ExEcutivE REpoRt on the FutuRE of the contact center By Brian cantor

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1 Executive Report on the Future of the Contact Center By Brian Cantor

2 Constructing the Contact Center of the Future Philosophy drives improvement, but actuality dictates the magnitude and resonance of that improvement. It determines who reaps the rewards and to what extent those rewards are even worth reaping. It is for that reason that a discussion of contact center strategy must concern the little things as intently as it does sweeping, big picture changes in organizational mentality. The specificities and nuances of each system, each process, each metric and each managerial command ultimately determine how corporate directives appear when they reach front-line employees and, more importantly, customers. To navigate the customer service challenges of the future, one therefore must look to the brick-bybrick construction of the contact center destined to provide that service. Celebrating better, more audible calls for customer centricity is a tolerable detour, but it should not yield the errant notion that mentality is anything more than a first step on the road to excellence. A customer-centric mindset can indeed drive action, but it is the extent to which that action embodies and conveys that customer-centric mindset that truly determines the success or failure of a contact center. Agents and customers judge a business customer-centricity not based on its big picture declarations but based on how it is realized in what they actually experience. An investigation into the realities, challenges, opportunities and strategies that will define the contact center landscape over the next few years, this report will naturally examine mentalities. It will reveal how businesses feel about their contact centers, how businesses feel about the customer experience and how businesses anticipate those sentiments changing over the next few years. But mindful of the fact that those sentiments will be filtered, blurred and downright transformed by the actions undertaken by businesses, it will devote far more attention to the contact centers businesses have constructed and will continue to construct in anticipation of the challenges ahead. Understanding how businesses are situating their contact centers within businesses, how they are physically building them, how they are operating them, how they are measuring them, how they are investing in them and how they are transforming the people, processes and technologies within them, as this investigation works to do, will not only reveal the extent to which philosophy is materializing as action but whether it is accurate, manageable and sustainable. callcenter-iq.com 2

3 That so much disparity can exist in the most fundamental element of the contact center its core construction epitomizes the extent to which a philosophy of customer-centricity is merely the beginning of the journey. Methodology and Demographics In October and November of 2014, Call Center IQ conducted this research with collaboration from an audience of customer service, customer experience and contact center professionals. Representing buy-side organizations, vendor organizations and independent consultancies, respondents contributed insights via a web survey and/or targeted, one-onone interviews. Requests to participate were issued irrespective of company size, contact center size or region, assuring that the sample represented a global customer management audience. Participation nonetheless skewed in favor of larger organizations. 25% of respondents represent an organizations with more than 5000 employees, and 47% completed the survey on behalf of organizations with at least 500 employees. Only 36% work for organizations with fewer than 250 employees and only 22% work alongside fewer than 100 people. The heavy involvement of larger organizations did not, however, produce an equivalent skew in favor of large contact centers. 33% of respondents seat more than 250 agents in their call centers, but a comparable 31% staff fewer than 50 agents. Example respondent job titles included VP, Global Customer Care, EVP, Corporate Strategy, Contact Center Team Leader, Chief Information Officer, SVP of Operations, Call Center Manager, Senior Director of Support Services, VP of Customer Operations, Director of E-Commerce, VP, Marketing and Global Director, Consumer Experience. The job titles of those to whom the respondents report include Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Divisional Director, Head of Vertical, Customer Care Director, Chief Marketing Officer and President. The Contact Center: A Physical Reality What exactly is a contact center? A seemingly silly question, especially in the context of an executive report on contact centers, it is not a black-and-white one. It is certainly not an irrelevant one. From its positioning within an organization to its availability for communication with other segments of the business, the contact center adheres to a structure and definition that is anything but universal across businesses. Nuances in the design can radically transform a contact center s physical reality within an organization, and that transformation can create a drastically different experience for customers, agents, managers, executives and corporate stakeholders. That so much disparity can exist in the most fundamental element of the contact center its core construction epitomizes the extent to which a philosophy of customer-centricity is merely the beginning of the journey. It, after all, is far more likely that businesses will offer the same rhetoric about the importance of the customer experience than it is that they will build their contact centers in precisely the same manner. Despite the inevitable string of differences that exists between the constructions of any two contact centers, there are, however, fundamental points of alignment between many such centers. Indicative of adherence to tradition, acceptance of best efficiency practices and adoption of similar mindsets, many contact centers do emerge from similar blueprints. And as businesses prepare to conquer the challenges that await, their contact center roadmaps will certainly involve overlap. callcenter-iq.com 3

