Contact Center Executive Roundtables

Transcription

1 1 Contact Center Executive Roundtables How contact centers will leverage innovation to create great agents and outstanding customer experiences The landscape of the call center has changed. Social media has transformed consumer culture, transactions have evolved, and metrics have become more challenging. In this new environment, what can contact center executives do to create great agents and improve the overall customer experience? Intradiem tapped into the minds of some of the world s leading contact center executives to uncover the challenges they currently face in their businesses and to share best practices on a wide range of topics from how to proactively engage in social media to effectively motivating and incentivizing employees. In an effort to learn more about what these leaders are doing in their centers, Intradiem sponsored three exclusive executive roundtable discussions in Dallas, Tampa and Phoenix. Each event consisted of two 75-minute sessions and was moderated by Intradiem CEO Matt McConnell, together with well-known experts in the areas of call center management, strategy and customer service. Participants in these invitation-only events included leading call center executives and experts from a wide range of industries including telecom, retail, healthcare, high tech, financial services and two major airlines, as well as a handful of researchers and academics whose work focuses on the contact center industry. The underlying theme of these discussions was how contact centers can better leverage innovation to create great customer experiences and great agents. The following is a summary of the feedback shared in these sessions. The Customer Experience Participants were asked to share their insights about how technology and innovation have impacted the overall customer experience. Specifically, how today s customers prefer to interact with companies; how they feel about selfservice tools and processes; how agents have the unique opportunity to build customer loyalty; and how social media is changing the game. Customer interaction Most executives agreed that in today s environment, when a customer calls in, it is typically related to a complicated issue they already researched online and couldn t answer themselves. As a result, agents have to be knowledgeable enough to effectively handle this higher-level inquiry while at the same time maintaining service levels.

2 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 2 In response, some companies encourage agents to be more customer-focused by taking the time to ensure their issue is resolved in the first call even if it takes more time. Most executives said their organizations segment customers, offering elite services to the best customers, while general customers are geared more towards self-service channels. We re changing to a different model called the Health Advisor so that when members call in, it s not just about answering the typical questions it s about taking the additional time to help them understand everything that comes from their benefits package and the dynamics behind it, said one executive in the healthcare industry. High-end business customers prefer to talk to a rep. They don t want to be transferred all over the place and they don t want to have to use an IVR, so we re looking at reversing our options so that they can choose to speak to a rep first before going into the automated system, said one executive. By spending more time on the front-end to handle the customer s issue, fewer call backs will ultimately be required. We re actually spending more time with customers so they don t call back four or five times to get all of their questions answered, said one executive. If we spend that extra time, hopefully they won t call us as much. If they call back, the process is more expensive for everybody, said another. Just service them. Help them. Self-service tools and processes When asked if expanding self-service applications has a long-term negative impact on customer loyalty due to less frequent agent interactions, the consensus was that customer experience is not ultimately affected. Most executives in the sessions agreed that a segment of customers remain content using selfservice platforms, provided their ease of use and effectiveness meet expectations. The key, they said, is the ability to meet customers on their terms and give them the option to communicate through whichever channel is most comfortable. I think it comes back to how you implement the self-service options how hard it is to bail out and talk to a human, and how well you ve built your self-service processes, said one executive. If they re very streamlined and intuitive, that s great. But if it takes 40 minutes to accomplish something you could do with a human in five minutes, that s a problem. Over the past five or six years, we ve been very focused on enabling customer self-service. We believe the culture, in general, is moving towards a preference for self-service, said another.

3 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 3 Everything we have tried to do with self-service, we try to make it very easy for the customer to exit that environment and move back over to talk to a live agent if they have a preference to do so. But we ve found that, in many cases, they are more than willing to go ahead and carry selfservice to completion. Customer loyalty Most Internet savvy customers have the ability to find answers to inquiries on their own. When a call comes into the contact center, more often than not it s a customer who has a complex problem they could not answer themselves through online research or other avenues. We ve found that consumers use all the channels online, mobile device or in the store but they typically use the call center for problems, said one executive. Some 60percent of our calls are problem calls. We ve found that when the consumer customer calls in, they are at that breaking point. It wasn t the call they made that s causing them to leave the company it s everything else that has led up to it, said another. In these moments of truth, the agent has the unique opportunity to improve customer satisfaction and build loyalty by quickly and effectively handling the customer s issue. 60% of our calls are problem calls. In the end, it all comes back to service whatever the channel. Loyalty comes not just through that personal discussion in the call center, but through Contact Center delivering fast service and delivering it in whatever channel the customer wants to get it whether it s online, in the IVR, with an agent, or through or chat, said one executive. It s important that the contact center is fast, friendly and smart. That s something we ve really tried to focus on making sure we have fast, friendly and smart agents. Social media With research showing that 78 percent of a customer s buying decision is based on talking to friends, relatives and complete strangers, social media has changed the way companies market themselves. Many participants pointed to social media as a major driver of customer behavior, citing a push for more and social engagement. The biggest shift in the customer experience in the last few years has been that people consumers could care less what the company has to say about themselves, said one executive. They only care what the community has to say. They aren t buying anything without checking reviews.

