The Summit attracts the industry’s brightest CX leaders and practitioners, representing an impressive array of brands and industries. Its unique appeal centers around a mission to gather a thriving, highly engaged group of CX leaders, advocates, and enthusiasts to inspire greatness through collaboration. The goal is to connect leaders eager to enlighten and motivate change, advance the CX conversation, enhance brand experiences, and initiate positive change within the industry.

The three-day CRS agenda will focus on a pertinent theme, “Building on Our Foundations – People, Technology, Data, and Humanity,” that speaks directly to the heart of the CX industry in an era of continuous change. The theme celebrates the CX pillars that propel future possibilities while continuing to sharpen, enable, and enhance the fundamentals of CX. The theme will be woven throughout the Summit with real stories and insights shared in the Keynotes, Panel Discussions, People and Process Workshops, Tech Forums, Case Studies, Customer Shop Talks, and Moments of Brilliance sessions. Additionally, attendees can see concepts in action at our Innovations Lab, which uniquely promotes interaction, conversation, and continued networking with peers.

“Customer experience is integral to many aspects of a business, from product development to sales and marketing,” said Susan McDaniel, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Execs In The Know. “Our community is comprised of so many talented leaders. These leaders are passionate about sharing their ideas and strategies with a collective purpose to enhance and optimize the customer and employee experience across all aspects of operations. It’s a privilege and honor to support their purpose at Customer Response Summit.”

Are you a CX leader or practitioner who oversees CX, customer care, and related operations? If so, and if you would like to attend this special event, email Execs In The Know at info@execsintheknow.com to request your private invitation to take advantage of the group rates or first-time attendee discounts. Military veteran and refer-a-friend specials are also available, and early registration is highly recommended and encouraged.

About Execs In The Know

Execs In The Know brings together customer experience (CX) leaders from across industries in an effort to advance the conversation and set a new agenda for delivering amazing experiences for consumers. As a global community of the brightest minds in CX, Execs In The Know provides opportunities to learn, share, network, and engage to innovate. Operating under the motto, “Leaders Learning From Leaders,” Execs In The Know facilitates many opportunities for community engagement, such as its bi-annual national Customer Response Summit and private, online community, Know It All “KIA.” There are also exclusive, laser-focused engagements like industry briefings and executive roundtables. Execs In The Know also guides and informs the industry with a rich tapestry of CX-related content that includes CX Insight magazine, industry research, webinars, blogs, and much more. To learn more about Execs In The Know, visit https://execsintheknow.com.

The post Announcing Execs In The Know’s Fall 2024 Customer Response Summit, Taking Place In Palm Springs, California on September 24-26, 2024 appeared first on Execs In The Know.

This new 70+ page report focuses on a specific vertical (Retail/eCommerce) and includes comparisons between consumer and corporate practitioners, as well as comparisons against past research from Execs In The Know and Conduent to uncover insights across all industries.

By comparing the Retail/eCommerce vertical with other industries, several differences emerge. The standout characteristics for Retail/eCommerce brands include channel diversity, the proactive approach to economic uncertainty, and CX leaders’ satisfaction with their tech stacks. Generally, consumers are pleased with the customer care they are receiving from Retail/eCommerce brands, but they still seek faster, simpler transactions, more consistency across channels, and easier access to live support.

A few key insights from this latest research:

• Regardless of loyalty status, most consumers feel the key to an exceptional customer experience is to “Provide Consistent, High-Quality Experiences at Every Touchpoint”
• On a five-point scale, 42% of consumers said Retail/eCommerce brands are providing “Better” or “Much Better” customer care compared to that of three years ago (pre-pandemic)
• “Managing Cost, Including Rising Operational Costs” is expected to be the biggest CX challenge among most (56%) Retail/eCommerce brands in the coming 12 months
• Sixty-nine percent of Retail/eCommerce brands have seen improvement in their critical program KPIs over the past 12 months

“This report opens an exciting and new avenue of research for our community,” said Susan McDaniel, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Execs In The Know. “Loyalty is an important topic, not just for our friends in the Retail/eCommerce vertical, but across industries. Many of the findings contained in this report translate well on a cross-industry basis, providing a clear picture of what loyalty means to consumers, and how brands can cultivate more loyal customers.”

