Opportunity #6 – Use existing technology to create and control capacity

Your quality monitoring system is an often-ignored yet extremely valuable source of customer business intelligence. It also can serve as a quick early warning system — use it to regularly update everything about the way you are serving customers. There are tools available that can also be used to provide real-time training or information necessary for agents to handle calls based on new customer or company demands.  When done correctly, you can transform agent training from a push strategy (you send them away, at a scheduled time) to a pull strategy where they have more control over the expansion of their job knowledge and their personal growth.  

Your daily real-time queue management program can also be improved with a foundational approach to agent training. By providing agents with the tools, structure and roadmap to help customers find answers, you’re no longer limited to the often chaotic movement of agents and skills to break down your self-created silos.  Most ACDs have ways to automate the overflow to other queue groups or skills based on predetermined algorithms.  By providing the appropriate tools to those with the foundation training, you’ll have a lot more flexibility in where you send calls when things don’t go as planned. And you’ll free up all of the time and energy your company spends monitoring and reacting to changes in volumes.

Again, this is a focus on company productivity vs. individual agent efficiencies. With a foundational approach, customers’ interactions with agents may take a little longer, but the customer’s overall “engagement time” will likely be the same. Remember: Waiting on hold for three minutes and talking to an “efficient” agent for five minutes is the same as waiting on hold for 30 seconds and talking to a “foundational” agent for seven and a half minutes. And the customer is left with the feeling that you care about them and have people working for them… not them working for you. 

Impact:  This addresses one of the most common frustrations voiced by agents in a contact center – not having the tools to help the customer efficiently and effectively.  If done right, you’ll gain the capacity you need to handle the planned and unplanned demand spikes and spend less time trying to drive calls out of queue.  Not only will you get help from a new group of agents, you’ll have more flexibility with your existing staff. Give every agent the ability to find the answer vs. having to transfer the customer.

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Many Call Center Answers Can Be Found on the Front Line

Over the last twenty years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of contact center agents.  I spend a lot of time on the frontline whenever I work with an organization to help them improve their operation.  I plug in and listen to calls, and do a lot of focus groups, as well.  I’ve conducted focus groups with hundreds of agents in a broad range of contact centers, and many of my solutions come directly from these meetings.   

One of the things that I often hear from managers when I start working with a new company is, “We’re different Tim.” The reality, however, is that what agents in all these contact centers tell me is typically the same.  It doesn’t matter what industry or whether you’re in big or small center.  The thing that prevents you from providing great service is common among contact centers.  If you have a call center and you have an ACD that holds calls in queue and routes them to available agents, then you face basically the same issues as everyone else. 

The bullet points below are what I hear from the frontline of almost every company I work with:   

·        Lack of communication – feel like we’re the last ones to know

·        Need additional schedule flexibility and daily stability

·        Metrics that drive wrong behaviors

·        Punishing the masses for the few

·        Too much focus on the negative

·        Need more management visibility

·        Not enough formal training after being hired

What agents are basically all saying is that they aren’t given the tools to be prepared for each moment of truth.  If your agents feel the same way (and, my experience suggests that they probably do), you’ll need to address this  before moving things to the next level.

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Keep Everyone on Track with a “Living” Technology Plan

Whenever considering a new contact center solution, savvy managers don’t get blinded by the shiny bells and whistles.These managers understand that, while the technology may sound great, it’s important to consider what it’s going to take to get it working, and once it’s up and running, will it make a difference to  customers?  Better yet, will agents immediately realize they have to jump through two additional hoops to get to the same point?    Many times we find companies working very hard at making a new technology purchase fit the business and developing new, often unnecessary, customer service procedures.  

 

When working with call center managers that aren’t happy with their current technology, we often find the purchases were made in isolation — with little input from operations, or based on an outdated customer access strategy.  Typically, the department that has to fund a technology purchase has more influence over the purchase decision, and if made in isolation, this can lead to the wrong things getting fixed or automated.

