Stella Connect - Detailed Review
Communication Tools
Stella Connect - Product Overview
Introduction to Stella Connect (Now Medallia Agent Connect)
Stella Connect, now known as Medallia Agent Connect, is a customer experience management solution that focuses on integrating customer feedback, quality assurance, and coaching to improve the performance of frontline teams.
Primary Function
The primary function of Medallia Agent Connect is to provide real-time customer feedback and insights to customer service agents and their managers. This feedback is used to enhance service quality, boost employee morale, and drive continuous improvement. The platform captures customer feedback after every service interaction, which helps in identifying areas for improvement and providing immediate coaching opportunities.
Target Audience
Medallia Agent Connect serves a wide range of businesses, including startups, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), mid-market companies, and large enterprises. It is particularly useful for customer service teams, call centers, and any organization that relies heavily on frontline employees to interact with customers.
Key Features
- Real-Time Feedback: Customers receive feedback requests after service interactions, which include photos and bios of agents to humanize the experience and increase response rates.
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Customizable surveys to gather detailed feedback from customers.
- Performance Analytics: Provides insights into agent and team performance, helping managers identify coaching opportunities and track improvements over time.
- Quality Assurance: Streamlines and enhances QA processes by launching reviews off customer interactions and automating workflows.
- Coaching Tools: Offers in-the-moment coaching based on real-time feedback, helping agents improve their performance immediately.
- Recognition and Rewards: Allows customers to suggest rewards for agents who perform well, which can be paid out by the company.
- Integration with CRM: Integrates with various CRM systems to link customer feedback directly to service tickets and enhance the feedback context.
- Service Recovery: Enables high-impact service recovery programs to address subpar service interactions promptly.
- Customizable Dashboards: Provides agents and managers with personalized dashboards to view their performance metrics and feedback in real-time.
- Mobile Access: Offers mobile accessibility, ensuring that agents and managers can access the platform from anywhere.
- Gamification: Incorporates elements of gamification to engage agents and foster a competitive environment.
By leveraging these features, Medallia Agent Connect helps organizations improve customer satisfaction, enhance employee engagement, and drive overall performance improvements in their customer service operations.
Stella Connect - User Interface and Experience
User Interface of Medallia Agent Connect
The user interface of Medallia Agent Connect (formerly Stella Connect) is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, focusing on enhancing the customer experience and agent performance.
Key Interface Features
- The platform provides a clean and organized dashboard where agents, team leaders, and executives can easily access and view customer feedback in real-time. This real-time feedback is presented through streams, dashboards, and performance leaderboards, making it simple for users to monitor and act on customer interactions.
- The interface is highly interactive, allowing customers to rate agents, leave comments, suggest rewards, or provide recommendations for improvement. This feedback is then shared directly with the relevant parties, ensuring immediate visibility and actionability.
Ease of Use
- Medallia Agent Connect is known for its ease of use, with features that automate workflows and integrate seamlessly with other tools such as Freshservice and Snappy Gifts. For example, the Freshservice integration allows for automatic feedback requests after tickets are closed, and interaction tags or categories can be passed from Freshservice to further enrich the feedback.
- The platform’s automated workflows and integrations reduce the need for manual intervention, making it easier for managers and agents to focus on improving customer service rather than managing multiple systems.
Overall User Experience
- Users have praised the platform for its ability to drive motivation and engagement among agents. By sharing customer feedback directly with agents, the platform helps in identifying coaching opportunities and improving overall performance. This real-time feedback loop is highly appreciated by users, as it helps in maintaining high-quality customer interactions.
- The integration with Snappy Gifts adds an additional layer of engagement by allowing customers to reward agents for exceptional service, which can significantly boost agent motivation and job satisfaction.
Feedback and Coaching
- The interface is optimized for coaching and QA, enabling managers to identify areas where agents need improvement. The feedback collected is humanized and gamified, which helps in generating high response rates from customers, providing valuable insights into agent performance.
