Monday, April 30, 2018
Friday, April 27, 2018
Five Tips To Boost Agent Success
By Sean Hawkins
On a daily basis, call center managers are inundated with data, decisions, escalations and reports. If all goes well, service levels have been met, CSAT or NPS will be satisfactory and you may actually have time to take an uninterrupted lunch. Such is the life of the contact center manager.
At the end of the week, month or quarter, we review performance levels and take pride in the success of our centers. Accolades are shared amongst leadership for a job well done. At this point, we can breathe a sigh of relief and repeat the cycle all over again. In between this never ending cycle, we may develop a new process or promote a new initiative to better our center. Personally, this is one of my favorite parts of the job as I enjoy innovation and creativity. Who doesn’t want to be considered innovative and at the top of their game?
While all of the events described above are a necessary and critical part of the job, they take our attention away from something more important. This is usually where I get a cynical look followed by the question, "What could possibly be more important than metrics to a call center manager?" My response is short, simple, and to the point, "the agents".
Unfortunately, our most valued asset is often overlooked and lost in the day to day management of the call center. The pressures to obtain outstanding metrics often come at the expense of the agents. However, the two are dependent on one another. The work of the agent is measured by metrics, and the metrics tell us their story.
We all know that happy agents produce happy customers. For some this is simply a slogan thrown out at industry events, or in published articles or tweets. I urge you not to lose sight of the agents. They have a profound effect on your metrics but more importantly on your customers. To ensure your agents are positively impacting your customer, you must have a positive impact on them. These tips are a good starting point and have proven to be successful for me over the years.
5 Tips to Success
Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
On a daily basis, call center managers are inundated with data, decisions, escalations and reports. If all goes well, service levels have been met, CSAT or NPS will be satisfactory and you may actually have time to take an uninterrupted lunch. Such is the life of the contact center manager.
At the end of the week, month or quarter, we review performance levels and take pride in the success of our centers. Accolades are shared amongst leadership for a job well done. At this point, we can breathe a sigh of relief and repeat the cycle all over again. In between this never ending cycle, we may develop a new process or promote a new initiative to better our center. Personally, this is one of my favorite parts of the job as I enjoy innovation and creativity. Who doesn’t want to be considered innovative and at the top of their game?
While all of the events described above are a necessary and critical part of the job, they take our attention away from something more important. This is usually where I get a cynical look followed by the question, "What could possibly be more important than metrics to a call center manager?" My response is short, simple, and to the point, "the agents".
Unfortunately, our most valued asset is often overlooked and lost in the day to day management of the call center. The pressures to obtain outstanding metrics often come at the expense of the agents. However, the two are dependent on one another. The work of the agent is measured by metrics, and the metrics tell us their story.
We all know that happy agents produce happy customers. For some this is simply a slogan thrown out at industry events, or in published articles or tweets. I urge you not to lose sight of the agents. They have a profound effect on your metrics but more importantly on your customers. To ensure your agents are positively impacting your customer, you must have a positive impact on them. These tips are a good starting point and have proven to be successful for me over the years.
5 Tips to Success
- Value agents as you do your customer
- Train agents for success, and continually train them
- Accept agent feedback and include them in the decision making process
- Praise and reward agents
- Provide a career path
As you can see, none of these are hard. In fact, this is what managers should be doing. So, go onward, "Strive for Five"!
I have over 15 years of progressive call center leadership and experience in the public, private and government sectors.
I have led or consulted contact centers of various sizes across numerous industries. Additionally, I’ve implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
"Follow the Leader", Featuring Mike Aoki
What do you think is overlooked by contact center leadership, that hinders their customer retention efforts?Customer retention is a relationship rather than an event!
Too much emphasis is placed on "saving" customers. That is like waiting until the end of a romantic relationship to tell someone you love them. By then it is too late. Minor frustrations, unfilled needs and finally a "trigger" event cause a breakup.
"EVERY customer contact is a retention opportunity!" Train your agents to look for ways to improve customer experience on every interaction. How can you add value? Look for opportunities to help. For instance, suggest automatic renewals, so customers avoid service interruptions. Offer paperless billing to save the environment and make record keeping easier for customers. Make your customers feel valued. Make it easy for them to stay loyal.
