Call Center 2.0

Does Your Agent Coaching Measure Up?

Coaching is one of the most widely acclaimed methods of moving the needle in the call center. Surprisingly, though, many organizations have so little information on how much, why or even the amount of coaching that is conducted in their call centers. In such a highly-measured culture where sometimes it seems as if every action is tracked, coaching is one of the last holdouts.

Call center executives should implement a coaching scorecard to measure performance of supervisors and their agents.  Investigate the correlation between coaching activities and agent performance improvement.  Specifically, formulate a plan to measure coaching impact, coaching volume, and coaching focus.

Read more tips on how to create an effective coaching scorecard here.

Once you've begun using a coaching scorecard, the next step is to improve your coaching process.  Standardizing, automating,and optimizing agent idle time are key steps to refining the call center supervisor's job.  

Adhering to automated standard coaching processes allows supervisors to manage 20% larger teams. Optimizing idle time in call volume enables agents and supervisors to focus on improving performance.  Are you taking advantage of these best practices in your call center?

For more coaching tips for the call center, read the Seven Fundamental Plays from the Coaching Playbook.

 

Photo by heliomedeiros

How Sprint Resolves FCR Once And For All

In addition to the millions of customer calls, dozens of call centers and thousands of agents, Sprint merged with Nextel in 2007, a move that was disruptive to both its customers and workforce. The result was longer wait times, short-staffed centers, inexperienced agents, and low FCR and customer satisfaction scores.

"We wanted customer service to be a reason why customers chose to come to Sprint," said Chad Marshall, Sprint Customer Care Manager. "Every employee in the company was given the challenge to improve customer satisfaction."

With Knowlagent's RightTime^TM engine automatically pushing training to agents during unscheduled downtimes, Sprint was able to deliver more training to one site in just five days than was previously delivered in a month with a manually scheduled system.

"Until there is a way to forecast supply and demand perfectly for calls and agent availability, there will always be pockets of available time," said Marshall. "Before Knowlagent, we had to manually schedule training time, which is difficult because you don't know how many calls will be coming in and exactly who will show up for work that day. Knowlagent gives us the ability to watch that in real-time and take advantage of it consistently across all of our centers."

Replay the webinar or read a written synopsis to hear more of Sprint's experience in tackling First Call Resolution and delivering training to call center agents' desktops.

Call Center Executives Surveyed on First Call Resolution

Most companies face similar challenges when it comes to First Call Resolution. While almost everyone agrees it is a key business metric that should be measured, the jury is out on how best to track it. And while most recognize the importance of keeping agents up-to-speed on mission-critical information, there are differences on how to most effectively accomplish this while ensuring a consistently successful customer experience.

In an effort to uncover what today's leading companies are doing to address FCR, Knowlagent conducted a survey of 99 call center executives around the globe, spanning a wide variety of industries. 

Those companies polled include a wide range of multi-source companies with on-shore and off-shore agents, at-home and on-premise workforces, and multiple centers, both U.S.-based and abroad. While all of these customer service organizations clearly prioritize quality and satisfaction metrics - while also closely managing efficiency - most have trouble tracking FCR. 

When asked to rank business metrics in order of importance, Customer Satisfaction was ranked the highest, followed by Quality, First Call Resolution, Average Speed of Answer and Average Handle Time.  

To discuss Sprint's experience with improving first call resolution, Chad Marshall joined Knowlagent on a recent webinar.  See the full survey results or access the webinar archive for more details.

At Home Agent Program Logistics

At home call center agents are a hot topic lately, and increasingly, more companies are becoming interested in this model.  We held another webinar around the concept of selecting the right at-home call center agents.  During the webinar entitled "Lucky or Good," Michele Rowan, our at-home program expert, answered the following questions around logistics for the at home agent model:

Q: Do companies buy computer and set up phone lines - or is this up to the work at home agent?

A: Both. Some companies furnish everything including a second phone line and ISP connection along with equipment and furniture, some companies furnish none. The most common practice is for employees to furnish ISP and phone connection, with employers providing PC or thin clients.

Q: Do quality control measures such as productivity and customer experience differ between on site and at home agents?

A: Measures generally don't differ, but results generally do. At-home performance is higher for companies that hire to the at-home demographic that is so prevelant.

Q: Are you aware of instances where work at home inspections are conducted by the parent company to insure proper adherance to policy?