4 Insofar as the contact center is due to primarily exist as a customer service or operations property, businesses will thus need to be more proactive in creating optimal unity behind the affected business segments. Who Owns the Contact Center? Presented rhetorically as a pivotal business driver and in practicality as a multi-faceted, multidimensional source of customer engagement, the contact center nonetheless remains a customer service focus for the greatest percentage of organizations. According to Call Center IQ s annual survey, 48% of businesses situate their contact centers within the customer service department. 25% do so within operations, while the deed to the contact center can be found in the C-level and marketing segments for 12% and 10% of organizations, respectively. 5% of businesses ascribe ownership to the information technology department. On the one hand, the frequency of customer service ownership emphasizes the extent to which that function is seen as a legitimate, value item in today s marketplace. Instead of merely looking at the contact center as an operational necessity or line of defense against the cost of customer engagement, businesses do see the merit in making a true commitment to serving customers. They see the value in allowing those attuned to customer needs to make decisions. On the other hand, it also reflects a fairly orthodox view of today s contact center function. An emerging notion that marketing should seize control of the contact center to better flesh out its value as an overall point of customer connectivity, for instance, has not gained notable ground in the business world. Intradiem s Matt McConnell, is one that wonders whether it should have. He explains, [It might make sense] for the contact center to report into someone with sales and marketing responsibilities because of its importance to optimizing customer relationships. That is not typically the case in the status quo. And it will not notably be the case moving forward. In fact, by the end of 2015, a greater number of contact centers will be situated in the customer service and operations departments. 51% of respondents a majority--report that the customer service function will control the contact center at the end of % will instead provide sanctuary within the operations segment of the business. To make those increases possible, the contact center will requisitely leave the clutches of the executive, marketing and information technology functions. The three will own the contact center in 9%, 8% and 3% of businesses, respectively. Insofar as the contact center is due to primarily exist as a customer service or operations property, businesses will thus need to be more proactive in creating optimal unity behind the affected business segments. Although it will not be a direct C-level task, the contact center will need representation at the proverbial table. That it will function without immediate executive oversight does not mean it is any less of a priority for or any less responsive to the C-suite. Since marketing coexists with customer service under the broader customer engagement banner, barriers between the two must be completely obliterated. Marketing might not be in position to drive contact center practices for a significant portion of businesses, but mindfulness of the marketing department absolutely must serve as such a driver. After all, as Genesys Scott Kolman explains, The strategy objective [of the contact center] is becoming more about reinforcing the brand. Contact Solutions John Hibel, however, reminds professionals, Actually expanding the [conception of the contact center] is hard. From my interactions with the enterprises we talk to, I do see them trying. I see the brand people having a little bit more influence over what is going on, but there isn t always the coordination we d like to see in order for the contact center to truly achieve the vision of being an engagement center. Given the lack of an intuitive connection between IT objectives and contact center objectives, it is certainly not surprising that businesses will remain bearish on situating their centers within the IT function. Insofar as the systems that are often sourced and purchased and almost always managed by IT play a pivotal role in the customer experience, closeness nonetheless remains a top priority. callcenter-iq.com 4

5 Q1 Where does your contact center belong? Where will it belong? Now Future C-Level 9% 12% Operations 26% 29% IT Marketing 5% 3% 10% 8% Customer Service/ Experience 47% 51% Q2 What best describes your contact center architecture? What will? Now Future Primarily on-premise 30% 50% Primarily hosted/ cloud 24% 37% Hybrid on-premise & hosted/cloud 19% 27% callcenter-iq.com 5

6 You can monitor how they re performing, how long they re on the phone and what issues are being addressed. And if you re able to use that information to take action, then it really doesn t matter if they are not located in your physical center. Defining Existence To emphasize the fact that customer communication is not restricted to telephony, many businesses and thought leaders have developed an objection to the word call center. Terms like contact center, interaction center and customer engagement center have become far more in fashion. Interestingly enough, those terms, however new and trendy, also reflect an antiquated approach to the function. In referring to it as a center, they immediately conjure up images of a physical location in which rows upon rows of agents connect with customers from the comfort or lack thereof of their homogenous cubicles. That is an insufficient, if not inaccurate, perspective of today s customer engagement forum. While it is true that a central hub must fundamentally exist, it is not true that the contact center need be viewed through the restrictive lens of a physical center. Thanks to growing connectivity within different business departments and growing opportunity to incorporate staff contributions from outside of the corporate walls, the physical lines of the contact center have become blurred. In some organizations, the department no longer occupies a mere floor in an office building but a sizable amount of virtual real estate. And even when the entire contact center team is restricted to a physical hub, there is no guarantee that the infrastructure occupies the same physical space. The systems actually empowering connections between agents and between agents and customers might very well exist in a remote or even virtual space. An impressive 25% of businesses, in fact, say that their contact center infrastructure is primarily hosted either at an off-site physical location or in the cloud. 19% rely on a hybrid model that includes on-premise, externally hosted and cloudbased infrastructure, while 49% still take the traditional, on-premise approach. That breakdown will change significantly by the end of Indicative of a sweeping transformation, a primarily hosted/cloud-based approach to the contact center will be the most popular infrastructural architecture by the end of next year. 38% of businesses plan to adopt that contact center design. A primarily on-premise approach will persist in only 29% of organizations, while 27% will opt for a hybrid model. Whether they are interested in a deep dive or a slow submersion, it is clear organizations accept an off-site or cloud-driven approach as the optimal wave of the future. If you have the tools in place, you don t need everyone to be in the same physical location, adds Genesys Scott Kolman in acknowledgement of the trend. You can monitor how they re performing, how long they re on the phone and what issues are being addressed. And if you re able to use that information to take action, then it really doesn t matter if they are not located in your physical center. Points of Contact There are no universally mandated parameters for its physical infrastructure. There is no universally mandated stance on the department to which it must belong. There is, however, a requirement that today s contact center must simultaneously incorporate different business stakeholders and address customers at different touchpoints. For that to happen, ample communication must take place within the contact center, within the overall business and within the marketplace at large. The extent to which a business chooses to foster that communication reflects on its customer-centric mentality. The extent to which the existing contact center infrastructure facilitates that communication reflects on the efficacy of its systems and processes. Indicative of a fairly smooth chain of communication from the front-line to the executive boardroom, respondents reveal that they are frequently in contact with agents, contact center supervisors, key divisional directors and C-level executives. Respondents are in constant contact with agents, supervisors, directors and executives in 38%, 38%, 41% and 27% of cases, respectively. If the frequency definition is extended to often, those numbers increase to 62%, 64%, 62% and 64%, respectively. The often definition also brings marketing directors and sales directors into the mix. 58% of respondents find themselves often in contact with each personnel type. callcenter-iq.com 6