In addition, look for opportunities to add positive emotion during customer interactions. Apologize when appropriate. Be gracious. Use friendly, but professional language in both verbal and written communication. Little things count in a relationship. So, remember to make your customer feel appreciated.
Remember: "Every customer contact is a retention opportunity!"
Follow: LinkedIn | Twitter
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Practical Ways to Boost Customer and Employee Satisfaction
This article originally appeared on ICMI
In my early days as a contact center leader, I was obsessed with metrics. In my defense, metrics were the primary way to evaluate my success in the role. I measured everything! Some of the metrics were necessary, while others weren't. I was inundated with numbers, data points and potential solutions for struggling performance areas. I was experiencing information overload!
Does this sound familiar? No,you are not alone! Many of us were there, and some of us still are.
Today, the two most important metrics to me are Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Employee Satisfaction (ESAT). All of the other metrics help to support my quest to create an environment in where customer and employee satisfaction are high enough to ensure the growth and sustainability of the business. That sounds simple, but in actuality, it's quite complicated. Why?
For starters, contact center leaders aren't only required to analyze data and metrics that are necessary to the operational success of the department. We also have to track organizational-wide metrics. Combine all this reporting with the responsibility of training, mentoring, coaching and managing the team AND individuals, and it's easy to feel lost, frustrated and confused.
Throughout my career, I've been fortunate to have the support of great leaders, colleagues, and friends. Their help has been invaluable. Because of them, I received excellent advice. For example:
"Measure what matters, Sean."
"People before metrics."
And one of my favorites: "Let the data tell its own story!"
These are still nuggets of wisdom that I carry with me today. Perhaps the most significant lessons came from failure, though.
Because of those failures and lessons, I now focus most of my effort on building relationships with teams and individuals. How I wish I'd learned this many years ago! Employee engagement is the crux of success in the contact center! Having a highly engaged team affords you the luxury of making mistakes, creating buy-in, and earning trust. Engaged employees will follow a leader who has demonstrated over and over again, that nothing is more important than people. To borrow a quote from my good friend Matt Beckwith, "the people we lead are primarily responsible for our success, as they are the ones carrying out the plan for success."
So, with all that in mind, let's discuss ways to improve both CSAT and ESAT. But first, let's begin with those things that influence satisfaction!
How? There are four key areas to address:
Here is a three-pronged approach to removing obstacles that prevent satisfaction.
Engaged Employees improve sales, quality, retention, and profit. Customer engagement likewise enhances sales, satisfaction, and profit (among others things). Employee engagement begins with involvement. Benjamin Franklin famously said, "Tell me, and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me, and I Iearn." Adopting this mindset can have a tremendous positive impact on agents and customers alike.
Seek ways to involve your team in decisions that directly impact their work. Solicit their feedback and implement their ideas when it makes sense. Remember your employees ARE your stakeholders, too. Get out of the mindset that free pizza + potlucks = culture. Provide incentives that go beyond food. As leaders, we should also focus on feeding people's emotions, beliefs, needs, and goals. Discover what agents are passionate about, and use that knowledge to build better relationships and transform your culture. Employee engagement is personal.
Likewise, customer engagement is personal. Know your customers! Reach out to them to extend random acts of kindness. Don't be afraid to wish them a happy birthday, or to celebrate some other milestone. Don't wait for them to call you; initiate the conversation sometimes. Social media is an excellent tool for doing this. If customers are following you, follow them! Monitor their activity to experience and celebrate their successes.
You see, satisfaction is much like respect. It must be earned!
Sean has over 15 years of progressive call center leadership and experience in the public, private and government sectors. He has led or consulted contact centers of all size across numerous industries. Additionally, he's implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers. Connect with Sean on LinkedIn and Twitter.
In my early days as a contact center leader, I was obsessed with metrics. In my defense, metrics were the primary way to evaluate my success in the role. I measured everything! Some of the metrics were necessary, while others weren't. I was inundated with numbers, data points and potential solutions for struggling performance areas. I was experiencing information overload!
Does this sound familiar? No,you are not alone! Many of us were there, and some of us still are.
