Good to Great: Rapid Results with Real-Time Performance Management

Transcription

1 Good to Great: Rapid Results with Real-Time Performance Management Authored by Paul Stockford, Chief Analyst SADDLETREE RESEARCH North Scottsdale Road, #475 Scottsdale, AZ Tel: (480) Fax: (480) Website: Compliments of

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Brief Histoical Perspective... 3 Performance Management Today... 4 Benchmark Survey Overview... 4 Current Contact Center Performance Reporting Solutions... 5 The Value of Real-Time Performance Management... 7 The Future of Real-Time Performance Management Solutions A Case Study Flowers.com Conclusion About the Author About VPI Appendix A All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 2 of 16

3 Introduction The evolution of performance management continues. Although it started out as a solutions curiosity in the early part of the last decade, performance management is now considered to be an essential contact center workforce optimization tool. As much a process as it is a technology solution, performance management can be broadly defined as a set of software tools that, when used properly, track contact center resources and provide actionable reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of these resources with respect to achieving business goals. Resources can include technology infrastructure, personnel resources, and processes and procedures that lend themselves to measurement, such as key performance indicators (KPIs). The objective of performance management is to provide unified performance measurements that lead to actions that improve contact center operational efficiency and performance through the identification of exemplary or substandard performance of resources. Performance results are typically delivered in the form of reports or as graphical representations on a user workstation dashboard or ticker. The performance management process may also include pre-defined automated actions aimed at intra-day correction and guidance for management and agents where needed. Performance management software is among the elite industry solutions in terms of the return on investment (ROI) that it can deliver. Because performance management results can lead to immediate and positive changes in contact center operations, ROI is generally accomplished in a relatively short period of time. Based upon the results of the end-user survey that Saddletree Research conducts each year in conjunction with the National Association of Call Centers (NACC) at The University of Southern Mississippi, penetration of performance management software in the U.S. contact center industry currently stands at approximately 55 percent. This is indicative of the high level of acceptance performance management finds among customer service professionals. Brief Historical Perspective Performance management solutions first appeared in the U.S. contact center market a decade ago. Despite their limited capabilities at the time, the market quickly grasped the potential for savings offered by performance management. Beyond the typical reporting tools available at the time, performance management was revolutionary in its approach to improving operational efficiency. Rather than layering in new technologies to improve performance, as was typical as the time, performance management suggested that there was still performance left to be squeezed out of the systems that were already in place. This was accomplished by providing managers with more actionable, consolidated views of performance data. This revolutionary concept soon grew to include human resources and maximizing agent efficiency from an individual level all the way up to team and departmental levels. The fact that performance management had a direct and immediate impact on enterprise efficiency resonated with upper management in many organizations. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 3 of 16

4 This led to the development of innovative operational practices that permanently changed management theory and approach in the customer service industry. Performance Management Today Over the past decade, performance management has evolved from a unique standalone solution to an integral part of a comprehensive workforce optimization (WFO) strategy. Today performance management is still found in standalone configurations but it is becoming more common to find performance management tightly integrated with other contact center efficiency tools such as quality monitoring and workforce management. Performance management is still in demand and continues to grow in popularity among users. In the most recent Saddletree Research/NACC survey, performance management was highly ranked among technology solutions in demand. Nearly 17 percent of respondents indicated that they would be evaluating performance management for purchase during Given an estimate of approximately 66,000 contact centers in the U.S., this translates to over 11,000 contact centers that will be shopping for performance management technology this year alone. As with most contact center industry technology solutions, performance management is constantly evolving and improving. While some of these improvements amount to a sharpening of existing capabilities, others have the potential to take technology to the next level of efficiency. Among the game-changing technology improvements in performance management is the ability to drive actionable performance information to appropriate executives, managers, and even front-line agents in real-time in order to drive rapid improvements. Real-time performance management brings contact center performance data to appropriate decision makers as the name describes in real-time rather than in reports, scorecards, or dashboard charts that are delivered to decision makers after the fact. Real-time performance management enables split-second decisions that can immediately impact everything from a single customer contact to the performance of an entire enterprise department. Since real-time performance management is a relatively new technology innovation, Saddletree Research undertook a survey among NACC members to gauge potential interest in this leading edge industry development. Benchmark Survey Overview In order to measure awareness of, and interest in, real-time performance management, Saddletree Research surveyed 55 contact center executives from a wide range of industries and responsibilities. The purpose of the survey was to gauge the validity of assumptions we made regarding current usage of performance management tools in contact centers and to measure perceptions about and attitudes toward real-time performance management. Survey respondents skewed heavily toward decision makers and represent a wide variety of vertical markets. The distribution of the number of agent seats per respondent companies is reflective of the U.S. contact center All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 4 of 16

