Call Center Agent Utilization – Small Improvements Can Equal Large Returns

With about 75% of center costs tied up in labor, every leader should understand how to positively impact efficiency – simply put, with service level equal, you have to reduce volume or time to impact cost. Not rocket science and it’s easy to turn this into a real ROI to get everyone focused on improving the right things – not just the numbers.   Below is an example of a mid-sized call center and an estimate of the cost to provide service meeting an 80/20 Service Level Objective:

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Many centers focus on handle time — there are good things and bad things associated with this measure. If done right, better handle times can result in improved service to all customers and happier front line reps, but if not managed correctly, the outcomes can have disastrous impacts — higher turnover, loss of focus, management burnout, customer attrition, etc. In this case we’re going to assume that a handle time focused initiative is done right and it starts with the front line employees. For simplicity purposes, the above example has a center staffed to answer the same number of calls in each half-hour of the day at a consistent level of service (80 percent in 20 seconds). Again for simplicity, we also left out the queuing (hold time) associated with the telecom cost. The outcome is something that every contact center should know — how much does it cost to provide service each day and what is the average cost of each agent interaction. Armed with this information alone, everyone – from the front-line agents to the executive management — is able to gain a whole new appreciation for the value (and yes, costs) associated with the center.

Moving forward with a good handle time focused initiative, the center would then engage the front line to begin to tackle the things that will impact agent talk time, like — scheduling flexibility, effective coaching, agent metrics that motivate, and positive evaluations. The team would also provide feedback on the things that can improve After Call Work time — more efficient internal processes, better back office resource availability and systems/workflow enhancements. If done right, the front line agents will be able to provide you positive feedback on all of these topics and will most likely have great ideals on many other handle time related opportunities. If these ideas have just a 5% impact on the talk time and a 10% impact on the after call work time, the annual savings are tremendous:

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This doesn’t mean anyone has to work harder — in fact, it will most likely be just the opposite — with improved tools and processes, agents are able to provide better solutions quicker and with more focus on the needs of the front line agents, managers are able to spend more of their energy focused in a positive direction. And for the customer, it feels better — no extra time on hold and there is less time taken away from them during the call.

Good luck  –  more articles and free downloads can be found at

www.servicelevelgroup.com

How do World Class Call Centers Stay World Class?

Getting a call center operation to the world class level is something most leaders never experience.   A recent study by a leading service organization found that less than 5% of companies fall into the “world-class” category.   It also found that about 80% of companies fall into the average or below category  – many want to achieve greatness, they just don’t know how.

I’ve been fortunate to work with some really great companies and people – I take every opportunity to discuss the “how to” with leaders of  world class companies.   I recently had a conversation with the current CIO of Mutual of Omaha and former COO of USAA, Tim Handren.   I asked him the “how to” question and he started down the path of “diet and exercise”.    Like most people that hear the story, I wasn’t sure where this was going to go, but it all comes together in a way that easily reminds everyone that they have to focus on the basics every single day to obtain and maintain world class call center service.

After our conversation, I convinced Tim to help me write an article for an industry magazine on the subject and it can be found on page 14 in the below link.

http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/files/CCP200907.pdf

Good luck  –  more articles and free downloads can be found at

www.servicelevelgroup.com

What is the right service level objective?

One of the most misunderstood and misapplied call center metrics is Service Level.  Most call centers have established an objective to answer a certain percent of their calls in a defied number of seconds.   In my work with call center leaders, I often find that they understand they have to have it, but don’t really know “why” it’s important or “how” it’s calculated.    To illustrate this, I start my call center focused speaking sessions with a question on the percent of calls that will queue with an 80/20 SLO given a 100 calls and a five minute handle time.    In a good session, we’ll get 10% of the audience with the correct answer – yes, the most important metric to most call center leaders is more of a goal that must be hit, than a goal that must be understood.

