In customer experience (CX), every interaction influences your brand's reputation. Concerns like "My reputation is on the line?" highlight the crucial role of CX in maintaining a positive brand image. This blog addresses these concerns, offering strategies for leaders to safeguard their reputation.
The cost of call center services can vary significantly based on several factors. Here are key considerations that influence the average pricing:
As cost pressures continue to rise, and customer satisfaction continues to drop, the pressure on CX professionals is growing. The responsibility of creating a great experience at the lowest cost can feel at odds with each other until we realize both the customer and the brand want the same thing…the easiest and fastest way to resolve every issue.
Call defection strategies can help you and the customer get what they want.
Contact center agents face numerous challenges in their roles, each requiring tailored solutions to enhance their performance and well-being.
In the dynamic landscape of customer service, the decision to operate a call center 24/7 is a strategic move that comes with both advantages and challenges. Providing round-the-clock support can enhance customer satisfaction, but it also introduces complexities in terms of staffing, costs, and employee well-being. In this blog post, we'll explore the pros and cons of keeping the lines open 24/7 in a call center setting.
The term “emotional intelligence” or EI for short, was first defined in the 1990s. Since then, it has become a popular buzzword in the world of business and customer service. But what is it, and does it really matter? In this blog from Incept, we’ll get into the specifics, and discuss what you should know about emotional intelligence and why it matters for your customer service team.
As 2022 draws to a close, we’re all wondering what 2023 will hold. If you’re planning for the future of your business, it’s a good idea to stay updated about the 2023 customer service trends that may impact you and your company.
In this blog, Incept will take a look at some of the customer service trends that may influence customer satisfaction in 2023 – and beyond. Read on, stay updated, and see how you can set yourself up for success.
Understanding how to reduce hold time in a call center to increase agent productivity and customer satisfaction is something we excel at and want to help your business with too. There are so many benefits to working to assist customers as soon as possible—customer experience being at the top of the list!
In this blog post, we go over the top 5 ways to reduce call hold time for your call center.
82% of people use some kind of social media, and 64% of people would rather send a message to a business on social media instead of calling them. But how can you make sure your business is setting itself up for success, and can provide excellent customer service via social media? Here are a few of our top tips.
So, you’re considering outsourcing some of your customer experience? Great! You’ve come to the right place to learn more about what makes Incept a top choice for your CX outsourcing partner.
Incept is a 100% domestic, Northeast Ohio based call center that has been in business for over 28 years. Our entire staff is domestic and primarily in Ohio (although we have the capability to hire in other states if needed to scale). We have a hybrid work environment and have been able to maintain and improve our company culture with our hybrid work environment. As evidence of our company culture we have been recognized by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a Top Workplace 10 out of the last 11 years.
While the majority of businesses worked to pivot to remote work, we wonder how this change has impacted remote call center agents over the past few years. Continue reading to learn about the five ways that remote agents have impacted customer experience, and how to uphold the importance of the customer in your organization.
To have a top work culture in a call center, the focus must be on the call center agents and their needs since the responsibilities of the job can cause such high turnover. Did you know that the overall turnover averages for the call center industry as a whole range between 30–45 percent, with some centers having almost no turnover, and other centers having turnover in the triple digits? To help you navigate this important topic, we’d like to share five strategies to achieve a top call center culture and what your call center can do to help create a successful work environment.
Walt Disney once said: “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends”. This brings us to the question - is your customer experience at the same level as Disney’s? Customer loyalty must be earned, and keeping your customers satisfied should be a top priority.
What’s the best way to ensure your customers are satisfied? Be there for them when they need you most! Not every person doing business with you is going to need help solely during business hours, which is why it’s essential to offer 24/7 customer support. If customers don’t have the support they want and need, it can lead to a loss of business, unfulfilled promises, and leaves complaints unresolved. You want to be a brand your customers can trust - by not being there when your customers need you, you’re risking their business and their loyalty.
Remember the first time you used Priceline or Hotwire? If you are like me, you were not willing to lower your expectation of quality but did have flexibility on your timing.
Sites like these unlock benefits for both the hotels and the traveler. High-end hotels have expiring inventory that will generate $0 if the room goes unrented, and travelers that have flexibility in their timing are able to stay at high-quality venues for a fraction of the regular list price.
