Customer Service Blog | Fonolo

Contact center managers know that virtual queuing technology is essential to keeping operations running smoothly. It underpins some of the most useful tools agents have to handle large and changing call volumes. Without it, mayhem would quickly ensue when calls come rushing into your contact center without any way to prioritize them or create order. Instead of the chaos, picture this: shorter hold times, happier customers, and efficient call routing — all at your fingertips.

With the labor shortage, a workforce in transition, and the dynamic (but disruptive) impact of AI, managing a contact center in 2024 can be a real workout. Why not take a break from the heavy lifting for a moment, and check out Fonolo’s annual State of the Contact Center report? This e-book is one of our most anticipated documents of the year, featuring insights from industry experts about the topics that matter most in today’s contact center. What’s inside?

As a global leader in audio, video and collaboration solutions, the Danish company Jabra knows a thing or two about delighting customers. After all, Jabra has been creating best-in-class technology that brings people together for 150 years. When the company wanted to ramp up its excellent customer service offering to further reduce hold times and abandon rates in busy contact centers around the globe, it turned to Fonolo’s Call-Back solutions.

Why is call abandonment still a thing? Can’t technology put an end to this problem once and for all? Now there’s a tantalizing question! You likely know the answer, but let’s take a closer look. If you take a tech tool like ChatGPT and ask it about call abandonment in the contact center, the AI-powered bot will give you an earful about one of the most persistent problems in the customer service industry.

Contact center trends move fast, which makes trend-spotting an invigorating sport for those who dare to participate! We’ve gazed into the crystal ball here at Fonolo, and we see fascinating changes coming down the pipe for the year ahead. There’s no denying that some of the changes impacting contact centers over the last four years continue to make waves – notably the enduring appetite for hybrid and remote work.

Active listening is an essential skill for contact center agents for one very good reason: customers want to be heard. Come to think of it, everybody wants to be heard! Of course, customers want a lot of other things, too. They want answers to questions, speedy service, the opportunity to solve their own problems quickly using self-service, and the option to talk to an agent when the going gets tough.

A well-designed chatbot can be a powerful addition to your call center toolkit. This is good news because we know for certain that customers want self-service options. Zendesk reports that 67% will choose self-service over a live agent for simple problems. And call centers are quickly getting onboard, with as many as 75% of contact centers currently using chat solutions to boost productivity. But not all bots are created equally.

Meeting customer expectations is tremendously important to most companies. According to Forrester, nearly 95% of leaders say that providing a good customer experience is a top strategic priority, and 75% want to use customer experience as a competitive advantage. But it’s a big, crowded marketplace out there, full of consumers who want different things at different times on different channels. What do customers want? What do customers expect from your customer service department?

If you’re in the contact center industry, 80/20 service levels are likely nothing new. You may have used 80/20 service levels in your operations! You may have wondered where those SLAs came from and if they are right for your business. Those are good questions! Contact center managers know that SLAs are essential for defining and measuring success for their businesses. These agreements are the bedrock of contact center operations, dictating resource allocation and defining success metrics.

2023 was all about chatbots. ChatGPT stole most of the headlines, but as companies across the planet worked hard to get their bots chatting, many questions started to bubble to the surface. FREE WEBINAR: Is Your Chatbot Really Just an IVR? Join us Oct. 25, 2pm ET/11am PT for a live 30-min webinar. Save your seat! With their narrow conversation flows and questions that often don’t lead to an answer – or an agent – chatbots don’t always seem all that revolutionary.