Smartphones Break Physical Boundaries

The smartphone – arguably the hottest piece of technological real estate in existence right now. Every major tech firm is jumping onto the smartphone development bandwagon, whether it be hardware or software. The advent of such a device is quickly changing the public’s perception of what it means to be able to easily access information. Prior to the smartphone, the accessibility of information was confined to desktop PC’s; if people needed information, they had to go somewhere with an Internet-connected computer - an internet café, a library, an office perhaps. Then with the invention of Wi-Fi networks, laptop computers stole much of the desktops’ limelight. People were no longer confined to the few specialized physical locations with Internet access. The spectrum of Internet accessibility now expanded to coffee shops, restaurants, shopping malls – places that people actually wanted to go. The access of information seemed finally free. In retrospect however, people weren’t really freed from their network shackles; all Wi-Fi did was simply make the chain a little longer. It was not until wireless data networks reached its third generation (3G) that the physical restrictions were finally and ultimately eliminated, and it is with this wave of technology that gave rise to the smartphone and its various derivatives.

Social Media’s Transformation of the Business Landscape

I recently started working for a software company in Irvine, California and one of the topics that come up regularly is the importance of understanding social media. As a newcomer to the company, I was surprised that my opinions, those of a 21-year old undergraduate college student, were being taken so seriously. I then realized that my generation has a lot of insight into this area, and I’m glad companies are starting to listen.

Social Media seems to be all you hear about these days, and not just in the marketing world, but in the world in general. News anchors, corporate executives, consumers, and even governments mention or use social media in some form, virtually every day. Some dismiss the social media frenzy as nothing more than that – hype. They feel that sites like Facebook and Twitter are merely fads; they’re hot now, but eventually they will go the way of cassettes and parachute pants. They think that social media will simply fade into the background as soon as the “next big thing” comes around.

I disagree. Social media, with sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, is a very, very big thing. I think it’s the greatest revolution to take place since the Internet itself. Like the Internet, social media has completely transformed the way human beings communicate with each other, and it is important to realize that such drastic changes to the human condition are not fads; they are permanent. They are assimilated into the daily lives of each and every individual who encounters them.

We need to pay attention to the beat and the buzz of social media. For businesses, social media can have a huge impact on whether a business does well or poorly. As part of the Web 2.0 movement, no longer are consumers passive victims of the corporate machine; individuals are no longer willing to blindly accept whatever the companies hand to them. Furthermore, consumers are no longer anonymous figures on accounting documents. With the treasure trove of personal information available on sites like Facebook, companies can find out for themselves, in excruciating detail, exactly who their customers are. At the same time, consumers are blasting themselves as personalities to companies, not numbers. Reciprocally, consumers are more and more aware of who the corporate executives are. And if a customer feels somehow wronged by a company, his actions on social media websites can have far-reaching effects - effects spanning much further than just one person.

The good news for businesses is that they can use social media too - to quickly put out fires before they become unstoppable infernos. For example, if a certain web service stops responding, a simple Tweet can alert millions of users that the problem is being addressed and a solution is on the way. This relieves the anxiety of users and also enhances the perception of the company, that it is concerned about its users as well as its products. This dialog between company and consumer is one of the ways in which social media has so drastically altered communications – direct and even personal relationships can develop.

Never before has the consumer had so much insight into a company’s operations. Businesses are no longer fortresses of top-secret information; these days, more and more companies are adopting an open information policy. In the past, people would try to contact companies and, after being routed to numerous supervisors across multiple continents, they more than likely ended up at a wall. With open information networks branching across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogspot, etc, individuals are asking and are now being answered, sometimes directly by the companies’ top execs.

This is why it is important for companies to monitor how they are talked about across the Internet on various social media platforms. With still many untapped opportunities for both businesses and consumers, social media will undoubtedly continue to grow in importance, and likely at an even faster pace. Social media has easily and greatly surpassed the “fad” idea and become a valuable part of business. Once upon a time, companies were encouraged to promote a culture of seclusion. Now, they can no longer afford to be anti-social.