“This unique research by Execs In The Know and Conduent provides CX leaders with the types of findings and insights to help them shape strategies and focus CX investments,” said Ryan Collins, Vice President and General Manager Customer Experience Management Solutions at Conduent. “A key takeaway from the research is that the fundamentals of customer service must be solid. Emerging technologies and communications channels are only beneficial and further enhance customer experience if they are implemented strategically and complement the work of agents. They must remain focused on people, processes, training and creating exceptional experiences for customers and then integrate new solutions to meet changing expectations.”

About Execs In The Know

Execs In The Know brings together customer experience (CX) leaders from across industries in an effort to advance the conversation and set a new agenda for delivering amazing experiences for consumers. As a global community of the brightest minds in CX, Execs In The Know provides opportunities to learn, share, network, and engage to innovate. Operating under the motto, “Leaders Learning From Leaders,” Execs In The Know facilitates many opportunities for community engagement, such as its bi-annual national Customer Response Summit and private, online community, Know It All “KIA.” There are also exclusive, laser-focused engagements like industry briefings and executive roundtables. Execs In The Know also guides and informs the industry with a rich tapestry of CX-related content that includes CX Insight magazine, industry research, webinars, blogs, and much more.

To learn more about Execs In The Know, visit www.execsintheknow.com.

About Conduent

Conduent delivers digital business solutions and services spanning the commercial, government and transportation spectrum — creating exceptional outcomes for its clients and the millions of people who count on them. The company leverages cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation and advanced analytics to deliver mission-critical solutions. Through a dedicated global team of approximately 60,000 associates, process expertise and advanced technologies, Conduent solutions and services digitally transform its clients’ operations to enhance customer experiences, improve performance, increase efficiencies and reduce costs. Conduent adds momentum to its clients’ missions in many ways, including delivering 43% of nutrition assistance payments in the U.S., enabling 1.3 billion customer service interactions annually, empowering millions of employees through HR services every year and processing nearly 12 million tolling transactions every day.

To learn more about Conduent, visit www.conduent.com.

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While contact centers are increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications for a variety of reasons, these technologies are not a silver bullet for everything, nor are they a complete solution for a specific problem set. They can, and should, play a role in helping contact centers adapt to digital transformation – in conjunction with existing technologies and processes.

When considering vendors offering AI applications, contact centers should consider how well they interwork and support the systems currently in use, rather than looking to replace them altogether. For now, AI will best serve contact centers as a complementary technology.

Operational Challenge #1: Maintaining Staff

The impact digital transformation has on staffing may not be that obvious, largely because it’s been overshadowed by the pandemic. By now, contact centers and agents have adapted to a work-from-home model, which will remain in place for many contact centers.

Contact centers have been hugely impacted by the Great Resignation, as has the entire service economy. Turnover in call centers has averaged 30% to 40%.

Supporting home-based agents presents many operational challenges for contact center leaders, and compounding that is the way digital transformation is reshaping the customer experience (CX). A key change is the need for seamless omnichannel communication with the growing use of digital channels by customers. If contact centers cannot effectively support this, the agent experience (AX) suffers and, as we’ve seen with the Great Resignation, agents will leave for greener pastures.

In terms of maintaining staffing levels, there are two immediate AI use cases to consider.

The first would be intelligent routing where AI can direct incoming inquiries based on the channel used by the customer. This can be especially effective for existing customers, where analytics can determine channel preferences based on past history. This way, inquiries will get routed to agents with the right skills set – both at scale and in real-time – making their jobs less stressful and more tenable.

A second use case would be self-service automation. The main idea is that better forms of self-service are critical for AX, and all contact center vendors now have AI solutions that go well beyond conventional IVR. Digital transformation is simply raising the bar for what self-service needs to be. The longer agents have to keep dealing with routine queries or repeating steps already covered in IVR, the bigger your staffing issues will become.

Operational Challenge #2: Speed to Competency

Digital transformation enables a remote working environment and allows contact centers to draw from a much larger pool for hiring agents.

While contact centers don’t have the luxury to keep hiring agents as traffic grows, they do need to hire and train them faster than before. This is another by-product of the Great Resignation, where there has been a sudden surge of people exiting the workforce, making the need to replace agents a top priority. As such, the challenge of speed to competency and onboarding new agents is more about maintaining current staff levels rather than adding agents to scale up.