We see similar things happen in service industries now, especially when labor is the limiting factor.
Good news!
For CX service buyers with flexibility, there is a way to still get 5-star customer experience, but at 2-star prices.
Here at Incept, our purpose is to help our employees become the best version of themselves. It is because of this commitment to our employees that we have subsequently experienced so much success in the past several years, especially in 2021. Incept has added over 300 jobs to the local economy in the last 5 years while almost doubling revenue.
It’s our intense focus on this purpose that has landed us at the top of multiple awards lists, commemorating our culture, employee engagement, and company growth.
Please, join us in celebration of a fantastic year while we recount the incredible recognition of a passionate, hard working team!
We’ve talked before about how having only an internal customer support team could actually be costing you money, but did you know that there are more benefits of outsourcing customer support?
When it comes to customer experience, customer support plays a critical role. Whether your company is rapidly growing, and you can’t staff quickly enough, need to staff live agents during peak times of day or year, or you want to offer support at times that your employees don’t work, outsourced CX can really prove to be beneficial. And, if you’re not prioritizing customer experience, you’re essentially leaving money on the table.
Note that there is a difference between customer experience and customer support, which is important for you to understand. Luckily we have an in-depth blog post outlining how CX and customer support are different to help you!
Customer experience has been the main topic of conversation for industry leaders within the last year. So what exactly is it? Customer experience is the sum of all the interactions that a customer has with an organization over the life of the relationship with that company or brand.
It’s true. Even though things seem to have somewhat normalized, companies are still continuing the virtual workplace. But, when it comes to customers, how do we continue to give them that ‘wow’ factor throughout the customer experience journey from behind a computer screen or phone? Well, we have four points that can help your company to humanize CX strategies in the virtual workplace.
Before we dive into using empathy in a remote CX world, let’s first discuss what it is. In short, empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of another person with or without having experienced the same situation themselves.
When it comes to customer experience, being an empathetic customer service representative means actively listening to understand the customer’s problems along with the feelings behind their words. Empathy in customer experience doesn’t mean you have to agree with what the customer is saying - it simply means you understand where they are coming from.
Customer experience. A term so seemingly simple but when put into practice is quite extensive. When you think about CX, what likely comes to mind is a live phone agent answering a customer service call, however that’s not all that customer experience is. Let’s jump into what customer experience is so you have a better understanding when you decide what type of CX support you need.
Whether you have an internal call center or are working with an outsourced CX partner to manage your customer experience, phone scripts are essential for maintaining consistency. We talk a lot about the importance of digital marketing and its role in the customer’s journey, but one thing is for sure - a phone call and a human conversation is something that won’t (and can’t) go away.
Customer experience expectations aren’t going anywhere. If anything, they only continue to increase as people highly scrutinize where they are spending their money. As an outsourced CX partner, we know the importance of prioritizing customer experience in your business strategy. However, if you need more information to help you and your team prioritize CX, we’ve compiled a variety of customer experience statistics.
When you think of customer experience, inbound telemarketing services are typically what come to mind. Those services include inbound calling, live chat, email, texting, and any other method you have set up where your customers can easily reach out to you. However, I’m willing to bet that outbound marketing or outbound teleservices don’t cross your mind nearly as much in relation to CX. And if you think customer experience and customer service are the same - think again and read this article that outlines the differences of each.
Because customer experience relates to the entire customer journey, you need to consider how both inbound and outbound marketing play a role in growth and customer retention. Or maybe outbound telemarketing doesn’t cross your mind because you’re not sure what it all entails. In order to ensure you’re educated on both sides of CX, we’re going to discuss the difference between inbound and outbound marketing and telemarketing.
While many businesses are increasingly driving self-service models, there remains an ever-present need for a high performing contact center. Where organizations miss the mark is attempting to replace the conversation with robust scripts, scenarios, interactive voice response (IVR), etc. They overlook the reason the customer called in the first place--for individual customer service.
Customer experience has increasingly grown in priority over the last few years, and for good reason. To put numbers to that statement, 73% of customers agree that customer experience helps to drive their buying decision. And, 89% of consumers have moved to a competitor following a poor customer experience with a brand. Regardless of your business and its model, an emphasis on what your customers want needs to be at the forefront of any CX decision if you want to retain customers as well as continue acquiring new customers.