Overall, Medallia Agent Connect offers a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, with features that enhance both the agent and customer experience. Its real-time feedback mechanisms and seamless integrations make it a valuable tool for managing and improving customer service operations.
Stella Connect - Key Features and Functionality
Stella Connect Overview
Stella Connect, a product by Medallia, is a comprehensive platform focused on customer feedback, quality management, and coaching specifically for contact center teams. Here are the main features and how they work:
Customer Feedback Collection
Stella Connect collects customer feedback immediately after a conversation ends. This feedback is then shared directly with agents and team leads in real-time. This process encourages agent engagement and motivation by providing immediate visibility into their performance.
Service Recovery
When customers leave negative feedback, Stella Connect flags these interactions, allowing team leads to initiate service recovery processes. This involves re-surveying the customer and measuring sentiment to make things right and retain customers.
Quality Assurance (QA) Process
The platform streamlines the QA process by automatically retrieving and assigning QA reviews from omnichannel conversations. You can customize scorecards based on your team’s specific needs, use auto-fail questions, weight scoring on a per-section basis, and categorize questions into sections. This automation saves time on manual processes and makes the QA process more actionable.
Coaching and Performance Management
Stella Connect includes a dedicated meeting management space for coaching sessions. Coaches can use past QA reviews, customer feedback, and other metrics to track trends and set follow-up tasks. This helps in upskilling agents and celebrating their successes, ensuring they perform at their best.
Integration Capabilities
Stella Connect integrates seamlessly with various platforms such as Kustomer, Freshservice, and Freshsales. These integrations allow for automatic feedback requests after tickets are closed or deals are updated, passing interaction tags or categories to enrich feedback, and linking customer feedback directly to service tickets or activities for deeper context.
Rewards and Recognition
Through its integration with Snappy Gifts, Stella Connect enables companies to launch rewards programs for customer service agents. This allows customers to take an active role in rewarding agents, and managers can fulfill gifts directly from their Stella Connect account, boosting agent motivation and engagement.
AI Integration
While the specific AI technologies used are not detailed in the sources, Stella Connect leverages real-time data and analytics to provide actionable insights. The platform uses automated processes to collect and distribute feedback, track performance metrics, and facilitate coaching sessions, all of which are likely supported by AI-driven analytics to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
Conclusion
Overall, Stella Connect is designed to enhance agent performance, customer satisfaction, and service quality through immediate feedback, streamlined QA processes, and effective coaching and recognition tools.
Stella Connect - Performance and Accuracy
Performance of Stella Connect
Stella Connect, now known as Medallia Agent Connect, is a customer experience management solution that has demonstrated strong performance in several key areas:Engagement and Response Rates
Stella Connect is highly effective in driving customer engagement through its feedback requests. The platform achieves response rates of 40-60%, and in some cases, up to 50%. This high engagement is attributed to the humanized and gamified feedback requests, which include photographs and brief bios of the customer service staff, making the interaction more personal.Feedback and Coaching
The platform collects agent-level feedback from customers after every service interaction and shares it directly with agents, managers, and QA teams in real-time. This feedback is presented through streams, dashboards, and performance leaderboards, which helps in identifying coaching opportunities and driving motivation among agents.Integration and Automation
Stella Connect integrates seamlessly with major CRM platforms such as Zendesk and Freshservice. This integration allows for automated workflows, such as sending feedback requests after tickets are closed and linking customer feedback to specific service tickets. This automation enhances the efficiency and accuracy of the feedback process.Performance Metrics and Analytics
The platform provides granular insights into agent performance through customizable dashboards and performance metrics. This enables managers to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and identify areas for improvement, which can lead to better service quality and reduced turnover rates.Accuracy
The accuracy of Stella Connect is supported by several features:Real-Time Feedback