4 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 4 While some said they have embraced social media and try to reach customers through social channels like Twitter and Facebook, almost all agreed that monitoring these channels is vital to hearing the entire voice of the customer and understanding their needs. We need to understand what s going on out there and what people are saying about our brand so we can take that voice of the customer back through the organization and make the necessary operational changes not only within the call center but within the business to address the word on the street, said one executive. But when it comes to tackling the social media issue, it seems most organizations are still strategizing the most effective way to leverage the technology to make sure the voice of the customer isn t sitting in silos. Like everybody, we re feeling our way, said one participant. We monitor social media and know what we need to kick over to marketing. Then marketing decides to respond or not respond. Traditionally we don t engage socially. Instead, we try to send them a direct or pull them off the forum by saying, Here s my number. Give me a call, or, Can I you? I want to understand more. Others struggle with when to intervene when customers are discussing their brand in a social channel and whether or not to respond anonymously. The biggest shift in the customer experience in the last few years has been that people consumers could care less what the company has to say about themselves. One issue is the time sensitivity of it, said one executive. An hour is an eternity in social media. The longer it sits out there, the more momentum it can gain in terms of people weighing in, which may go in your favor. There are times when you can stand back and let the community reverse the opinion, but sometimes you need to jump in right away. The biggest shift in the customer experience in the last few years has been that people consumers could care less about what the company has to say about themselves Most agreed on the power of social media and said their response will be more proactive in the coming year. It s a new beast, but the pendulum is shifting a little, said one executive. Early on, it was probably 100percent reactionary, but this year we re going to be a little more aggressive with some of our communications and be more proactive.

5 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 5 We just started listening through social media at the beginning of the year and I think we re starting to see the power, said another. Before, we weren t paying any attention to what people were saying. But we ve had some complaints where, if they couldn t get through to us, they were resorting to sending us an . Then, if we didn t respond quickly to , they would go into social media. We ve had people with 1,200 followers on Twitter complaining through it. It s really waking us up to say that we need to be much more aggressive and proactive in our social media strategy. One executive discussed the opportunity social media provides to answer many customer inquiries at once. If you think about a call spike that comes in, usually it s driven by a known issue, right? With the power of social media, I can get 200 people with the same question and click one button and they re all answered. If I get 1,000 people with the same question, I click one button and they re all answered. So, how do we harness that? That s the next thing we re working on. Customer satisfaction Because most calls coming into the center today are problem calls, we asked executives how this affects their customer satisfaction scores. While Our agents don t always have the latest information. Or, the template the memorized yesterday doesn t apply to today some look at customer complaints to gauge customer satisfaction, others focus on metrics like First Call Resolution. If a customer calls and then calls back within 14 days, then it s considered a repeat call and that s not a good thing, said one executive. We also look at complaints. Once a week, we all get on the phone with the executives and talk about the complaints we received that week. We log all complaints. They go into our complaint-management system and are summarized for our review weekly, said another. If we see something happening on an ongoing basis, it goes to our product people, for example, and they try to come up with a solution to resolve or address the situation that caused the complaint. Many executives cited lack of agent knowledge as a driving factor in customer complaints. A lot of complaints have to do with our agents not understanding problems or procedures that we enact every day, said one executive. We change things on the fly. What you see this morning might not be what it s like this afternoon because we ve changed a procedure or policy. It s a rapid-pace environment, like most call centers are. Our agents don t always have the latest information. Or, the template they memorized yesterday doesn t apply

6 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 6 to today and they sometimes give out bad information. What are you doing to impact the customer experience? When it comes to elevating the customer experience, strategies are as diverse as the industries themselves. Some companies conduct in-depth surveys through third-parties who contact customers directly within 48 hours and then share the results at the agent and team level. Others replay calls and score them collectively to see how the experience could have been improved. Some even call unhappy customers back to try to remedy the situation or obtain additional feedback. But across the board, executives agreed that the most important thing is to make customers feel that the agent did everything in his power to solve their individual issue. to happen, how long it s going to be, who is going to be there, and what the prognosis is, said another. For the customer, as long as they know you ve done everything, they are satisfied. On the business side, you have to empower your agents to be able to that. How are you staying connected to agents? Successful call center executives share one common trait: they are invested in their agents success. Many of the executives we talked to take time on a quarterly or in some cases, weekly basis to sit with agents and listen to calls. Some hold roundtable discussions afterwards to talk about their observations. I sit with my folks as often as I can just to hear the customer experience, and then sit with them as a group to talk about how the customer experience should be, said one executive. This has built a huge bridge for us to request things and it gets our names out there as contributors to the whole business. It s always about knowing that you ve done absolutely everything for that customer and that when they leave, they re happy. That s the bottom line, said one executive. Make them happy and make them feel good about their experience. From the customer perspective, when I get off the phone, do I feel like that agent has done everything he can for me? He may not have solved my issue, but he explained what s going Other executives make it a point to get to know their agents on a personal level and involve them in weekly lunch meetings with the CEO and VPlevel executives for an open discussion about what they are hearing from customers. I know every one of the reps in all of our call centers, said one executive. I am an executive, but I know them personally and because I am engaged in their interests, they are more engaged with our customers.

