I stopped by the Solid Cactus Call Center on Black Friday and something seemed strange.

It was quiet.

Black Friday may be the busiest day of the year for brick-and-mortar retailers, but in the online arena, Black Friday is typically very slow. When I owned 39 eCommerce stores, we typically used Black Friday as the day to prepare ourselves for the onslaught of orders we were going to get over the weekend and most importantly, Cyber Monday. We used that day to clean, stock shelves and make sure we had everything we needed to pack and ship orders out quickly. We did not count on Black Friday as being a red letter day for sales.

Today however, Cyber Monday is in full-swing and that silence at the Call Center has been replaced with chatter, ringing phones, supervisors managing call flow and the cheer when a big sale is made. Looking at call volume, the 8am and 9am hours saw typical call volume, however, shortly after 10am things started going crazy!

Now I’m not going to say that people are shopping online from work….. um, yeah, nobody does that right? But I will say that since 10am call volume is way above normal and the orders are coming in on a constant basis. All our reps are working hard to upsell, cross-sell, and seal the deal while at the same time working to take as many calls as possible to keep us in within our service level standards.

We know that the customers we service at Solid Cactus Call Center are doing well this Cyber Monday, and we hope that you are too!

Happy selling!

During the month of March – the call center held a contest called “March Madness for Quality”. The team with the highest overall quality monitoring average would receive a 2-hour break from the phones and enjoy a 5-course meal prepared by management.

The winning team was “Cactus After Dark” – headed by Alison Wydawski.  “Cactus After Dark” pulled together and maintained the highest quality monitoring score for the month — 95.50%! This is an amazing feat for 8 individuals to pull together and earn.

The 5-course dinner was held on Tuesday, 4/28/09.  Our conference room was transformed into an elegant fine dining room, equipped with china, linen napkins and the works.  Agents were treated to various quieche appetizers, salad, homemade shirmp bisque, garlic bread, vegetable lasagna, chicken parmagina, death by chocolate cake and homemade mini cheesecakes. 

Below are some pictures of our dinner:

Below is a story of world class customer service provided by call center agent Melissa Corra. This goes to show even in a bad situation – good customer service will turn the situation around.

On December 18, 2008 I spoke to very nice customer named Lynn,she was calling a lawn and garden décor site. Lynn wanted to place a order for a Wishing Well.  She states that loves the web site and was excited to be sending this as a Christmas gift.   As a upsell, I let her know that we offer free ground shipping on order that are $199.00 and over.   She decided to also purchase the Turtle & Hare bath/Sundial. She thanked me for helping her get free shipping and that could not wait to see the items!  I gave her my extension just in case she had any questions.   
Lynn called back three times for order status since then. Escalations were placed for each time. On 12/29/08 she was sent a email stating that the manufacturer is currently out of stock, they expect new inventory the third week of January. The order will ship as soon as it becomes available.  She waited and called in on 01/22/09  for a order update.  A escalation was placed in the system.   I spoke to Lynn on 1/26/2009 when she called in,  I apologized and stated that the items should be in soon. I placed another  escalation to see if there was any updates since it was passed  the third week of January.   
Lynn continued to be extremely patient and called in on 02/05/09 and 02/11/09.  A escalation was placed again for her on both days, once by me.  From talking to her since December, I continued to go in to her account to see if there was any updates. Finally on 2/13/09 I saw that a email was sent to her. That we apologize however the manufacturer is still out of stock until the first week of March. The order will ship as soon as it becomes available in warehouse. Thank you for your patience. Lynn said that she was glad to have a update, however she was upset that it is taking so long to be sent out. Again she called in on 3/9/09, an  escalation  was sent again.  She still did not hear as to when the Christmas gift will be available and be shipped. On  3/20/09 I  sent a escalation in for her that notes from 2/13/09 show:  We apologize however the manufacturer is still out of stock until the first week of March. This will ship as soon as it becomes available in warehouse. Thank you for your patience.  However when I checked on the information in the order management system, it shows that the items were in stock. The Turtle&Hare Bath/Sundial  has 13 in stock and the Wishing Well has 8 in stock.  Can you please see when the order will be shipped.   On 03/23/09 I went back in the account to see if there were any updates from my last escalation and it showed that the item shipped.  I called Lynn to let her know that the item shipped.  She kept thanking for helping her with this order since December. She was so glad to be finally receiving the order. 
The next day Lynn called my line to let me know that the order was being shipped to her billing and not to her shipping address.  She was still extremely patient and nice.  It shows that UPS has listed the shipping as the home address to Crosby, TX 77532   The shipping should be going to Houston, TX 77077.   My supervisor helped me with fixing this error.  I called Lynn back to let her that if we are trying to get the address corrected.  If we are not able to get the address corrected, than we will gladly arrange to have it picked up and re-shipped to the Houston, TX address.   She stated not to worry about reshipping it. That she will take it to Houston.   Even though it took three months for her to receive the Christmas gift, it finally arrived. She was very understanding of the manufacturer not having the products available. 