Key is to understand call center dynamics – it’s not rocket science, but if you understand the REAL impact of losing a few percentage points of service level, you can quickly connect the dots to customer satisfaction, agent burnout and leadership focus.   Here is a quick primer on service level that has been effective in communicating the basics to call center leaders at every level:

http://servicelevelgroup.com/4%20slides.html

Below is a link to a McKinsey story on finding the right objective  – you might be over optimizing the center and got getting the best bang for your buck.  But, remember,  you have to be consistent in hitting the low end and you’ll see in their analysis how quickly a low service level object will impact the percent of customers willing to recommend you to others.   There are some pretty good call center articles on their site, so it’s worth subscribing and getting other points of view.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/newsletters/chartfocus/2009_06.htm

 

Email any questions to timm@servicelevelgroup.com

More info available at www.servicelevelgroup.com

Free Metrics Into Action Slides and Sesssion Extras

I recently had the opportunity to present a half day workshop at the Call Center Demo Conference in Austin Texas.   Having presented to over 10,000 call center professionals throughout the world, I’m always amazed at how the basic needs never seem to change – call center leaders are looking for help in using the metrics to positively influence change at every level of the organization.     I’ve done this session “Moving Metrics Into Action” at several events over the last three years and it is always one of the most highly attended programs.

For this event, I created a web site to allow all the participants to download a soft copy of the slides and some additional information that they would find helpful.   I’ve decided to post the link on my blog  – feel free to download and use/share any of the information you find helpful.

http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/AustinJune09.html

If you have any questions, you can email me at timm@servicelevelgroup.com

Best of luck,

Tim

More info available at www.servicelevelgroup.com

Real-time management made easy

Many of the call centers I work with have very good processes and technology – but, for some reason it all gets thrown out the window when calls begin to queue. A disciplined approach to how you handle calls in queue is key to successful call center management. In the latest issue of Contact Center Pipeline Magazine, I outline ways to help call centers increase their real time management success. We also provide some tips on ways to move your center closer to world class.

Here is a link to download the entire issue and if you like it, there is also a code for a 50% discount on the subscription fee. Enjoy.

http://www.contactcenterpipeline.com/orderdownloads/100271_59550/CCP200905.pdf

The discount http://www.contactcenterpipeline.com/p-15-contact-center-pipeline.aspx

Be sure to enter the coupon code TM09 during checkout

Get more, including Free web seminars and articles at http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/

 

Call Centers are Starting to Get More Respect

It is wonderful to see call centers  get more respect when it comes to the service they provide.  Much of the work we do is to help call center leaders get others in the organization to appreciate the impact and potential of the call center.   The latest Customer Service Champs issue of Business Week magazine provides some great tips on how to maintain a service focus during challenging times.   There is a lot of focus on call centers and getting the right people doing the right things.  Below is a link to the main article:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_09/b4121026559235.htm?chan=magazine+channel_in+depth

Here is a link to an advanced workshop that has been adopted by some of the world’s most celebrated service organizations:  http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/files/Onsite%20Contact%20Center%20Leadership%20Workshop%20Outline.pdf

My friends at Contact Center Pipeline have a great new publication with valuable information for contact center leaders at every level – click here to download a free copy:

http://www.contactcenterpipeline.com/

Opportunity #2 – Breakdown the organizational silos that have found their way into your call routing strategy.

Once everyone is educated on the dynamic nature and the realities of the contact center, you’ll want to revisit your approach to providing customer support. Companies often get stuck in silos (products, divisions, activities, reporting relationships, etc.), and this is transferred into the contact center and the way customers are handled.

Begin by asking yourself a few questions: 

1)    Do you force customers to wait in specific silos for service when often times there are people available in other silos who can help?  

2)    Do you have an organization with multiple call centers that don’t all report to the same leader?

3)    Can your customers receive a different level of service depending on the reason (service, sales, technical, etc) or segment (business, consumer, partner, etc) of the call?

4)    Does your center dedicate more time and effort to making real-time adjustments than they dedicate to their forecasting activities?

5)    Do you spend more time coordinating internal changes to shared systems than you do implementing the change?

6)    Is there one executive that truly owns the entire customer experience…both on and off the organizational chart?

Companies that begin to look at their call routing strategy from a customer-centric vs. company-centric perspective normally find several holes in the way the customer is treated, differences in the way results are interpreted and gaps in who is really accountable.  This confusion helps adds fuel to the ever-present internal finger-pointing exercise that results in more internal initiatives to help reinforce the customer-centric strategy.   Unfortunately, these initiatives often end up addressing internal reporting, communication and organization chart issues, while the customer is still receiving the same “luck of the draw” experience.  Regardless of how your organization tackles these issues, you should start with the following approach – give every customer the same chance to get the same level of service, regardless of when or why they contact you. Ultimately you are one to them, and every contact is an opportunity to    overwhelm them with delight.

