By Ryan Davis ( November 5, 2024, 7:34 PM EST) — Major League Baseball’s interactive division and the holder of a digital ticketing patent it is accused of infringing are both seeking sanctions against each other, amid the league’s claim that the patent was abandoned during bankruptcy proceedings and cannot be asserted…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

It’s not easy being a call center agent — but if you can handle the role, finding a stable remote job should be no problem. The demand for qualified agents is immense. Call centers have high burnout rates due to the demanding nature of the work, which means employers are always hiring. If you have the right skills and the desire to work remotely, a call center agent position could be a perfect fit. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about landing a work-from-home call center agent job, from setting up your workspace to navigating the application process. 1 RingCentral Office Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Medium (250-999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees) Medium, Enterprise, Large Features Hosted PBX, Managed PBX, Remote User Ability, and more What you need to work as a remote call center agent One of the benefits of being a call center agent is the low barrier to entry. Once you are hired, you will sign into a secure call center software account and start answering calls. You don’t need thousands of dollars of tools, an expensive degree, or even prior experience. Don’t get me wrong, employers are hungry for experienced call center agents. Best case scenario for them is getting someone who has proven they can handle the pace of work required. But if you don’t have experience working in a call center, you should still apply for entry-level roles. The big secret is that no one knows who is actually going to thrive in a call center environment until a person starts picking up the phone. Some people with a perfect resumé crash and burn after a few hours — others with less flashy work histories turn out to be incredibly talented on the phone. Employers know this. Many of them are willing to take a bet on someone who is just starting out. Remote call center agent equipment and supplies If you plan on trying to secure a remote call center agent gig (and there are hundreds of open roles right now), you only need a few things: Reliable internet connection: This is absolutely essential! You’ll need a strong and stable connection to make and receive VoIP calls without interruption. Employers will probably ask you to take a speed test as part of getting hired. A good rule of thumb is a minimum download speed of 10 Mbps and upload speed of 1 Mbps. Computer: A laptop or desktop computer with a reliable operating system and enough processing power to handle calls. Most call centers will provide any specialized VoIP software you’ll need to do your job. Headset: A comfortable headset with a noise-canceling microphone is crucial for clear communication and keeping your hands free while taking notes or using the computer. Quiet workspace: You’ll need a dedicated space in your home that’s free from distractions so you can focus on your calls. In other words, a basic dedicated desk in a quiet place, a laptop, comfortable VoIP headset, and a decent internet connection may be enough. Most likely, you’ll be able to use Wi-Fi, but you can always wire your computer directly to the modem to get better speed. Here are a few free internet speed tests that can give you some data on your connection. Next, we have a few additional items that can enhance your experience: Second monitor: This can be a game-changer for productivity, allowing you to see multiple windows simultaneously. Comfortable chair: Sitting for long periods is inevitable, so invest in a supportive chair to avoid back pain. Adjustable standing desk: Almost everyone I know who works from home buys one of these eventually to avoid sitting for the entire day. Footrest: Another comfort booster, a footrest can help improve your posture and circulation. Note that some companies offer reimbursement for approved purchases, and they may even offer a stipend to set up your in-home office space. Be sure to check the job descriptions and inquire during the interview process to see what perks they provide. Critical call center agent soft skills More than anything else, recruiters for call center agents are looking hard at a candidate’s attitude and approach to the job. Here are a few soft skills that make people a good fit for call center work: Interpersonal skills: Staying calm, listening attentively, and showing genuine empathy will be crucial for dealing with frustrating situations and building rapport. Problem-solving skills: You’ll need to be a resourceful problem solver who can think on your feet and find creative solutions to customer issues. Excellent communication skills: You should be able to explain complex information easily, both verbally and in writing, through chats or emails if needed. Time management and organization: Working from home will require you to manage your time effectively to meet call quotas, handle breaks efficiently, and stay organized with customer information and procedures. Positive attitude: Maintaining a positive and enthusiastic attitude will definitely improve the experience for your customers and yourself. In a virtual contact center, agents will be responsible for handling multiple channels: typically phone, chat, email, and text. The ability to multi-task and solve problems is absolutely essential for these roles, and many call centers are adding these channels. You can set yourself up for success as a work-from-home call center agent by honing these traits and developing good work habits. Keep these things in mind as you prepare your resume and begin to look for a job. One final note: If you speak a second language, make sure you feature this skill prominently in your resumé. Call centers have an acute need for agents who can handle calls in more than one language.. How to find remote call center jobs Now that we’ve gone over the core list of must-haves and the qualities you’ll need, let’s tackle finding that ideal work-from-home position. Remember that remote call center jobs can vary widely, so create a list