About the author: Jimin Zheng is currently a part-time marketing assistant intern at Centergistic Solutions in Irvine, CA. He is also a full-time undergraduate Psychology and Business Administration student at the nearby University of California, Irvine. Jimin is expecting to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in the Spring of 2012.

Best Call Center Metrics

Here at Centergistic Solutions, we like to stay on top of news and trends in the contact center industry. We recently discovered an informative article from the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) entitled Seven Metrics to Watch for Call Center Success.

According to the article, there are seven performance measures that definitively indicate the success of any contact center. Among some of those named are contact quality, which incorporates how courteous agents are, as well as how well they can provide relevant information to customers, forecasting accuracy, which depicts the accuracy of predicting call volume as well as the planning of operations to meet those predictions, and self-service accessibility, which is how often customers are able to initiate and complete a troubleshooting program with little to no interaction from an agent.

In the article, ICMI also identified a key metric that was the single best indicator for contact center success. Studies showed that for every 1% increase in this particular measure, a corresponding 1% improvement in customer satisfaction would also occur. Furthermore, contact centers with higher results for this metric showed lower operating costs, reduced customer defection, and higher employee satisfaction rates.

To find out what this number one metric is, and to learn more about the other six performance measures that best depict contact center success, please visit http://www.centergistic.com/best_call_center_metrics.htm for the full article.

Reporting --- Too much data, not enough actionable information.

Another inefficiency comes in the form of reporting. We’ve interviewed hundreds of call center managers over the years and still find many of them complaining about the inordinate time spent hand-assembling reports. Why is this? In this day of automation and instant access to information, it’s hard to believe we still have managers cutting and pasting data often from several sources. We even find some managers having to manually enter data!

Part of the problem is that every system in the contact center produces reports, dozens of them. There is no lack of data, there is simply too much.

Most vendors take a “one size fits all” approach, providing a canned set of reports to their customers. So, what the manager ends up doing is stripping out data from a number of separate reports and compiling a new report, usually using an Excel spreadsheet. Some of our customers have told us that they need to re-key the data by hand because they can’t get reports in an interactive format.

This is probably the number one waste of time in a contact center. It’s a shame because it is a relatively easy area to improve efficiency. How?

You can probably answer this yourself, but perhaps you rely upon an IT department, already overworked, to provide you with performance reports and every time you want to make a change you need to go back to them.

Usually a reporting module is included with the ACD you purchased. The problem is that these systems are locked alongside the ACD, behind closed doors and out of your reach. Even if they were accessible, there are security issues that make it difficult to get the kind of nimble reporting you need in the contact center. So, managers resign themselves to spending hours each week creating reports, repeating the process because someone else needs the information with a slight variation. Those “slight variations” can be a nightmare.

How can you create a nimble reporting structure that will adjust to your needs? First, do a little research on independent reporting vendors. Ask them where their software sits in terms of the ACD itself. Also ask how flexible their system is. Is it easily adjusted for those on-the-fly variations? What is the reporting structure? Excel? Crystal? Make sure it is standards-based and easy to maintain. A good independent reporting vendor can save your company thousands of dollars in time and energy, not to mention headaches!

The sample report above is for a collections department. Data has been taken from an ACD, a predictive dialer and from a collections database. Once created, reports should be easy to maintain and fine tune.

This is just the beginning

There are many more areas where inefficiencies can be squeezed out of a contact center with a little planning and input from the team. Remember that each inefficiency you identify may seem harmless by itself. But inefficiencies in one area will impact other performance areas.

Where there are people there are inefficiencies! However, these are also great opportunities to improve! Once you begin to identify areas where improvements seem possible, watch your team rise to the occasion. We mentioned earlier about the company whose employees actually created their own goals in terms of performance metrics. This is an opportunity to use your people to attach real numbers to those goals. That, along with a strong performance management and reporting system will take you a long ways towards achieving goals you may have thought impossible before. Isn’t that worth doing?