5 industry as a whole. A graphical representation of survey respondents contact center categorizations is provided as Appendix A of this report. Current Contact Center Performance Reporting Solutions The first task undertaken in this study was to gain a better understanding of the current state of contact center performance reporting solutions given the penetration rate of performance management in the industry. Having established market penetration we checked with respondents regarding the origins of their contact center reports. We discovered that 39.1 percent of survey respondents use something other than performance management for their report requirements. The specifics of the alternative reporting solutions preferred by these respondents are represented in Figure 1. Figure 1: Alternative Reporting Solutions Regularly Used Source: Saddletree Research Although performance management software has been established as the dominant choice among contact centers for their reporting solution, there is still considerable dependence upon older reporting methods among nearly 40 percent of the industry. The survey responses confirm that contact centers today rely on a wide variety of disparate systems in order to measure and manage the customer experience. As a result, managers are required to wade through vast quantities of data from various silos of information and export the canned reports provided by each system into tedious spreadsheets. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 5 of 16

6 We asked all respondents, including those currently using a performance management software solution for their reporting requirements, how they felt about the time it currently takes to derive and share metrics with others in the contact center. The basis of this query is our belief that despite performance management software s popularity as a reporting solution, operational efficiencies could be realized by faster dissemination of report results to those who could take appropriate action on those results. More than half of all contact center managers are dissatisfied with the time required to share performance measurements with agents. These results, illustrated in Figure 2 below, indicate a general dissatisfaction in the time it takes to get performance results to those who could take appropriate action in order to improve performance. Less than ten percent of respondents were very satisfied with the time required to take performance measurement results and put those results into action. More than half of all managers are dissatisfied and potentially frustrated with this status quo and likely crave timelier, more actionable insights. Figure 2: Levels of Satisfaction with the Time Required to Share Performance Metrics/KPIs with Agents and Managers Source: Saddletree Research Despite the relatively even distribution between those who are satisfied to some degree and those who are somewhat dissatisfied with the time it takes to get performance data to the appropriate contact center personnel, it is clear that there is room for improvement in the process. While the value of performance management data is undisputed, we were interested in testing the theory that real-time distribution of performance management data would have a significantly positive impact on contact center efficiency. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 6 of 16

7 When asked if respondents perceived a value in sharing performance metrics in real-time with front line agents, an overwhelming majority of 92.5 percent answered in the affirmative. Only 7.5 percent of respondents felt that there would be no value in sharing performance metrics in real-time. Cross tabulations show that these 7.5 percent of respondents worked in contact centers with 75 or fewer seats, primarily in the financial services or telecommunications industries. Among respondents who felt that there was a value in sharing performance metrics in real-time with front line agents, which comprised the abovementioned 92.5 percent of participants, more than half represent the Retail, Health Care and, coincidentally, the Telecommunications vertical markets. These highly competitive markets are substantially driven by customer satisfaction and loyalty goals that require constant close attention to contact center performance and fast response to problems. Over 90 percent of managers see value in sharing metrics in real-time with front-line agents. Remaining positive responses were fairly evenly distributed over the following vertical markets: Insurance Education Telemarketing/Collections Government Manufacturing Third Party Outsourcing Media/Publishing Charity/Non-Profit The Value of Real-Time Performance Management The concept of real-time performance management is not only thought provoking, survey results have established that it is also causing the majority of contact center executives to confirm the value of real-time performance data in the efficient, agile operation of the customer service center. Customer service professionals are realizing that in order to survive and compete it is crucial to have solid, consistent insights into the performance of their contact centers as a whole, across multiple channels and sites. Despite the value found in performance management data that is delivered to management after the termination of a customer contact, it does not typically alter the outcome of a communication that is in progress. This sentiment is shared by the majority of survey respondents who were asked if they believed that there was value in sharing performance metrics in real-time with front-line agents. The answers to this question are illustrated in Figure 3 below. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 7 of 16

8 Figure 3: Responses to Question Is There Value in Sharing Performance Metrics in Real-Time with Front-Line Agents Source: Saddletree Research Given the plethora of performance metrics in use by today s contact center managers, combined with the overwhelming positive response to the question regarding the sharing of performance metrics in real-time with front-line agents, we asked respondents which metrics they felt would be of greatest value to share in real-time. Respondents were limited to three answers. Total responses will be greater than 100 percent. The metrics cited by respondents are detailed in Figure 4 below. Figure 4: Metrics of Greatest Value to Share in Real-Time with Front-Line Agents Source: Saddletree Research All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 8 of 16