Today, the two most important metrics to me are Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Employee Satisfaction (ESAT). All of the other metrics help to support my quest to create an environment in where customer and employee satisfaction are high enough to ensure the growth and sustainability of the business. That sounds simple, but in actuality, it's quite complicated. Why?
For starters, contact center leaders aren't only required to analyze data and metrics that are necessary to the operational success of the department. We also have to track organizational-wide metrics. Combine all this reporting with the responsibility of training, mentoring, coaching and managing the team AND individuals, and it's easy to feel lost, frustrated and confused.
Throughout my career, I've been fortunate to have the support of great leaders, colleagues, and friends. Their help has been invaluable. Because of them, I received excellent advice. For example:
"Measure what matters, Sean."
"People before metrics."
And one of my favorites: "Let the data tell its own story!"
These are still nuggets of wisdom that I carry with me today. Perhaps the most significant lessons came from failure, though.
Because of those failures and lessons, I now focus most of my effort on building relationships with teams and individuals. How I wish I'd learned this many years ago! Employee engagement is the crux of success in the contact center! Having a highly engaged team affords you the luxury of making mistakes, creating buy-in, and earning trust. Engaged employees will follow a leader who has demonstrated over and over again, that nothing is more important than people. To borrow a quote from my good friend Matt Beckwith, "the people we lead are primarily responsible for our success, as they are the ones carrying out the plan for success."
So, with all that in mind, let's discuss ways to improve both CSAT and ESAT. But first, let's begin with those things that influence satisfaction!
Don't be a slave to metrics
Although I am not sure who to credit, a favorite quote of mine says, "Don't make the measurable things important, but make the important things measurable." To do this, you have to understand what is important. Fortunately, as a contact center leader, YOU get to make this determination. Okay, maybe I should clarify that statement. You get to determine what is important to your customers, company, department, and team.How? There are four key areas to address:
- Assess Needs- Understand what each stakeholder need to be satisfied and successful.
- Deliver- Provide the right solution to meet the needs.
- Reinforce- Leadership must shape and change minds while creating a culture that is customer-focused.
- Evaluate- Scrutinize your performance! Ensure your people, processes and procedures are meeting the needs, and delivering at a high rate of excellence.
Remove Barriers
Obstacles do not block the path; they are the path! How do you ensure employees and customers are satisfied? You make it easy for them to work and do business with you. We often overlook how current operating procedures impact the end user, because the emphasis is usually on how to complete the task, rather than doing so with minimal effort.Here is a three-pronged approach to removing obstacles that prevent satisfaction.
- Review: Review the technology, tools, processes, and procedures that you utilize. I do so on an annual basis, and anytime we add something new to our workflow.
- Define success: Defining what success should be, helps compare and contrast what you are currently doing. If you don't know what success is, you will never achieve it.
- Identify needs: Do you have the right talent and infrastructure in place to achieve success? When you define your success, it, in turn, helps you identify what you need to be successful.
Engagement
You might assume that it's best to begin with engagement initiatives. However, it's best to find the causes of disengagement first. For example, failed systems can lead to poor engagement. Understanding obstacles to success allows you to improve engagement in ways that will directly impact your employees and customers. For example, if agents are forced to adhere to handle time, you should know how this affects both the agent and the customer. If quality is poor, is it due to your product or service? Engagement works when you put in the effort to enhance relationships. As the saying goes, "effort will release its reward."Engaged Employees improve sales, quality, retention, and profit. Customer engagement likewise enhances sales, satisfaction, and profit (among others things). Employee engagement begins with involvement. Benjamin Franklin famously said, "Tell me, and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me, and I Iearn." Adopting this mindset can have a tremendous positive impact on agents and customers alike.
Seek ways to involve your team in decisions that directly impact their work. Solicit their feedback and implement their ideas when it makes sense. Remember your employees ARE your stakeholders, too. Get out of the mindset that free pizza + potlucks = culture. Provide incentives that go beyond food. As leaders, we should also focus on feeding people's emotions, beliefs, needs, and goals. Discover what agents are passionate about, and use that knowledge to build better relationships and transform your culture. Employee engagement is personal.
