Content Library

Let’s be honest—put your hand up if you grew up wanting to be a contact center agent. No? Nobody? We get it. Our industry has gotten a bad rap from some true horror stories, and the stigma sticks to all of us in some way or another. That’s why at Blue Ocean, we’re so dead-set […]

Heading out of the office this holiday to grab some eggnog and enjoy the lights? While so many of us are off celebrating the festive season for days at a time, there are scores of people on the frontlines working to keep everything running smoothly in industries ranging from health care, to transportation, to broadcasting […]

As the holiday season unfolds, we wanted to share the amazing words of gratitude that flow every day from our clients’ customers to our agents.  Below you’ll find the best customer service kudos of 2019 (so far!) with quotes directly from the mouths of customers we interact with. MVP Agent. MVP Customer Kudos. This is […]

Quick, is Gen Z old enough to work yet? No checking Wikipedia… Answer: Yes. While there is a bit of a gray area between where exactly Millennials stop and Gen Z starts, demographers pretty much agree that the starting birth years for Gen Z are in the late 90s. So, with the oldest of the […]

Quick, how many services or memberships do you subscribe to? One? Two? Twenty? You know your wallet is stuffed with membership cards (roadside assistance, your local gym, and Costco) and your front porch welcomes monthly subscription boxes (Blue Apron, Trunk Club, and Honest Essentials), while your go-to entertainment is no longer cable TV but subscription-based […]

You’ve got your game face on. You’re prepared for the future of customer service. And you’re ready for your outsourced customer service RFP to hit the road and bring you some stellar options for a new contact center partner. But are you asking the right questions about artificial intelligence? AI and customer care are growing […]

You’ve heard it before: Stress is the outcome of reality not aligning with expectations. And nothing takes a toll on relationships quite as quickly as stress. When outsourcing customer support – whether for the first time or the fifth time – your company’s relationship with the contact center is understandably complex. You simply can’t rely […]

If your company is preparing for the fiscal year, you likely have a stream of questions flowing through your mind: Are your goals for the fiscal year lining up with long-term priorities? Will your target budget support those goals? Will your customer experience be strengthened or hit a slump because of the programs in that […]

Love them or hate them, transitions are inevitable in business as in life. When quality slips, costs climb, or business priorities misalign, moving forward with a new customer care provider may be key to your success.  On the Blue Ocean blog, we talk a lot about sourcing the right strategic partner for your outsourced customer […]

This blog post has consistently ranked as one of our most popular year after year. The insight about exceptional customer service and the customer experience is still rock solid, and so we decided to revisit the article entering 2025. When it comes to customer experience, there’s a lot of cross-over between the hospitality industry and […]

You’ve got your game face on. You’re prepared for the future of customer service. And you’re ready for your outsourced customer service RFP to hit the road and bring you some stellar options for a new contact center partner. But are you asking the right questions about artificial intelligence? AI and customer care are growing […]

You’ve heard it before: Stress is the outcome of reality not aligning with expectations. And nothing takes a toll on relationships quite as quickly as stress. When outsourcing customer support – whether for the first time or the fifth time – your company’s relationship with the contact center is understandably complex. You simply can’t rely […]

This blog post has consistently ranked as one of our most popular year after year. The insight about exceptional customer service and the customer experience is still rock solid, and so we decided to revisit the article entering 2025. When it comes to customer experience, there’s a lot of cross-over between the hospitality industry and […]

Choosing a contact center outsourcer is a huge investment. Which is, of course, why you’re willingly subjecting yourself to the time constraints and stress of writing an RFP. Need some insight? We’ve compiled a list of up-to-date contact center RFP questions to help you ensure you’re making the most informed decision. Below you’ll find six […]

Are you in the middle of “contact center RFP season”? The RFP questions listed below provide you with a comprehensive guide on how you can structure the request and the actual questions you can add to your RFP. We segmented the questions into six key sections: Company Overview Agent Workforce Contact Center Reporting Project Management […]