By Eydith Kaufman ( November 1, 2024, 4:00 PM EDT) — As both a mediator and an attorney, I have always felt the need to portray my empathy for others, my strength and resilience, while seeking to hide or minimize any weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Just days ago, I could never imagine sharing personal details of my life — and my vulnerability — publicly. But now I realize that an important part of empathy is having the courage to share your humanity with others…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Most steps in a call center workflow are repeated thousands of times each day. That means any step you can eliminate or automate will translate into a huge productivity gain. In this post, we’ll cover a number of different strategies for automating elements of your call center workflow. Some methods involve new technology, others involve making more with what you probably have already. 1. Optimize skills-based routing This is not a new technology, but so many call centers aren’t maximizing its value. Skills-based routing automatically directs callers to the right agent based on set criteria like preferred language, technical skills, or product knowledge. Pretty straightforward, right? Your Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system collects information and passes the call to your Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), which passes your call to an appropriate agent. (If any of this feels unfamiliar, check out my post on call routing, which walks through this whole process.) Here are a few strategies you can use to make sure that any skills-based routing system you have in place is automating as much as possible: Regularly update agent skills: Ensure that agent skill profiles match their performance and completed training. If you can automate this process, perfect — it has to get done for skills-based routing to work well. Use customer histories: Past interactions can predict the best agent for each caller’s needs. Routing calls to agents who have successfully resolved similar issues previously works well, as does routing callers to agents who have helped them before, if possible. Use behavioral-based routing: Customer behavior data, such as recent interactions with a specific product category or activity on a web app, can be used to direct calls. If someone is browsing commercial products on a company’s website, they probably won’t need a residential service rep. Use of CRM data during calls: CRM data during calls to route customers to agents familiar with their history or to prioritize qualified leads. Use of AI and machine learning: Incorporate AI to analyze call data and adapt routing strategies in real time. Skills-based routing can be even more powerful when combined with advancements like conversational IVRs that utilize natural language processing (NLP) to understand a caller’s spoken request. See: Learn five additional benefits of conversational IVR for call centers. 2. Deploy visual IVRs Visual IVR directs callers to a website to complete what an agent would normally have to do. Customers can navigate through options visually and make selections using a keypad or touchpad. Typically a visual IVR website is optimized for mobile, and the customer arrives via a link that comes to their phone. Instead of relying solely on voice prompts (as you would with a traditional IVR), customers can see menu options displayed visually, allowing them to select their preferences with a tap. This is great for scheduling. Let customers select appointments from a visual calendar instead of having a customer service rep look at a calendar and relay information verbally. For product returns, customers can upload photos through the visual IVR. There are so many actions that would require a human agent that a visual IVR can eliminate completely. It’s also liberating for callers, who can handle the various steps at their own pace rather than have to stay on the line. See: Learn about five real-world visual IVR use cases.  3. Deflect calls to chatbots Call center chatbots automate call center workflows by handling routine inquiries and providing immediate responses to customers. AI in call centers is getting much better. Today’s chatbots can understand and respond to common questions, allowing them to assist customers with issues like order tracking, account information, and troubleshooting without the need for human intervention. Call centers can deflect calls to chatbots by implementing a proactive messaging system on their website or mobile app. For example, when a customer visits the support page and initiates a call, a pop-up message can appear offering immediate assistance via a chatbot instead. Chatbots can also collect valuable data during interactions, such as customer preferences and feedback. This information can be analyzed to identify trends, improve services, and refine future interactions. Call center chatbots are not meant to replace human agents but rather to empower them. By handling routine tasks, AI assistants allow agents to focus on complex issues and provide a more personalized touch, creating a well-rounded customer service experience. SEE: Check out examples of call center chatbots in action.  