7 High level of communication, though important, is not the whole battle. The quality of that communication and its resonance at the customer experience level also matters greatly. And though it comes at a slightly reduced frequency, conversation with other individuals not traditionally associated with customer service remains commonplace in today s organizations. Communication with marketing and sales team members, for instance, occurs often in 53% and 49% of organizations, respectively. The respective frequency is meanwhile deemed rare in only 13% and 11%. High level of communication, though important, is not the whole battle. The quality of that communication and its resonance at the customer experience level also matters greatly. One of the issues comes down the tools that a supervisor needs at his or her disposal. For communication within the contact center to be effective, the supervisor will need access to speech and text analytics, coaching tools, recordings and the like to understand what is truly transpiring within the course of these interactions, says Genesys Kolman. It is only through that kind of lens that the business can determine if an agent is not delivering proper information to a customer -- or having trouble with a particular type of interaction. As important as the fact that contact center professionals do often communicate with individuals from the most relevant corners of their organizations is the fact that those communication partners exist. Of the sixteen personnel categories included in the survey, none is absent from greater than 22% of businesses. That means that c-level customer experience executives (such as Chief Customer Officers), mobile, digital and social specialists and c-level marketing executives (such as Chief Marketing Officers) now exist in the overwhelming majority of companies. Professionals can and often do engage in intradepartmental and interdepartmental conversation. In issuing a relevant call to action, thought leaders therefore do not need to advocate for increased communication. Depending on the organization, they might, however, need to push for improved communication and communication systems. Going Where the Customer Goes Advocacy for the term contact center stems from acceptance of the reality that customer interactions are no longer restricted to calls. With options ranging from social media, to web self-service, to mobile, to live chat, to , today s customers possess a greater selection of methods in which to contact businesses. Businesses must then make the internal decision about whether to honor or ignore customers contact preferences. To the extent that honoring customer preference involves providing a complete, staffed, measured experience, businesses, nonetheless, remain committed to the call center model. At 82% and 50%, respectively, live agent telephony and IVR-based telephony are the only contact options that the majority of businesses offer, support with dedicated resources and measure. Genesys Kolman is not surprised. We might expect to see customers shift away from the phone, but if their problems cannot be immediately solved, the issues will ultimately get escalated to agents, says Kolman. The makeup of the conversation and issues might have changed, but the call center has not gone away. Highlighted as a majority offering in previous Call Center IQ reports, does not score highly when judged in the demanding context of offer, support with dedicated resources and measure. Its prevalence as a complete engagement destination, though third-most behind live agent and IVR-based support, is a mere 43%. Web/FAQ assistance, web chat and web self-service platforms follow as complete service options in 32%, 30% and 28% of organizations, respectively. Thoroughly unpopular service avenues include LinkedIn, real-time video, Twitter and Facebook. Despite the hype for all four and particularly the three social channels none commands complete engagement participation from more than 13% of businesses. Zero respondents offer a fully-staffed, fully-resourced, fully-measured LinkedIn experience. Extending the offer definition to include organizations that either offer and measure or offer and provide dedicated staff and resources does improve prevalence levels, but it does not radically transform the hierarchy. Substantively offered by 89% of organizations, live agent telephony remains the most popular channel under this broadened definition. IVR follows at 66%, while also commands this degree of involvement from 66% of businesses. Web/FAQ assistance, web chat and web self-service occupy the next three spots with scores of 56%, 50% and 42%, respectively. callcenter-iq.com 7

8 Q3 In your current role, how often do you professionally interact with the following members of your organization? N/A Never Rarely Occasionally Often Very Often Constantly Front-line contact center agents Marketing team members Sales representatives Contact center managers/supervisors Marketing managers/ supervisors Sales managers/ supervisors Contact center directors/key leadership Marketing directors/key leadership Sales directors/key leadership C-level executives (general) C-level executives (customer experience related, eg CCO) C-level executives (sales related, eg CSO) Employees with specific focus on mobile Employees with specific focus on digital Employees with specific focus on social callcenter-iq.com 8