In terms of operations, this means contact centers are playing catchup trying to replenish their depleted ranks rather than staffing up for growth. As noted above, AI applications alone won’t enable contact center leaders to totally catch up, but it has a key role to play, especially to speed up the hiring and training process.

When considering AI vendors, there are two capabilities you should be looking for.

First is the ability to quickly vet candidates for the skills needed, not just for specific agent roles, but also for the basic competencies they’ll need for your industry and customer base. This is especially relevant for global businesses, and how digital transformation removes the borders of geography, allowing contact centers to hire agents with greater proximity to customers on a regional basis. These possibilities are very recent, and while they hold great promise for improving CX, you really need the scale of AI applications to execute on this promise.

Second would be the next step, which is to train and onboard new agents once drawn from this pool of candidates. Machine learning (ML) is of particular importance as you’ll need to profile best practices from your top agents and use that as the template for training new hires. This is how you leverage AI to shorten the learning curve and provide real-time guidance for new agents.

Not only will agent turnover drop when you can onboard them more effectively, but so will the associated costs with staffing.

Guest blog post written by UpstreamWorks. To learn more about this topic and others, visit our events page to check out upcoming events.

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If you have yet to tune in to the Fall 2021 CRS virtual event, you can watch many sessions on-demand.
Registration is simple, free, and it takes only a minute to get immediate online access to this insightful content.

To help highlight some of the amazing ideas that came out of these sessions, we’ve created a five-part blog series — each focusing on a particular keynote session. In Part 4, we join Sean Miller for a frank discussion about the challenges and opportunities posed by a major merger between former competitors are we learn about Angi, the result of a merger between Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor.

From Merger to Maximizing Combined CX Operations

Sean Miller
Vice President of Operations
Angi

Click to sign in or register to watch Sean’s Fall 2021 CRS presentation.

From frontline agent to the Vice President of Operations, from being acquired to multiple rebrandings, Sean has experienced a lot in his career, all to prepare him for the 2017 merger between Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor, as well as the emergence of Angi in 2021. Although the Angi story is still being written, there are plenty of lessons to be learned starting with the importance of culture and unity, as well as a constant focus on the customer. If yours is a company facing a merger or on the other side of one, Sean’s is a story you don’t want to miss. Here are some takeaways we’ve identified:

1. It Starts with Team Buy-In

Any time there is a significant change (like a merger, for instance), quickly gaining team buy-in on a shared goal is the surest way to lay the groundwork for success. For Angi, it was important to quickly establish the idea that care would be operating as one team, moving forward with a shared goal of helping homeowners connect with service pros to get their project done.

2. When in Doubt, Double Down on Culture

Building and maintaining a strong company culture shows that a company values more than the bottom line — its values its people. Creating an environment of recognition and engagement is important for many reasons, but the biggest is this: Agent experience is the cornerstone of a great customer experience. If agents are happy and cared for, an organization is already halfway home to providing an exceptional customer experience.

3. Agents Want to Solve Issues

If you’re hiring the right people, your hiring agents will get fulfillment from resolving issues and advocating on behalf of customers. Any barriers that stand in the way of this can be counterproductive in a variety of ways. In other words, if customers are frustrated by gaps and disconnects in tools and/or processes, chances are agents will be dissatisfied too. Create mechanisms for spotting and correcting these types of issues to keep agents and customers happy.

4. Don’t Let Big Challenges Become Big Obstacles

Mergers and other significant changes can pose big challenges, challenges like competing backend systems, disconnected processes, and incompatible tools. But leaders can’t let these big challenges stand in the way of moving forward. Build a plan, reach for low hanging fruit first, and never lose focus on how each move impacts the customer.

5. A Mission Statement Shouldn’t Just Hang on a Wall

If a company’s mission isn’t embodied in action, it becomes very tough to rally the troops around any single initiative. Leaders need to play a critical role in turning mission into motion, and this is doubly true in a situation such as a merger, especially when the merging parties were once competitors. Living the mission is something that takes constant cultivation, but the payoff is immense if the right mission is met with the right amount of enthusiasm.

Merging with the competition is one thing, but standing out from the competition is yet another. If a merger isn’t in your future, but getting noticed by new and existing customers is, consider having a look at the Fall 2021 CRS event panel session highlighted below. Learn how your brand can use artificial intelligence to break away from the competition.