4. Tune up your knowledge base A call center knowledge base serves as a central repository of information for agents to quickly access answers about products, services, and procedures. It reduces the time agents spend searching for answers, leading to shorter call handling times and improved first-call resolution rates. Essentially, you automate the process of agents needing to go dig for an answer while they have a customer on the line. This efficiency not only benefits the agents but also enhances the overall customer experience by allowing for faster responses. Additionally, many knowledge bases offer customer-facing portals, enabling clients to find answers to common questions on their own, which further reduces the number of inbound calls. To maximize the effectiveness of a knowledge base, training and onboarding programs should include guidance on how to effectively use the knowledge base, so new agents can hit the ground running. Keeping a knowledge base up to date is no small feat. I know that, and an outdated knowledge base is almost more dangerous than not having one. But if you are really trying to speed up the call center workflow and find every possible efficiency, ensuring agents always have the best information at their fingertips is a great place to start. Plus, a call center chatbot trained on a comprehensive knowledge base can be a huge benefit to agents. 5. Enable agents with auto dialers Using auto dialers can significantly streamline the call center workflow for agents by automating the outbound dialing process. This technology eliminates the tedious task of manually dialing numbers and leaving voicemails, allowing agents to focus

Forrester recently published Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS) rankings for brands in the United States and Canada. As part of our annual Customer Experience Benchmark Survey, we surveyed 98,363 consumers in the United States and 43,324 Canadian consumers, asking about their likelihood to recommend brands they interacted with in the past 12 months as a measure of customer loyalty. Our analysis revealed: Overall scores suffered deep decline. NPS fell significantly for the majority of industries for both countries. NPS improved for only one industry in each country: airlines in the US and auto/home insurers in Canada. Interestingly, the investment industry is the only industry in both countries that maintained level NPS performance. Scores declined across the board. A higher percentage of brands (36% in each country) had significant decreases compared to drops in 2023. For the majority of brands, NPS remained stable and a small proportion of brands (6% in the US and 4% in Canada) improved. Many previous industry leaders prevailed. Despite drops in NPS, many industry leaders retained their top spots by continuing to outperform competitors. Top-ranked brands in 11 of 13 US industries remained on top, as did leaders in three of nine Canadian industries in the study. What to do next: Don’t compare these scores to the ones you measured internally. Even if you measure NPS internally, we don’t recommend comparing your scores directly to ours (or other third-party national benchmarks). It is not an apples-to-apples comparison, since survey methodologies and sampling differ. In most cases, the NPS you measured will probably be higher than an NPS derived by a third party such as Forrester, partly because people tend to be more candid when responding to blinded third-party surveys. Instead, focus on trended information. Ask yourself if your company’s scores are moving in the same direction as your industry or key competitors. Are your scores improving at a faster rate? These answers will be more useful than simply looking at absolute scores. Keep in mind that NPS measures loyalty, not CX quality. If your company uses NPS to gauge the success of the customer experience (CX) program, bear in mind that NPS is a loyalty metric, not a direct measure of CX quality. It is only effective at improving CX when it’s part of a CX measurement and improvement system that measures the performance of your customers’ journeys. The Net Promoter Scores in this report are more like relationship Net Promoter Scores than transactional Net Promoter Scores. As such, they tell only one part of your customers’ stories. Dig more deeply to understand drivers of customer intent. Understand key drivers of NPS and performance on specific journey-level moments of truth to more directly help you identify opportunities to improve your CX. Link information from more targeted studies, seek unsolicited and unstructured sources of customer feedback, and link to internal operational data. All of these provide additional perspectives to what happened as your customers engaged with your brand. Don’t neglect broader factors that impact customer perceptions and what they value, including your organization’s culture, employee experience, and marketplace conditions. The impact of these factors are explored in this recent Forrester report. Let’s Talk Forrester clients can schedule a guidance session with me to discuss how to interpret these scores and next steps for improving CX quality. source