9 The function might currently be identified as a contact center, but insofar as it started as a call center, there is nothing surprising or even particularly damning about the fact that businesses continue to treat telephony as a priority channel. With participation levels of 8%, 13% and 23%, respectively, real-time video, LinkedIn and Twitter again occupy the bottom rungs of the ladder. Businesses, at the end of the day, are clear on which channels they prioritize. Their participation levels will rise as the parameters of that participation widen, but they remain most notably focused on the call center component of their contact centers. More traditional web channels follow, and social and mobile media, for all their buzz, continue to bring up the rear. That breakdown will also hold true at the end of While businesses will actually scale back live agent telephony investment (only 75% will make an all-encompassing commitment to the channel) and increase reliance on the majority of other channels, the pecking order will not dramatically shift. Live agent telephony, , IVR and weboriented channels will remain priorities, while realtime video, social and mobile options will continue to trail. Because social, mobile and video are the newest and least proven channels, organic inertia will likely receive some blame for their lighter participation levels. The function might currently be identified as a contact center, but insofar as it started as a call center, there is nothing surprising or even particularly damning about the fact that businesses continue to treat telephony as a priority channel. Unless the customers disagree. When directing businesses to venture into alternative contact channels in order to better adhere to customer preferences, thought leaders ironically overlook customer preferences. They push social and mobile channels because they are trendy and relevant from a societal perspective, but they rarely make a concerted effort to understand the extent to which customers prefer them for their interactions with businesses. Granted, the chicken-and-the-egg effect assures such an exploration would encounter roadblocks. Insofar as businesses do not commonly allow for substantive engagement in the full suite of contact channels, businesses do not provide customers with a legitimate, objective mechanism for evaluating and articulating their channel preferences. A customer might prefer connecting via Facebook in an ideal world, but if the only Facebook service he knows is of the limited, ineffective variety, he might be forced to declare a preference for phone or support in the practical world. One option for countering that is to examine the volume of customer interactions that takes place within each major contact channel. While net volume will be subject to the same scientific bias as a sentiment analysis the channels offered most frequently and most completely are likely to claim the greatest interaction volume an assessment of disparities would prove quite illuminating. If a commonly offered channel hosts a comparatively light volume of interactions, it does not represent as notable a preference for customers as it does businesses. Similarly, if a rarely offered channel produces a comparative heavy volume of interactions, it likely does represent a core customer preference and thus commands more attention from businesses. In the case of Call Center IQ s annual survey, volume analysis does not drastically undermine business existing channel hierarchies. Telephony (live agent and IVR), and website/ FAQ remain the highest volume channels for customers and the ones offered most completely by businesses. Web self-service ranks ahead of web chat, but insofar as self-service does not necessarily require the same level of staff and resources as live interaction channels, the disparity is not necessarily a sign of misguided organizational policy. Rather, it serves to reveal that customers are gravitating towards self-service offerings. That same phenomenon, after all, holds true of mobile app and self-service options. Offered by considerably less businesses than Facebook (48% vs. 67% in the status quo), mobile app and self-service channels nonetheless play host to a greater percentage of organizational interactions. Indicative of the aforementioned preference for self-service and of the mobile-first mindset developing within today s marketplace, the statistic serves as a reminder that organizations must bolster their mobile offerings. Interest in self-service does not, however, mean customers have lost faith in highly interactive forms of engagement. In-person care, which is only the ninth-most-commonly-offered form of engagement, plays host to the sixth-greatest share of actual customer interactions. While that disparity can be justified by virtue of the fact that in-person communication is not relevant in all industries but immensely valuable to those industries in which it is, it serves as an undeniable reminder that businesses cannot allow human-tohuman interaction to become a lost art. Real-life, personal engagement matters, and businesses hoping to succeed have no choice but to assure every agent is empowered to optimize that engagement. When looking at the channel dynamic within context centers, certain undeniable truths emerge. Businesses are absolutely expanding into the myriad of burgeoning contact channels, but they remain most commonly and most significantly focused on optimizing communication within core, traditional channels like telephony and . Offering is by no means a synonym for wholeheartedly optimizing a particular channel, and it is clear that businesses are playing the less ambitious side of that distinction. They are most certainly not channelblind and thus most certainly not able to seamlessly and consistently accommodate interactions across all available touch points. callcenter-iq.com 9

10 Q4 What is your current approach to the following channels? Do not offer Offer Offer and measure performance Offer and staff with dedicated resources Offer, staff with dedicated resources and measure performance Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Other Social Networks Telephone (Live Agent) Telephone (IVR) Website/FAQ Web Self-Service Web Chat Mobile (live chat, text, etc) Mobile (app, website, self-service) In-Person Real-Time Video (web, on product, etc) callcenter-iq.com 10

