ICMI Customer Management Blog Feed

Do You Feel Mobile Customer Service is a Competitive Differentiator?

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:49:07 GMT

Last week we polled our community members to see if they considered mobile customer service to be a competitive differentiator. 77% of our respondents said yes.

How do these results compare with previous research?

In April of this year USAN Emergening Channnels research around the same question also garnered an overwhelming majority. 63.25% of respondents answered yes.

Voxeo Mobile asked the same question in December 2012, and 61.8% of their respondents said yes.

ACCE Insider: Customer Experience Reigns Supreme at 2013 ACCE

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:30:13 GMT

At the 10th Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE) show in Seattle this year – a global gathering of the call center industry – one theme stood out above the rest: a renewed focus on the customer experience.

As a speaker at this year’s conference, I asked my audience of 40-plus contact center executives and operators a simple question: Who among you would say that improving the customer experience is your number one priority? Every hand shot up. And I found this to be consistent throughout the conference.

In comparing conversations I’ve had with these industry peers in previous years, the top priority of most contact center executives and senior managers has been pure efficiency, focusing on agent productivity and “doing more with less.” I found when talking to attendees at the ACCE conference, that focus is clearly shifting from simply operating “faster, smarter and cheaper” to taking a close look at the impact agents can ultimately have on the customer experience, which in turn protects a company’s brand and drives customer retention and overall success.

Though the great call centers have understood the critical role agents play in customer satisfaction for some time, I am encouraged to see senior management across the board now paying closer attention to these frontline employees and investing in their performance with a new sense of urgency.

Emerging technologies showcased at the conference reflected the need to respond to customers in a more comprehensive way since today’s customers are better informed and more empowered than ever before. They expect speed and accuracy from their contact center interactions and when they don’t get it, they have plenty of social airways to share their feedback about a company and its brand.

Some of the most interesting technologies showcased at the conference were those designed to make sense out of disparate data sources, capturing and analyzing data on every customer interaction including not just calls into the contact center, but touch points like individual retail visits and website clicks as well.

These technologies will enable companies to see a more complete picture of their customers, which will help them determine how to best interact with individual customers to improve the customer experience.

As the focus on customer service and satisfaction finds renewed intensity, ACCE attendees acknowledged that agents play a major role in the success or failure of a company’s overall customer satisfaction program. And for agents to truly be effective, they must have the training and coaching they need to successfully engage with customers and handle their inquiries.

As companies turn their focus to improving the customer experience, they will invest in holistic solutions that help them not only provide this critical training and coaching to drive agent performance improvements but also help with improvements in other areas as well.

Looking forward, contact center professionals can expect to see a push in the industry for intraday management technologies that enable call centers to better respond to changing customer needs and fluctuations in their operations. This takes the form of a few applications. One, utilizing available time for agents to complete activities designed to improve their performance and productivity gives customers the experience they expect and deserve.

Other uses automate processes around queue management to drive customer experience improvements. These include automating skill updates to ensure the right agents are available to take customer calls as soon as they complete their training or certification and technologies that enable multi-channel centers to easily move agents from queue to queue across disparate technologies based on capacity. Automating these processes allows contact centers to be much more agile and promptly give customers the assistance and attention they deserve.

About Intradiem
Intradiem, formerly Knowlagent, is the leader in intraday management solutions for contact centers. Intradiem equips our customers with business reflexes that immediately and consistently respond to unpredictable events and conditions. Reflexes such as intraday task management, intraday staffing, queue management, and real-time alerts improve business performance by over 20 percent. More than 450,000 contact center, field service, retail, bank branch, and back office employees around the world use Intradiem’s solution every day. For more information, call 888-566-9457 or visit www.intradiem.com.

ACCE Insider: 5 Things to Do Every Day to Rock Your Customer Service

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:22:23 GMT

As I type away from my desk in my home office on this rainy morning, I’ll admit that I’m experiencing a slight ACCE hangover.