The AI boom is amplifying risks across enterprise data estates and cloud environments, according to cybersecurity expert Liat Hayun. In an interview with TechRepublic, Hayun, VP of product management and research of cloud security at Tenable, advised organisations to prioritise understanding their risk exposure and tolerance, while prioritising tackling key problems like cloud misconfigurations and protecting sensitive data. Liat Hayun, VP of product management and research of cloud security at Tenable She noted that while enterprises remain cautious, AI’s accessibility is accentuating certain risks. However, she explained that CISOs today are evolving into business enablers — and AI could ultimately serve as a powerful tool for bolstering security. How AI is affecting cybersecurity, data storage TechRepublic: What is changing in the cybersecurity environment due to AI? Liat: First of all, AI has become much more accessible to organisations. If you look back 10 years ago, the only organisations creating AI had to have this specialised data science team that had PhDs in data science and statistics to be able to create machine learning and AI algorithms. AI has become much easier for organisations to create; it’s almost just like introducing a new programming language or new library into their environment. So many more organisations — not just large organisations like Tenable and others — but also any start-ups can now leverage AI and introduce that into their products. SEE: Gartner Tells Australian IT Leaders To Adopt AI At Their Own Pace The second thing: AI requires a lot of data. So many more organisations need to collect and store higher volumes of data, which also sometimes has higher levels of sensitivity. Before, my streaming service would have only saved very few details on me. Now, maybe my geography matters, because they can create more specific recommendations based on that, or my age and my gender, and so on. Because they can now use this data for their business purposes — to generate more business — they’re now much more motivated to store that data in higher volumes and with growing levels of sensitivity. TechRepublic: Is that feeding into growing usage of the cloud? Liat: If you want to store a lot of data, it’s much easier to do that in the cloud. Every time you decide to store a new type of data, it increases the volume of data you’re storing. You don’t have to go inside your data center and order new volumes of data to install. You just click, and bam, you have a new data store location. So the cloud has made it much easier to store data. These three components form a kind of circle that feeds itself. Because if it’s easier to store data, you can upgrade more AI capabilities, and then you’re motivated to store even more data, and so on. So that’s what happened in the world in the last few years — since LLMs have become a much more accessible, common capability for organisations — introducing challenges across all these three verticals. More cloud security coverage Understanding the security risks of AI TechRepublic: Are you seeing specific cybersecurity risks rise with AI? Liat: The use of AI in organisations, unlike the use of AI by individual people across the world, is still in its early phases. Organisations want to make sure that they’re introducing it in a way that, I would say, doesn’t create any unnecessary risk or any extreme risk. So in terms of statistics, we still only have a few examples, and they are not necessarily a good representation because they’re more experimental. One example of a risk is AI being trained on sensitive data. That’s something we are seeing. It’s not because organisations are not being careful; it’s because it’s very difficult to separate sensitive data from non-sensitive data and still have an effective AI mechanism that is trained on the right data set. The second thing we’re seeing is what we call data poisoning. So, even if you have an AI agent that is being trained on non-sensitive data, if that non-sensitive data is publicly exposed, as an adversary, as an attacker, I can insert my own data into that publicly exposed, publicly accessible data storage and have your AI say things that you didn’t intend it to say. It’s not this all-knowing entity. It knows what it’s seen. TechRepublic: How should organisations weigh the security risks of AI? Liat: First, I would ask how organisations can understand the level of exposure they have, which includes the cloud, AI, and data … and everything related to how they use third-party vendors, and how they leverage different software in their organisation, and so on. SEE: Australia Proposes Mandatory Guardrails for AI The second part is, how do you identify the critical exposures? So if we know it’s a publicly accessible asset with a high-severity vulnerability to it, that’s something that you probably want to address first. But it’s also a combination of the impact, right? If you have two issues that are very similar, and one can compromise sensitive data and one cannot, you want to address that first [issue] first. You also have to know which steps to take to address those exposures with minimal business impact. TechRepublic: What are some big cloud security risks you warn against? Liat: There are three things we usually advise our customers. The first one is on misconfigurations. Just because of the complexity of the infrastructure, complexity of the cloud, and all the technologies it provides, even if you’re in a single cloud environment — but especially if you’re going multi-cloud — the chances of something becoming an issue just because it wasn’t configured correctly is still very high. So that’s definitely one thing I would focus on, especially when introducing new technologies like AI. The second one is over-privileged access. Many people think their organisation is super secure. But if your house is a fort, and you’re giving your keys out to everyone around you, that is still an issue.