Likewise, customer engagement is personal. Know your customers! Reach out to them to extend random acts of kindness. Don't be afraid to wish them a happy birthday, or to celebrate some other milestone. Don't wait for them to call you; initiate the conversation sometimes. Social media is an excellent tool for doing this. If customers are following you, follow them! Monitor their activity to experience and celebrate their successes.
Satisfaction
Ultimately, satisfaction is the result of empathy, patience, personalization, and sympathy. When you focus on those things AND create an environment based on shared success, you truly grasp the concept of satisfaction. Whether the stakeholder you're trying to satisfy is the employee or the customer, the approach is the same.You see, satisfaction is much like respect. It must be earned!
Sean has over 15 years of progressive call center leadership and experience in the public, private and government sectors. He has led or consulted contact centers of all size across numerous industries. Additionally, he's implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers. Connect with Sean on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Monday, April 23, 2018
What Value are you Adding to Your Product or Service?
By Lori L Dees
I work for a local dental society, as the Exhibits and Foundation Manager. We receive many offers of products and services from a variety of companies. Most are looking to increase brand awareness, but the few successful business affiliations seem to stem from a mutual respect and partnership beneficial to the both of us.
We can purchase products from any number of suppliers, but we always go back to one. Why? Because the company has proven our company, mission and business are important to them. They visit us periodically, making sure to bring swag! This is of mutual benefit to both of us, because they get to share samples of their product with us, and we can provide that to our customers. They know we will give honest feedback about their products, and when we are ready to purchase, we will remember the relationship we have with their representative, and their company.
There is never a hard sell, just sharing of information and a cheerful banter. We usually do not purchase anything during or soon after the visit, but when we are ready to order something, we feel confident purchasing from this company. We have a history of wonderful service. We get a great product for a great price, with value added extras included. In this case, with purchase of toothbrushes, we receive free imprinting, free toothpaste samples, floss samples, and bags. We use this to create free health kits that are distributed at schools and health fairs. This allows our foundation to further its community outreach efforts.
Not only do they sell us a great product at a great price, they also donate products to us, so we can then donate it to worthy charities in our community. This has allows us to assist those in need.
So, the next time you pick up the phone to make a cold call, think about what value you can add to the company, and not only to your bottom line.
I am passionate about great customer service with a smile. Prior to my current position as Exhibits & Foundation Manager at Dallas County Dental Society, I spent almost 25 years working with dental students and patients. I love learning new things and recently became a certified coach, and I'm working on certification for handwriting analysis. On most nice days off, you will find me on the golf course with my husband and my dachshund, or in the pool with our grandchildren.
Follow: LinkedIn
I work for a local dental society, as the Exhibits and Foundation Manager. We receive many offers of products and services from a variety of companies. Most are looking to increase brand awareness, but the few successful business affiliations seem to stem from a mutual respect and partnership beneficial to the both of us.
We can purchase products from any number of suppliers, but we always go back to one. Why? Because the company has proven our company, mission and business are important to them. They visit us periodically, making sure to bring swag! This is of mutual benefit to both of us, because they get to share samples of their product with us, and we can provide that to our customers. They know we will give honest feedback about their products, and when we are ready to purchase, we will remember the relationship we have with their representative, and their company.
There is never a hard sell, just sharing of information and a cheerful banter. We usually do not purchase anything during or soon after the visit, but when we are ready to order something, we feel confident purchasing from this company. We have a history of wonderful service. We get a great product for a great price, with value added extras included. In this case, with purchase of toothbrushes, we receive free imprinting, free toothpaste samples, floss samples, and bags. We use this to create free health kits that are distributed at schools and health fairs. This allows our foundation to further its community outreach efforts.
Not only do they sell us a great product at a great price, they also donate products to us, so we can then donate it to worthy charities in our community. This has allows us to assist those in need.
So, the next time you pick up the phone to make a cold call, think about what value you can add to the company, and not only to your bottom line.
- What information can you share that will be of use to them?
- What value can you add to their mission?
- What events do they have coming up that you might participate?
- What causes are important to your customer?
- What do you have on hand that you can donate to their worthy cause?