 

Impact:  If done correctly, you’ll immediately gain capacity to handle more calls with the same number of agents and dramatically reduce your queue times.  Don’t confuse this with moving skills or giving authority for other departments to have access to agents – both are signs of a flawed planning process.   This is a real-time balancing of customer needs with company service capability – and if you do it right, it doesn’t require any real-time changes.

Get more, including Free web seminars and articles at http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/

Opportunity #1 – Embrace queues! A commonly overlooked fact is that queues are part of the plan and, thus, not necessarily a bad thing

  Unless you have a service level objective of 100 percent in zero seconds, you’re planning to allow a certain number of calls to enter the queue. Managing queues is what your automatic call distributor (ACD) is designed for – it grabs those calls that can’t be answered immediately and holds them until an agent becomes available. And keep in mind that, depending on their need, most customers will give you some time to “open the door.” Of course, if the wait is too long, they may soon be looking for a new door to a new company.

Overcoming the overly aggressive and often counter-productive “attack the queue” mindset is not an easy task. It requires educating everyone who influences the contact center’s results – from frontline agents to senior executives. Don’t worry, you don’t have to train everyone to be a contact center expert – a simple presentation that outlines what it means to work in a contact center is a good way to get the ball rolling. Be sure to clearly communicate your center’s service level objective (i.e., definitions of the inputs, expected queue lengths, average speed of answer translation, the impact of each agent, etc.).

 

Impact:  Getting everyone on-board will not only save you time in explaining results, it also creates a new “calm” in your daily management routine.  And, doing it right, you’ll lay the foundation for making additional positive changes move much easier and faster.  This is such a vital part of getting the support you need, there is a special section at the end of this paper with ideas to help get you started.  

Get more, including Free web seminars and articles at http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/

Don’t make running the call center any harder than it has to be

We’ve all been there: Struggling to find a way to get more out of our contact center agents; looking for new ways to get calls out of queues; begging other departments to pitch in during peak times; and finding new ways to point the finger at other internal departments. Bottom line is that many of us have a difficult time doing business with ourselves, and it’s no wonder that customers find their experience frustrating. Good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. The bad news, however, is that you’ll have to move your organization to get there…and that is 99 percent of the challenge and solution.   

 

Every contact center is unique, but they all have a common thread: The way the work is delivered. Calls emerge in a continual, random pattern and must be answered within seconds of arrival. To address this challenge, many contact centers have implemented creative forecasting, planning and scheduling processes. No matter how effective these processes are, at some point, the incoming calls will outweigh the workforce, and calls will queue. Typically, this is when the fun begins and everyone’s life seems to change a little. When calls are in queue, the smiles are gone, the pizza gets cold, the bathroom passes disappear, and the executives start shining the bat signal from the 20th floor.

 

 

During my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with numerous contact centers and have witnessed the many ways companies react to queues. Unfortunately, many centers respond with what can best be described as an “attack the queue” approach to handling customers. When fully implemented, this approach has everyone in the organization panic-stricken when calls are in queue, and all other activities in the center are put on hold until the queue is driven down to zero. Typical results from this approach are higher-than-desired service levels, lower-than-expected workforce efficiency, agent/manager frustration and continuous non-telephone event rescheduling.

 

During the next few weeks on this blog, I’ll outline several ways you can retool your approach to managing your call center to provide immediate improvements.

Get more, including Free web seminars and articles at http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/

Convert Agents into Customer Experience Engineers

To truly engage agents and empower them to continually improve their and the center’s performance, you have to get them to see their job differently.  Agents have to see themselves as customer experience engineers — where every time they listen to a problem, they instinctively think about how can they solve the problem and, more importantly, improve things in the future for the customer, and the organization. 

To inspire agents to become true customer experience engineers, you have to create a strong level of buy-in; and to do that you have to spend a lot of time gathering agent feedback, asking them what you can do to help them provide stellar customer service..   This goes beyond merely asking staff, “What do you think about this before  implementing a new process or program – that’s   only “half feedback.”   It merely elicits reaction from agents, rather than action. The best centers ask agents for their ideas before implementing a new process or program, and empower them to help create, implement and manage these processes/programs.    

Now THAT’S how to turn your agents into customer experience engineers.

Get more, including Free web seminars and articles at http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/