By Andrew Karpan ( November 1, 2024, 7:56 PM EDT) — IBM told U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap on Friday that it has reached a settlement in principle with an Oklahoma litigation outfit that won a $19.5 million patent verdict from a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, back in September…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

ClickFunnels fast facts Starting price: $81 per month Key features: Landing pages Website builder Email marketing Membership sites Store funnels ClickFunnels is an online prospecting tool that builds a digital roadmap to generate leads and customers from a multitude of channels like social media or your website. ClickFunnels can cover a range of online and digital marketing functionality such as website building, email campaign management, and A/B testing. ClickFunnels has also recently introduced its own native CRM solution inside of its software. This way, users can prospect new customers and support them throughout their entire sales journey by integrating scheduling tools, events, and sales pipelines. 1 monday CRM Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Calendar, Collaboration Tools, Contact Management, and more 2 Zoho CRM Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Calendar, Collaboration Tools, Contact Management, and more 3 HubSpot CRM Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Micro (0-49 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Small (50-249 Employees) Micro, Medium, Large, Small ClickFunnels pricing Startup: $81 per month when billed annually or $97 per month when billed monthly. This plan comes with three team members and three brand workspaces with unlimited funnels, courses, contacts, pages, and domains. Pro: $248 per month when billed annually or $297 per month when billed monthly. This plan comes with all Startup features plus 10 brand workspaces and 10 team members. ClickFunnels key features Landing pages ClickFunnels users can create unlimited, professionally branded landing pages that are optimized for a high conversion rate. These landing pages will focus your prospect’s attention on one single goal, for example signing up for a trial. Businesses can build campaign-specific landing pages or test different versions of landing pages to see which one converts better. With ClickFunnels’ templates, users of any expertise and creative background can build a well-branded landing page with photos and engaging, clickable content. ClickFunnels landing page builder. Image: ClickFunnels Email marketing ClickFunnels offers an in-house SMTP that acts as a native workflow system providing end-to-end email service. Users can connect with their audience, increase engagements, and grow sales by sending simple emails with ClickFunnels. With deliverability support, custom campaigns created from prebuilt templates, and automated sequences, you’re able to manage the delivery of emails based on customers’ past actions, buying behaviors, preferences, and contact info. ClickFunnels prebuilt email templates. Image: ClickFunnels Store funnels For businesses that sell products through their site, setting up store funnels is a major feature of ClickFunnels. Store funnels, or buy now funnels, are triggered when a shopper buys any product in your online store. A rules-based store funnel sends every new buyer into a custom funnel flow based on their purchases, history, and intent. This way upsell and cross-selling opportunities are taken advantage of to encourage customers to add additional products to their order. This feature also easily integrates with the shipping, taxes, and fulfillment fees during the checkout process. ClickFunnels individual product page builder. Image: ClickFunnels Reporting dashboard Users of ClickFunnels can view all of the most important data such as the performance of your ads, campaigns, and funnels over time. With it, you can track your customers’ journey progress and then diagnose which parts of the campaign are performing well and which need to be adjusted. Another popular metric of ClickFunnels Analytics is forecasting, meaning users can project future business performance based on historical data. ClickFunnels trackable analytics dashboard. Image: ClickFunnels ClickFunnels pros 14-day free trial. Simple webpage and landing page builders. Users praise functionality of integrations with common digital marketing platforms. ClickFunnels cons Users report occasional software glitches and slow runtimes with saving changes. Users report limited mobile accessibility. The back end functionality can have a steep learning curve. Alternatives to ClickFunnels ClickFunnels ZoomInfo Apollo HubSpot Starting paid price $81 per month Contact for quote $49 per user, per month $15 per user, per month Forever free plan No No Yes Yes Email marketing Yes Yes Yes Yes Appointment scheduling Yes Limited Yes Yes Lead routing Yes Yes Yes Yes ZoomInfo ZoomInfo is a B2B lead generation and database tool that offers a variety of products for sales, marketing, operations, and talent acquisition. Users can implement cross channel advertising, utilize conversation intelligence, and segment and score incoming leads for clients. It is worth noting ZoomInfo’s pricing information isn’t transparent on their website and requires you to reach out to their sales team. Read our ZoomInfo review for more information. Apollo Apollo is a go-to-market solution with a variety of B2B prospects, lead generation, and pipeline management tools. Users can build out sales pipelines, manage sales and ongoing deals, and track performance and analytics. Apollo has strong AI functionality and can integrate and enrich third party CRMs. Similar to ClickFunnels and ZoomInfo, Apollo supports inbound lead optimization but capitalizes on the attention a lead gives your brand with engaging content, campaigns, and web forms. Want to know more? Head over to our Apollo review. HubSpot HubSpot isn’t a B2B or B2C database that can generate and pull new contacts and leads for businesses. Instead, it is a leading sales CRM software with robust marketing capabilities that has a robust free tier. Leads can be generated from email campaigns, social media integrations and website landing pages. Additionally, HubSpot offers free and paid AI tools that can help automate a lot of routine sales and marketing tasks. Check out our HubSpot review to learn more about it. Methodology To review ClickFunnels, I used an in-house rubric with criteria based on generalized B2B database and lead generation tools. Our rubric consists of defined criteria and subcriteria around the most important factors when evaluating any lead generation company and CRM solution. To complete the rubric, I used ClickFunnels’ own online resources in addition to real user feedback, scores, and reviews. The following is

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