Dazzle your customers with Proactive Customer Care

November 30, 2011 — Camille

Earlier this year I wrote two blog posts on aligning customer service and marketing, see part 1 and part 2, and a post about Proactive Customer Care.  I recently read an interesting interview with John Goodman, Vice Chairman of Tarp Worldwide and author of “Strategic Customer Service: Managing the Customer Experience to Increase Positive Word of Mouth, Build Loyalty, and Maximize Profits” and thought he provided some valuable insight to add to my previous posts.

Goodman notes that Tarp Worldwide was the original group to quantify that it “costs five times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep one.”  This is a vital statistic for contact center managers because customer retention has a great deal to do with customer service.

One thing I found most interesting in the interview I read is a theory of Goodman’s that he calls “psychic pizza…that is, ringing a customer’s doorbell and saying, ‘Here is the pizza you were about to order.’”  Goodman believes, and I agree, that if a company can anticipate the next question a customer will ask or the next service a customer will need, the company can proactively provide the answers or services without the customer having to do anything.  One example of this is AAA bringing you a cold bottle of water when your car breaks down on a hot day and apologizing for being late even if the serviceperson is early.  Goodman points out that this kind of service dazzles the customer and even if the rest of the service is a disaster, survey results are still outstanding because of that initial dazzling contact.  In other words, the unexpected positive contact overshadows subsequent service issues.

Goodman’s book offers advice for maximizing the relationship between service, sales and marketing such as setting proper expectations up front and educating people when the product or service is sold.  Working with your sales and marketing teams can help you establish a way for your agents to pass up complaints through the chain so you can decide how to proactively dazzle your customers throughout every department in your organization.

Posted in Business, Call Center Management, Customer service. No Comments »

Call Center Performance Metrics: Shaping Tomorrow’s Reporting Strategy

November 22, 2011 — Tom

Following is an executive summary of Inova Solutions’ latest white paper by Jay Minnucci, titled Call Center Performance Metrics: Shaping Tomorrow’s Reporting Strategy.  Read the full whitepaper here, or visit our white paper library.

Contact centers are driven by reports.  They help us evaluate individual performance, identify process improvement opportunities and assess the overall value of the operation.  This reliance on numbers has been around since the first ACD was built and has only grown stronger as the contact center industry has matured.

With the emergence of social media and the growing importance of the role of the contact center to enterprise success, changes to our reporting strategy are critical to stay ahead of the competition.  Today’s most admired contact centers understand the insights that our data can offer leaders across the enterprise.  To tap into that power, they are integrating data from multiple systems and presenting it in customized formats that target the precise needs of a growing number of stakeholders.  The resulting intelligence is delivered at precisely the right moment to have the greatest value and impact.

This customized approach to reporting is one of the biggest opportunities facing contact center leaders today.  Where reporting once meant pressing some buttons and emailing some canned reports, our new environment requires a far more collaborative effort.  We need a better understanding of user needs along with the technical firepower required to join data from multiple sources in the different formats and timeframes our audience demands.  Reporting cannot any longer be an after-thought or a place where we grudgingly accept limitations.

The best-run contact centers today, and those that will thrive tomorrow, recognize that the ultimate value of reporting is not in evaluating past performance, but in driving future change.  Whether that change is brought about by a supervisor in an informative, targeted coaching session with an agent, or in a meeting with IT where a game-changing self service application is devised, it is an intelligently designed report that provides the critical first step.  Re-thinking our approach to reporting today is how we enable all those potential first steps of tomorrow.

Read the full white paper now.

Posted in Call center KPIs, Call Center Management, Call Center Resources, Performance Management. No Comments »

Using smartphones as part of your contact center management

November 17, 2011 — Kelly

In a post in September, I discussed the impact that customer use of smartphones can have on your call center, but also worth considering is the effect of your own use of a smartphone.  The day-to-day business of a contact center manager often takes him away from the desks, or even away from the office building or out of town.  Having portable and remote access via a smartphone can be critical in identifying and then efficiently handling any issues at the call center.  Before you panic about the 24/7 access that come with having a smartphone, consider the possible benefits:

  • Performance review – If you are anywhere except at your desk, you can still keep tabs on your contact center’s full performance metrics.  Inova’s Performance Tracker call center dashboards are 100% compatible with smartphones, allowing you to identify potential problems and to react appropriately when necessary.
  • Instant access – With a smartphone in your pocket, you can have a handheld resource of everything you need.  If you’re on the floor and need to reference a calendar, document, email, or online resource, you can access that information immediately to resolve problems or answer questions.
  • Messaging – If you find yourself trying to manage an issue while off-site or involved in a situation where you can’t make phone calls, smartphones support a wide variety of instant-messaging applications that allow you to seamlessly interact with coworkers or employees to find resolutions.
  • Remote connectivity – Several applications are available for smartphones that allow you to remotely access your desktop computer.  Even if you don’t feel comfortable storing sensitive information on your phone, you can securely connect to remote workstations.