9 These results clearly illustrate a recognized value in the sharing of real-time performance reporting of a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs). The results also indicate that the selection of the most important metrics align with the focus on customer satisfaction as the primary objective with operational cost related metrics considered, albeit not as primary drivers. The majority of today s contact center reporting solutions typically deliver metrics that describe performance results in time intervals that are determined by the system s data collecting and reporting capabilities. This can range anywhere from hours to days after the events that are being measured actually occur. Contact center executives are forced to make adjustments or decisions long after a performance event has transpired. The advantage of real-time performance reporting is that it provides the critical information necessary to make decisions at a time when those decision outcomes can provide maximum benefit for the customer and/or the operation. Real-time data views and alerts provide information that allows managers to address a performance issue while it is happening rather than after the fact. In order to verify our assumption that there is critically-important decision value in having performance metrics delivered in real-time, we asked our survey respondents if there were specific issues or events that they believed crucial for measuring and taking action in real time. Figure 5 below illustrates the issues specified by the respondents as well as the percentage of respondents who cited that particular issue. Respondents were allowed to cite up to three issues so the total response percentages will be greater than 100 percent. Figure 5: Issues Important to Measure and Act Upon in Real-Time Source: Saddletree Research All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 9 of 16

10 The Future of Real-time Performance Management Solutions Current penetration of real-time performance management in the U.S. contact center industry is relatively low but, as our survey results clearly illustrate, it is a solution that is on the collective mind of the industry. From these results we can surmise that organizations understand that in order to effectively service customers, they must know where they stand at all times and execute on stated goals. This assumes that those employees who receive real time performance metrics are able to make decisions that allow for timely improvement. Our research reveals that penetration of real-time performance management in the industry currently stands at approximately 21 percent. Given the understanding of the benefits of real-time performance management as demonstrated by survey responses, we expect to see rapid growth of this market segment in the future. Over nine percent of survey respondents indicated that they planned to implement a real-time performance management solution in the next 12 months. An additional 21 percent indicated their intention to add real-time performance management to their contact center within the next 24 months. It is not unreasonable to expect market penetration of real-time performance management to exceed 50 percent by the end of A Case Study Flowers.com Flowers.com provides a broad range of products including flowers, plants, gourmet foods, candies, gift baskets and other gifts. A $700 million company in their 30 th year of business, Flowers.com employs more than 900 at-home agents throughout North America. Overview During the company s peak holiday periods such as Valentine s Day and Mother s Day, Flowers has to rapidly hire agents in order to handle increased call volume. As a result of this personnel ramp-up the company was challenged with finding an effective way to train new as well as existing agents and get them information, such as the stock status of certain products, quickly and efficiently. The company was further challenged by a manual employee monitoring and reward process that failed to incentivize employees in a timely manner and led to a failure to reward agent performance in a timely manner. The management of Flowers.com realized that a real-time performance management solution would allow them to correct these problems by consolidating information from multiple databases and systems and deliver this information to appropriate personnel within a time frame that would encourage exemplary performance. In order to reach this goal, the company determined that it would need an open architecture solution that would provide flexibility in integrating with existing systems and allow for the addition of future technology additions. The decision was made to implement the VPI PERFORMANCE TM real-time performance management solution along with the VPI COACHING TM e-learning solution. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 10 of 16

11 VPI PERFORMANCE provides FLOWERS.com with real-time desktop tickers that can be customized and sized to display a variety of important real time performance metrics, reminder messages and personalized coaching assignments. As illustrated in Figure 6 below, the multiple scrolling views have a minimal impact on desktop real estate. Figure 1: VPI PERFORMANCE Desktop Tickers Source: VPI In order to access detailed performance information, agents and supervisors need only click on the tickers. This retrieves scorecards which display the real-time status of individual and group performance versus goals. As illustrated in Figure 7, scorecards offer a daily, weekly, and monthly view. Figure 2: VPI PERFORMANCE Desktop Dashboard Scorecard Sample Source: VPI FLOWERS.com also turned to VPI PERFORMANCE for a means to integrate data and information from disparate sources. VPI provided FLOWERS with the ability to integrate data from various system solutions and present the results in clear, easy-to-understand performance reports that allow users to drill down to a very granular level, as illustrated in Figure 8 below. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 11 of 16

12 Figure 3: VPI PERFORMANCE Consolidated Performance Report Sample Source: VPI Faced with ongoing training issues that were a byproduct of the ramp up of personnel around several holidays each year, FLOWERS.com turned to VPI s integrated Learning Management System (LMS) to track the effectiveness of agent training. VPI s LMS also provides a comprehensive analysis and visual portrayal of agent training progress, as shown in Figure 9 below. Figure 4: VPI Integrated Learning Management System Sample Course Report Card Source: VPI All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 12 of 16