7 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 7 Creating Great Agents As the nature of the agent s job continues to evolve, agents are expected to be able to handle all kinds of customer inquiries through many different channels. As a result, the profile of a typical agent has also evolved. Home-based agents Many executives across all industries said they have either embraced or at least considered using home-based agents to deepen their recruiting pool or to retain top talent. The challenge is effectively training these nontraditional virtual agents, who generally require more collaborative training and coaching methods. We found that if we truly embraced home working, our recruitment pool became anywhere in the country so we could tap into anybody and at a cheaper rate. It was a cost strategy as well as our talent strategy, said one executive. We created a playbook and interactive document that everybody is allowed to contribute to and incorporated social media so you can post your tips and people can like or dislike it or add comments. This really appealed to that whole home-working, young generation. One executive said his organization turned to the home-based model to keep female agents from having to work long hours at a center in an unsafe neighborhood. While making some positions virtual allowed the company to retain top agents, training them was difficult because night shifts were leaner and agents working from home were required to be proficient in many more products. Another company was able to keep an entire team of great agents after closing a center in Florida by making them virtual. However, not all agents are suited to work in a virtual environment; they must be carefully screened to identify those who are the best fit. When I put out an advertisement for agents in an area, I might get 50 people walking in the door. But if I advertise for home-based positions, I might get 10,000, said one executive. You have to weed them out to get the cream of the crop because so many people want to do that. Training, coaching and communication Finding the time to train, coach and communicate with agents remains a challenge for many centers, forcing some to train agents off-line and even during overtime. And as transaction types become more complex, the learning curve for agents has become even steeper. Some of our agents have over 50 to 60 skills associated with them, so there s a tremendous amount of information being supplied to them. Getting the information to them in a timely manner not just procedure updates, but

8 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 8 effective training without impacting customer satisfaction is critical, said one executive. In an effort to improve agent productivity and performance, many companies are getting creative. Some use agent scorecards and performance ratings or allow agents to train on the clock in order to promote. One executive implemented a peer mentoring program that pairs the best agents with the lowest performing ones, creating an open atmosphere where they are free to ask questions without fear of repercussion. Some of our agents have over 50 to 60 skills associated with them, so there s a tremendous amount of information being supplied to them. One company rewards top-performing agents and their families with a trip to an amusement park and pays every employee for four days a year of volunteer work. Another partners agents with senior leaders and business analysts to brainstorm innovative business and operational solutions. If the agent s idea is used, he or she gets a paid day off. Still other executives cited the importance of off-phone time for agents during the workday to keep them motivated and delivering an outstanding customer experience. Another executive described a work improvement initiative that encourages agents to become problem solvers. Each month, agents are required to submit three answers to customer inquiries or ideas for work process improvement to a general knowledge base accessible by all agents. Agent motivation When it comes to motivating agents to improve their performance, executives have implemented everything from quarterly roundtable discussions between frontline employees and senior officers to tokens agents earn for outstanding performance that can be traded for prizes and company merchandise. I think one of the biggest rewards in the call center people think it s money or time off is really off-time at work, off the phone, said one executive. You pay for it in salary, but the benefits far outweigh that. Promoting agent career paths More and more, companies are investing in programs to promote agent career paths to improve employee retention, as well as overall performance and productivity. Research shows that agents who are invested with the company and satisfied in their jobs are more effective overall.