A smartphone has all the functionality of a tablet or notebook computer with the added bonus of portability.  You can do almost everything you could do with bulkier hardware, but on a device that fits in your pocket!

 

Posted in Call Center Management. No Comments »

Seasonal Call Volume on the Rise

November 16, 2011 — Jackie

It’s that time of year again!  The pumpkin pies are baking, the holiday lights are coming out, and everyone is scurrying to get the seasonal shopping finished (or for some of us, started).

This is the time of year where spending peaks, as well as the hours of almost all call center professionals.  Luckily you have several options to keep the queues empty and the staff happy.

Last year, Penny Reynolds of The Call Center School outlined 5 simple options:

Option 1 – Returning Staff

This is the time to explore the possibility of hiring several part-time workers.  An ideal situation would be to have the same people returning back each year.  Imagine how easy it would be to only have to offer refresher training as opposed to a full training period.  These individuals are probably eager to come to work for the extra holiday money!

Option 2 – Shared Staff Arrangements

While your organization may be increasing in call volume, can you think of an organization around you that might be slower than normal?  Reynolds writes, “The call center works with these companies to advertise open positions from October through January for those staff that wish to stay employed, but might be laid off temporarily or cut back to part-time hours in these retail stores.”  This is a win-win for both you and the potential temporary employee.

Option 3 – Local Staffing Agencies

Staffing agencies do all the hard work for you.  They recruit, hire, and sometimes even train the new employees for you.  While individuals coming from staffing agencies may cost a little bit more, it’s an easy way to find the perfect fit for your organization.

Option 4 – Non-Traditional Staffing Agencies

A non-traditional staffing agency is probably not geographically adjacent to you.  These organizations keep staff on hand on an as-needed basis.  The individuals are generally trained in customer satisfaction and service roles so they require little training and can work from home.

Option 5- Call Center Outsourcers

Choosing to send overflow calls or seasonal demand calls elsewhere, is sometimes the smartest option for a business.  As Reynolds said, “The main reason that businesses outsource call center functions is to avoid the resource drain and costs associated with initial set-up and ongoing operation of a function that is typically not the core competency of the business. Developing and running a call center is expensive and many companies find they can accomplish the call handling operation more cost-effectively by outsourcing it than trying to do it in-house.”  Just remember that outsourcing your calls doesn’t mean you don’t have to monitor the quality level your customers are receiving.  Monitoring and coaching are essential to happy customers!

Are you now feeling puzzled about which, if any, of these options is right for you?  Take a look at the calculator from WestBay Engineers that helps you estimate how many agents you need in your call center for each hour during an eight hour day.

Posted in Call Center Management, Call Center Resources, Performance Management. No Comments »

Corporate Social Responsibility in the contact center: Part 2

November 10, 2011 — Camille

My last blog post talked about how to get your company and your customer service representatives (CSRs) involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR).  Over the last couple weeks I’ve thought of a few more ideas to share:

  • Have a food drive competition: Especially since we’re getting near the holidays, food banks are looking for donations.  Have an inter-departmental competition to see who can bring in the most canned goods.  Last year one of our vendors hosted a food drive and Inova employees on each floor of our building competed to see which floor could bring in the largest amount (by weight) of food.  It was a fun competition that boosted morale and made everyone feel good about doing something for others.  You can do the same thing at the start of the school year and collect school supplies for kids in need.
  • Greeting cards: Another idea for the holidays is to make holiday cards for charities.  If you don’t want to ask employees to spend money on gifts for toy drives this is a great way to spread some holiday cheer.  Lots of charities look for people to make cards to send to soldiers overseas and to people in the hospital.  You can turn this into a fun team-building event by getting supplies and letting employees make cards together in the break room.
  • Sponsor employees: If your employees participate in charitable events you can sponsor them.  For example, you can have a company team participate in a charity walk/run or you can sponsor individual employees to complete marathons or bike races that benefit charities.  If your employees have children that play little league you can sponsor their teams for relatively little cost and a tax write-off.

There are lots of ways to promote CSR among your CSRs while boosting morale for little to no expense.  Has your company found success with programs like these?

Posted in Business, Miscellaneous. No Comments »

Agent Compensation and Incentivizing Metrics

November 8, 2011 — Tom

Please tell me you don’t still have an agent-of-the-month program.  Or an agent wall-of-fame based on tenure.  Please.  Are such programs helping you achieve your bottom line or customer experience (CX) goals?  It’s time to move on.  I’ll show you how, in three easy-to-swallow steps.

Ditch the tenure-based or metrics-less “morale” program.

