How Government Agencies Are Building Better Call Centers

September 30, 2010 — blog@insideinova.com

The image of calling a government agency only to be left on hold, talk to computerized systems, or reach some bored employee who doesn’t really care about the caller is a thing of the past. Government entities from local law enforcement to the Internal Revenue Service are redesigning their call centers to give better service by using the latest technology including advanced call center analytics and electronic reader boards.

People Want More From The Government

The public has decided it will no longer tolerate poor customer service from their government agencies. People are demanding shorter hold times, more responsive agents, and faster resolution of their problems.

This change in attitude has been driven in a large part by the private sector. Companies have slowly come to realize that customer service is an essential part of building loyalty in their clients. Revolutionary changes in information technology have led to call center management tools that would have been impossible a decade ago. As people have gotten better service in the private sector, they have expected an equivalent change from public officials.

There has also been pressure to change from stressed out government workers. Working in an inefficient call center is difficult as callers take their frustrations out on the agents.

Balancing Efficiency With Shrinking Budgets

One reason the government has historically been so slow to emphasize customer service is the belief that it is a luxury. With taxpayers and government oversight committees looking over their shoulders, public managers feel they need to spend money wisely. Cutting edge call centers were seen as a frivolous expense and often at the bottom of the list of priorities.

Today’s public organizations know they must provide exceptional service, just like private companies, but also face criticism of wasteful spending from the same agencies demanding better service. They must find ways to make their call centers run more efficiently while also saving money and not wasting taxpayer dollars. The latest generation of information technology has made this a reality. Easy access to computer software and fast computer networks allows call center management tools to be affordably deployed.

The Latest Call Center Management Systems

The line between phone systems and computer systems has become blurred, and with technologies like VoIP, the line has completely disappeared. No longer are expensive tools needed to generate meaningful call center statistics. Software automatically gathers information on caller volume and agent response and displays the information in real time on electronic reader boards.

All agents can view highly-visible electronic reader boards to see how the call center is functioning so they can adjust their activities accordingly. The data is updated in real time so the information is always current. The latest generation of electronic reader boards use PoE (Power over Ethernet) so are cheaper to install and use less energy than previous models.

Modern call center management tools have made government call centers better experiences for callers and agents alike.

Posted in Business, Call center KPIs, Customer service, LED displays. No Comments »

Indian Call Centers

September 28, 2010 — Rob

I think everyone can relate to the common dinner party conversation when the topic of, “What do you do for a living?” arises.  I work for a software company that specializes in call center systems, therefore, my response to this question usually triggers a series of stories. These stories are usually related to the painful experience of dealing with call centers in general and issues such as the English accent in particular with call agents located in India. This got me wondering why organizations select India as their preferred location for a call center outside of America.

The first reason for India as a preferred location is related to economics. According to wisegeek.com, the average annual salary for an Indian call center agent is approximately $2,500 USD per year. That is significantly less than the average salary for a US-based call center agent which, according to indeed.com, is $25,000 per year. These figures are for entry-level call center agents who take inbound calls, perform basic order entry and billing related inquiry type work. High-level software development or support roles result in an even larger salary discrepancy, making it more desirable for companies to outsource to India, based purely on economic reasons.

The second reason is related to the amount of education the typical call center agent possesses. 70% of call center agents in India have a college degree while in the US it is 20% and 50% in Canada (wisegeek.com). Therefore, organizations have a higher pool of educated resources to choose from in India.

Third is the Indian culture and work ethic. As a baseline, the American workweek is the traditional 40 hour, 5 day work week. In contrast, the typical work week in India is 48 hours which comprises Monday through Friday and half days on Saturdays.  I have some personal experience in working with call center agents in India, and I can attest to this strong work ethic.

Lastly, the reason why India is the most popular location for a call center is the common language spoken, English. India is significantly different than the US when it comes to the number of spoken languages.   There are 14 different languages spoken across India.  In the US, this would be equivalent to traveling to a different state and having to communicate with the locals in a different language.  Essentially India had to agree on a common language that all separate states would use to communicate in Indian business and society.  English was chosen as the common language and is taught to Indian children starting at a young age.

My marketing professor in college use to say, “Consumers vote with their dollars.” What she meant was that whenever you purchase a product you should consider all aspects of the product, including support services. As an organization, the points above outline the motivation for selecting India for their call centers. However, consumers must do their homework and find out exactly what is included when purchasing a product. This purchasing decision should include an evaluation of the quality of technical support that you will receive when you, per Murphy’s Law, will need it at the worst possible moment.