You’ve got your game face on. You’re prepared for the future of customer service. And you’re ready for your outsourced customer service RFP to hit the road and bring you some stellar options for a new contact center partner. But are you asking the right questions about artificial intelligence? AI and customer care are growing […]

By developing a custom Zendesk IVR integration for a global communications leader, Blue Ocean eliminated manual data entry, reducing average handle time by 53 seconds and boosting customer satisfaction ratings by 34%. This seamless connection between phone and ticketing systems demonstrates how strategic contact center technology can simultaneously improve operational efficiency and customer experience. The […]

What if you could learn about a new technology just by directly asking it questions? That’s not always an option, but in the case of ChatGPT, the AI chatbot taking the world by storm, it made all the sense in the world. So with this concept in mind, we decided to approximate a podcast interview […]

  For all the grief, losses, and setbacks the pandemic unleashed, there is a general consensus that it also sparked a revolution on the technical front. The adoption rate of new and evolving technologies accelerated at unseen speeds—resulting in 10 years’ worth of change within a mere 10 months. Contact center technologies are certainly in […]

Did you know that 32% of customers worldwide will quit doing business with a brand – even if they love it – because of just one bad experience? This statistic from a PwC survey is an eye-opener for any organization that interfaces with customers on a regular basis. But what constitutes a bad experience? Although […]

Let me share a painful truth I’ve learned from years in the CX trenches: the best technology in the world is worthless if it’s implemented poorly. Companies often spend millions on cutting-edge solutions only to create digital monsters that frustrate agents and alienate customers. The hard reality? Your shiny new AI chatbot, your state-of-the-art CRM, […]

Are you one of the 85% of customer service leaders planning to explore conversational AI solutions in the next year? Maybe you’re all too familiar with the way your contact center seems to be a black hole of data. Or perhaps you can sense that your customers are looking for more when they come calling. […]

If you have a business, you have customers – otherwise, you won’t stay in business very long. And if you have customers, they will inevitably need support. And that costs money. This leads some businesses to think of customer support as a necessary evil, something you’d rather not have to deal with but can’t avoid. […]

Customer experience strategy has been the star of the show in recent years as a differentiator in standout customer care programs. But it’s only one piece of the puzzle. We explore the introduction of total experience strategy, where CX converges with EX, UX, and MX. The fact that silos are the enemy of business success […]

Brand loyalty is a reflection of a customer’s commitment to a relationship with a given retailer or service provider. But, of course, the current era of disruption is changing everything about all our relationships. The way we interact with people and brands has changed—and consumer spending priorities have evolved just as fast.  Read on to […]

In the outsourced call center world, we measure everything in terms of percentages: minutes and seconds, dollars and cents. Measuring deep into the trenches of the contact center is an absolute must. The math provides us with insights on how to improve the customer experience and gain greater value for the client.  We’re constantly asking […]

  Call volume forecasts are inarguably an essential tool in the successful delivery of customer care excellence. Your program’s forecast is the map that tells you where to go based on where you’ve been. Without it, you’re lost at sea. With it, you’re one significant step closer to delivering an exceptional customer experience. But customer […]

  What do mattress sales, wildlife populations, and peak customer service times all have in common? These seemingly random data points have all been impacted by COVID-19. Mattress sales have skyrocketed thanks to people spending more time at home—and discovering new sleep challenges as a result of the pandemic. Meanwhile, wild animals are appearing during […]

  We believe that every outsourcer should earn your business by delivering value day in and day out whether your relationship with them is in its first year or its 20th year. After all, continual improvement and striving to evolve are the hallmarks of long-term success. Great companies are regularly assessing the ongoing value of […]

If enhancing your customer experience is a strategic priority over the next 12 months, you might be looking at putting out a contact center RFP or RFI early in the new year. Because the partnership you have with a contact center is core to your customers’ journey with you, it’s a relationship that matters more […]