Follow: LinkedIn
Friday, April 20, 2018
Spring Clean Your Mind, Body and Office
By Robin Thomas
Pay attention to your self-talk. Tired of winter dragging on, it can be easy to let negative thoughts slowly creep in and begin to cause feelings of self-doubt, guilt, and overall feeling down or defeated. The good news is you have the power to shift your thoughts into being more positive by simply paying attention.
Notice when you hear those negative voices and have a mantra or affirmation that can turn it around. It's not worth your time or energy to put up with those negative thoughts.
Put pen to paper. Get started writing in a journal, letting the thoughts just flow. Write down daily affirmations or mantras that help you shift your perspective into a more positive and productive outlook.
Protect your energy. It's important to pay attention to and protect your energy. What activities or even people drain your energy levels, making you feeling tired or exhausted? And conversely, what activities or people increase your energy in a positive way?
See if you can note those things that drain you and then avoid or change them in any way as to protect your energy levels throughout each day. This will have you feeling better than ever without much effort.
Try to drink 100 oz of water per day. Water is one of the best and fastest ways to begin to help your body flush toxins. Try 100 oz of clean water for 5 days and you will notice a significant difference in your energy, mental clarity, and skin.
Move your body. Sweating is another excellent way to rid your body of toxins. Moving your body is important to keep your blood flowing to all vital organs, delivery nutrients and oxygen along the way. Sweat is one of your body's natural ways of cleansing toxins from organs and cleaning your skin.
Add in good, to crowd out the bad. When talking about food, one of the best ways to approach cleaning up your diet, is to put your focus and efforts into adding in more good foods in order to crowd out the bad. When you fill up first with your fruits and veggies, your body will [over time] naturally stop craving the not-so-good foods.
Not by accident, all of these areas [mind, space, body] affect the other. When you work on improving one, it positively impacts the others.
Clear the physical clutter.
When there is a lot of clutter laying around your desk, it's actually
more difficult to think clearly. It's important to have a space that is
clear and dedicated to working. It’s time to file away those loose
papers, or shred them, if you can.
Time to organize. Everything in your office should have an appropriate place to be stored. If you find that you feel out of control and overwhelmed by your desk or environment, now is the time to do something about it. Choose 1 drawer or area to organize and clean out each day. This will help you do some spring cleaning and keep you motivated as you compartmentalize the bigger task.
Clean the air with house plants. Will your office allow house plants? Rarely are you able to opening up your windows to air-out the office of stale air and toxins built up over the winter. However, house plants can really help, too. Spider plants are known to be excellent air-fresheners.
Robin is the founder of Living Well Connections, a community of supportive people who are passionate about improving their health and the health of their families.
Her background in medical research on inflammation and 13 years with USANA Health Sciences has given her a unique insight on helping individuals find the best solutions to support their own health needs. Follow: LinkedIn | Twitter
Clear Your Mind, Boost Your Mood
Pay attention to your self-talk. Tired of winter dragging on, it can be easy to let negative thoughts slowly creep in and begin to cause feelings of self-doubt, guilt, and overall feeling down or defeated. The good news is you have the power to shift your thoughts into being more positive by simply paying attention. Notice when you hear those negative voices and have a mantra or affirmation that can turn it around. It's not worth your time or energy to put up with those negative thoughts.
Put pen to paper. Get started writing in a journal, letting the thoughts just flow. Write down daily affirmations or mantras that help you shift your perspective into a more positive and productive outlook.
Protect your energy. It's important to pay attention to and protect your energy. What activities or even people drain your energy levels, making you feeling tired or exhausted? And conversely, what activities or people increase your energy in a positive way?
See if you can note those things that drain you and then avoid or change them in any way as to protect your energy levels throughout each day. This will have you feeling better than ever without much effort.
Take Care of Your Body
Try to drink 100 oz of water per day. Water is one of the best and fastest ways to begin to help your body flush toxins. Try 100 oz of clean water for 5 days and you will notice a significant difference in your energy, mental clarity, and skin.Move your body. Sweating is another excellent way to rid your body of toxins. Moving your body is important to keep your blood flowing to all vital organs, delivery nutrients and oxygen along the way. Sweat is one of your body's natural ways of cleansing toxins from organs and cleaning your skin.