A: Yes, about half the companies I know of conduct inspections for purposes of equipment, ergonomics, and dedicated work space checks. It is never a bad idea; it is usually a matter of priority and resource.

Michele Rowan, CEO of Customer Contact Strategies, specializes in helping call centers move customer contacts home. (See http://www.gohome.us.com/ for more information).

To access the webinar materials, click here.

Image by bloomsburg.

Sprint Continues To Improve Customer Experience In Their Call Center

What's a telecom to do to keep up with an expanding product line, plan structure, and services to better serve customer's needs while also keeping call center agents up to speed?  Sprint is meeting the challenge of a complex and ever-changing customer service environment for its expansive workforce and customer base.

Sprint needed a way to provide call center agents with accurate training and information on a continual basis without negatively impacting service levels to maintain its industry-leading pace of customer service improvements. 

Since January 2010, Sprint agents and supervisors have completed thousands of hours of training. Agent productivity has dramatically improved, as well as critical measurements such as First Call Resolution and overall customer satisfaction.  Supervisors can quickly identify and target performance deficiencies and send additional training to individual agents - as well as to specific groups - providing consistent, accurate information to agents on a global basis. Sprint's ability to train in such a way was enabled by the launch of Knowlagent's training product to Sprint's global workforce.  This launch is one of the largest installations of call center on-demand talent management technology to date.

For more on Knowlagent's call center management software and its key new partnership with Sprint, be sure to check out our upcoming free webinar, 'How Sprint Resolves FCR Once and for All' to be presented from 2 to 3 p.m., ET, Tuesday, May 18, 2010.  Attendees will learn how Sprint connects key drivers to service issues; links agent performance, development and FCR measurement; and manages a distributed workforce across a large number of vendors. Register now!

To hear Sprint's perspective, read their recent press release.

Image by sanberdoo.

Call Centers Plan To Invest in Technology, Processes, and Agent Training in 2010

Knowlagent recently conducted a survey to determine the areas where call centers will be focusing their improvements and investments in 2010. 

The increase of these processes clearly demonstrates how enterprises plan to use the front lines of the call center to gain a competitive edge. Increased investment in technology, process improvements and training will be part of many call centers' 2010 strategic operational plans. Interestingly enough, the area where call centers are most likely to spend to meet their 2010 goals is technology. The technology budget, compared to 2009, is expected to grow in 2010 (according to 35 percent of survey respondents) or remain the same (48 percent).

Call centers are planning to invest in new technologies and/or upgrade their existing systems over the next 12 months in the following areas:

• IVR - 42 percent (especially medium and large call centers)
• Workforce management - 38 percent (especially small call centers)
• Quality monitoring - 45 percent (especially small and large call centers)
• Performance management - 34 percent (especially small and large call centers)
• eLearning - 28 percent (especially large call centers)
• Hiring assessments - 18 percent
• Analytics - 25 percent (especially small and large call centers)

Other tactics that call centers plan to use in 2010 to increase effectiveness and productivity within their operations include a mix of at-home agents, outsourcing, reducing headcount, increasing headcount and increasing self-service. While the survey did not report any across the board trends in the projected usage of these tactics, there did seem to be micro-trends based on the size of the call center.

At home agents: Nearly 41 percent of respondents (mostly large call centers) plan to use more at home agents in 2009, while 44 percent aren't planning to use at all.

Outsourcing: Nearly half of large call center respondents are planning to outsource more in 2010 (42 percent), while an overwhelming majority of small and medium centers don't plan to do it at all (70 percent and 68 percent, respectively).

Reducing headcount: A significant amount of respondents will scrap this tactic in 2010, as 38 percent have no plans to reduce headcount, 11 percent plan to make fewer reductions, 34 plan to change little from 2009 and 17 percent (mostly large call centers) plan to make more reductions.

Increasing headcount: Approximately 25 percent of survey respondents plan to increase headcount, while 30 percent plan to keep hiring at 2009 levels. Only 12 percent plan to do less hiring, and 34 percent of respondents said they were not planning to add to their current headcount at all.

Increasing self-service: Perhaps the most ubiquitous trend across all call center sizes, 71 percent of respondents plan to increase self-service in the year ahead.

The next 12 months will undoubtedly be a state of flux for most enterprises. The ability to improve customer service and satisfaction levels at a minimal investment will be instrumental in determining who will thrive.