9 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 9 One company has a Career Empowerment Program that identifies 15 top agents to attend a 10-week program with various senior leaders in the company to learn tips on resume writing and interviewing skills. Agents then choose an area they are interested in and job-shadow a leader in that department. We ve already had quite a few success stories with people finding a good match, said the executive associated with the program. It s led to them really seeing that there are some destination opportunities through the contact center that they couldn t get other places. Another executive described various courses agents can attend with different company leaders to expand their knowledge base and help them reach their personal career goals. The company also offers career development plans and internships that agents can participate in at their current pay rate to receive valuable on-thejob training. We look at the contact center as a gateway into the company. If you are interested, for example, in going into the central business office, that s part of the education we offer, said one executive. It s all tied to performance and we offer agents education they can take with them within the company or elsewhere. What makes a great agent? Most executives acknowledge that the typical call center agent does not see himself or herself in the call center for the duration of their professional career. The majority of agents is focused on the next opportunity and views the call center as a temporary position. However, there are certain characteristics of successful agents that they look for when hiring. Most executives said agents with previous call center experience can be more desirable because they know what the job entails. But in some cases, agents are simply jumping from center to center thinking the grass will be greener somewhere else. Generally, the most effective agents are those who are committed and engaged. If they are engaged, they are going to be a good agent. They might not be the best performer they could be at the bottom or the top but as long as they are engaged and they care, you have a base to work with, said one executive. Good agents are committed to the role they are in at the time, said another. They recognize they may want to progress through the call center or progress to other parts of the organization, but the best way to get those opportunities is to do the very best job they can in the role they re in right now. How are you getting training to agents? All of our executives cited difficulties keeping agents up-to-date with product information and policy changes. Some use supervisors to

10 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 10 communicate updates, others use s, and some have even created special landing pages to share important communications. All agreed that finding the time to train and coach agents is a major challenge. One company executive said they send supervisors out to the floor to sit side-byside with agents for at least two hours a day, observing them and providing real-time feedback. Others offer certification for training with a test at the end to ensure agents understand the information. When an agent is learning a new skill or changing skill sets, there is a nesting period where performance is monitored to identify any weaknesses that need to be addressed. The process is also used for new hires. One executive described a new knowledge management system the company uses to get answers to agents faster especially those related to complex customer issues. We have a group of people that does nothing but develop content for the knowledge management system, said the executive. As we re taking the call and the caller is driving where we navigate, the agent has that information at their fingertips now without having to hop over to 15 different places. Some companies have even tried training super agents who are proficient in all of the company s products and services and can ideally answer all kinds of customer inquiries. Agents complete 30 days of training, complete an apprenticeship, then go back for additional online training. The challenge is the amount of training required and finding the time to push that training to agents. About two years ago, we decided to just train everybody to do everything. That has brought on a whole different level of complexity, said the executive. What we didn t realize is just how much we are asking an entry-level employee, who is the face to the customer on the phone, to know. It has become very difficult to get information to agents so that they understand what it is they are supposed to be doing and saying. You get the training, but there really isn t time for refresher training. So now we re trying to figure out how to push training to them. How do we know they are absorbing it? How much can they absorb and what type of individual do we need? We ve come to the realization that we may not be hiring the right people for the type of job that it s evolved into. Conclusion Customer inquiries and transactions are more complex and contact center agents have had to

11 Contact Center Executive Roundtables 11 adapt to steeper learning curves and evolve to serve customers in a growing number of channels. As a result, agents must be knowledgeable enough about a company s products and services to effectively handle high-level inquiries while at the same time maintaining service levels. Despite advances in technology and new social media channels, it still comes down to service. The most important thing an agent can do is make customers feel that they have done everything they can to solve their issues. As executives continue to find ways to leverage technology and innovation to create great agents and outstanding customer experiences, the profile of successful agents will continue to evolve, as well as the coaching and training methods necessary to keep them committed, engaged and effective. Acknowledgements Intradiem would like to thank our guest moderators: Dr. David Butler, author of Bottom-Line Call Center Management and director of the Call Center Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi; Jeanne Bliss, author of I Love You More Than My Dog and founder of CustomerBliss; and Greg Levin, author of Full Contact: Contact Center Practices and Strategies that Make an Impact and founder of the Off Center blog. We would also like to thank all of the executives who participated in the roundtable discussions and shared their insights and experiences. About the Contact Center Executive Roundtable The Contact Center Executive Roundtable event was designed to create an environment where industry-leading contact center executives could come together to share their experiences, challenges and best practices with their peers. Intradiem sponsored three exclusive roundtable discussions in Dallas, Tampa and Phoenix, consisting of two 75-minute sessions. Participation was invitation only and executives spanned a wide range of industries. If you would like to participate in future Contact Center Executive Roundtable events, please send an to contactus@intradiem.com About Intradiem Intradiem is the leader in intraday automation solutions for multi-channel contact centers. Intradiem s customers achieve an invincible customer experience with a real-time workforce by automating manual processes such as intraday task management, intraday staffing, reskilling, channel balancing, and real-time alerts. Intradiem empowers an immediate and consistent response to unpredictable events and changing conditions, resulting in labor savings, improved employee performance and a better overall customer experience. More than 200,000 contact center, field service, retail, bank branch, and back office employees around the world use Intradiem s solution every day.