Add in good, to crowd out the bad. When talking about food, one of the best ways to approach cleaning up your diet, is to put your focus and efforts into adding in more good foods in order to crowd out the bad. When you fill up first with your fruits and veggies, your body will [over time] naturally stop craving the not-so-good foods.
Not by accident, all of these areas [mind, space, body] affect the other. When you work on improving one, it positively impacts the others.
Clean Your Office Space
Clear the physical clutter.
When there is a lot of clutter laying around your desk, it's actually
more difficult to think clearly. It's important to have a space that is
clear and dedicated to working. It’s time to file away those loose
papers, or shred them, if you can.Time to organize. Everything in your office should have an appropriate place to be stored. If you find that you feel out of control and overwhelmed by your desk or environment, now is the time to do something about it. Choose 1 drawer or area to organize and clean out each day. This will help you do some spring cleaning and keep you motivated as you compartmentalize the bigger task.
Clean the air with house plants. Will your office allow house plants? Rarely are you able to opening up your windows to air-out the office of stale air and toxins built up over the winter. However, house plants can really help, too. Spider plants are known to be excellent air-fresheners.
Her background in medical research on inflammation and 13 years with USANA Health Sciences has given her a unique insight on helping individuals find the best solutions to support their own health needs. Follow: LinkedIn | Twitter
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Employee Engagement: Partnering With Your Call Center Staff to Develop Your Culture
By Maurice Helm
I understand from experience the life of a call center representative. Prior to moving into leadership, I started on the phones and as rewarding as that can be, there on the front-line taking ownership of issues and concerns and bringing resolution to them, without a doubt it is also a tough job. On top of fighting burnout and redundancy, team members have to try and prove themselves in an effort to grow their careers beyond the phone, sometimes in environments where there is no platform to effectively communicate with leadership.
In recent years, I have had the opportunity to help build structure around employee engagement both from the standpoint of a non-leader, as well as a leader, and in the last eight years I've been able to develop an effective approach to bridging the communications gap between front-line employees and leaders. This approach is simply called Employee Engagement Taskforce.
In this process, you would ask for your employees to volunteer to represent their entire peer group, and after establishing the best representation, lay out the main objective. That is to work on the top common opportunities outlined by their peer group, and come up with solutions for improvement. Think about it, we as leaders are tasked with removing roadblocks for your employees. However, as part of their professional development, we should encourage them to work with leadership to resolve issues that will strengthen culture. They must FIRST have a platform! This process has proved to be an excellent start to building that platform.
I understand from experience the life of a call center representative. Prior to moving into leadership, I started on the phones and as rewarding as that can be, there on the front-line taking ownership of issues and concerns and bringing resolution to them, without a doubt it is also a tough job. On top of fighting burnout and redundancy, team members have to try and prove themselves in an effort to grow their careers beyond the phone, sometimes in environments where there is no platform to effectively communicate with leadership.
In recent years, I have had the opportunity to help build structure around employee engagement both from the standpoint of a non-leader, as well as a leader, and in the last eight years I've been able to develop an effective approach to bridging the communications gap between front-line employees and leaders. This approach is simply called Employee Engagement Taskforce.
In this process, you would ask for your employees to volunteer to represent their entire peer group, and after establishing the best representation, lay out the main objective. That is to work on the top common opportunities outlined by their peer group, and come up with solutions for improvement. Think about it, we as leaders are tasked with removing roadblocks for your employees. However, as part of their professional development, we should encourage them to work with leadership to resolve issues that will strengthen culture. They must FIRST have a platform! This process has proved to be an excellent start to building that platform.
Innovative, employee-driven Call Center Operations Manager with a comprehensive, progressive 15+ year career filled with expertise in customer/client services, employee relations, recruiting, process implementation, B2C and B2B sales, and project management. Analytical manager adept in the utilization of Lean/Six Sigma methodologies to drive projects to completion with results proven to improve productivity, accountability, talent development and achievement of KPIs. Collaborative communicator focused on building relationships and promoting synergy across business lines to drive positive business approaches and enhanced profitability.