Be sure to check it out:
Personalization as a Differentiator: Using AI to Stand Out in a “Sea of Sameness”

The post Fall 2021 CRS & Five Key Takeaways from Five Keynotes — Part 4: Angi appeared first on Execs In The Know.

If you have yet to tune in to the Fall 2021 CRS virtual event, you can watch many sessions on-demand.
Registration is simple, free, and it takes only a minute to get immediate online access to this insightful content.

To help highlight some of the amazing ideas that came out of these sessions, we’ve created a five-part blog series — each focusing on a particular keynote session. In Part 3, we share Randy Bassett’s and DISH Network’s unique approach to agent coaching, and how it has led to award-winning customer experience.

Why DISH Network Keeps Winning JD Power Awards

Randy Bassett
General Manager, Vendor Relationship
DISH Network

Click to sign in or register to watch Randy’s Fall 2021 CRS presentation.

Randy shares why the “DISH Way” is the secret ingredient in DISH Network’s ability to wrangle so many customer service awards from JD Power in the Paid TV space. Specifically, DISH Network’s innovative “Shared Coaching” approach positions both agents and coaches for achieving their true potential through a carefully designed process of ongoing improvement, ultimately delivering an unrivalled experience. Combined with “Development Plans” that truly develop, and an unmatched set of agent tools, DISH Network has implemented an approach both unique and effective in its development of its people.

1. Shared Coaching Plays to Strengths

Using a shared coaching approaching helps maximize strengths and more effectively address weaknesses, both for agents and coaches. Pairing agents with rotating coaches means agents can focus on specific areas of concern. Furthermore, they can benefit by being paired with a coach who specializes in coaching in those same areas.

2. A Development Plan Should Actually Develop

If done right, a development plan isn’t reactive, it’s proactive. At DISH Network, every agent has a development plan, as does every coach. For agents, the plan is often built around skills. And for coaches, often career. The objective is not just to get better in real time, but to also prepare for that next promotion or other growth opportunity.

3. Empower Agents to Provide Feedback

It can be a change of pace for some organizations (and change can be hard), but empowering agents to provide honest and constructive feedback on coaches, process, activities, etc., can be a valuable resource for pinpointing opportunities for improvement. The same goes for coaches providing feedback on managers. This can also be done with varying degrees of anonymity to help elicit greater participation.

4. Tools Are Critical

Agents can work effectively only if their tools are working. It’s that simple. If done right, agent tools hold answers, and agents are simply expert users. But like people, tools can also be improved so it’s important to tap agent intelligence on this front. Using agent feedback is a great way to identify gaps, pain points, or ideas for improvement. Afterall, no one knows agent tools better than agents.

5. Team Strategy Must Align with Overall Goals

From broad company initiatives to quarterly priorities, teams are most effective when they align the day-to-day strategy with the wider mission of the organization. Of course, communication is a key enabler, as is the presence of an accommodating company culture. But when priorities converge and all ships are pointed in the same direction, small wins are almost always amplified.

Bold innovations take bold leadership and unyielding vision. As more and more companies look to standout out among the competition, the right leadership pieces have to be in place. One of those pieces is the Chief Customer Officer (CCO). If this is a role you’d like to know more about, you should know the Fall 2021 CRS event featured a special panel discussion devoted to the topic.

Be sure to check it out:
The Rise of the CCO

The post Fall 2021 CRS & Five Key Takeaways from Five Keynotes — Part 3: DISH Network appeared first on Execs In The Know.

If you have yet to tune in to the Fall 2021 CRS virtual event, you can watch many sessions on-demand.
Registration is simple, free, and it takes only a minute to get immediate online access to this insightful content.

To help highlight some of the amazing ideas that came out of these sessions, we’ve created a five-part blog series — each focusing on a particular keynote session. In Part 2, we highlight Jamie Hudson’s story of transformation as she and her team tackled the challenges brought about by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Evolving Customer Experiences Through a Pandemic

Jamie Hudson
Vice President of Global Support & Services
Malwarebytes

Click to sign in or register to watch Jamie’s Fall 2021 CRS presentation.