13 VPI PERFORMANCE Implementation Results The original objective of the VPI PERFORMANCE implementation was to increase operational efficiency in order to take advantage of the spike in sales that accompanied certain holidays during the course of the year. This objective was met, along with the additional benefit of reduced costs. In terms of revenue acceleration, FLOWERS.com accomplished the following: An average of five additional sales per agent per day; A three percent increase in sales conversions; Increased agent utilization of work time; Ability to immediately evaluate and adjust marketing campaigns. Operational efficiency improvements included: Streamlined, consolidated reporting across all sites and at-home agent teams; Cohesive decision making; Easily accessible executive and management level reports and dashboards; Availability of real-time and historical performance information; Real-time intelligence that provides identification of top performers and poor performers so performance issues can be recognized or corrected; Direct link between individual performance results and assignment of learning content aimed at improvement of specific performance metrics; Improved ability to measure the impact of training on performance metrics. Cost reductions were realized in the following areas: Significant decrease in the required number of full-time employees (FTEs); Savings on the cost of printing and paper. Conclusion Building upon the proven benefits and established reliability of performance management software in the contact center, real-time performance management offers users the next level of operational efficiency. The ability to alter the outcome of a customer contact while that contact is in progress provides a clear competitive advantage to the user in terms of improving overall customer satisfaction and operational effectiveness. Beyond the customer service benefits, the cost savings and proven ROI easily justify the initial cost of acquiring a real-time performance management solution. The benchmark survey that was conducted in conjunction with this project indicates an understanding of the benefits of real-time analytics, including performance management, on All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 13 of 16

14 the part of survey respondents. Beyond the customer service benefits, the cost saving aspect of real-time performance management, combined with the proven ROI of performance management in the contact center, easily justify the initial cost of acquiring a real-time performance management solution. Just a few short years ago the data provided by a contact center performance management solution simply didn t exist. Today that data not only exists, but it exists in real-time and has the potential to raise the bar in terms of customer service standards and operational efficiency. Real-time performance management is leading the contact center industry into the next generation of service and performance excellence. About the Author Paul Stockford founded Saddletree Research, Inc. in Saddletree Research provides focused communications industry research, including analysis of market trends, issues, technologies, and companies in the Contact Center industry with special emphasis on emerging technologies and developing markets. An industry analyst for the past 21 years, Paul has also done telecommunications research and analysis at Cahners In-Stat Group, Vanguard Communications and Dataquest. Paul began his telecommunications career with GTE. Paul has authored numerous articles on contact centers and related technologies for several industry journals in the U.S. and abroad, and is a frequent speaker at major industry conferences in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. Since 1993 he has authored monthly columns in such magazines as Call Center, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Interface, Voice+ (U.K.), Enterprise Communications and Voice Processing. In addition, he currently serves as research director for the non-profit National Association of Call Centers (NACC) at The University of Southern Mississippi. About VPI VPI (Voice Print International, Inc.) has become a frontrunner in contact center performance management, quality monitoring and workforce optimization technology. VPI s approach has been disruptive to legacy approaches because its VPI EMPOWER software is easy to deploy, easy to use, and extremely cost effective. VPI EMPOWER leverages advanced analytics and an open, Web 2.0 architecture to help organizations more easily and rapidly identify and solve their critical business issues such as customer churn, first contact resolution, missed up-sell opportunities, product issues, handle time optimization, and much more. For more than a decade, VPI has been providing proven technology and superior service to more than 1,500 customers in 50 countries worldwide. For more information, visit or contact VPI at All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 14 of 16

15 Appendix A Appendix A provides additional detail regarding the contact center professionals that participated in this research. As noted in Figure 6 below, survey respondents were limited to those who could be considered leaders or decision-makers in the contact center. Respondent titles tended to skew toward Director although Managers were also adequately represented as were Executives. Figure 5: Job Titles of Survey Respondents Source: Saddletree Research Survey respondents represented a diverse group of vertical markets, ensuring survey results represented a broad industry perspective. Vertical markets of the survey participants are included in Figure 7 below. Figure 6: Vertical Markets Represented by Survey Participants Source: Saddletree Research All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 15 of 16

16 The majority of the respondents, 47 percent, come from organizations with one contact center percent of survey respondents have between two and four contact centers while 9.4 percent of respondents have between five and nine contact centers in their organization percent of respondents have ten or more contact centers in their organization. The number of agent seats per respondent company is fairly evenly distributed below 150 seats. The agent seat distribution and the corresponding percentage of respondents are illustrated in Figure 8 below. Figure 7: Number of Seats in Survey Respondents Contact Center(s) Source: Saddletree Research The diversity of the survey respondents vertical markets and other contact center data is reflective of the industry as a whole. Combining these demographics with the fact that the majority of respondents are contact center managers or above adds noteworthy value to the survey results. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2012 Saddletree Research, Inc. and Voice Print International, Inc. Page 16 of 16