As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the globe, companies from numerous industries have taken on new responsibilities. Much in the way that many companies put their resources and workforce toward new causes during major wars in the past, today’s efforts by everything from car companies to clothing manufacturers to meet worldwide virus-fighting needs are geared toward the common good.

If you are managing a call center or business process outsourcing operation, you can be part of this effort as well. Of course, you won’t be asked to manufacturer face masks or ventilators, but there is still something very important that your company may be able to do to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. You may be asked to participate in telephone contact tracing, a very important measure being taken toward public health.

Call centers are all at the center of a global pandemic outbreak right now, and are more than likely experiencing higher call volume at the very moment that governments are mandating social distancing and other measures. In a worst case scenario, you may be ordered to close physical call center operations in the interest of combating COVID-19’s spread.

Today’s most successful companies focus a lot on brand experience. This is a combination of user experience with brand-specific products and services, as well as the delivery on the brand promise. A brand promise is simply the way a company boasts that users will feel or experiences that they will have while using their products or enjoying their services.

Brand experience isn’t always something grandiose. When you hear the word “experience”, you may think of a custom-tailored approach to service, but sometimes a good experience is as simple as having your interaction with a company go quickly and smoothly. Sometimes, delivering on that kind of promise is more than enough to delight a consumer.

Customer experience is about more than just providing answers to questions and solutions to problems. These days consumers are looking for a full personalized experience. They want to feel like your first priority, and they want to feel like the companies they work with know them on a personal level, as well.

Rising to meet these changing needs is part of providing the memorable customer service that keeps consumers coming back to your brand or company. Today’s technology is designed to help you do exactly this, with the modern consumer in mind. Speech analytics is one of the best tools for the job, simplifying numerous elements of the customer service job and making it easier than ever to tailor service to consumers while streamlining the workday for your agents.

If you’ve opened a business magazine or browsed an industry blog in the last few years, you have undoubtedly seen big businesses touting the benefits of taking their operations into the cloud. For a smaller operation, this can be both confusing and intimidating. What does moving your operation into the cloud actually mean - what would that entail and would it be safe? How difficult would it actually be to migrate everything you rely on into a cloud-based server?

Here are some real-world facts about cloud migration and how moving your company’s operations into the cloud can be beneficial - regardless of your size or industry experience.

For as long as there have been contact centers, these facilities have used traditional telephony as a way to communicate with customers. This only makes sense - everyone has a telephone of some kind in their possession or close enough to access easily. But what happens to the old standby telephone as the primary means of communicating when your customers are increasingly using digital devices?

In the digital age, more and more call centers are relying on a digital voice solution to ensure the best sound quality, greatest reliability, and best possible service to consumers. Does your contact center need a digital voice solution? Is the one you have outdated and ready for a tune up with today’s latest technology? Here’s what you really need to know about this modern call center standby:

For a long time, now, contact centers have relied heavily on the interactive voice response system - also known as IVR - to direct consumer traffic and create self-service options. It makes sense; a good IVR system can lower labor costs, improve efficiency, and enhance customer experience. But could a chat bot be doing the same thing?

These days, companies are using chat bots to accomplish numerous tasks that were once the job of live agents. They can also be employed to handle many of the same jobs your IVR system once did. The question is - are they capable of doing it better?

Being able to see figures and facts is an important aspect of success when growing and improving your call center’s approaches. Data visualization has long been a focus of these improvement strategies for contact centers, BPO organizations, and more. These days, though, this visualization is its own approach - and its entirely digital.

Digital visualization allows for better interaction with data and a better understanding of the figures being examined. It allows for companies to make more meaningful adjustments based on the information presented - and access that information whenever necessary.

Ready to learn more about how great digital visualization can improve your call center from the inside out? Check out all the ways seeing it in living - digital - color can help your team put your data to better use:

Today’s consumers are increasingly fond of self-service.

Part of this comes from the convenience of self-service options; whether it’s paying a bill from the comfort of your own home or canceling a subscription without having to spend half an hour on the phone with someone, it’s an approach to customer service that fits the busy modern person’s schedule.

However, a larger part of this desire for self-service options comes from the newer generations’ lack of desire to talk to actually talk to other people on the phone. While often mocked by older people, this is just a natural part of the evolution of communication - and something that should be catered to by businesses that hope to remain competitive. Offering more contact center self-service options is one way to keep these businesses relevant in a time when they have fallen out of public favor.

For outbound call centers, compliance with government regulations regarding consumer privacy and protection is essential. Noncompliance won’t just get your center into hot water - it can get your business shut down and land you in major legal trouble.

Can you operate an outbound contact center in the post-TCPA era without worrying about this potential problem? Yes - if you and your staff understand outbound call compliance and how to work within the government guidelines. Here, we’ll help you understand your center’s place in the modern marketplace and how to keep from encountering problems related to compliance: