Holiday Rewards for your Employees

December 15, 2011 — Kelly

It’s that time of year again…when many of your employees are focused on their own holiday preparations and less motivated regarding the work that needs to be done.  For many companies, this holiday slump is poorly timed at the same time as increased call volumes and added pressure to meet annual performance metrics.  Luckily for some, holiday bonuses or gifts for employees can help employees remember that they are valued and important pieces of the corporate puzzle.  However, many companies don’t have a corporate plan for gift giving or bonuses.  If you find yourself in such a situation, consider some alternate ways that you can share some of the holiday spirit with your employees:

Gift cards – If you have any discretionary funds that you can use for employee gifts, gift cards are an easy and much-appreciated treat for employees.  Many retailers offer discounts on gift cards in November and December.  Even if it’s a small amount on each card, your efforts will likely not go unnoticed or unappreciated!   I’ve seen buy three $5 cards, get one free deals at national chain coffee shops; holiday calendars with free items every month at national fast food chains, and $100 gift cards for $80 at many national and local restaurants.

Holiday event – You can be as elaborate or simple as your budget allows with a holiday event; the key is to sponsor some time for employees to visit and socialize with their coworkers.  Consider whether you will offer the event during work hours, if families will be invited, and what exactly you will provide and what employees should bring.

Holiday-specific performance metrics – Bring a little fun into the work day.  Can you think of metrics that you could incorporate related to the holiday season?  Ask employees to tally how many customers they can get to offer a return holiday greeting; a reward as simple as having the winner’s name on your Inova LightLink display may be enough to engage employees.

Reward with time – Depending on how your company works, you may have little control over employee compensation, but some wiggle room in leave time.  If so, consider allowing employees to leave early, arrive late, or extend breaks on a rotating basis.

Personal gifts – Even if the above options aren’t realistic for your call center, you can always use your personal funds or skills to give gifts to your employees.  I’ve seen managers give baked goods, handmade ornaments, movie tickets, and even holiday mix CDs as presents for employees.  Besides, anything from you is likely to be even more appreciated due to its personal nature!

Many people get caught up in the stress of the holidays, which can impact performance at work.  Finding ways to show your employees that they are appreciated and valued will ultimately make your contact center a more enjoyable place to be throughout the season!

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

FCR and Customer Satisfaction: A Match Made in Heaven

December 13, 2011 — Special Contributor

The following article is courtesy of Peggy Carlaw.  Peggy Carlaw is the founder of Impact Learning Systems. Impact helps companies develop and implement customer service strategies to improve the customer experience. Their consulting services and training programs help organizations create a customer-focused culture while producing measurable business results. Peggy is also the author of three books published by McGraw-Hill including Managing and Motivating Contact Center Employees.

When you call a support center to get help on an issue or have a question answered, will you be more satisfied with the company if:

  1. The customer representative is knowledgeable and is able to resolve your issue on the first call?
  2. The representative is unsure how to help you, puts you on hold, and then asks you to call back so that a supervisor can help you?

It’s pretty obvious, right? If a company can resolve your problem on the first try, you’ll think more favorably of the company and rate your customer satisfaction experience higher.

First-Call Resolution (FCR) is one of the simplest—and most effective ways a company can improve customer satisfaction.

The statistics back the correlation between FCR and customer satisfaction

Numerous studies between FCR and CSAT rates show the link. For example:

  • 20% of callers don’t have their issue resolved on the first call.
  • 68% of those with unresolved issues are at risk for defecting to another company.
  • CSAT rates are, on average, 35-45 % lower when a second call is made for the same issue.
  • For every 1% of FCR improvement, companies are likely to see a 1% improvement in CSAT rates.
  • When an issue is resolved on the first try, only 3% of customers are likely to go to a competitor.

And the stats go on … but you get the point. To improve your customer service, work on your FCR rates. There’s definitely a business case for addressing resolution rates!

But, for many companies, improving FCR is a complex issue. What’s going on?

Just improve your FCR and you’ll have happier customers! Easier said than done, right? Let’s examine some of the most common barriers to FCR.

  • Complex Products or Issues: FCR is much easier for, say, an online retail store, where a customer is calling to get more information on dress sizes, than a web-hosting company that deals with technical domain issues and server problems.If you have a complex problem or have a support center that deals with highly technical matters, focusing on FCR may not apply. If that’s the case, focus on having highly trained, independent-thinking reps who can work efficiently to solve customer matters—even if it takes multiple calls. Your focus then will be on reducing the time or the number of calls until the issue is resolved.
  • To measure FCR, you have to first define “fix.” When tracking metrics of any kind, you need to clearly define your tracking parameters. For FCR, what does “fix” a customers’ issue mean to you? Did you solve a URL issue, but still leave open other questions that need to be tackled? Define issues, problem by problem (or in a set of problems, as the case may be) before you set out to track and improve FCR rates. Additionally, you’ll need to define what “contact” means. Is e-mail a contact? Is a web-generated request a contact?
  • It takes two to tango. When looking at FCR, you may find it hard to control your rates if you have a customer base with a low level of experience. Depending on your industry and product, your customer’s understanding of the product will affect how long it takes for the representative to resolve the issue. If you sell B2B technical equipment,  your customer will likely have a base understanding of the product and may just need a little assistance. But if you are selling technical services to the B2C world, the learning curve may be steeper and the time to resolution longer.
  • Technical skills of your representatives. The training you provide to your representatives can make a dramatic difference in your FCR rates—particularly if you have a technical service or product. Hopefully your management team understands that an investment in technical customer service training is well-worth it when considering the ramifications of low FCR rates.
  • Self-service’s impact on FCR. More and more customers rely on web forums—and on your website—to help them resolve issues. This means that customers who would have called you previously (most likely with easier issues) are now figuring out answers themselves. Customers who do end up calling, therefore, are often those who couldn’t resolve the issue and present more complex problems that could be harder to resolve on the first call.
  • Your representatives’ comfort level with internal tools. You may think that a hefty investment in a slick CRM system is just the ticket, but with any internal tools you have in place, make sure you train your reps thoroughly on how to use the tools at their disposal. If a representative is fumbling or taking a long time to figure out how to use a system, most likely, it will take longer (or not be possible) to solve a customer issue on the first try.

The lesson? Improve the factors you can control that help improve FCR

The above list is just a brief sample of the many barriers that companies face when confronting low FCR rates and undesirable CSAT scores. However, even if you have a very complex product, and even if you’re dealing with a customer base that comes to you with a lower-level of understanding, you can still offer stellar customer service and get your FCR rates as low as possible for your industry and product type. The key? Your customer service training program. When you choose to focus on the quality of service your representatives offer your customers, and the technical training your employees receive, you are likely to see a natural increase in your FCR rates, and your loyal customers will continue to reward you with business. Heavenly!

Republished with author’s permission from original post by Peggy Carlaw.

Posted in Business, Call center KPIs, Customer service. 1 Comment »

Does your Contact Center Need a Stress Test?

December 8, 2011 — Jackie

Thanksgiving and Black Friday are over.  In the blink of an eye Christmas will have come and gone.  What’s left on your big list of preparations?  How about keeping your agents sane!

Lauren Carlson, CRM Analyst, has the answers for you.  Last month she featured two posts about holiday help desks.  In the first, Four Tips to Make Your Holiday Help Desk Shine, Lauren reviews some quick solutions to keep everyone on track.

Create a holiday-specific FAQ list 

A simple FAQ list might be one of the easiest things to brainstorm, and also the most helpful.  Carlson discusses thinking about and educating your staff on the simple questions like delivery and giftwrap options.

Cross-train your staff

Many organizations spend time training their seasonal employees for the holidays.  Experts suggest that everyone at the contact center be trained as a support agent to enhance the image of the entire organization.

Communicate availability ahead of time

Remember all of those emerging media outlets you joined?  This is a perfect time to use them!  Utilize every possible medium to inform customers of the special hours or availability of your company.

Develop a plan of agent support

Don’t forget that your employees are one of the most valued assets to your establishment.  The holidays are a perfect opportunity to say “thank you.”  Recognize their hard work and alleviate their stress with rewards, bonuses, or incentives.

Lauren Carlson wrote her second article, The Holiday Help Desk Stress Test, to help you identify the strengths and weaknesses that are potentially hiding in your call center.  She proposes five examinations.

1.)    Employee Onboarding

There is no doubting the impact of seasonal employees to help keep ASA down.  The real problem is identifying the impact after they’re gone.  Are your seasonal employees trained properly?  Can they answer the appropriate questions?  Do you have an influx of problems launching the new year because customers have been given the wrong information?  Make a goal to measure post-holiday operations.

2.)    Internal Collaboration

Stress levels are likely at their highest during this time of year.  Look at the collaboration between all departments within your center and help problem solve and plan for future success.

3.)    Peak Load Management

Assistly’s Senior VP of Marketing, Matt Trifiro, quoted “If you can figure out how to best distribute the work load between temporary versus full-time employees, you can experience a huge amount of savings and also provide a better customer experience.”  If you are thinking that perhaps your seasonal employees aren’t quite at the level you hoped, consider training them only on the basics and allowing the tougher questions to be answered by your long-term professionals.

4.)    Emergency Response Processes

When you least expect it, unforeseen emergencies creep up.  How will you and your company deal with them?  Are you ready to respond to and manage a disaster through all of your channels?  Being proactive is vital to the health of your organization.

5.)    Customer Satisfaction

Have you ever thought about asking customers to candidly give you some feedback after your busiest time of the year?  By listening to your critics after the most intense season in the call center you’ll get the feedback you need.  This also can help you align next year’s strategy with the responses and goals you’ve created.

Use this holiday season to learn, engage and celebrate!  

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

Managing a “BYOD” Workplace

December 2, 2011 — Kelly

Recently, I’ve written about your customers’ use of smart phones as well as how you can leverage a smart phone in the workplace.  Another emerging trend is what’s referred to in a recent series of articles in Information Week publications as the “BYOD Revolution.”  BYO is a commonly-accepted acronym for bring your own, and the D here is for device.  In most companies, the majority of employees do not have a corporate-issued smart phone, so they have purchased these devices personally.  That part of the trend is not particularly worrisome, but problems can easily arise when employees use their personal devices to check their work email, manage company documents, or organize client contacts.

In “Survive the BYOD Revolution,” Finneran outlines seven ways to cope with the influx of employee devices.  He starts with a recommendation to carefully consider which employees are eligible for smart phones and to develop specific guidelines for reimbursements.  From there, determine which platform to use and outline your support plan.  Beyond that, management needs to understand the long-term implications of employee devices:  if an employee leaves, will he be allowed to take the device phone number with him, or does the company need to retain it?  How will you strengthen the “weak link” (i.e., the users) in your security plan so that information is not compromised?  Finally, what is your schedule for reassessing your policies?

Once you’ve determined a plan for distributing and managing corporate smart phones to some employees, you still need to consider the impact of employees using non-corporate devices.  Just because you don’t issue them one, certainly doesn’t mean that employees are willing to be left behind in the growing smart phone trend!

In his Practical Analysis article from the November 14 issue, Wittman writes that IT can’t manage employee smart phones in the same way that a corporate phone is managed.  It’s a risky business to try to manage an employee’s personal phone when it contains his archive of photos, calendars, contacts, etc.  Wittman suggests that the most realistic solution is to set a clear policy and then educate users on acceptable ways to incorporate their personal phones with any work information.

Whether or not your company supplies devices to employees, you still need to consider the ramifications that this BYOD Revolution can have on your workplace!

Posted in Business, Call Center Management, Technology. No Comments »

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!

 

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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 »
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