The real-time nature of the feedback ensures that the data is current and relevant, allowing for immediate coaching and improvements.Comprehensive Analytics
The platform offers comprehensive analytics and reporting, which helps in making data-driven decisions. This includes detailed metrics on agent performance and customer satisfaction.Customer Validation
Customers can rate agents and leave comments about their experience, providing direct and accurate feedback on the service received. This feedback is then used to recognize and reward good performance, which can improve overall service quality.Limitations and Areas for Improvement
Response Rate Variability
While Stella Connect achieves high response rates, there can be variability depending on the implementation and the specific customer base. Response rates can range from 40-60%, which means there might be instances where engagement is lower.Integration Challenges
Although the platform integrates with major CRM systems, there could be challenges in integrating with less common or proprietary systems. Ensuring smooth integration across all potential systems is crucial for optimal performance.Cost and Accessibility
The starting price of $39 per month might be a barrier for some smaller businesses or startups. Additionally, there is no free trial or free version available, which could limit accessibility for those who want to test the product before committing.Conclusion
Stella Connect, or Medallia Agent Connect, is a powerful tool for enhancing customer service performance through high engagement rates, real-time feedback, and comprehensive analytics. While it excels in many areas, it is important to consider potential limitations such as response rate variability, integration challenges, and cost. Overall, it is a valuable solution for businesses looking to improve their customer service operations and agent performance. Stella Connect - Pricing and Plans
The Pricing Structure for Medallia Agent Connect
The pricing structure for Stella Connect, now known as Medallia Agent Connect, is structured into several plans, each with distinct features to cater to different needs.
Support Only (Team)
- Price: $19 per agent/month, billed annually
- Features:
- Email and social media support
- Web widget and mobile SDK
- Pre-defined business rules
- Essentials card
- Interaction history
Suite Team
- Price: $49 per agent/month, billed annually
- Features:
- Industry-leading ticketing system
- Messaging across web, mobile, and social media
- Email, voice, SMS, and live chat support
- Help center (single)
- Easy-to-set-up automations and workflows
- AI-powered automated answers (up to 50)
- Unified agent workspace
- Out-of-the-box reporting and analytics
- Data and file storage (standard)
- Over 1,000 prebuilt apps and integrations
- Robust APIs (standard rate limit)
- Online, email, and phone support from the Zendesk team
- Onboarding and adoption guidance
Suite Growth
- Price: $79 per agent/month, billed annually
- Features:
- All features of Suite Team, plus:
- Self-service customer portal
- AI-powered knowledge management
- Customizable ticket layouts
- Light access licenses (up to 50)
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
- Multilingual support and content
Suite Pro
- Price: $99 per agent/month, billed annually
- Features:
- All features included in Suite Growth, plus:
- Conversation routing based on agent skill
- Integrated community forums
- Private conversation threads
- Customizable and shareable dashboards
- Advanced voice capabilities
- HIPAA compliance
- Events Connector for Amazon Web Services
Additional Notes
- There are no free options or free trials available for Medallia Agent Connect.
- The pricing is based on a per-agent, per-month model, with discounts for annual billing.
For more customized pricing or specific integrations, such as the Freshsales integration, it is recommended to contact the Medallia team directly to discuss your specific needs and workflow requirements.
Stella Connect - Integration and Compatibility
Stella Connect Overview
Stella Connect, a component of Medallia’s Agent Connect, is designed to integrate seamlessly with various tools and platforms to enhance customer service operations. Here’s a breakdown of its integration and compatibility:
Integration with Customer Service Platforms
Stella Connect integrates with customer service platforms like Gorgias and Gladly. For instance, the integration with Gorgias allows you to automate feedback requests after tickets are solved, include Gorgias tags in Medallia Agent Connect to enrich feedback, and link customer feedback directly to Gorgias tickets for more actionable context.
Integration with Gorgias
- In Gorgias, this integration involves setting up an HTTP integration, where you can configure triggers, such as when a ticket is updated, and send relevant data to Medallia Agent Connect via a webhook. This setup also enables service recovery workflows and the import of Gorgias tickets for QA reviews.