11 Q5 What will be your approach to the following channels? Do not offer Offer Offer and measure performance Offer and staff with dedicated resources Offer, staff with dedicated resources and measure performance Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Other Social Networks Telephone (Live Agent) Telephone (IVR) Website/FAQ Web Self-Service Web Chat Mobile (live chat, text, etc) Mobile (app, website, self-service) In-Person Real-Time Video (web, on product, etc) callcenter-iq.com 11

12 One of the things that we see within the IVR, across all accounts, explains Contact Solutions Hibel, is that volume in the low-70 percent is coming in from mobile phones. That raises the question about what should be done to create the right experience for a mobile caller. Customer behavior, however, is not necessarily falling out of line with corporate channel hierarchies. While there is only so much a customer can independently do at the end of the day, it has to interact where the business tells it to interact the marketplace not producing enough disparities between contact volume and contact offerings to suggest that businesses are wrong to exhibit their own channel preferences when making investments and measuring performance. But before assuming high call volume in telephonebased channel is proof that talk of an omnichannel revolution is overblown, it is important for businesses to appreciate the full context of channel interactions. Calls might take place within channels the business declares as telephony, but insofar as the customer could be communicating from a mobile, webconnected device, his experience might absolutely feel like an evolved one. One of the things that we see within the IVR, across all accounts, explains Contact Solutions Hibel, is that volume in the low-70 percent is coming in from mobile phones. That raises the question about what should be done to create the right experience for a mobile caller. The need to optimize the mobile experience, therefore, exists even for businesses that primarily answer calls in telephone-based channels. The channel that is going to wind up dominating service is the mobile channel, declares a supportive McConnell. If there are prevailing trends emerging when it comes to customer preference, they concern the rise of mobile and web-self-service and a need to optimize live agent interactions when a higher degree of touch is required. And if there is a resulting directive for businesses, it is that they must remain on the precise pulse of what customers want when they declare they want it. Historical data and traditional operations are no defense against an inconsistency with fluid customer demand. Companies are going to have to adapt to customer demand whatever channel it s coming through, says Intradiem s McConnell. I don t think anything including and phone is going away, but there is going to be an increasing mix of channels associated with all forms of interactions. Companies have got to be able to adapt their workforces to whatever the customer wants. The process is becoming increasingly dynamic not only because of the number of channels but because the nature of the end user is changing. What Matters Most A contact center can serve an array of business functions. It can represent a gateway to customer satisfaction and loyalty. It can represent a unit for driving more sales and revenue. It can represent an opportunity to minimize the cost of customer complaints and technical support issues. It can represent a more personal, higher-touch means of marketing a brand and its products. What it becomes, however, is not defined by external forces. It is not defined by trends in the marketplace or even the demands of the customer base. It is defined by the parameters established by the business. A business can say many idealistic things about the role of its contact center. It can even believe those notions. But insofar as a contact center is a business unit accountable for delivering results in an environment of limited resources, limited personnel availability and limited system capabilities, the contact center is rarely positioned to live up to that ideal. It is instead a balancing act that must operate with respect for its and the greater business -most urgent needs. The cues for that palette of awareness and thus the factors that tip the balance come from the priorities an organization establishes for its contact center. In a world of limitations, it is only the direct results of those priorities and the achievements contained within them that an organization can bank on receiving from its contact center. Over the next year, priorities will most prominently be split between customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Contact centers, therefore, will work to balance efforts to drive efficacy with customers with efforts to drive efficiency for the businesses. Per the annual Call Center IQ study, customer satisfaction and operational efficiency, will command priority scores of 4.06 and 3.83, respectively, on a quantified 0-5 scale. Other leading contact center priorities include gaining customer insights (3.72), improving brand reputation (3.61) and increasing agent productivity (3.54). callcenter-iq.com 12

13 Q6 Over the next year, to what extent will the following represent priorities? Not at all Slight priority Moderate priority Significant priority Top priority Reducing interaction costs Reducing interaction volume Improving brand/ reputation Increasing operating efficiency Increasing agent retention Increasing agent productivity Improving customer acquisition Reducing customer effort Improving customer satisfaction Improving customer loyalty/retention Increasing revenue - through customer acquisition Increasing revenue - through up-selling/ cross-selling Increasing revenue - through loyalty/repeat business Improving omni-channel capability Gaining customer insights callcenter-iq.com 13