Like many, Jamie and her team were faced with some serious challenges in March 2020. With the world shifting to work-from-home (WFH) and relying on digital devices more than ever before, Malwarebytes’ support team was faced with a doubling of ticket volume and no additional budget to tackle the increase, all while also managing their own shift to WFH. As customer expectations evolved, so too did Malwarebytes’ approach to support, turning to deflection-inducing innovations, including internal collaboration with product and engineering, as well as the introduction of a new chatbot to reduce ticket volumes. The result has created a 30% reduction in pre-pandemic ticket volume, happier agents, and more satisfied customers. Here are some highlights of the insights Jamie shared:

1. Mapping Out Top Volume Drivers

Is your organization seeking to reduce support and ticket volume? Start by mapping out the top drivers of your volume and get an understanding of which contact types are complex and require a human, and which might be able to be handled by self-help solutions.

2. You Have Allies on the Inside

While the introduction of automated solutions can help reduce support volume, so too can collaboration with internal teams like product, marketing, and engineering. Take the time to share data on what’s driving volume, surface common customer friction points, and tackle problems upstream. Everyone at your organization wants what’s best for the customer, but for that to happen, the customer’s story must first be shared.

3. Chatbots are Good; Smart Chatbots are Better

Basic chatbots are good at handling very low-hanging fruit, but smart chatbots (those powered by artificial intelligence [AI]) are even better at reducing support volume and arming agents with the right information. If your goal is to reduce volume and create a better experience for agents and customers, consider a collaborative chatbot designed to empower (rather than replace) agents.

4. Proactive Support Is Superb Support

Proactive support is addressing an issue before it is raised by the customer. Taking this approach to care requires superb internal communications, a deep understanding of current and potential friction points, and the flexibility to adjust processes. Because when proactive support is done correctly, major disruptions can become minor speedbumps.

5. Empowered Agents = Happy Customers

When agents have the tools they need, they are positioned to create happy customers. Custom dashboards can help give agents all the information they need to shift a simple support engagement into a value-add moment. Whether it’s product education, proactive support, or something else altogether, creating wholistic experiences creates happy customers.

As you can see, CX technology is always a big part of the story. Want to learn more about building out a competitive CX technology stack? You’re in luck! The Fall 2021 CRS event featured a tech-driven panel discussion focused on the latest and greatest CX technology.

Be sure to check it out:
Building Your CX Technology Stack

The post Fall 2021 CRS & Five Key Takeaways from Five Keynotes — Part 2: Malwarebytes appeared first on Execs In The Know.

If you have yet to tune in to the Fall 2021 CRS virtual event, you can watch many sessions on-demand.
Registration is simple, free, and it takes only a minute to get immediate online access to this insightful content.

To help highlight some of the amazing ideas that came out of these sessions, we’ve created a five-part blog series — each focusing on a particular keynote session. In Part 1, we highlight some of the key takeaways from Craig Barnes as he shares a little bit about Williams-Sonoma, Inc.’s digital transformation journey.

Taking a Digital-First (But Not Digital-Only) Approach to Customer Care

Craig Barnes
Senior Vice President, Customer Care and Retail Store Operations
Williams-Sonoma Inc.

Click to sign in or register to watch Craig’s Fall 2021 CRS presentation.

Craig provided a panoramic view of his brand’s transformation from a single hardware store in Sonoma, California to an iconic brick-and-mortar and eCommerce leader. Although the shift to digital was both necessary and a long time coming, Williams-Sonoma has taken a cautious, balanced approach — keeping a close eye on how the shift has impacted the customer experience, both in-store and online. Furthermore, the brand has managed to use change (such as change brought about by the pandemic) as an enabler for identifying and closing gaps between digital and in-store experiences, bringing new innovations to its customers. Here a glimpse of some of the insights he shared:

1. Digital Means a More Challenging Delivery

The more digital-focused a company becomes, the tougher it is to deliver the perfect experience. To maximize efforts, consider focusing on the most common journeys, whether those experiences be digital or traditional.

2. Digital Can Create Powerful, Personalized Experiences

A digital-first approach can help create personalized experiences by tapping into a wealth of customer data like purchase history and shopping interests. Digital is an important and essential evolution, but it should never happen at the expense of creating great experiences.

3. Brand-Specific Support Has Its Advantages

After swinging toward integrated brand support, an upsurge in sales support volume within the contact center saw Williams-Sonoma shift back to brand-specific support. Not only were agents happy to narrow their focus to a single brand, but both CSAT and NPS scores benefitted.