A Spoonful of Sugar helps the medicine go down… (Part 4 of 5)

Forgive me for quoting Mary Poppins, but it’s true! What kind of real-time messaging are you using? Make sure you are taking time to insert a positive ad-hoc message or two, especially if your team is having a tough day.

Sometimes a message that says “You guys are the best!” to a roomful of agents goes a long way, especially when they’ve been told to take more calls or wrap up more quickly. Don’t be afraid to show your personality in your messaging. If you just found out that the local team won a key game, put it up on the board. If the rain is going to stop soon, let everyone know.

Make sure you are also using your instant messaging to its best advantage. IM can help you communicate with agents without interrupting their work-flow. So if you’re looking at an agent’s performance on your performance dashboard, send a quick message to that agent, “Keep it up, you’re doing great!”

These small words of encouragement will pay high returns. You might also try putting an alert metric ribbon with the goals of an agent’s personal best alongside their current ribbon to encourage them to compete with their own goals. If they are ahead consistently for a given period of time, automate a message to tell them “You’re on top of your goals! Great!” Or tie a bonus to the goal. Either way, using performance messaging in a positive way will encourage positive, profitable actions from the team.

Now, get out on the floor! You already have your real time performance system doing the grunt work, so what are you doing sitting in front of your computer? Have your system send a message to your Blackberry or cell phone when something needs attention. There should be little reason to be cooped up in your office.

Get out on the floor and coach! It shows the team that you are all connected to the same goals.

Next post: Effective Reporting (Part 5)

The Revolving Door Syndrome (Part 3 of 5)

Another inefficiency we should discuss involves the workforce itself. Even if you don’t care if your agents are happy, guess what? Your customers do! Just think of the last time you interacted with a contact center agent, how was your experience? Did the agent speak in a monotone voice or was he or she personable and attentive?

Wells Fargo is a great example. Their agents are well-trained and pleasant. As a result, I’ve remained a Wells Fargo customer for years. They are consistent in their approach and professional in conducting transactions. Come to think of it, I’d probably use the same phrases to describe Wells Fargo on the whole, as an organization.

That’s because contact center agents really are the face of the company. Period. If they aren’t happy, they’ll make customers unhappy. Soon, absenteeism will rise, they’ll become less and less motivated and they’ll leave. This revolving door syndrome is an expensive one.

According to a Benchmark Portal study, on average it costs companies over $6,000 every time an agent departs. For financial institutions, the average is over twice that amount.

Hiring, training and motivating are expensive!

The chart on the left shows the average cost of turnover by industry. This chart was produced by the Detroit News in 2005 from a study made by Benchmark Portal, Inc.

Employees need to feel connected to their goals. They need an offset to the stress of customer issues, in addition to sufficient training and, above all, strong communication from supervisors.

People also want to understand what they need to do to move up. That can equate to clear and attainable goals. Without that, especially in the hectic environment of the call center, they will quickly become disillusioned, complacent or downright hostile.

How do you think that translates to the customers? What is the most important to businesses?

Customers!

Okay, how do we squeeze inefficiency out of the workforce without cracking a whip? How to keep the team in place longer? Increasing salaries is not always the solution, by the way. Ever since Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was publicized in 1954, managers have known that “job satisfaction” is the most important factor in employee retention. With real-time performance management tools, providing targeted metrics can be very effective in communicating the here and now of the contact center.

You must start, however, with goals that are realistic. That may mean re-evaluating some of the current key performance indicators, or KPIs, you have in place. Are the thresholds realistic or are these metrics always green or always red? Nothing is more demoralizing to the workforce than the sense that management doesn’t care enough to adjust the performance metrics to meet the ebb and flow of the calling activity! So, take the time to make the adjustment. We have a customer whose agents actually help to create the thresholds for their KPIs. And they’re hard on themselves! They lowered their longest call waiting from 1:47 to :38 seconds!

Goal obtained! It can be and is done all the time.