Posted in Business, Customer service, Miscellaneous. No Comments »

Who does your company want to be when it grows up? Part 2

September 27, 2010 — Camille

For the sequel to my Zappos book review blog post, I’d like to focus more on Zappos’ call center operations according to Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh’s book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.

Hsieh reports that Zappos receives “thousands and thousands of phone calls and emails every single day.”  He goes on to describe how the company views every point of contact as an opportunity to build the Zappos brand which is all about the best customer service and customer experience.  This strategy means Zappos runs its call center very differently than most and I’m sure everyone that works in the call center industry will find this interesting (and perhaps a bit shocking).

Zappos doesn’t measure call length (their longest call was almost six hours long) and they don’t upsell.  (I can hear gasps escaping around the world as call center managers, supervisors and executives read this.)  Zappos gives its customer service representatives almost complete control of the customer experience.  Rather than CSRs trying to rush a customer off the phone because the customer is increasing the agent’s average handle time, Zappos CSRs are instructed to create a personal emotional connection (or PEC) with the customer.  Call center metrics are still important, but not at the cost of the customer experience.

For the outbound centers out there, Zappos doesn’t use scripts.  (Insert more gasps of shock and awe here.)  Hsieh says Zappos wants its reps “to let their true personalities shine during each call.”  Reps are expected to go above and beyond for each customer.  For example, if a customer calls about a product that’s out of stock, the rep is trained to search at least three competitors’ websites and direct the customer to the competitor who has the item in stock.  Hsieh points out that Zappos will likely lose that sale, but they’ve made progress toward building a relationship with that customer.  I think it goes without saying that customer service like that will bring customers back again and again.

I highly recommend Delivering Happiness by CEO Tony Hsieh.  There are countless lessons our industry can take away from the Zappos model to improve customer service (and profits).

Posted in Business, Customer service, Miscellaneous. No Comments »

5 Tips for Planning Your Contact Center Budget

September 22, 2010 — Maureen

It’s that time of year again – time to finalize your contact center’s budget. The process of creating an annual budget can be time-intensive and frustrating. No doubt you have been instructed to improve operational efficiency and customer service next year – but with limited resources to do so.

How should you go about tackling the budget proposal, and pitching it in a way that gets your team the resources they need to be successful? Here are five tips to get you started.

1. Prove your value.

It is very difficult to obtain adequate funding for your contact center if executives do not understand the value the center brings to the company. So your first step is to meet with the appropriate stakeholders and share your successes from the past year.

Don’t know where to start? Your vendors are a great resource. They, too, are eager to prove that their technology solution is contributing to your bottom line and may be willing to help you prove operational improvements. Your ACD provider or real-time reporting vendor may be especially helpful, since they are familiar with key performance indicators.

2. Include all current expenses.

You’ll need to tally up the basics from this year and project your need for next year:

  • Infrastructure – This includes network, facilities and utilities (don’t forget to account for depreciation).
  • Human resources – Be sure to include not only salary/benefits, but training programs to combat poor performance, recruiting expenses to attract top talent, and also calculate what your attrition rate costs you in terms of productivity loss.
  • Technology – Include cost estimates for new systems and services as well as maintenance contracts for existing systems. Get in touch with your vendors to get quotes and find out about any new product or service offerings for which you should set aside dollars.

3. Leave room for growth.

Even the best company or department can’t expect to grow and reach goals without ongoing investment. How do you plan to exceed last year’s performance targets?

  • Many centers could benefit from an experienced consultant dropping in to evaluate processes and technology.
  • If you don’t have the budget for a consultant, you may reap some of the same benefits from the latest contact center benchmarking or best practices reports instead.
  • Have you considered the costs of training employees on technology and processes? To get the most out of your people, you need to invest in their professional development on an ongoing basis. They’ll reward you with performance and loyalty.

4. Don’t forget support dollars.

You’ve invested in technology solutions to help your contact center run efficiently. Beyond the initial investment, you must account for the service agreements that buy ongoing maintenance, support and upgrades.

5. Look for places to cut.

This may seem obvious, but spend the time to go line-by-line. You’ll likely find a few easy places to reallocate spending. For example:

  • Are you using all your current floor space? You might benefit by offering a work-from-home option to CSRs, and consolidating your office space. Contact centers with remote agent programs enjoy reduced facilities costs and expansion of the talent pool outside the local area.
  • Should the cost of any of your technology tools be divided up between departments? For example, multiple departments often roll up their telephony expenses in the contact center budget. If the resources are shared, be sure to share the costs as well.