Integration with Gladly
With Gladly, the integration is configured through Medallia Agent Connect contacts. When a conversation is closed in Gladly, Medallia Agent Connect receives a webhook event, triggering the collection of customer satisfaction (CSAT) feedback. This integration retrieves conversation data, including the agent involved, and attributes the CSAT rating to the agent who last interacted with the customer.
Compatibility Across Different Platforms
Stella Connect is compatible with a variety of service, messaging, and reporting platforms. It can easily integrate with existing tech stacks, making it versatile for different operational environments.
Integration with Snappy Gifts
- For example, the integration with Snappy Gifts allows companies to launch rewards programs for customer service agents directly within Stella Connect. This enhances agent engagement and motivation by enabling customers to take an active role in rewarding exceptional service.
Technical Compatibility
The integrations are typically configured using APIs and webhooks. For instance, the integration with Gladly uses APIs to retrieve conversation data, agent information, and media files related to the conversation. This ensures that the data exchange is seamless and accurate.
Conclusion
In summary, Stella Connect by Medallia is highly integrable with various customer service tools and platforms, enhancing the ability to capture feedback, streamline QA processes, deliver coaching, and motivate agents through rewards programs. Its compatibility is broad, allowing it to fit into diverse technological ecosystems.
Stella Connect - Customer Support and Resources
Stella Connect Overview
Stella Connect, now known as Medallia Agent Connect, offers a range of customer support options and additional resources that are designed to enhance the performance and engagement of customer service teams.
Real-Time Feedback and Coaching
One of the key support options is the ability to collect and share customer feedback directly with agents and team leads in real-time. This feedback is gathered immediately after customer interactions and is used to drive agent engagement, motivation, and visibility. Managers can use this feedback to identify coaching opportunities and deliver personalized coaching sessions through a dedicated meeting management space within the platform.
Service Recovery
For instances where customers have had poor service experiences, Stella Connect enables a service recovery process. Negative feedback is flagged, allowing team leads to recover poor interactions, re-survey customers, and measure the impact of their service recovery efforts on customer sentiment. This helps in retaining customers and improving overall customer satisfaction.
Automated QA Processes
The platform streamlines the quality assurance (QA) process by automatically retrieving and assigning QA reviews from customer interactions. Managers can customize scorecards based on specific team needs, use auto-fail questions, weight scoring on a per-section basis, and categorize questions into sections. This automation saves time on manual processes and makes QA more actionable.
Role-Specific Dashboards
Medallia Agent Connect provides role-specific dashboards that keep work-from-anywhere teams connected. These dashboards offer transparent feedback and personalized coaching, allowing agents to self-correct and proactively seek help when needed.
Integration and Customization
The platform allows for seamless integration with other tools like Kustomer and Freshservice. Users can automate workflows, send feedback requests after tickets are closed, and link customer feedback directly to service tickets for deeper context. The integration process is guided by the vendor’s team, ensuring a smooth setup.
Developer Resources
For developers, Medallia offers extensive documentation and resources to create custom integrations. This includes flexible APIs and workflow automators that can be customized to meet specific business needs.
Performance Metrics and Feedback Management
The platform provides comprehensive performance metrics and feedback management tools. It allows teams to collect customer feedback, track trends, and set follow-up tasks. Managers can also celebrate agent successes and provide feedback through performance leaderboards and dashboards.
Conclusion
Overall, Stella Connect (Medallia Agent Connect) is equipped with a variety of tools and resources aimed at improving agent performance, customer satisfaction, and team engagement.
Stella Connect - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Stella Connect (Medallia Agent Connect)
Stella Connect, now known as Medallia Agent Connect, offers several significant advantages that make it a valuable tool for customer service teams:Real-Time Feedback and Coaching
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Comprehensive Performance Management
Integration Capabilities
Service Recovery
Employee Engagement and Motivation
Customizable and Scalable
Disadvantages of Stella Connect
While Stella Connect offers numerous benefits, there are some limitations and areas for improvement:Limited QA Functionality
Potential for Additional Features
Initial Setup and Maintenance
Stella Connect - Comparison with Competitors
Unique Features of Stella Connect
- Integrated Feedback, QA, and Coaching: Stella Connect is unique in its ability to connect customer feedback, quality assurance (QA), and coaching within a single platform. This integration provides CX leaders with comprehensive visibility into agent performance and facilitates in-the-moment coaching, which can significantly improve frontline team efficiency and customer satisfaction.
