Quality Monitoring ROI

Transcription

1 Quality Monitoring ROI Driving Real Performance in your Contact Center Utilizing Tools that Pay for Themselves in the First Year A White Paper

2 January 2010, Copyright 2010, CyberTech International, All rights reserved. CyberTech believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. The information in this publication is provided as is. CyberTech International makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying and distribution of any CyberTech software described in this publication required applicable software licenses. For the most up-to-date listing of CyberTech publications, see All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. Page 2 of 7

3 Introduction As is always the case it seems, today s contact center is being asked to do much more, with far less. If you haven t already considered it, installing an automated quality monitoring system is a highly effective means of addressing this perennial challenge. Utilizing a highly proven and feature-rich quality monitoring system can help your organization reduce the operational costs of your contact center operation and drive dramatic improvements in customer service, agent performance and staff retention. All of these factors can lead to significant bottom-line improvements for your organization. In this paper, we will explore the use of quality monitoring tools to improve contact center management effectiveness, agent efficiency, first call resolution and both customer and agent turnover. Once applied, these tools should help your contact center drive recurring improvements in efficiency, productivity and customer service enabling you to recoup your IT investment in year one. The information shared here represents well over a decade of research and work with countless contact centers around the world in such industries as financial services, insurance, utilities, emergency services and more. Summary of benefits: Double the number of calls supervisors can evaluate with the use of monitoring automation Significant improvements in customer satisfaction and loyalty by creating a listening operation, rather than a talking one Substantial reduction in call handle times through more efficient and effective agent care and empowerment Reduction in agent attrition, resulting from a more open, fair and targeted performance evaluation process Page 3 of 7

4 Value and Specific Returns on Investment (ROI) In the contact center, small changes in performance can translate into big savings and big improvements in customer satisfaction. What follows are some key examples of utilizing quality monitoring automation to move the needle on contact center performance, while also raising the bar on customer service. These guidelines are based upon real life experiences working with contact center clients around the world. Specific savings that you may expect will vary according to many factors including call center size, current procedures and resources applied. The numbers specified in this paper should be considered standard guidelines only and not a 100% direct indication of your future performance. NOTE: Although this paper focuses primarily on improving performance, there are obvious direct ties to subsequent improvements in customer service and loyalty. First Contact Performance According to leading researchers, the average contact center resolves approximately 3 fourths of calls on the first contact, while the rest require the customer to re-contact the company at a later date. Studies have shown that repeat contacts result from two factors: The agent s inability to bring conclusion to a customer service inquiry or transaction A downstream process breakdown that occurred after the service call and beyond the agent s direct control An automated monitoring program can help your contact center address these challenges and improve your first contact resolution. Quality evaluation software allows contact center managers to incorporate more precision and objectivity into the agent evaluation process, enabling them to better pinpoint knowledge and/or skills gaps and then work to address those areas. However, it is true that often times the customer service issue lies beyond the desk of the agent and is primarily process related. When a core process breaks down in the chain of events related to servicing a customer, the problem needs to be addressed by management and corrected at the operational level, not the agent level. This helps to ensure the agents are empowered with the tools and procedures they need to best serve the needs of the customer, and at the same time, sustains agent morale. Fulfillment problems are common in many organizations, and with the ever-growing trend toward outsourcing, we can expect these challenges to continue to be an issue. Fortunately, an automated monitoring program can help identify failures in fulfillment and other downstream processes by allowing quality assurance (QA) analysts to quickly and easily pinpoint the problem areas. When coupled with screen recording capability and the call itself, the analyst is presented with a full picture of the customer interaction. This helps to validate where and when there was a process breakdown and if the agent was or was not also at fault in any way. From there, corrective action can be taken immediately to remedy the problem. Page 4 of 7

5 Therefore, an automated quality monitoring program can increase first contact resolution by: Quickly identifying agents with skill gaps that interfere with first call resolution and apply the right coaching and training to raise skill level and alleviate future challenges Providing a tool to identify downstream process breakdowns unrelated to agent performance that can create unnecessary call backs and impact productivity Another significant derivative associated with improving first contact resolution is the direct dollar savings that can be realized. Below in ROI Model #1 you will find a simple calculation to follow to help quantify this value in your organization: ROI Model #1 Cost Per Contact (CPC): Gartner Estimate $5.01; Includes all costs for managing a contact including Facility; Telecommunications & Staff. Some accepted method for estimating this cost includes dividing the entire call canter budget by call volume. Or in some markets (EMEA and North America) dividing the staff costs by call volume and increasing it by 50%. Total Call Volume (TCV): Number of calls handled on an annual basis Savings = (% Change in FCR) * TCV * CPC Management Productivity It s no secret that in most companies supervisors and QA analysts spend more time monitoring calls than they do in coaching agents. A large reason for this is that manual methods for performing quality assurance can be monotonous and time consuming. Going to an agent s desk to perform real time monitoring and scoring utilizing paper evaluations takes time and prevents managers from more important tasks such as performing training, call escalations, and so forth. An automated quality monitoring system provides the means to significantly reduce monitoring time without decreasing the number of completed evaluations. In fact, our experience shows that automated monitoring can enable supervisors to monitor and review the same number of interactions in about 60% of the time that manual methods allow. This productivity gain can benefit the organization in many significant ways, including: Increasing customer service levels by having better trained and skill-equipped agents and by providing supervisors with a complete picture of contact center quality Freeing up supervisory staff to do other important tasks Lightening supervisory staff load to save money Eliminating the need to find and search through analog tapes, engage in live service observe or sit by an agent s side to find a call to evaluate Instantly analyzing agent performance without manual calculations Page 5 of 7