Of course, your budget will be unique to your company and its priorities. It may take several iterations before numbers are agreed upon. Good luck this budgeting season!

Posted in Financial. No Comments »

Who does your company want to be when it grows up? Part 1

September 20, 2010 — Camille

Last week I read an incredible book about an organization that most companies dream of being like— Zappos.com.  Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, made me laugh, made me cry and made me green with envy (at 24 years old Hsieh and his friends sold their online business, Link Exchange, to Microsoft for $265 million!).

Zappos is known around the world for its outstanding customer service.  Here are just a couple points in the book that illustrate how Zappos has grown from a one man operation to a billion dollar company:

  • Everything is customer-centric: They don’t just say “Hey, we care about our customers,” they actually do.  Hsieh gives a number of examples showing how true this is, but one that I found most impressive (and might have persuaded me to try ordering from them) is they give customers surprise shipping upgrades.  Sure this eats into their profits, but when you order from Zappos.com and select ground shipping you probably expect to get your order in a week or so.  SURPRISE!  Zappos selects customers to upgrade to overnight shipping for free.  Imagine finding your order on your doorstep the next day when you weren’t expecting it for a week; after that I bet you wouldn’t hesitate to place another order!
  • Everyone is customer-centric- Yes this is almost exactly the same point as above, but everyone that works at Zappos starts their career in the call center.  And yes, the book says EVERYONE.  You spend four weeks in customer service training, the same training the call center reps go through, and answering customer calls regardless of whether you’re an executive or a “bottom of the totem pole” kind of worker.  I can’t begin to fathom how many more companies could provide outstanding service if every person in the organization could just understand what life is like in the call center industry.

With all this focus on the customer, it’s no wonder Zappos.com reached $1 billion in gross revenue in just 10 years and has continued to grow despite the economy.   Once executives recognize that their front-line customer service people are the eyes and ears of the organization, the profits, passion and purpose will follow.

Have you read Tony Hsieh’s book?  What do you think about Zappos from a customer service perspective?  What other companies do you admire for their commitment to customer service?

Posted in Business, Customer service, Miscellaneous. No Comments »

Top Five: A Compendium of Customer Service Articles

September 16, 2010 — Tom

The CRM systems and solutions of the 1990s gave rise to the host of Social CRM platforms we see available today.  The inevitable consolidation of Social CRM providers will serve to benefit the marketplace.  But let us not forget good old Customer Service, and the value it provides for organizations and their customers.  Here are my top five favorite call center blog posts related to customer service.  Many more customer service articles are available besides my favorites on InsideInova.com.

5.  In August, Doug talked about his real-life experience with a customer service representative at Apple.  Read his humorous encounter with CSR Bob.

A Note to CSR Bob at Apple: Thanks for Hanging in There!

“Bob answered.  Nice guy.  Quiet, measured voice.  He sounded young and very self-assured, but also a little tired – probably at the end of his shift.  He walked me through the setup again – all the things I had tried several times before I called.  Then we started to get serious.”

4.  Last month, I discussed how the MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) Board of Directors implemented a public-facing KPI program.

MARTA Contact Center KPIs

“Average customer call wait time measures the average time a customer must wait before speaking to a customer service representative.  Using innovative call center digital signage to measure these KPIs, MARTA far exceeded its goals – and proudly published them on their website.”

3.  In July, Maureen posted an article on InsideInova.com about balancing the priorities of agent retention and customer service when chronically difficult customers are on the line.  Don’t forget to read the comments!

The Customer Isn’t Always Right

“The scripts we give to reps often make them sound even more robotic and less human or relatable. In that case, what about Skype or other forms of videoconferencing as a medium for customer-agent interaction? Does this simple, visual reminder that a human being is on the other end of the line encourage a more courteous dialogue?”

2.  In June, Kelly talked about her calls with two well-known, national banking institutions.  Read about her experiences and thoughts on customer service.

Which Call Center Are You? A Customer’s Perspective

“I called Company B to see if their rates might be competitive.  In less than 24 hours, I spoke with six representatives and received six answers regarding our eligibility and interest rate.  Each time I called, I spent 30-45 minutes providing the same financial details to each new agent.  Frustrated, I sent a detailed letter to a supervisor.”