One way to help keep call center technology purchases on track is to develop an ongoing mechanism for open communication between all departments that will be impacted by the technology addition/ change.   Depending on the size the organization, this can be done via an ongoing meeting among the departments’ executives, or via informal meetings among members of the leadership team.  More important than the structure is that the meetings be focused on the call center’s role in supporting the organization’s customer access strategy.  

Something that we’ve found to help facilitate these discussions is the development of a “vision” document that’s focused on the overall customer access strategy today, and what’s planned for the next five years. 

Once the access strategy and timelines are developed, they can be easily aligned with the processes and technologies required, resulting in a plan that provides an ongoing view of the department’s operational and technical needs.   By continually updating this plan, call centers are better positioned to take full advantage of new technologies and ensure they’re positioning themselves to provide customers with the high level of service expected.

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Call Center Technology Trends

Customer Management Insight recently asked several of the call center industries’ leading experts (including me) to comment on the technologies that are getting their attention.   No matter where you are,  (small, big, new, seasoned) these are the things that will reshaped how customer service is delivered via call centers.   Don’t just read what we have to say, reach out to the vendors for more detail on ways you can benefit. 

http://cmisight.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=760&Itemid=38

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Making the Case for New Call Center Technology in Today’s Market

Over the past year, we’ve seen many companies tighten their belts on several fronts, with technology budgets  being scrutinized like never before.  In the days of old, new technology purchases were typically part of an annual budget cycle and, in many cases, gaining approval required little more than a high-level overview of the benefits.   We are now seeing just about every technology-related expenditure, including product upgrades, put through a rigorous cost/benefit analysis that often  includes a specific return on investment (ROI) evaluation.

 

As more companies require an ROI evaluation for each new investment, it’s more important than ever for call center professionals to have an understanding of and appreciation for the financial concepts that must be applied to develop a convincing argument.   If you’re responsible for (or on a team that’s tasked with) evaluating new technology purchases, one of the best things you can do is connect with your Finance department.   It’s been my experience that they’ll not only gladly walk you through the math, but will also let you know exactly what is needed to successfully convince those who control the funding.

 

Connecting Finance, IT and Operations is the only way to develop a bullet-proof ROI and ensure everyone’s needs and desires are included in the new purchase.   Done right, this  can make new investments a “no brainer”; even in tough economic times.

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Avoiding Potential Pitfalls When Offering Web Chat

 In my last post, I talked about how more companies are starting to offer Web chat because of customer demand and need.   This seems like an easy way to offer service, and most companies are managing and measureing it using the same basic approach applied to telephone inquiries.   Although there are many similarities with chat and phone, there are differences that can ultimately make it more challenging and potentially less efficient than other access channels.   Below are some pitfalls to avoide and suggestions to consider s for those you  thinking about or already offering chat to your customers:

 

• - Your overall cost to serve may be higher. Be sure you fully understand the success rate, handle time and agent utilization involved. I’ve worked with companies that have done the math and realized they were spending more — not less — to offer chat as a customer access channel.

 

• - Including long customer “non-response” wait times in the overall handle-time calculation will inflate the numbers and lead to inefficiency. Be sure to train agents on how to control the transition to help reduce the number of chat customer “hang-ups.”

 

 

• - If you’re in a multimedia routing environment, be sure to adjust the routing rules to treat chats differently than phone calls. Customers are typically much less tolerant when waiting on a key board than they are on a telephone.

 

• - Approach multi-session handling carefully to ensure that agents are not tasked with too much or too little. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work in the chat world, so be sure to spend some time looking at your inbound inquires compared to your agents’ skill sets.

 

 

• - Establish a staffing policy for chat that is based on meeting a set service objective and maximizing agent utilization. Even if agents can handle other transactions types (email, correspondence, etc.) you need to have a formal — and adhered to — interval scheduling approach for chat.

 

• - And last, but certainly not least, don’t forget about quality. Every access channel provides another opportunity to delight, or upset, a customer. Be sure to establish a quality program that’s focused on chat and the agent behaviors required for success.