- Real-Time Insights and Motivation: The platform allows agents to access real-time customer feedback, which motivates them to perform better. It also helps in identifying top and bottom performers and spotting opportunities for immediate coaching.
- Engagement and Rewards: The integration with Snappy Gifts enables companies to launch rewards programs directly within Stella Connect, allowing customers to reward agents for exceptional service and boosting agent motivation and engagement.
Alternatives and Comparisons
CallMiner
- Conversational Analytics: CallMiner is an AI-driven alternative that uses conversational analytics to analyze voice and text-based interactions. It offers a customizable interface and the ability to review and grade calls within the app. However, it may require extensive training, and its transcriptions are not always highly accurate.
- Focus on Analytics: Unlike Stella Connect, CallMiner is more focused on deep analytics of customer interactions rather than integrating feedback, QA, and coaching.
Zendesk
- Customer Service Centralization: Zendesk is a multifaceted platform that centralizes customer service processes but lacks in-depth feedback analysis compared to specialized VOC (Voice of the Customer) platforms like Stella Connect. It is more geared towards streamlining and managing customer service operations rather than providing detailed performance insights and coaching tools.
Thematic
- AI-Driven Insights: Thematic uses AI to analyze customer feedback and interactions, providing insights into customer satisfaction, sentiment, and process bottlenecks. It allows for real-time alerts and blending of qualitative and quantitative data. While Thematic is strong in analytics, it does not have the same level of integration with QA and coaching as Stella Connect.
- Customization: Thematic offers easier customization of themes and sentiment analysis without needing specialist support, which can be an advantage over Medallia’s more rigid theme modeling.
Other Considerations
- Otter.ai and Grammarly: While not direct competitors in the contact center space, tools like Otter.ai and Grammarly can enhance communication within teams. Otter.ai excels in transcribing meetings and verbal communications, and Grammarly improves written communication. However, they do not address the specific needs of contact center performance management and customer feedback integration that Stella Connect does.
Stella Connect - Frequently Asked Questions
What is Stella Connect?
Stella Connect is a customer feedback and performance management tool developed by Medallia. It connects customer feedback, quality assurance (QA), and coaching to enhance service quality, boost employee morale, and drive continuous improvement through actionable data and engaging user experiences.
What are the key features of Stella Connect?
Stella Connect offers several powerful features, including real-time feedback, customer satisfaction surveys, agent leaderboards, performance analytics, quality assurance, coaching tools, recognition and rewards, customizable surveys, integration with CRM, service recovery, agent profiles, team performance tracking, customizable dashboards, mobile access, gamification, peer reviews, automated workflows, sentiment analysis, and survey templates.
What types of businesses does Stella Connect serve?
Stella Connect serves a wide range of businesses, including startups, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), mid-market companies, and enterprises.
What are the pricing plans for Stella Connect?
The pricing plans for Stella Connect vary:
- Support Only (Team): $19 per agent/month, billed annually. This plan includes basic features like email and social media support, web widget and mobile SDK, pre-defined business rules, and interaction history.
- Suite Team: $49 per agent/month, billed annually. This plan includes more advanced features such as industry-leading ticketing systems, messaging across web, mobile, and social, and unified agent workspace.
- Suite Growth: $79 per agent/month, billed annually. This plan adds features like self-service customer portals, AI-powered knowledge management, and customizable ticket layouts.
- Suite Pro: $99 per agent/month, billed annually. This plan includes all features from the Suite Growth plan plus advanced voice capabilities, HIPAA compliance, and events connector for Amazon Web Services.