1.  My number one pick for customer service articles on InsideInova.com is a two-part post from Mari.  Read about how Inova Solutions customers are successfully utilizing our real-time reporting solutions to solve their operational problems.

Real-life applications for Inova’s products, part 1

Real-life applications for Inova’s products, part 2

“The initial small system was so successful that the company has since more than quadrupled the number of Inova OnTrack displays and expanded the Inova system to optimize the benefits department by enabling “management by exception” and employee empowerment.”

Posted in Call Center Resources, Customer service. No Comments »

Performance Management: More Important Than Ever

September 15, 2010 — blog@insideinova.com

by Marnie Green, Management Education Group

In today’s business climate, organizations must actively managing employee performance. In a climate of restructuring and downsizing, top performers are a prized and valuable resource. And, with fewer employees on many payrolls, managers are realizing they need to give extra attention to staff performance.

Clear expectations, regular feedback, and praise and recognition are all no-cost tools that must be used if an organization expects to thrive and prosper in this time of fewer resources. In fact, Bersin and Associates recently released a study that reveals that performance management is now at the top of the priority list for many organizations. Forty-two percent of organizations have consistent, enterprise-wide practices for performance management. Another 29 percent have a process that is used by most groups throughout the organization. However, that leaves up to 30 percent of organizations with inconsistent or informal performance management practices.

This is troubling because the research also shows that for-profit organizations with defined performance management practices have experienced less downsizing, lower turnover among high performers, and twice the revenue per employee as organizations with informal or inconsistent practices.

The moral of the story is that if you are looking to do more with less (more productivity with fewer employees, more customers with fewer resources) it makes sense to first look to your organization’s performance management practices. Are the day-to-day expectations for employee performance clear? Is meaningful feedback and coaching offered on a regular basis? Do employees clearly understand how their contributions add value to the enterprise? Are managers and supervisors confidently guiding the performance of each individual contributor?

What is your performance management system doing for you? A few tweaks, a renewed focus, or a little training might be all that your organization needs to reap the benefits of a strong performance culture.

You can also reply to this blog with your comments, send me an email, or visit me online at www.ManagementEducationGroup.com. I’d love to hear from you!

“Performance Management: More Important than Ever,” reproduced with permission from from jobing.com, Sept 1, 2010.

Posted in Performance Management. 1 Comment »

How Scrum Changed My Work Life

September 14, 2010 — Stuart

Scrum is, according to Wikipedia, “an iterative, incremental framework for project management and agile software development.”  Here at Inova, Scrum has changed just about everything in my working life, and I would have to say the change has been overwhelmingly for the better.

In the old “waterfall” days everyone worked secluded in their own offices, and my fellow software testers and I were organized into a separate sub-department in Engineering, alongside, or some might have said underneath, Software Development.  At the beginning of a release effort, we testers spent our time reading software design documents in an effort to write extensive manual test plan documents.  These software design documents had been laboriously produced by the programmers after plowing through incomplete and often misguided software requirements documents — sometimes the programmers themselves also wrote the requirements documents!  This documentation step was a thankless process, highly abstract, and the documents produced — requirements, designs, and test plans — were practically impossible to effectively review and edit.  They were simply too abstract and ungrounded in reality.  The testers would often cheat, and write test plans by running the current version of the software, while making changes for the expected new features as we understood them.

A few weeks later there would be enough new code checked in to start testing.  Our team would do one build a week, which to me now is shocking, since we often do more than one build a day.  We’d test the software by manually installing it and running our test plans.  We’d find that the software was different than the design document, different than the test plan, and too often poorly integrated across boundaries between different developer’s code.  Most bugs were found setting up a scenario to isolate a test case, rather than from the test itself.  At the beginning the programmers would try to update their design documents to match what had actually been built and what changed due to bug fixes, but that soon stopped.  We’d spend months on test and fix cycles, being impacted by changes other programmers made to other parts of the system based on what the tester who was testing that code found.  Overall organization was loose and often code changed just to work around bugs or “fixes” in other parts of the system.  After six to fourteen months we’d release.  The rest of the company often went in to shock over what the new release did, how it did it, and what it still didn’t do or no longer did.