 

Many of the challenges associated with chat are typically driven by an “it’s  different” approach to managing it.   The reality is that if you apply the same scientific approach that’s used for supporting telephone calls — with some slight modifications for this text-based channel — your transition to chat will be both efficient and effective.

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Web Chat is Finally Being Positioned the Right Way in Call Centers

 Several years ago, Web-based chat was getting a lot of hype, and many companies starting offering a “click-to-talk” button on their Web site.   Like email, chat was viewed as a more efficient option than telephone calls, and a nice alternative for customers.   However, something seemed to happen along the way — many companies quickly discovered that they’d adopted an access channel that hadn’t quite matured with customers and, in some cases, wasn’t used at all.    In fact, several companies stopped offering this access channel altogether, or began to limit its offering to  certain groups or market segments.    

 

After its initial hype, many of our traditional “call center” clients all but removed chat from their radar screen. But lately we’ve seen it evolve into a near necessity for companies that provide online retailing, technical support and Web-based services.    While there are a lot of opinions on the true cost savings associated with chat, we are seeing companies focusing more attention on the overall customer experience and worrying less about agent efficiencies.  Many have found that forcing agents to conduct too many chat sessions simultaneously can lead to lower quality, reduced response times and, in the end, customer frustration and defection.   Every indication is that chat is now evolving into a more respected access channel, and many companies are implementing and reporting quality and performance metrics for chat alongside their traditional telephone objectives.

 

One thing that seems to be driving  acceptance of chat is the recent increase in the use of Instant Messaging (IM) in the work place.  There have been several articles in mainstream publications touting the IM explosion.  In addition,  some of our call center clients have started using IM as a way for agents to ask questions, share real-time findings, and receive supervisor updates.   As more people become comfortable communicating via IM, it’s very likely to spill over into their expectations of all companies.   Yes, it does look like the users are finally catching up to the technology, and will soon expect the chat channel to be available, regardless of the industry.

 

The good thing for those of us running call centers  is that the dynamics we’ve struggled to master are easily transferred to supporting the chat-enabled world.   It comes down to setting an objective (service level/response time), understanding your workload (volume/handle time), and ensuring people are in the right place (adherence).   What is different about supporting chat is the out-of-the-box functionality that is typically available – skills-based routing, priority queuing, suggested responses/templates, etc.    Many of the tools that are typically on our call center “wish list” are immediately available when you implement a chat solution.

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Call Center Processes are as Important as the Technology

In my role as a consultant, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a variety of call centers across many industries.  Although the managers of these centers all have the same basic challenge of effectively managing in a dynamic real-time environment, the technology that is utilized — or under-utilized — varies widely.   More important than the technology are the underlying processes and procedures that allow a company to realize the full return on their call center investments.   Don’t get me wrong, I love technology and I’m a big fan of the recent advancements in what’s available to call centers.  I just find it painful to watch companies automate bad processes – Once you automate a bad process, you’ll get the same unwanted results, only quicker.

When working with call centers on technology initiatives, I often find myself thinking back to a story that W. Edward Deming shares in his book Out of the Crises.  In summary, his client found that they could buy software for $10,000 to repair errors made by employees that cost their company approximately one million dollars annually to correct.    Sounds like a no-brainer — spend $10,000 one time to save a million every year from then on. However, Deming suggested they focus on fixing the reasons behind the errors, thus improving the processes to the point where they didn’t have to rely on the automated system.  Once the processes were improved, he suggested they should then invest in the software – the process in place would be one that allows the software to catch the exceptions instead of becoming relied upon for success. More importantly the people doing the job would have greater satisfaction in their daily achievements.    

With budget dollars becoming even more difficult to obtain, it’s more important that ever to ensure that you’re getting the most from your technology investments.   A good first step is, to ask yourself how internal process will have to be adjusted to ensure you’re able to take full advantage of the new technology.   Once you’ve identified the changes necessary,  ask yourself how much of the improvement is due to the process changes and how much is actually gained from automation.    By improving the process first, you just might find you can make your technology dollars go a lot further, as you’ll only be automating those things that truly need it.

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