What type of customer support is available from Stella Connect?
Stella Connect provides various support options, including email, social media, web widget, and phone support. The specific support options can vary depending on the pricing plan chosen.
How does Stella Connect help in employee engagement and performance?
Stella Connect helps in employee engagement and performance by providing real-time customer feedback, which motivates agents to perform better. It also offers coaching tools, recognition and rewards, and performance analytics to help managers provide immediate feedback and guidance. This leads to increased agent engagement, reduced turnover, and optimized team scalability.
Can Stella Connect integrate with other systems?
Yes, Stella Connect can integrate with other systems, including CRM systems. It also offers prebuilt integrations with over 1,000 apps and robust APIs for further customization.
What are the primary competitors of Stella Connect?
The primary competitors of Stella Connect include EveryoneSocial, Jalapeno, and WeSpire. These platforms offer similar features and functionalities aimed at customer feedback, performance management, and employee engagement.
How does Stella Connect facilitate service recovery?
Stella Connect facilitates service recovery by enabling automated workflows that allow customer service teams to promptly address and resolve issues with dissatisfied customers. It connects customer feedback to coaching and QA, helping teams to identify and rectify problems efficiently.
Is Stella Connect accessible on mobile devices?
Yes, Stella Connect offers mobile access, allowing agents and managers to access the platform and its features from anywhere using their mobile devices.
Stella Connect - Conclusion and Recommendation
Final Assessment of Stella Connect
Stella Connect is a comprehensive customer feedback and performance management tool that stands out in the communication tools and AI-driven product category. Here’s a detailed look at its benefits, target users, and overall recommendation.
Key Features and Benefits
Stella Connect offers a wide range of features that make it an invaluable tool for customer service teams. Key highlights include:
- Real-Time Feedback: Customers receive feedback requests after every service interaction, which includes photos and bios of agents, humanizing the experience and increasing response rates.
- Performance Analytics: The platform provides detailed analytics and insights into agent and team performance, helping managers identify areas for improvement and recognize top performers.
- Coaching Tools: Stella Connect enables micro-coaching moments by capturing suggested areas for improvement after sub-par service interactions, allowing for immediate corrective actions.
- Recognition and Rewards: Integration with platforms like Snappy Gifts allows customers to suggest rewards for agents, boosting morale and motivation.
- Customizable Surveys and Dashboards: The tool offers customizable surveys and dashboards, ensuring that the data collected is relevant and easily accessible to both agents and managers.
Who Would Benefit Most
Stella Connect is particularly beneficial for businesses that rely heavily on customer service, including:
- Contact Centers: Whether operating in-house, offshore, or remotely, Stella Connect helps manage agent performance and customer satisfaction effectively.
- Startups, SMBs, Mid-Market, and Enterprises: The tool is scalable and can be used by a wide range of businesses to enhance their customer service operations.
- Industries with Front-Line Service Staff: This includes e-commerce, education, financial services, and more, where continuous improvement in customer service is crucial.
Overall Recommendation
Stella Connect is highly recommended for any organization looking to improve customer service quality, boost employee morale, and drive continuous improvement. Here are some key reasons why:
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: By connecting QA with customer feedback and coaching, Stella Connect provides insights that directly impact customer satisfaction.
- Improved Agent Performance: The platform’s real-time feedback, coaching tools, and recognition features help agents perform better and feel more valued.
- Ease of Use: Stella Connect is user-friendly, with customizable dashboards and surveys that make it easy for both agents and managers to use the platform effectively.
- Integration Capabilities: The tool integrates well with other systems, such as CRM and rewards platforms like Snappy Gifts, making it a versatile addition to any customer service setup.
In summary, Stella Connect is an excellent choice for businesses seeking to enhance their customer service operations through real-time feedback, personalized coaching, and effective recognition and reward systems. Its ability to cater to a wide range of businesses and industries makes it a versatile and valuable tool in the communication and AI-driven product category.