4. Be Careful of Manual Processes When Monitoring Performance

Data can be incredibly enabling, but only if you are able to pinpoint what matters most in the mountain of data a CX program can produce. Analytic tools can help accomplish this, turning program data into actionable insights. You have the data, so it’s time to put it to work.

5. Don’t Shy Away from Traditional Solutions

Although Williams-Sonoma has upped its digital game, the company is not afraid to revisit the tried and true if it makes sense. For a sticky, complex issue, consider a proactive phone call versus an email. This can have a very positive impact on the customer experience, even if the ultimate outcome is a voicemail message, it’s still an opportunity to leave a positive impression.

Are you progressing through your own digital transformation? If so, you’ll want to ensure you have a solid data strategy in place. Luckily, the Fall 2021 CRS event featured an amazing panel discussion packed with CX data strategy tips, tricks, and best practices.

Be sure to check it out:
Getting Ready for What Comes Next — Key Trends Driving Your Data Strategy

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What is best-self activation?

One definition describes it as the deliberate effort to think the best of yourself and it goes beyond simply recognizing one’s strengths. This can be done in two ways: 1) Reflecting on and acknowledging specific situations in your past when you were at your best; and 2) Receiving feedback from others that highlight when you were at your best — basically what others think and say about you.

Why is this important, and why should you consider incorporating this into your organization?

Dan Cable, Professor of Organizational Behavior with the London Business School, has researched and spoken about best-self activation for many years.

As included in this article by Cable, data is beginning to suggest that when people’s signature strengths and contributions are emphasized in a more salient and consistent manner, performance not only improves, but the following changes also occur:

• Physiology changes for the better
• Creative problem solving improves
• Ability to perform under pressure increases
• Social relationships become more effective

In one research study, 40% of employees surveyed said their job is “very or extremely stressful.” It would not be unreasonable to believe that this percentage is even higher in 2020. It is believed that best-self activation can undo the cardiovascular responses due to stress, resulting in an increase in resilience and performance under stress. Never has this been more important than today. Additionally, people generally hear negative feedback more loudly than positive feedback. While constructive feedback is necessary at times, the theory is that focusing more on the positive can produce better and more sustained results.

Cable states, “Improving performance doesn’t start with a focus on people’s weaknesses. Psychological threat and fear don’t spark innovation. Highlighting people at their very best could be just the competitive advantage your organization needs.”

The question is, how do you operationalize and apply this in your environment, unlocking the potential of all your employees?

FIVE WAYS TO INCORPORATE BEST-SELF ACTIVATION IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

1. Interview/recruiting process – A typical question you might ask as part of the recruiting process is: “What are your greatest strengths?” While this is a perfectly appropriate interview question, reframing it to encourage the applicant to reflect on an example of when they were at their best can serve a couple of purposes. It can be more enlightening as to what situations and work would be best suited for the applicant. You may also be able to get a glimpse into their future potential with the company and where they might thrive. Last, if they are hired, you are already setting the stage for them to bring their best selves with them to the job.
2. Onboarding/training – In the article by Cable, he discusses a study they conducted with Wipro, an outsourcing customer service provider that was experiencing an attrition issue. When they looked at their onboarding process, it was typical of most organizations. They tested an alternative approach and compared it to a control group. For the test group, they implemented two new concepts: 1) Organizational identity – where organizational values were emphasized and employees were then asked to discuss which values made them most proud to be part of the company; and 2) Personal identity – where employees were asked to discuss who they are when they are at their best. When compared to the control group, the ones in the test group were 57% less likely to leave, and customer satisfaction improved. This entire exercise only took about an hour to complete but had a dramatic impact.
3. Coaching – Sometimes leaders become focused on the “activity” of coaching versus the quality of it. And quite often, many leaders focus more on the areas of opportunity, because let’s be fair, they are trying to improve But if you shift this thinking and focus the discussion on questions like: “Tell me about your week. What was an example of where you think you were able to perform at your best, and why?” In this way, you are encouraging them to self-reflect, but you also need to be prepared to give them an example of something you witnessed where they were at their best. Consider structuring your coaching process to dedicate specific sessions that are only focused on the employee’s best self. Traditional corrective action conversations have their place and are necessary, but it is more difficult to focus on both negative and positive feedback in one meeting. So, separating these conversations can be more effective.
4. Performance Evaluations and 360 Reviews – Similar to coaching, sometimes leaders get in a rut with formal performance evaluations. They are often extremely focused on metrics (which is to be expected) and, again, might have a typical structure of discussing strengths and areas of opportunity. Tweaking the discussion and format from a place of strengths to specific and impactful examples of where they were at their best can be much more lasting and impactful. It’s equally important to receive external feedback not only from a direct manager, but from peers and other stakeholders too. Implementing a 360-review process that encourages positive external feedback can be very insightful and have a profound impact on long-term performance.