Additional details can be found in this white paper:

The Post-Recession Call Center - The Focus, the Spend and the Opportunity

Call Center Coaching Playbook: Seven Fundamental Plays

All great coaches have their signature plays. Like most games, however, call center coaching isn't a one-play game. It takes ongoing dedication to a set of tried and true tactics, the basics that will win over time. The following are seven fundamental plays that are the hallmarks of great coaching in the call center.

  

#1 - Ensure It Is True Coaching

What gets called coaching on many teams is really managing without much guidance on improvement. Eighty percent of executives in a study by Knowlagent indicated that they do not believe supervisors have all the right skills for coaching.

#2 - Make It Targeted

By its nature, coaching should be targeted, but it's difficult for supervisors to keep up with all team members' performance and individualized coaching plans. 

#3 - See That It Is Frequent

The demands on a supervisor's time are many. And often the lower performing agents take up a disproportionate amount of that time. To meet the needs of all agents, time must be made for both agents and coaches to interact on performance problems as well as enhancement opportunities. 

#4 - Make It Actionable

Unless it is actionable, much of what is called coaching is merely advice. Basing coaching on the call flow creates actionable coaching.

1. Break the call down into key steps.
2. Identify the step where the agent struggles.
3. Identify the behaviors needed to execute the step successfully.
4. Develop a plan to change those behaviors.

#5 - It Better Be Consistent

Because most coaching happens on an ad-hoc basis, similarly performing agents can receive very different types and levels of coaching. Nearly 50 percent of supervisors surveyed can not define their coaching process.

#6 - It Has To Be Measurable

By embedding a measurement system that shows how much, who and what is getting coached as well as its link to performance, constant improvement through coaching becomes systemic in the center.

#7 - Require Individual Accountability

Without a mechanism to take ownership for increasing performance, agents may be left adrift, becoming dissatisfied with the prospects for improvement and/or advancement.  Creating a partnership provides the ownership needed and establishes a framework for creating and sustaining improvement.  

Read the full paper Seven Fundamental Plays from the Coaching All-Star Playbook, which also includes a recommended Coaching Scorecard.  

 

 

Five Signs That Your Call Center is Using Performance Enhancing Methods

Most of the traditional methods used for managing agent performance in the call center just aren't working anymore for many organizations. The ongoing operational demands, combined with the budget and resource restraints of late have left many looking for a boost when it comes to developing and effectively communicating with their front line. Here are some of the hallmarks of true, performance-enhancing training that, if implemented, will boost your level of play and leave you well-positioned to succeed.

What is Performance-Enhancing Training?

Since changing behavior is the only way to achieve sustainable results, all of the following principles are geared to that end. These principles are illustrated below.

1. Frequent
Too often call center training is an infrequent occasion as opposed to a consistent, systemic part of the call center operation. In a recent survey by Knowlagent, almost 40 percent of call centers reported training agents between one and four times a year. Many centers provide agents with access to a learning management system or knowledge base with the hopes that agents will go get the information and knowledge they need. Considering the enormous pressures to meet service levels, it isn't hard to figure out why so much of what is scheduled doesn't occur and why agents don't often take the initiative to get the information they need before they need it. Yet dips in call volume occur when agents have little to do. The underutilized asset in this equation is this idle time between calls. Exploiting this "natural" occurrence to push training to the agent desktop during these small pockets of down time is the only way to ensure training for call center agents happens frequently.

2. Targeted
Even if training is provided frequently, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't provide maximum value. If the call center and the agent invest time in training, it should meet the needs of both. An agent does not want to be trained on something that isn't relevant to their needs, and the call center doesn't want to train an agent on an area at which he or she excels if there is another area that needs improving. Basing individualized call center agent training on performance meets the targeted criteria and provides the highest value.

3. Easy to Digest & Apply Immediately
Adult learning theory asserts that short learning interventions that can be immediately applied have the best chance at retention. This concept is clearly important in a fast-paced environment like the call center where the unplanned nature of calls gives agents less control over their day than most. A 15-minute learning break allows a short respite for some targeted information that is used on the next call for maximum reinforcement.

4. Measurably Impactful
One of the keys to success in any endeavor is measurement, and nowhere is a culture of measurement more prevalent than the call center. Giving all players a view to their performance, and an understanding of how they impact that performance through training, provides the measurement and guidance needed to underpin a successful performance improvement initiative at the individual call center agent level. 