6 Calculating the savings from this new-found efficiency can be accomplished with the following simple calculation, illustrated below in ROI Model #2: ROI Model #2 Evaluation Time: (%M) Percent of time staff spends performing evaluations. Staff Costs: ($S) Fully Loaded cost for your Supervisor Staff Calculating the Savings: 04 * %M * $S The bottom line is that automating the quality monitoring and evaluation process with an automated call monitoring system can increase the productivity of your supervisors by 40% or more. Agent Productivity CyberTech enables contact center management to identify ways to improve call handling techniques and application/process re-design to decrease the time it takes to respond to customer inquiries. Today, many contact centers measure performance through automatic call distribution (ACD) measurements such as the average length of time on a call. This metric may indicate that the best agent spends 2.5 minutes on a call, for example, while another agent spends 5.2 minutes on the same call type. The issue is that ACD statistics do not tell you why. To understand why, you must witness the actual interactions, which takes time. While having the voice recording will bring you a long way toward understanding the Why, it is only with the addition of screen recording that managers can more easily identify and address agent navigation skills and/or process breakdowns. This comprehensive monitoring, however, can lead to: More highly skilled agents, through pinpoint evaluation and training, which equates to faster customer service More productive agents as any non-work related activity on the computer is quickly noticed and the agent can be readily dealt with Reductions in call handling time as screen capture navigation road blocks are identified and overcome through training Calculating the savings that can be obtained by improving agent productivity is the same as improving first contact resolution, which is again illustrated in ROI Model #3 below: ROI Model #3 Cost Per Contact (CPC): Gartner Estimate $5.01; Includes all costs for managing a contact including Facility; Telecommunications & Staff. Total Call Volume (TCV): How many calls a handled on an annual basis Savings = %Change (CPC) * (TCV) Page 6 of 7

7 Agent Retention Experience has shown that providing clear call handling expectations, and then periodically providing prompt and relevant feedback is the best means of keeping agents engaged and motivated. Moreover, an automated monitoring program provides management with the information they need to track and reward top performers. In turn, higher-performing and recognized agents are less likely to leave their job and more likely to provide better customer service. Keeping star performers on staff longer also leads to more consistency of service and a reduction in redundant training. With reduced agent turnover, the need to bring on new agents to replace those who leave is reduced. This, of course, does not take into account other agent retention savings such as fewer new agents in the contact center. Fewer new agents means: Less time and money spent hiring and training new agents Increase in the overall competency and quality level of agents and the service they provide Reduced resource requirements (aka leaner staff) due to well-trained and experienced workforce Calculating the savings that can be obtained by improving agent retention is fairly straightforward and can be done with the following simple equation, illustrated in ROI Model #4: ROI Model #4 Cost to on-board a new Agent: AC Number of Call Center Agents: #A Calculating the Savings =.02 * AC * #A The bottom line is that by adding more openness, fairness and accountability into your call monitoring program, your best performing agents will be less likely to look for employment elsewhere this will result in significantly lower training costs for your organization and dramatically enhanced service to your customers. Conclusion: The cost benefit models and strategies described in this paper have been successfully implemented in many call centers across different industries and regions. When utilized in conjunction with an open, secure and full-featured call/screen recording and quality monitoring system like those offered by CyberTech International your organization will realize tremendous value and benefits that should far exceed the cost of the recording/qm system itself. This typically occurs within the first 12 months following install. About CyberTech International CyberTech is the fastest growing, longest-standing and 3rd largest global call recording provider offering the most secure, open and future-proof solutions for organizations to rapidly improve performance, optimize service, mitigate risk, lower cost and maintain compliance. CyberTech is growing at a rapid 34% annual rate globally, marking two consecutive years of positive growth, as it further addresses the specific needs of the financial services, call center and emergency services industry sectors. Furthermore, CyberTech is the industry's #3 global recording vendor and #2 financial compliance recording vendor, currently serving more than half of the world's top 25 global financial firms. For more information, visit Page 7 of 7