5. Reinforcing Strengths – To reinforce the value of employees bringing their best self to work, implementing a structured approach for employees to recognize peers is important. Additionally, developing a structure that encourages employees to save any examples of praise or success allows them the ability to reflect on those situations over time, bringing those to their performance evaluations and, most importantly, identify patterns of their own performance and strengths. One example cited was having twice-yearly meetings with a trusted peer or colleague to review these instances with each other and jointly interpret them.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Incorporating the best-self activation concept into your organization begins with your culture. The fundamental principle must be woven into all parts of the organization, from recruiting to onboarding, and performance management. All discussions should have this in mind and employees should be encouraged to ask managers and peers about their performance and how their strengths can be used not only in their current roles, but also in the next phase(s) of their career. Most importantly, create a culture and expectation in which employees feel empowered to bring their best self to work. At the end of the day, most people want to feel valued and leverage their strengths to make a difference. By focusing on the best people have to offer, you will reap the benefits in performance and employee well-being.

Sources:

https://www.london.edu/think/how-to-activate-your-best-self-and-what-happens-when-you-do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-vp8cuRxxU

https://www.ideasforleaders.com/ideas/how-best-self-activation-launches-sustained-performance-improvement

https://hbr.org/2005/01/how-to-play-to-your-strengths

https://hbr.org/2019/05/to-become-your-best-self-study-your-successes

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Last week, as a part of our live, virtual event called CustomerCONNECT, we facilitated two Coffee Talk sessions. Essentially, a Coffee Talk session is a live, virtual roundtable discussion designed exclusively for a small group of corporate customer experience (CX) leaders at consumer-facing brands, providing a forum where participants can learn, share, network, and engage to innovate.

In one of the sessions, a group of CX professionals, who also happen to be Quality Assurance (QA) enthusiasts, met to discuss the current state of their QA programs. The conversation covered how brands are managing their QA programs, how QA data is being utilized, and the impact QA is having on the customer experience. Although Coffee Talk sessions are intentionally not recorded to allow for candid discussions, the ideas shared are worth noting.

Here are four key highlights from the discussion:

1. Connecting QA with the Customer Experience

During the discussion, about half of the participants felt their QA programs were directly correlated with, or actively helping to improve the overall customer experience. But the question quickly moved on to what the next evolution might look like for QA programs. On that point, a general consensus surfaced that identified that QA programs need to become more multifaceted by monitoring not only for agent behavior, but also analyzing for things like customer satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), compliance, and produce actionable business data and insights.

2. Understanding the Customer Experience by Analyzing What Matters Most

Key driver surveys were touched on as an indispensable tool for evaluating how customers are experiencing a particular brand. While some companies spend a lot of time and effort evaluating agent actions (were processes, procedures, and policies properly followed), companies need to ask themselves how important these things are to the customer. A key driver survey can help reframe the very purpose of a QA Program, shifting from something that simply monitors behavior to something that helps an organization tackle pain points, identify root causes, and boost resolution rates. Moreover, key driver surveys provide an analytical approach to capturing what matters most to customers. There’s no guesswork to what matters most to customers – they are telling an organization what matters most in the surveys. The end result — the top 5 or 6 things that matter most to customers should be reflected on the QA scorecard.

3. Scorecard Evolution

Key driver surveys are one way to influence the evolution of QA scorecards, but that’s not the end of the story. The evolution of QA program scorecards was a hot topic of discussion, and it was suggested that soft skills should be the backbone of the form. Ideally, QA scorecards would be adapted to the behaviors we want our agents to exhibit rather than trying to mold agent behavior to an existing scorecard. The point was made that it’s easier to hire based on soft skills and teach hard skills, versus the other way around. By hiring the right people, the QA program scorecard can shift from trying to change undesirable behavior to trying to identify systemic issues that prevent agents from maximizing the strong set of soft skills they were hired for in the first place.