So we tried scrum.  At first it was difficult to adopt a totally new process and difficult not to retreat into our “silos” of knowledge.  But our process continued to evolve and pay off.  Now I am a developer, still a tester, but part of a cross-functional team that builds discrete units of functionality in three-week sprints.  Gone are the elaborate documents and the many weeks wasted trying to create them.  Also gone are our offices, now we work together in a co-location area.  The rest of the company knows what we’re doing because we demonstrate it to them every three weeks.  The silos are still around, but being broken down whenever strategic opportunities to disperse that knowledge present themselves.  We use automated builds triggered by code check in, automated tests, and continuous integration.  We still do manual testing, but now without the heavy documentation.  Best of all, we always question what we’re doing and how we can make it better, which is the best thing about the good new days.

Posted in Software development. No Comments »

Learning from Disaster: Maintaining your Inova LightLink System

September 13, 2010 — Andrew

Your Inova LightLink system functions often without any worry, displaying your department’s real-time statistics, and aiding you to reach your service level.  However, when a data source breaks or your statistics stop displaying, your Inova LightLink system has instantly become mission critical.

I witnessed this first hand a couple of weeks ago.  One of our clients was forced to rebuild their Inova LightLink server from scratch.  We had to rebuild every message, consulting with each department head to determine what they wanted displayed on each readerboard.  For a few of these departments, properly addressing call volume was their biggest priority.  And without a way to communicate these statistics, our client lost time, money and satisfied customers.

Not every disastrous situation is completely avoidable, but there are reasonable steps to prepare your business prior to an outage.  Below I have outlined three tips to help maintain, and therefore protect, your system.

  1. Automate monthly back-ups. This may be the most important tip on this list.  Without a viable back-up, you may be forced to start from scratch if anything were to happen to your Inova server.  As described above, this causes a distraction for your business, and can easily be avoided.  Running a back-up for the Inova LightLink server is as simple as setting up a single automated task.  For step-by-step directions, click here.
  2. Make sure your hardware is under warranty. I often receive calls from customers who are struggling with an 8 to 10 year old readerboard.  One good business practice is to always be one step ahead.  This allows you to have better vision of your potential market, and better control over your money.  Maintaining your Inova LightLink system is no different.  Have a plan to upgrade your hardware before you are forced to react.  Reach out to your Invoa sales representative if you have any questions.
  3. Stay informed about Inova LightLink upgrades. Although every LightLink upgrade may not be essential to your Inova LightLink system, it is a very good idea to stay informed on what new features have been released and what bugs have been fixed.  For example, in the last couple of releases Inova has introduced Windows 7 Professional and Windows Server 2008 support, along with tools for maintaining large agent deployments.  For more information on our newest releases, visit our support site.

Posted in Call center KPIs, LED displays, System Maintenance. No Comments »

Improving Digital Signage Views – How to Wow

September 9, 2010 — John

As I’ve said before, digital signage enables new and exciting ways to communicate in today’s contact centers.  Management wants to do more with the ever-evolving technology at their fingertips, and digital signage can be used to share a wide variety of information beyond the contact center metrics.  While the opportunities are exciting, they also pose a slew of new challenges.  The contact center manager not only has to manage his/her employees and ensure the call center metrics stay within manageable limits; now he/she also has to find time to create eye-appealing signage displays!

In an effort to create fresh, appealing, and relevant Broadcaster views, think about the following considerations:

  • Determining what information is relevant – Think about what information would be beneficial for your employees.  What could you offer on a display that might keep them from surfing the ‘net looking for information?  Local traffic and weather, severe weather alerts, upcoming company or local events, local news feed, or even sports scores could be incorporated into your signage view.

  • Continuing to present fresh, live views – How do you incorporate information into your view so that it is always relevant?  You probably don’t need to show traffic updates outside of rush hour.  If you’re in an area with stable weather, a continuous weather map is probably redundant.  It is helpful to have a series of displays in your pocket to use as needed.

  • Presenting content in a manageable view – Now that you’ve identified beneficial information to include in your view, how do you present it in a way that is not overwhelming?  Too much information on one view can be hard to digest, and even hard to look at!  You’ll need to find a way to create an organized, logical view of your “nice-to-know” information in a way that doesn’t overwhelm your “need-to-know” metrics.  

  • Maintaining visual appeal in your view – Perhaps more than any of the other considerations, I find this one to be the most daunting.  Without a background in graphic design, many people find it overwhelming to create a view with coordinating colors and themes that don’t clash or make the viewer cross-eyed! 

All of these considerations can present a daunting challenge for the contact center manager, who is already extremely time-limited. Inova Solutions will soon be able to help — keep an eye out for more information soon about our new Creative Services Group, a team that will work directly with you to create fresh, live, eye-appealing views for your digital signage needs!

Posted in Digital signage. No Comments »
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