14 The amount of information that is generated as a result of a contact center s existence is really just starting to be harnessed in a way that is trying to optimize the customer experience. The contact center woke up and realized how essential it was to the relationship, mostly due to the information and the contact it has with customers. Not necessarily tied to immediate or even shortterm results, objectives like gaining insights and improving brand reputation speak to the bigger picture, more value-driven lens through which businesses are presently evaluating their contact centers. Instead of looking at how contact center interactions improve or hurt the business on a strictly financial, day-to-day basis, organizations are now contemplating how the efforts of today s contact center will impact tomorrow s business. That reflects a greater belief in the fundamental value of the contact center, which should in turn produce more budgetary allocation and more corporate faith in customer-centric endeavors. We see it evolving at a pretty good pace from a service-oriented cost center to a more strategic relationship center, says Intradiem s Matt McConnell. The amount of information that is generated as a result of a contact center s existence is really just starting to be harnessed in a way that is trying to optimize the customer experience. The contact center woke up and realized how essential it was to the relationship, mostly due to the information and the contact it has with customers. Focuses not as likely to represent significant priorities include reducing interaction volume (2.28) reducing interaction cost (2.34), increasing revenue through cross- and up-selling (2.64), increasing omni-channel capability (2.87) and increasing agent retention (2.9). While the comparatively low prioritization of the omni-channel is discouraging, the data offers some cause for optimism about how businesses interested in omni-channel will approach it in today s world. Insofar as reducing interaction volume and cost are even lower priorities for businesses, those that do chase the omni-channel revolution will not necessarily be doing so with the primary objective of deflecting calls. They will not necessarily be investing in social media because Tweeting a resolution is easier than delivering one via a live phone call. They will not necessarily be investing in self-service for the sole purpose of reducing personnel needs. If those outcomes do occur and they very likely will they will come as a natural byproduct of the business attempt to achieve other fundamental contact center objectives. From a customer-centric standpoint, that is the only acceptable scenario. That agent retention is not a major priority reflects a multitude of potential truths about the state of the contemporary contact center. It reveals that despite all the hype about happy agents yielding happy customers, some businesses are not committed to optimizing that happiness. Other businesses, meanwhile, recognize the inevitability of agent attrition and thus believe contact center resources and investments can be pointed in more productive directions. Raising the Bar on Performance Promising transformation in contact center mindset mutes the element of debate that once surrounded the business unit. Businesses know the customer experience matters, they know the contact center plays a fundamental role in driving that experience and they know that their strategies must empower the contact center to seize that opportunity. But insofar as vast discrepancies exist in how businesses approach fundamental contact center tenets like channel engagement, infrastructure and departmental ownership, it is clear that mindset is a mere first step on the road to contact center excellence. The manifestation of mindset in priority and strategy plays an enormous role in driving outcomes. The specific execution of those strategies plays a similarly crucial one. The link between mindset and results, therefore, rests heavily on the manner in which an organization manages contact center performance. From defining optimal performance, to fostering behaviors associated with driving that performance, to identifying means of measuring and optimizing it, the all-encompassing notion of performance management must occupy significant territory on the contact center leadership radar. And while its level of occupation should remain consistently significant, the nature of its occupation should be anything but. Traditional processes and best practices will subject businesses to bottlenecks and stagnation. For the contact center to actually reach a destination of excellent, it must constantly rethink its route. From determining what should be measured, to how it should be measured, to how what is measured can be improved, no facet of performance management is welcoming of complacency. callcenter-iq.com 14

15 Net Promoter Score, for instance, is a really good measure of how people are feeling about you. The problem is that the score itself does not tell you if your contact center is where it needs to be. It also does not tell you how to improve it. Judging Outcomes When contact center thought leaders reduce the performance management discussion to a game of metrics, they overlook the fundamental reality that metrics are mere indicators of performance. Factors like first call resolution and average handle time do concern very specific elements of the contact center function, but their true value comes from what they communicate about the center s performance. Net Promoter Score, for instance, is a really good measure of how people are feeling about you, explains Contact Solutions Hibel. The problem is that the score itself does not tell you if your contact center is where it needs to be. It also does not tell you how to improve it. Organizations rely on contact center metrics not because those metrics themselves are end goals for stakeholders, executives, senior leadership, front line agents or customers but because they provide practical insight into the end goals. They provide a more manageable method of evaluating outcomes. Outcomes, at the end of the day, offer the truest window into the viability of a contact center. Constructed based on what most matters to the business and how the contact center is uniquely qualified to contribute they answer questions in a manner more unequivocal and definitive than individual metrics do. The debate between customer satisfaction and efficiency metrics, for instance, is futile in the world of outcomes. In such a world, the business pre-selects the specific achievements, results and objectives of greatest importance and then crafts metrics that inform and drive performance within the contact center. That is not to say that an outcome-oriented contact center has completely painted, sealed and framed the portrait. While it is in possession of the mindset most conducive to contact center excellence, it remains vulnerable to many challenges and traps associated with performance management. For starters, the challenge of selecting the right outcome absolutely involves achieving a balancing act between the different stakeholders and relevant parties. Debates like should we devote the bulk of our focus to lowering average handle time or improving C-Sat score might not consume time in a customer-centric organization, but questions like do we prioritize reducing contact center costs or driving additional revenue and do we calibrate against customer satisfaction or customer loyalty absolutely do come into play. Once those questions are answered, businesses must then determine which metrics best signal progress towards the desired outcomes. That, too, is far from a cake walk. Different metrics often speak to different facets of a given objective, and it is up to the business to successfully flesh out the most relevant ones. Upon determining what is most valuable to measure, the business then must determine how to manage against those metrics. Figuring out how to route performance in a specific direction amid continually tight budgets and organizational inertia is a task that can elude even a right-minded, fullycalibrated organization. Indicative of the challenge is the fact that businesses do not currently possess a consensus point of calibration. While 44%, the greatest percentage of businesses, do view customer satisfaction as the contact center s greatest potential token of excellence and thus most essential outcome considerable numbers of organizations most notably focus on different achievements. 23% identify cost management as the fundamental contact center barometer, while 17% ascribe that label to revenue generation. The remaining 16% is most notably focused on operating profit. Things will change over the next year. While all four barometers will maintain support from some organizations, customer satisfaction will emerge as the primary objective for the majority of businesses. 56% will look to customer satisfaction to best assess their excellence. Contact Solutions Hibel believes that is the best way to unlock the potential of the contact center. Let s face it - contact centers are expensive to run, explains Hibel. Rather than focusing on minimizing the cost of the interaction, there are businesses starting to try and maximize the value of each one. Once you start to get into that mindset, it does change how you think about the contact center in a good way. Hibel adds, Plus, I m not sure being aligned with customer demands is at all inconsistent with what business results are going to come of it. Lots of people are going to be able to show that if customers are able to have a better experience, then there will be a better outcome for businesses. Currently the least popular of the three alternatives, operating profit will become the most widely supported alternative by the end of It will command recognition as a primary barometer from 19% of organizations. Revenue will earn that distinction from 14%, while the popularity of cost will slip to just 11%. callcenter-iq.com 15