5. Consistent
Consistency has two applications in this context. The importance of regular communications cannot be overestimated in keeping call center agents informed and engaged.  Additionally, the consistency of message in those communications and training is important. E-learning provides a conduit for regular communications and removes the possibility of different teams getting different messages or levels of information from supervisors, team members or even trainers.

Image by Dr. Stephen Dunn

Work At-Home Call Center Agents Webinar Additional Q&A

Michele Rowan, CEO of Customer Contact Strategies, specializes in helping call centers move customer contacts home.  (See http://www.gohome.us.com/ for more information).  Michele was a guest speaker on our recent webinar and provided answers to these questions on implementing and managing work at-home call center agent programs.

1. Do at-home call center agents typically get paid more or less per hour than in-house agents?

The market place is completely mixed when it comes to compensation; it is really based on an organization's objectives and required agent competencies.  Many companies have one consistent compensation program across both in-house and at-home populations while other organizations (i.e. Hilton Hotels) pay their at-home call center agents a reduced starting wage in exchange for the benefit of working at home.   The work at-home professional business population recognizes the fact that their auto insurance premiums drop, their cost of commute drops to zero, and they are given back approximately 2.5 hours per week in time they had previously invested in readying and commuting to work.  Time is an incredibly valuable commodity, as we all know, and organizations that can couple that with a flexible scheduling model will be successful reducing their starting wages by 10-20%, as many companies have. 

2.  How can/should social networking be used to keep at home call center agents connected?

Social networking, in my opinion, is a baseline requirement for any organization today and particularly for home-based employees that don't have the benefit of face-to-face interactions. 

Contact centers are highly fluid environments.   Change is continuous, fast-paced and sometimes unpredictable in terms of scope, timing and required response.   The ability to effectively reach agents with updates in real time is critical.  Equally as important is the capacity for agents to search, data mine, cross-reference and troubleshoot real time to leverage every customer experience.  Virtual tools are best, whether agents are in-house or at home.

A high-powered, centralized help desk is key for an at-home work force with both voice and chat utilities.  I recommend the help desk integrate both product support and first line technical support to enable ‘one stop shopping' for at-home agents (who have more frequent technical issues than in-house agents, particularly in the early days of employment).    Scouring the inquiries into the help desk and continuously updating on line reference tools (knowledge banks) and training goes in tandem with providing guidance.  Wikis and bookmarks are also great for continuous improvement of on-line knowledge banks and training materials.

E-mail, intranet-based messaging to the desktop (for urgent messages), chat, virtual team meetings (via chat or voice) all have their place and value.  Structuring communication vehicles along with established discipline around how and when to use them is very important, in my opinion, so that your agents reach for the time sensitive information first, based on the structure that you have designed.   In the absence of this organized approach, employees self-select the priority of pushed information, which will unlikely match the priority that was intended and ultimately may leave your customers in a lurch.

On-line vehicles such as LinkedIn and Twitter are great tools for internal promotion as well as external, and you can now buy off-the shelf Facebook-type software for a low cost.  Social networking clubs like book clubs and Scrabble tournaments are engaging and low maintenance.

 

Image by Margaret Anne Clarke

Planning for a Snowy Day with At Home Call Center Agents

If you've been considering at-home call center agents, you're probably watching the weather these days with more than casual interest as snowstorms leave call centers closed or understaffed. If you're finding yourself more motivated to get a program underway, we have a collection of at-home resources to help.

At-Home Agent FAQs
For answers to common at-home agent questions, read these FAQs answered by at-home veteran Michele Rowan.

Case Study: Health Care Organization
This healthcare provider ensured that a combination of at-home, on-premise, and offshore outsourced agents didn't undercut customer loyalty by ensuring quality across all agents.

At-Home Agent Management Benchmark Report
More than 250 call center leaders across industries shared the steps they are taking to connect at-home agents to supervisors, their teams and their companies.

Building Blocks for a Solid Work At-Home Agent Program
Answers to the following questions: Can remote agents remain connected to your offerings and their team while outside the center walls? How will they be managed? How will they be trained? How will they be coached?

Webinar: Long Time, No See: How to Keep At-Home Agents Connected
Michele Rowan of Customer Contact Strategies reveals how she led the Hilton@Home program to success by addressing the issues dealing with people and the processes to manage them.