Written by: Daniele Lavelle, senior call center agent

At Solid Cactus Call Center, we are the industry experts in handling escalated callers. I believe the best way to handle an upset caller is to quickly determine how I, as an agent, can change the customers mood. The callers are generally happy with the agents, but upset at the situation which caused them the inconvenience.

One of the first steps is to listen and offer sincere apologies for the problem, thank the customer for bringing the issue to our attention, then assure the customer you will do everything you can to find the root of the issue. Prompt and respectful dialogue is key, as the customer feels like the agent truly cares.

I find that calming a customer down, I am able to address the root issue – which is often times not as complex as initially explained. Having confidence and concern in your voice will help any agent de-escalate an irate caller.

The old saying “The customer is always right” may be cliché – so try “The customer isn’t always right, but they are ALWAYS the customer, right?”

by: Samantha A. Krygier

Attention to all the hopeless hearts!!

I would like to wish every one a Happy Valentines Day. And those fellow people who do not celebrate the day, I hope you have a great weekend.

I would like to express my concern for this holiday; Not only am I accident prone around this time, but I am one of the many people who dread Friday the 13th and Valentines Day on the same weekend.

To start off my LITTLE history of “bad luck” there has been breaking up with boyfriends, dog bites, car accidents and a fractured ankle.

What possibly could go wrong this year you ask?

Well some of my friends have a few bets going on for jokes:
My favorite one is that someone is going to come to my house and kidnap me.
Personally I would love a vacation, so I really do not expect that happening.

But….

Who knows what’s going to happen this year

But for all of those people out there celebrating the BIG V-Day with a loved one, Just appreciate every moment with them because its only once a year people have no excuse not to share the day with their loved ones.

Some thing I found really cute

http://sendables.jibjab.com/

They are e-cards; check them out. Send one to some one special or not so special. Share the on-line love.

Hopefully one of these Valentines days will go right for me… until then, I will be in my room under my blankets waiting for this weekend to go by and hopefully this weekend will be just like any others.

by: Michael Lupton

I have been working at call centers, off and on, since I graduated high school in the year 2000. My first being The Order People Call Center Services. The order people was remarkable for 2 reasons, one when they went under they bounced everyone’s paychecks and the owner literally fled to India. The other, and more important for this blog’s purposes is they were a “third-party logistical call center.” I remember many a day at rolling my eyes as the bosses would go over how much of a marvel we were, taking at peak around 13 different clients, placing orders, basic customer service calls and what not. Back in the early thousands I remember it being a marvel that for one or 2 of the clients there was a website we could actually look at to give product descriptions.

We were told Daily that our center was a marvel, and if not for the internet slowly making catalog orders obsolete, we may possibly be the future. Well the order people went under, and as mentioned the aforementioned paychecks bounced. The building left to decay until Wilkes University finally took residence in it a year or two back. But strangely enough, they were still right. They were the future.

Today working at Solid Cactus, I take calls for around 15+ clients per day out of over 100 that I am trained in, and that list is constantly expanding almost every single day. This entire call center is a testament to the fact that indeed WE ARE THE FUTURE. The Order People may have died but the principal it was based on is still very much alive today. That makes me smile.

The Solid Cactus Call Center is the future – and we are here to stay!

The call center held a contest from 2:30pm Thursday till 2:30pm Friday.

The person who took the most calls during this time frame is going to win 2 Penguins tickets for Saturday Night’s game vs. the Albany River Rats.

Our winner is ……………………………… (drum roll) ……………………………..

SAMANTHA KRYGIER who took a whopping 78 calls!

CONGRATULATIONS

Santa came early for Call Center staff!

Today a large package of HERSHEY’S Chocolate arrived on our doorstep. Ozone Billiards sent the entire call center mulitple boxes and tins of chocolate candy.  It arrived just in time for an afternoon-pick-me-up!

The entire call center sends a big THANK YOU to Shawn and his staff at Ozone Billiards for thinking of us. We really appreciate it!

With all this chocolate energy – we’re ready to take all calls with lightening speed!

The Call Center has been running an incentive program for all agents and team leaders to participate in… the chance to win an 8GB IPOD!!!

Competition has been stiff in this contest – agents can earn chances into the drawing by providing superior customer service to customers, earning a 100% score on client quizzes given, large sales, attendance and other various criteria.

The winner of the November Ipod is Jenis Walsh!

Jenis truly did all she could for each and every caller she spoke with. Jenis made attendance, quiz grades and customer service among her top priorities. This Ipod is well deserved and Jenis truly earned it.

WAY TO GO JENIS!