16 Q7 To what extent will the following represent measurement priorities? 6.3% Cost efficiency/containment 14.3% Operational efficiency 34.9% Customer satisfaction 7.9% Customer loyalty 15.9% Revenue generation 1.6% Call volume 1.6% Agent happiness 3.2% Agent productivity 14.3% Voice of the customer/ feedback callcenter-iq.com 16

17 Looking more precisely at the anticipated December 2015 portrait, we see that customer satisfaction improvement holds as the most pivotal outcome even as other options enter the mix. Supported by 35% of organizations in the more granular scenario, it outrates choices like revenue generation (16%), voice of the customer feedback (14%), operational efficiency (14%) and customer loyalty (8%). If one were to lump all customer-oriented outcomes, including satisfaction, loyalty and sentiment, into one category, he would find that a similar 57% believe a customer-facing objective trumps any one related to operations, agents, productivity or the bottom line. The state of agents, in fact, will be a primary performance concern for virtually no contact centers. Only 2% will view agent happiness as the greatest informant of the state of the contact center, while a mere 3% will adopt that perspective in the context of agent productivity. To be the primary evaluation mechanism for only 2% of organizations, call volume also ranks as a low priority concern. I would say speed is the key metric. When you look at the data, particularly with millennials, speed is really critical. There is an immediacy expectation [with today s customers]. Metrics of Precision Customer satisfaction might be the most notable lens through which businesses evaluate their contact centers, but it is not the only one. Concepts like revenue, efficiency and profitability do indeed matter in many businesses, which means metrics that provide insight into those categories also matter. Moreover, prioritization does not automatically establish clarity. Customer satisfaction might mean more to businesses than any other outcome, but insofar as contact centers have historically been calibrated against things like revenue and cost efficiency, the more established and ready-toimplement metrics often fall under those umbrellas. The collective realities mean that businesses will neither sweepingly adopt customer-oriented metrics nor sweepingly eliminate efficiency-minded ones. They will continue to measure many different performance indicators; the variability concerns which ones to incorporate into strategic practices. It should therefore come as no surprise that metrics related to resolution/customer outcomes, agent/operational efficiency and agent happiness/ satisfaction are measured at similar levels of frequency. 57% of businesses measure customeroriented metrics, 56% measure efficiency-minded ones and 52% assess agent-centric metrics. Surprising about the data is not the similar frequency levels but the fact that the similarity exists in the 52-57% range. Whether one evaluates a contact center as a cost center or as a pathway to customer satisfaction and strategic business value, it ultimately requires performance to drive its preferred outcomes. That so many organizations go without even actively measuring performance suggests a predisposition to failure. Of similar surprise is the lack of dramatic variation when it comes to the management element of performance. While one aware of the history of customer service should not be shocked by the fact that today s contact centers are predisposed to measure efficiency with as much frequency as they do customer-oriented outcomes, he is free to express that shock over the state of existing performance and over business plans to transform those performance levels. In the status quo, businesses feel they are best delivering on customer-oriented metrics. While the average score they ascribe their performance is not glowing, the 2.82/5 exceeds the average of 2.74/5 given to agent-oriented metrics and 2.68/5 calculated for efficiency ones. While the data is consistent with the aforementioned revelation that today s contact centers care more about customer satisfaction than any other outcome, it is still surprising given the stigma associated with contact center management. That today is described as the age of the customer naturally means that the previous age could not have been described as such. It is consequently noteworthy that efficiency metrics, which have historically served as the paramount indicators of contact center performance, are the ones on which today s businesses score the weakest. That logic is especially true given the role all aspects of contact center performance play in driving satisfaction. Per the adage happy agents = happy customers, agent happiness is instrumental in driving customer satisfaction. As such, the fact that customer satisfaction scores high on the priority scale while agent-oriented outcomes score low does not mean agent-minded metrics play no role in a customer-centric contact center. By suggesting that agents are not as happy as they could be, the 2.74/5 score suggests that customers are also not being optimally satisfied. Efficiency, similarly, plays a role in customer satisfaction. Intradiem s McConnell, who believes metrics to assess service level and agent productivity are paramount for all contact centers, explains, I would say speed is the key metric. When you look at the data, particularly with millennials, speed is really critical. There is an immediacy expectation [with today s customers]. callcenter-iq.com 17