Connect: LinkedIn
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
"Follow the Leader", Featuring Erica Mancuso
What is one thing every company can immediately do, to improve their Voice of the Customer program?
There are some elegant ways to improve VOC, and then there’s effective, yet less than elegant ways. My experience in startups and small businesses has taught me that sometimes you need to be resourceful - or downright scrappy - to get certain things done. Scrappy, of course, in an entirely professional way!
During a time of significant transition at a former company, our customer focus was somehow lost in the shuffle. Our product developers were making decisions with the best of intentions, but without the customer point of view in mind. As a result, deliverables were tossed over the fence from development, half-baked, and both clients and employees were frustrated. Death by a thousand paper cuts, we’d say. No one was set-up for success. We were in desperate need of a healthy dose of “Voice of Customer”.
Now, back to the scrappy part. Fortunately, my peers across the organization had already agreed that this was a problem that needed to be solved quickly. To get our developers thinking about the needs of the customers, developers started rotating through the contact center for a half day at a time. While they wouldn’t handle calls, they were paired up with an agent and listened to every single call. Through this, they heard the good, the bad, and the ugly. Agents, with whom developers didn’t typically interact, would explain the issues and their implications.
Developers started to understand the impact of decisions made at the product level – and, more importantly, why they needed to get it right for the customers. They’d go back and tell their colleagues in their department, and soon, everyone was thinking more in terms of what’s best for the customer. This was a lovely, organic way to quickly inject VOC into the parts of the company that needed it the most.
Follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
How Can Contact Center Leaders Avoid the 'Mechanical' Approach to Metrics, and Become More Customer Experience Focused?
By Dan MacDougall
Contact center metrics are developed to measure operational performance (e.g. Calls Answered Live, Escalation Rate, First Contact Resolution, and Call Volume). They are useful to identify and drive areas of continuous improvement in staffing requirements, training opportunities, agent to agent consistency, and mean time to resolve to mention a few. These are what I consider "mechanical" as they show how the contact center is "functioning", however, do not necessarily tell how successful the contact center is at actually serving the customer and how its agents are contributing to the overall customer experience.
How do contact center leaders become more customer-experience focused?
How do we then collect metrics on customer experience? How do we know we are truly customer experience-focused?
Remember, the customer is an emotional being, not a mechanical object. Measuring how well a contact center is at providing a great customer experience will depend on how customers interact with the brand or service and how creative the contact center leader can be with that information. Direct customer feedback is probably the best method for determining how customer-focused a brand is. The contact center leader will need to invest time interpreting customer feedback data to determine what defines a great customer experience for their specific customer base, and how well the contact center is contributing to it.
Customer experience is more than just providing answers and quick fixes. Customer experience is how we can meet and exceed the customer's expectations; how the customer feels about the entire journey with the brand. It's what keeps them coming back for more and sharing the experience within their circle of influence.
For nearly 30 years I have enjoyed supporting and developing next generation technologies, and the people that make them happen. In my humble beginnings as a Consumer Electronics Technician for Radio Shack back in 1989, I represented the brand by repairing the latest "high tech" devices for its franchise and retail customers. This provided me with many opportunities to work directly with people in the service center and in their homes and businesses. In 1994, I was hired into high-tech geek heaven by Intel as a Manufacturing Technician where I directly contributed to the development and production of microprocessors. I eventually moved back into full-time customer support in 2000 when I joined Automation Support as a Call Center Agent. I have been in my current position since 2007 as a second and third-level Systems Support Engineer providing technical support for Intel's world-wide Process Control Systems infrastructure. I enjoy working with a broad range of cultures and people, and actively advocate the importance of internal customer care. Connect: LinkedIn | Twitter
Contact center metrics are developed to measure operational performance (e.g. Calls Answered Live, Escalation Rate, First Contact Resolution, and Call Volume). They are useful to identify and drive areas of continuous improvement in staffing requirements, training opportunities, agent to agent consistency, and mean time to resolve to mention a few. These are what I consider "mechanical" as they show how the contact center is "functioning", however, do not necessarily tell how successful the contact center is at actually serving the customer and how its agents are contributing to the overall customer experience.
How do contact center leaders become more customer-experience focused?
