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Happy Holidays from Blue Ocean!
As the year comes to a close, we hope you find yourself working towards a very restful, well-deserved holiday season. But don’t set that “out of office” notification quite yet. Before you unplug and spend time with the people you care about, let’s look back on some of the most important contact center topics from 2021.
Below you’ll find five of our very favourite articles from the Blue Ocean blog—we hope you find them useful! Happy Holidays from all of us at Blue Ocean.
CX Day 2021: A Reflection on My Customer Experience Journey
Customer experience is rapidly evolving, and to keep your finger on the pulse of it, you have to take initiative and educate yourself. Our VP of Client Services, Susan Preiss, took the plunge with a certification program to hone her skills, and after becoming a certified customer service professional, she took time to reflect on her journey. Learn more about her key learnings and real-world anecdotes that were especially relevant after CX Day 2021.
Revisiting the Secrets to Incredible Customer Service with Paul R. Jones
What would the holidays be without traditions? This blog post consistently ranks as one of our most popular since we wrote it a few years ago. The insight about customer service and the customer experience is still rock solid, so give it another look as you reflect on the past year and prepare for the next. At the heart of our interview with Paul Jones, award-winning hotel manager within the Best Western organization, you’ll find a timeless CX truth: The key to great customer service begins with listening to both your customers and your employees, then taking what you heard and acting on it.
The Evolution of Customer Experience in the Travel Industry
Few industries are quite like travel. Can you think of any other industry where anxiety is baked into the product or service? Everyone has a horror story about their travel experiences, be it a brutal delay or a missed flight. It’s no wonder that today, against the backdrop of COVID-19 and societal upheaval, travelers are more concerned than ever with their personal safety. At Blue Ocean, we noticed that this new level of uncertainty has led to a shift in what customers value: empathy and reassurance instead of efficiency and speed. Read on to see how customer experience in the travel industry must pivot to meet these needs.
Call Volume Forecasting: Predicting the Future from an Unusual Past
Call volume forecasts are essential tools 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 care volume forecasting typically relies heavily on historic trends. How do you plan for the future when our present-day circumstances are completely unprecedented? The map tells us where we’ve been, but it no longer provides accuracy regarding the way forward.
What the Subscription Economy Teaches Us About Kick-Ass Customer Experience
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 including the business scene, where you can add on subscriptions to Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, HubSpot, Docusign, and hundreds more. It’s a sea of change. And it’s one that undeniably impacts our perception of the customer experience.
We couldn’t have made it through this tumultuous year without you! We wish you the happiest of holidays and a prosperous New Year—and that’s coming from the entire team at Blue Ocean. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help kicking off your customer service in 2022!