4. Digital Evolution and Applying Automation of Quality Assurance Programs

Like everything else, QA programs must change with the times. Although they are not a hotbed of technology like self-service (think chatbots), there has been some recent innovations. Several participants were exploring ways to automate call evaluations by layering in voice analytics and other artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions. Other brands were already using automation on QA data to do things like call type and identify drivers for call duration. This information helps drive sound strategic decisions around things like policy and process. If done right, these insights can help reduce volumes which ultimately helps agents get more efficient and focused on more complex issues.

What This Coffee Talk Session Revealed

QA programs are evolving rapidly, and they have to. In today’s world, more is expected of every business unit and every program, and quality programs are rich with potential. Not only can QA data be used to create a better customer experience within the care organization, but this same approach can be used to reveal opportunities across the wider organization. Reinventing QA programs for a future state will take the right combination of strategy, customer focus, and technology to maximize value.

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• Only 35% of consumers think brands are generally meeting their customer care needs and expectations.
• 86% of consumers will pull their business if they have a negative experience even if they eventually get a satisfactory resolution.
• 52% of survey respondents named agent-related issues as the most frustrating aspect of interacting with a brand to resolve an issue.
• Customer satisfaction with the multichannel experience reached an all-time low, with just 38% indicating a satisfactory experience in 2019, down from 57% in 2018
• Shorter response/resolution time has dropped year-over-year as a desired area for improvement that would impact consumer’s levels of brand satisfaction.
• Phone slipped to its lowest level of usage in eight years’ worth of CXMB Series data in 2019.

“Execs In The Know and COPC Inc. have put together the Consumer Edition of the CXMB Series to serve as an all-inclusive resource for customer experience and customer care professionals who are looking to improve their strategies, improve brand loyalty and advocacy, and drive customer satisfaction,” said Susan McDaniel, partner and co-founder, Execs In The Know. “This year’s volume explores the experiences and opinions of consumers via a series of online survey modules, each aimed at a specific aspect of the customer journey, including the multichannel experience, unassisted channels, and customer effort.”

The 2019 Consumer Edition is the eighth consecutive year of reporting on findings of U.S. consumers in all age groups and geographic regions. The full 2019 Consumer Edition is available at http://bit.ly/2V58BDy.

Execs In The Know is advancing the CX conversation daily in its online community Know It All and meeting with brands across the United States in discussion-based events like the upcoming Gig Economy Briefing in Seattle, WA on October 22nd.

About Execs In The Know
Execs In The Know is a global community of customer experience (CX) professionals focused on excellence in customer experience. Execs In The Know gives brands a platform to share and gain insights, benchmark their brand, stay on top of the latest trends in CX, and create lasting relationships with their peers – “Leaders Learning From Leaders.” Execs In The Know holds numerous live events each year including Customer Response Summit, Subject Matter Briefings, Lunch & Learns, and Leadership Dinners. They also offer industry content and thought leadership through its webinars, reports, Know It All online community, and various other social media groups. To learn more about Execs In The Know visit: www.execsintheknow.com.

About COPC Inc.
COPC Inc. provides consulting, training, certification and the RevealCX software solution for operations that support the customer experience. The company created the COPC Standards, a collection of performance management systems for call center operations, customer experience management, vendor management, and procurement. Founded in 1996, COPC Inc. began by helping call centers improve their performance. Today, the company is an innovative global leader that empowers organizations to optimize operations for the delivery of a superior service journey. COPC Inc. is headquartered in Winter Park, FL, U.S. and with operations in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, India and Japan. To learn more about COPC Inc., visit www.copc.com.

Media Contacts:
Gina Morkel
Director Marketing & Communications, Execs In The Know
480-687-5326
gina@execsintheknow.com

Jim Von Seggern
Senior Marketing Director, COPC
jvonseggern@copc.com

The post Execs In The Know & COPC Inc. Partner to Release the 2019 Consumer Edition of the Customer Experience Management Benchmark Series appeared first on Execs In The Know.