really try to stress. And some of them might be self-explanatory but others might be a little bit, I don’t want to say off the wall, but a little unique. But number one is really measuring the proper metrics. Well, we are all and our industry as a whole is so stuck in… → Read More
10 Policies Every Call Center Operation Must Have
Whether you are setting up a new call center or updating an older one, there are certain policies that you need to have in place. Most of these policies come from the need to keep your organization as secure as possible. Keep in mind, there are a few that you will need to have your attorney approve before you use them. NDA’S Every single employee needs to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Your… → Read More
7 Metrics to Benchmark Your Call Center for Efficiency
When considering what metrics make up a world-class call center, there are many points to consider. Let’s focus on the agent’s side of things. What do you need to measure to be as efficient as possible, while still giving your callers all of the assistance they require? To remain efficient, there are really seven metrics that we need to monitor. These things all need to be tracked daily to see… → Read More
Nine Ways to Make Your Customer Service Experience Unique
Call centers are always looking for ways to stand out from all the others. We like giving you actionable lists that you can learn from, so here are nine ways to make the customer service in your call center unique. BRAND YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE We really like to brand service find a specific tagline that can be branded to them. At Chick-fil-A, when an employee thanks a customer, the reply is… → Read More
Call Center Security 101: Security Needs in Your Call Center
We get a lot of questions about what kind of security a call center needs. Most security is nowhere near where it needs to be for American customers. Most of our security protocols are based upon being PCI compliant. Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is required by credit card companies to protect their customer’s data. We want to protect all personal data of our customers, not just credit… → Read More
Call Center Operations Trends for 2020
It’s that time of year! Everyone is putting out their “Trends for 2020” lists and we decided to join in on the fun. For the ten call center trends we see coming for 2020, most of them are technology-driven, but some are more along the lines of processing or call center operations. We really intend to focus on technology that will be generally available. Most of these trends are new. Some of them… → Read More
Five Ways to Engage Your Call Center Staff
We like to give our readers actionable items that they can use in their own centers, not just click-bait stuff that we all probably already know. With that in mind, here are some actual ways to engage your call center middle management and associates, to make them feel part of the bigger team. It gives them a say in what is happening, which increases the morale on the floor and builds trust.… → Read More
Remembering the Call Center of the Past- 1985
Let’s take a trip back to the call center of 1985! I have read and written many articles on the future of customer service and the future of the contact center. I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and try to get a discussion on the “old” days. The days when outbound calling was huge, before the advanced telephony, skills-based routing, and the CTI (or any computers for that… → Read More
Call Center Outsourcing: Outsource Your Call Center or Grow It Internally?
With the current economy on the upswing, many companies are expanding their operations and wondering about call center outsourcing. The question of “What do we do with the expansion of the call center and customer service department?” is becoming a substantive issue that a lot of organizations must answer. Should We Outsource Our Call Center or Grow It Internally? There is a perception in the… → Read More
Call Center Quality Management-Weekly Agent Analysis Program Implementation
Call Center Quality management and training need to be a cornerstone of any contact center. Do all your contact center/customer service agents have a current, up to date improvement plan? Do they understand their goals for quality, sales, conversion or net promotion? There are a lot of centers that just do a quick morning meeting and then get on with their day. If that is the basis for your reps… → Read More
Starting the Day the Right Way in Your Call Center for Maximum Quality Results
CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT-CONTROLLING THE FIRST 30 MINUTES OF AN ASSOCIATE’S DAY We educate all our middle management that the first 30 minutes of an associate’s day must be totally controlled by the supervisor. We believe it is one of the most important tips that we can give any call center manager. If you know what to do during this time and your supervisors are trained in this aspect it will… → Read More
10 Ways To Disrupt Your Call Center Using Technology and Best Practices
The technology and processes for running a call center in 2019 are evolving. Let’s look at 10 ways you can disrupt your call center today for a better customer experience and higher quality associates. 1) Omnichannel Call Center Operation: The days of dictating how a customer interacts with your company ended about 5 years ago. Chat, Email, Voice, Self-service even video options need to be… → Read More