  • That’s right.  No more meaningless agent-of-the-month program.  Your agents will thank you, believe me.

Implement a metrics-driven compensation plan.

  • Linking the customer experience and compensation is near-guaranteed to get your agents’ attention in a big way.  Be ready for this; and be ready for negative push-back from your staff.  Those that are scared of your new program will do everything in their power to sabotage it, from gaming it to ignoring it.  Be ready and take appropriate action early.
  • Use incentivizing metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) to compensate your agents for spectacular performance.  First, establish a baseline for inclusion in the compensation package.  Be sure your sample is controlled and stable.  Also, use a large sample from which you establish your baseline (think 200-400 responses per measurement unit, such as department or skill-group).  Such a large sample size will create confidence in the system, and eliminate random swings in the data.
  • Next, define the data points that will prove successful execution of each behavior, and therefore, the associated metric.  Your agents will never commit to a compensation program under which they have no control.  Agents’ NPS ratings are not (believe it or not) totally within their control.  NPS and CSAT ratings are attributable to groups of employees (frequently not just one), processes, tools, and technology.  Don’t blame your agents’ poor CSAT rating on improperly implemented IVR technology.  Just as importantly, don’t let poor performers drag down the pack.  Compensate by departmental or skill-based group metrics; train the outliers; reward the superstars.

Rinse and repeat.

  • Zig Ziglar, author and motivational speaker, says, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last.  Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”  Re-examine your compensation and motivational programs on a periodic interval.  Organizations with ten or fewer agents should allow for monthly redesign efforts.  Organizations with up to fifty agents should plan on quarterly program evaluations.  If your organization has more than fifty agents, annual exams are the way to go.

Posted in Call center KPIs, Call Center Management, Customer service. No Comments »

What Can Security Manager do for You?

November 3, 2011 — Kelly

To receive the full benefit of the Inova LightLink® real-time visual reporting system, you need the ability to change messaging on-the-fly. Inova LightLink makes this easy to do, while limiting user privileges and protecting against unauthorized system access. The LightLink security feature also prevents users from overwriting each other and keeps access restricted to each users’ area of responsibility.

In call center organizations, there are often many “fingers in the pie,” with many individuals requiring different levels of access to the LightLink system.  For example, a typical organization might have some or all of the following users:

  • Administrators with full system access
  • Senior managers with full access to displays but not system configuration
  • Site managers with access only to displays at their locations

Through Security Manager, Inova LightLink has built-in security that enables system administrators to assign rights and privileges to individuals and user groups.  Further, Security Manager allows you to control privileges for each of the LightLink client applications (e.g., System Manager, Message Editor, DataLink, TaskLink, Administrator).

With Security Manager you can:

  • Manage Inova LightLink Users with a combination of network login accounts and Inova LightLink Security Groups
  • Create Inova LightLink Security Groups and subgroups
  • Attach user and user group privileges (profiles) to users and user groups
  • Assign or deny groups and users the Access Rights to existing output channels, display groups, and devices
  • Assign default profiles to individual users

 

Want to know more?  Look for an invitation to our upcoming Inova OnCourse Complimentary Session to learn some of the basics of Security Manager.

Posted in Call Center Management, Performance Management. No Comments »

The difference between a KPI and a metric

November 1, 2011 — Jackie

This is a perfect overview for any newcomers to your organization that may need some clarification between key performance indicators and metrics.

When first trying to understand them I truly believed they were interchangeable.  After all, they’re both something we’re trying to measure for the success of the organization.  Fortunately I’ve learned that there is in fact a difference.  I’m happy to share with you some of the distinguishable features I know about each.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) 

  • Provide context
  • Are based on legitimate data
  • Lead to action
  • Align with organizational goals
  • Create meaning
  • Influence performance

Metrics

  • A  measurable degree of performance
  • A look at call quality
  • An analysis of productivity

Important facts about KPI’s and Metrics

  • A KPI is a metric, but a metric isn’t necessarily a KPI
  • Developing KPI’s is critical to the measurement of your organization’s success
  • A metric should have a benchmark and action surrounding it

Hopefully you’ve already measured and implemented the appropriate KPI’s and metrics and this is merely a reminder of how to distinguish the two.  If you’re scratching your head and wondering if you need to reevaluate, ask yourself a few questions.

Are the mission and strategy of my organization being measured with a KPI?  Are we looking at the most efficient and effective performances?  Are my goals measurable?

For a more in-depth answer to some of your questions, I encourage you to read our white paper, Executive Guide to Contact Center KPI’s.  If you’re interested in exploring metrics I recommend the International Customer Management Institute’s article, Seven Metrics to Watch for Call Center Success.

Posted in Call center KPIs, Call Center Management, Performance Management. No Comments »
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