The first days and weeks are so critical when it comes to employee engagement and helping the employees buy in to the mission of their new company. Imagine the employee that shows up to a new job, is ushered to an office where they sit alone for hours poring over paperwork, waits a week for IT to set them up with a computer, and goes hours without meaningful human interaction with colleagues. Is that a job you’d likely remain for the long haul? What does this say about that c

Originally posted on the Rustici Software Blog Last month, I presented to the Nashville Network of Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) and shared how we’ve built a remarkable place to work at Rustici Software and how that leads to providing exceptional service to our customers. While what we have built here has taken years to build and might not be totally replicated at your company, I hope it gives you inspiration or an idea to share with others in your orga

Originally posted on ICMI.com November 5th, 2018 People love to talk about Employee Experience (EX), especially in the context of Customer Experience (CX). Sadly, it's often just talk. Establishing a meaningful connection between your employee experience and the Customer Experience is very difficult. Does this make it any less important? Not at all. Attempting to "fix" the Customer Experience without developing a favorable employee journey is like building a glass cathedr

Working in customer service or customer experience can take a massive toll on your physical and mental well-being. When combining the stress that comes with never-ending customer requests, pressure from all types of internal stakeholders, and the sometimes crippling weight of life outside of work, the result may be too much to bear. How can we create an environment that gives life instead of sucking it out of us? How can we foster the type of relationships across our teams

Let’s imagine, for one moment, that you’re casting your agents and customers in a movie. What roles would they play? Would your agents make their screen debut as wise sages, imparting knowledge and truth to help spur your customers to a glorious conclusion in their customer service journey? Or would your agents be more like sword-wielding fighters, battling to defeat angry customer ogres before they burn your contact center to the ground? Fantastical tales aside, stories abou

Do you ever feel like you're in "survival mode," running from one crisis to another, just trying to get through the day? The moment you stomp out one fire, the sparks start flying in five other directions. Or, you look at your to-do list at the end of the day, and realize that it's not just that you didn't spend your time coaching your team or any of your other big priorities; your list for tomorrow is also filled with distractions that won't do anything to help your team acc

Whether or not you've reached zombie apocalypse levels of engagement, all customer service leaders must be intentional to win the hearts

Happy 2018, folks! Ready or not, the new year is here. And with the turn of the calendar comes everyone’s favorite annual process: goal setting! Sadly, this rite of passage is often overlooked or marginalized within customer service departments. We can become wholly focused on things like quality scores, metrics, and new technology (all of which are extremely important), but annual goals should help you get out of the day-to-day way of thinking and practice continual impr

Of all the things employees despise, end of year performance appraisals (PA’s) are at the top of the list. The Washington Post has research to support that “basically every single person hates performance reviews.” Regardless of how we arrived here, leaders are no longer bound to the mistakes of the past. When conducted well, the end of year review is one of the most powerful tools in your quiver. Having conducted a large number of these conversations over the years, I fo

Do you ever feel like it’s impossible to keep great talent in a customer support environment? You’re not alone! Leaders all over the globe have been wrestling this issue since the invention of the telephone. The good news is it can be done! With a fresh outlook on employee engagement, you can create a working environment worth sticking around for. This article will focus on three essential (but rarely discussed) engagement techniques specific to service professionals Pee