18 Q8 How would you grade performance against the following metrics? Average Handle Time 3.17 After Call Work 2.68 Hold Time 2.63 First Call Resolution 2.73 Average Speed of Answer 3.10 Blockage 2.6 Self-Service Utilization Rate 1.66 Abandon rate 2.74 Transfer rate Adherence to Procedure Accuracy of Agent Information Agent Occupancy Scheduling Efficiency 2.23 Contact Volume by Channel 2.89 Cost Per Call 2.56 Sales Conversion Rate 2.25 Employee Satisfaction Score Customer Satisfaction Score Customer Retention/ Loyalty Rate Time to Resolution Frequency of Customer Callback 2.61 Net Promoter Score 3.03 Social Media Feedback Score 2.71 Customer Effort 2.43 callcenter-iq.com 18

19 Q9 How committed are you to improving performance against the following metrics? Average Handle Time 2.31 After Call Work 1.87 Hold Time 1.97 First Call Resolution 2.74 Average Speed of Answer 1.98 Blockage 1.07 Self-Service Utilization Rate Abandon rate Transfer rate 1.58 Adherence to Procedure Accuracy of Agent Information Agent Occupancy 2.06 Scheduling Efficiency 2.46 Contact Volume by Channel 2.03 Cost Per Call 2.27 Sales Conversion Rate 1.76 Employee Satisfaction Score Customer Satisfaction Score Customer Retention/ Loyalty Rate Time to Resolution Frequency of Customer Callback Net Promoter Score 2.04 Social Media Feedback Score Customer Effort callcenter-iq.com 19

20 Historically, organizations have built their performance management strategies based on key metrics - maintaining a certain average handle time, cost per call, or whatever it may be, It is for that sort of reason that businesses are not misguided in viewing all metric buckets as improvement areas. While the desire to improve customer-oriented metrics, again, reigns supreme (at a 3.61/5), it does not dramatically outweigh interest in improving efficiency (3.53) and agent (3.39) ones. Contact Solutions Hibel cautions that focusing on efficiency-oriented metrics could hurt the business ability to appreciate the true value of the contact center. Traditional metrics in the contact center, like average handle time, make it smaller, says Hibel. Thanks to resolution-oriented metrics, contact centers now have opportunity to define performance in terms of the quality of the interaction. It will help improve the balance of the interaction. Intradiem s McConnell, however, affirms the need to consider efficiency an inextricable part of the overall customer experience. There is some service level formulation that companies have to be looking at, says McConnell. I just think it s crazy when companies think about anything related to the customer experience without thinking about how long customers need to wait. A blended approach, therefore, makes senses. Historically, organizations have built their performance management strategies based on key metrics - maintaining a certain average handle time, cost per call, or whatever it may be, says Genesys Kolman. Now, you re looking at something broader - customers will even wait longer for a call to be answered means they will land at the right person the first time. That is a shift from legacy metrics to what really matters. Regardless of a business position on the precisely correct approach to metrics, the real shocker and real point of concern is the fact that all three scores are relatively low. Per the survey scale, a metric that scores a 2.5/5 is one for which performance improvement is somewhat of a priority. One that scores a 3.75/5 is an area to which a business is very committed. Today s businesses, therefore, are between somewhat and very committed to improving performance against customer-, agent- and efficiency-oriented metrics. Insofar as performance excellence is always a priority, how can businesses justify not declaring an extreme commitment to improvement? Why is status quo performance in the /5 range not eliciting urgency from businesses? Whether a business is focused on satisfying customers or trimming costs, the relaxed performance approach will always serve as an impetus to success. Looking to the Future: What Contact Center Excellence Really Means Whether one evaluates contact center performance in terms of granular, intermediary metrics or fundamental, big picture outcomes, he will ultimately do so in two phases. He will first assess existing performance. He will hold existing performance against the measuring stick of core business objectives and determine the extent to which the contact center is serving to drive rather than inhibit the successful pursuit of those objectives. That assessment, however, is merely a statement of the status quo. It is simply an effort to pinpoint one s coordinates on the journey to contact center excellence. Using that assessment that pin-point the analyst must then determine the optimal route to the finish line. Which elements of the contact center s performance are hindering progress? Which mindsets and strategies are steering the contact center off track? What forthcoming and potentially forthcoming challenges threaten to derail even right-minded contact center strategy? When considering the future of the contact center, it is that secondary phase of analysis that must soar to the top of mind. It is an appreciation of how to close the gap between where a contact center is now and where it needs to be that will determine how and how effectively the business evolves within the transforming marketplace. callcenter-iq.com 20

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