Look for our next post! "A spoonful of sugar." (part 4)

The Vision Thing --- You Know What You Can See (Part 2 of 5)

Often inefficiencies result from a chronic lack of visibility over the here and now, otherwise known as “real time”. As stated earlier, contact centers are full of great technology. That technology is usually buried within an assortment of applications; contact management, help desk software, and things like IVR and E-mail management systems. A typical manager juggles several systems at a time, using his/her computer to toggle back and forth to check campaigns, revenues, who’s here, who is late, who had an emergency and had to leave early, and so on.

The fact is that managers get caught up managing a lot of programs, and are often stuck behind a PC instead of out on the floor coaching and motivating.

In the marketplace today, there are many useful tools that integrate information and provide a real time single view of performance. There is no reason any manager should be without one!

Call them “dashboards” or “digital cockpits”, they present a far more efficient way to gauge performance and contact center conditions with a single glance.

Think about it.

If you could instantly pull up a screen that you’ve already personalized and see individual agent performances, groups, graphs on performance against goals and last week’s score, how much time would you be saving? Three minutes? Five? An hour?

Because the contact center never stops, neither can the manager. By having real time visibility over the entire center, managers can more quickly gauge what needs to be done --- before the next morning. If they have a Blackberry, they can set it to alert them when building conditions might result in a problem, well before it happens. Visibility at all times is achievable and will put the manager out on the floor for a much greater percentage of time, not putting out fires, but helping their team avoid them!

Imagine if you could put a refined information set with inspiring messaging in front of the team? I don’t mean a string of statistics with “work harder, please” scrolling along. Nor do I mean a congregation of digitized pink elephants leaping across a plasma display. [More on this subject in our white paper “Questions to ask before purchasing a wallboard”.]

What the team needs is a targeted set of metrics reflecting personal performance and that of the group with support messages like “Almost there, Nancy. Keep it up!” How does the manager know how close Nancy is to meeting her goal? He just saw it on his desktop dashboard! Finally, if you have a cell phone, pager or Blackberry, you can set it to alert you, wherever you are, as soon as contact center conditions require action.

You may be thinking that putting these concepts into action might only shave a few minutes of inefficiency off of each agent’s day, so big deal. Think again. An article by Penny Reynolds of Call Center School calculated that saving only 20 minutes per day leads to a pretty impressive result: 20 minutes per day x 5 days per week x 52 weeks / 60 = annual lost hours. Annual lost hours x fully loaded wage rate x number of agents = cost of lost time. You can do the math for your contact center. It all adds up!

Look for the next post on The Revolving Door Syndrome (Part 3)

Squeezing the Inefficiency Out of Your Contact Center Using Performance Management Part 1 of 5

But we’re already as efficient as we’re going to get!

Today’s contact centers are equipped with some of the most sophisticated technology in the marketplace today. That’s because companies are waking up and responding to customers’ “right now” expectations. These customers are using web-based or IVR-based self-service to retrieve information, answer questions and conduct transactions, all without interacting with a live agent. Instant gratification is king and companies are deploying technology like never before to satisfy their customers using as few live agents as possible.

So many contact center managers believe they can’t possibly squeeze out any more inefficiencies, at least not from a technology standpoint. Perhaps that’s true, but we need to remember that there comes a time when just about everybody must talk with a live person in a contact center. That is the point at which technology and human skills intersect. People represent the greatest expense to the contact center, not the technology. Performance improvement is aided by technology but it is the people who close tickets and put numbers on the board, and it’s the people the customers will remember when conducting a transaction.

As soon as people are added to the mix, inefficiencies abound. It’s unavoidable. People get sick, run late, daydream, have problems, become angry and even quit. So there will always be a certain level of inefficiency to deal with.

The question is how to use real time performance management to squeeze as much out of the profitability equation as possible and not impair the effectiveness and the motivation of your workforce.

The chart above illustrates typical improvements in efficiency when performance management is introduced into a contact center, using a unit of '1' as a benchmark.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on how visibility affects efficiency!