Love them or hate them, in business, as in life, transitions are inevitable. On the Blue Ocean blog, we talk a lot about the process of sourcing a strategic partner for your outsourced customer care program. Usually, we focus on the buying cycle or key decision-making elements to consider, but the fact is, choosing your […]
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The fact that silos are the enemy of business success is nothing new. That they happen anyway is one of the biggest business challenges a leader must navigate. At Blue Ocean, we have long held the position that the customer experience and the employee experience are inextricably linked. We’ve said it so often it’s become […]
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When one in five of your customers speak something other than English as their first language, providing bilingual customer support is critical. Without it, you risk taking a hit to your CSat scores, your brand loyalty, and your bottom line. But what mix of live agents versus AI is best for your business? And how […]
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Check your wallet (digital and/or physical) – do you have loyalty cards for your favorite retail outlets? Gas, grocery, fashion, technology… and probably more. Salesforce research says consumers like us belong to 4.3 loyalty programs on average. And you’re probably spending a decent amount of money at those places. If, for example, you’re a […]
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*Big News! This article was a winner in the reader-voted Customer Contact Central MVP Awards 2022!* Picture yourself on the other side of the arduous RFP process (woohoo!) with your chosen contact center outsourcer on your side. Now, you can take a deep breath and get down to the serious business of implementing your program. […]
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Few industries are quite like travel. Can you think of any other industry where anxiety is baked into the product or service? Even before the pandemic, customers found themselves faced with myriad rules, restrictions, and bottlenecks to navigate before reaching their destination, leading to many a meltdown at checkpoints and terminals around the world. […]
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Once upon a time, we could count the number of subscriptions we had on one hand (the newspaper, a magazine or two, and that trusty gym membership). These days, we’ve lost count (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Stitch Fix, Costco, Blue Apron, Hulu, BarkBox, plus the usual magazines, gym memberships, and more). And that’s not […]
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Brand loyalty is a reflection of a customer’s commitment to a relationship with a given retailer or service provider. But, of course, the pandemic changed everything about all our relationships. We quickly got used to holding everything and everyone at arm’s length – and for many customers, that included the brands they had once […]
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A couple of years ago, we explored the state of omnichannel customer care, recognizing the fact that consumers have more channel options available to them than ever before. We also, as an industry, have exponentially more data and insight about consumer behaviors around these channels. When we wrote that article, we could not have ever […]
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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 […]
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