A Bit of CSLife Weekend Reading

It’s always a privilege to be able to contribute to articles on various blogs and there have been a number of such contributions lately. Here’s a quick rundown of some recent articles you might want to check out.

37 Tips To Improve Call Quality Monitoring In Your Call Center

This is a terrific collection of ways to improve quality for any customer service team. I especially appreciate Tip #5 which is “Simplicity as a service.” This requires many iterations to continue to remove unnecessary steps from support processes but it absolutely makes the quality of service better for both customers and agents.

Quickly Fix Agent Performance on the Cheap

Jeff Toister compiled a great list of ideas for improving agent performance in this article. Jeremy Hyde’s tip for demonstrating what quality calls look and sound like is an important lesson for all contact center leaders.

Customer Service Leaders Share Tips for Building Trust

Trust is foundational to all relationships. Jenny and I had the opportunity during customer service week to share our ideas with ICMI for building trust with our customers. Here’s what Jenny said:

“Building trust is necessary for customer service because it secures your company identity as one that does what they say they will do. When building trust with customers, there is no complicated formula. Through communication and follow through, you’re on your way to a trusting relationship.”

And I said:

“Trust is the backbone of all healthy relationships. Customer service is no exception. If a friend never calls back, is never available, and talks behind your back, how long will you be friends? There’s no reliability and consistency in that relationship. Apply this same logic to customer service and long, fruitful relationships will result.”

Five Tips to Help Online Brands Get Started with Live Chat

Are you exploring chat support for your company or looking for ways to improve your current live chat? You might be interested in my interview with RapportBoost. Near and dear to my heart is the importance of knowing your concurrent chat time to make sure you know how busy your agents truly are on live chat.

Customer Service Professional Development – Resources To Help You Learn & Grow

Connecting with other customer service professionals through blogs, social media, and conferences has been a huge boost to my career over the past several years. I was honored to be mentioned in the same company as Jeff Toister, Shep Hyken, Mike Aoki, Roy Atkinson, and Kaye Chapman as top customer service people to follow on Twitter by Comm100. Be sure to follow these folks!

5 Best Resources for Customer Support Ideas and Advice

And finally, Jenny and I were so thrilled to have Breaking the Ice listed as a top customer service podcast by GrooveHQ. Besides us, this is a wonderful collection of books, blogs, and podcasts worth your attention.