- Be mindful that the customer is a human being with emotions, not a mechanical object. Human beliefs and actions are not always logical or reasonable, especially when something goes wrong. Most of the time, callers are not going to be in their "happy place". They are calling because they are probably in a state of frustration and need help.
- Realize that the contact center is uniquely positioned to not just fix the problem, but also has the opportunity to provide the help the customer needs and directly contribute to how the customer feels about the brand.
- Also, consider that the customer directly affects the way of life for everyone in the company. My father used to tell me that "whoever has the money is in control". Most of us work because we have families, mortgages, car payments and taxes. When a customer is emotionally positive about a brand or service, they are likely to invest more of their money into it. They also have the power to take their money somewhere else.
How do we then collect metrics on customer experience? How do we know we are truly customer experience-focused?
Remember, the customer is an emotional being, not a mechanical object. Measuring how well a contact center is at providing a great customer experience will depend on how customers interact with the brand or service and how creative the contact center leader can be with that information. Direct customer feedback is probably the best method for determining how customer-focused a brand is. The contact center leader will need to invest time interpreting customer feedback data to determine what defines a great customer experience for their specific customer base, and how well the contact center is contributing to it.
Customer experience is more than just providing answers and quick fixes. Customer experience is how we can meet and exceed the customer's expectations; how the customer feels about the entire journey with the brand. It's what keeps them coming back for more and sharing the experience within their circle of influence.
Friday, April 13, 2018
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Kindness, Customer Retention, and the Contact Center Agent
By Sean Hawkins
Most retention efforts occur when a customer has expressed a desire to leave the business relationship. This is often too late, and may come at a high price to your bottom line. Furthermore, once the incentives offered to keep a customer expire, they still leave. I believe the process of reducing customer churn is an ongoing process that starts at the beginning of the relationship. It should take place before dissatisfaction arises, and continue over the customer life cycle. Additionally, policies, processes and procedures, should be developed to make the relationship easy, beneficial and fair to your customers. One of the easiest ways to begin, is through your customer service team(s).
In particular, customer service agents should take a proactive approach. They must be empowered and encouraged to help build customer loyalty. As the saying goes, “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.” I know someone is saying, "Why would you call your customer a fly?" Simmer down my dear friend! I only suggest it is easier for people to like you if you are pleasant, rather than unpleasant.
With this in mind, below are some quick and easy ideas contact centers can implement:
- Discounts
- Free service
- Gift cards
- Contests
- Thank You cards
- Acknowledgment of milestones
- Newsletters
- Reports, whitepapers or books
- Self-help tools
- Random acts of kindness
These ideas allow the contact center agent to be proactive in the retention process rather than reactive. Don’t wait until a customer is frustrated! Kindness has a greater impact when it is unexpected and unwarranted. In other words, be kind at all times, not once the customer is upset, and the relationship begins to sour.
When kindness is displayed as a gesture of appreciation, or used to aid the customer's journey, they aren't viewed as retention. Rather, they are opportunities to create loyalty, brand ambassadors, and build long lasting relationships. But more importantly, it's great to be kind, simply for the sake of being kind.
Some may see this as a loyalty initiative, but I don't. Loyalty, and your ability to retain customers, are the results of your kindness.
I have over 15 years of progressive call center leadership and experience in the public, private and government sectors. I have led or consulted contact centers of various sizes across numerous industries. Additionally, I’ve implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers.
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
"Follow the Leader", Featuring Sean Hawkins
I aim to hire the right person, and teach the skills, versus hiring for skills, and having the wrong person. Therefore, the my focus is not solely on a candidates technical acumen.
Instead, I focus on the person. I want to be confident they have the necessary people skills to improve the team. I want to be confident I have the right person assisting customer. I want to ensure they can handle the emotional requirements to be successful.
That being said, you will never bat 1000, meaning you will never be right all the time. But, you can be prepared to make the best decisions possible, by knowing what skills are needed to compliment the team and effectively perform the work. Get THAT right, and you're more likely to hire the right person.
I have over 15 years of progressive call center leadership and experience in the public, private and government sectors. I have led or consulted contact centers of various sizes across numerous industries. Additionally, I’ve implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers.
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