Featured Articles Friday: Week of September 17

By The Editors | Date Published: September 21, 2018 - Last Updated December 03, 2018 | Comments

There's never been a more exciting time to work in customer service, but delivering exceptional customer experiences requires continual learning. At ICMI, we're committed to equipping you with the tools, resources, and knowledge you need to lead your team to success. In this weekly article roundup series, we'll highlight five articles you should read to keep your skills sharp and stay ahead of the trends.

#FridayFive Featured Reading for the Week of September 17, 2018

Featured Customer Experience Articles

1. Straight from the Horses's Mouth by Annette Franz

Customer surveys are a routine part of life in the contact center. But how do you convince customers to take them, and how do you ensure the data set is reliable? In this article, Annette Franz shares nine ways you can glean invaluable insight from qualitative customer feedback. (If this topic interests you, be sure to register for Annette's workshops at ICMI Contact Center Demo!)

**2. People Always Complain About That by Shep Hyken**

Are your customers complaining about similar things over and over again? How do you respond to those complaints? In this short article, Shep Hyken shares a simple exercise your team can implement to improve the customer experience.

3. Here's How VIP Treatment Might Also Ensure the Safety of Your Customer by Jenny Dempsey

When it comes to customer experience, how much do the little details matter? As Jenny Dempsey illustrates in this first-person account, it turns out they matter quite a bit! Read this article if want to think about practical ways to bring VIP touches to your customers.

4. Rules for Using Your Customer's Name by Andrew Gilliam

Using customer names is the one of the simplest forms of service personalization, but it can go wrong. In this article, Andrew Gilliam shares five simple rules for using customer names effectively.

5. What to Do When Your IVR Goes Out of Support Customer Support by Lori Bocklund

Even with the rise of social media, chat, and AI, customers still need to call contact centers. And that likely won't change anytime soon. Is your IVR up to the task? Lori Bocklund offers guidance for optimizing this key contact center technology.

We are all striving to be better. Whether it’s being better people, better leaders, or better organizations, improvement and advancement is at the heart of our daily intentions. For the contact center, this mission of constant improvement is fundamental to every interaction. We need to meet the expectations of our customers in ways that improve their satisfaction and brand loyalty. We need to improve employee engagement as we build their skills, knowledge, and experience in ways that grow their own loyalty and improve retention. We need to improve our organization’s operational efficiencies in ways that drive revenue and improve the bottom line.

No one understands the contact center’s focus on improvement like ICMI does. We champion contact centers and their people, and our mission is to make both better every day. Through training, consulting, content and events, we unite the community and empower contact centers to serve their customers better, engage their employees more, and improve the customer experience.

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