As a new employee at ICMI, last week was my first ever ACCE experience, and it honestly far exceeded my expectations. There were so many highlights! I was able to attend many breakout sessions, listen in on the keynote addresses, have breakfast and lunch with new friends in the contact center community, attend a fabulous awards dinner, and broaden my customer service knowledge. I loved every minute of it, so it’s hard to sum it all up in a tidy little article or pick just one key-takeaway, but if I had to describe the conference in just two words, I’d choose passion and energy.

Keynote speaker and Global Call Center Awards dinner emcee, Dayna Steele, epitomizes both those words, and I have a feeling her powerful message will stick with me for awhile.

I personally took a lot away from Dayna’s Keynote address “5 Things to Do Every Day to Rock Your Customer Service World.” She outlined actionable steps that are helpful for anyone in any industry, but I think her advice is particularly helpful for those of us in the business of customer service.

So, what is the recipe for rockstar customer service success?

1. Listen. This seems like such a no brainer but it’s so often and easily overlooked. In the fast-paced, mobile driven world we live in, it’s so easy to forget to stop and listen. We often guess or predict what our customers are thinking/needing without taking the time to ask (and really listen to) what their needs are. Or we’re so busy multi-tasking that we can’t pay enough attention to what is important. If you don’t know what your customers want or need, how can you provide them with the best possible service?

2. Engage. Listening is important, but it’s not enough to stop there. To be truly successful, take it a step further. If you want answers, ask questions. And if your customers are asking questions, respond to them—preferably in a timely fashion. This sometimes means meeting your customers where they are, rather than where you’re comfortable having the conversation. Many of your customers are seeking advice, asking questions, or commenting on your products online and via social media. Are you listening? Responding? Engagement is more important (and multi-faceted) now than ever!

3. Empower. Empower your customers, empower your employees, and empower your employees to empower your customers. Do your agents have all the tools and technology they need to be successful? Do you have the tools you need to help make your agents more successful? Be concise, and ask for what you need. You might be surprised how likely people are to cooperate if you’re only willing to ask. To illustrate this point, Dayna stopped her presentation to ask audience members for a dollar. The outcome? Within a couple of minutes she had close to $15! Try applying this principle in your everyday work environment and see what happens.

4. Innovate. Don’t be afraid to do things differently. Take risks. Try new things. The most successful people have failed at one point or another, and I loved the way Dayna put it: “It’s not failure if you can take something from it and use it to move forward.” Don’t let fear hold you back, or keep you from moving forward. What risks can you take to improve your customer service? Think about it, and plan to do something differently next quarter.

5. Wow. Dayna summed this last piece of advice up perfectly with a great quote from Disney. “Do what you do so well that others can’t stop talking about you.” Another blessing and curse of these technologically driven times: we have so much information at our fingertips. It’s easier to find the competition. If your customers aren’t happy with the service you’re providing they can easily find another company that better meets their needs. Sometimes you only get one chance to “wow.” What are you doing to differentiate your company, and go above and beyond to get people talking about the awesome service you provide? Make it your goal to not just make the customer happy, but wow the customer.

How do you plan to apply Dayna’s 5 principles to rock your customer service? What advice would you add? Share your thoughts and comments.

ACCE Insider: ACCE 2013 Conference Re-cap

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:27:40 GMT

This post originally appeared on the Toister Performance Solutions Blog on May 16, 2013.

I attended ICMI's ACCE 2013 conference in Seattle, WA last week. This was the 10th anniversary edition of the premier global gathering for contact center professionals.

If you are like me, you find it hard to keep track of all the brilliant ideas, inspiring speakers, and helpful contacts you come across at a conference like this. And, it's sometimes just too difficult to choose between going to one session or another!

With this in mind, I’ve put together a brief re-cap of some of the conference highlights.

Conference Overview

You may want to start by familiarizing yourself with the conference if you didn’t attend.

Twitter Backchannel (Tip: you don't need a Twitter account to view the conversation)
Conference Overview
Session Descriptions

I owe a special note of thanks to Voiance Language Services for giving out copies of my book, Service Failure. They made me feel like a star. When people asked how to get my book I was able to send them over to Voiance’s booth in the expo hall!

Conference Themes

Three themes really stood out for me.

Theme #1: Multi-channel customer engagement

Contact centers are interacting with customers in more ways than ever before. We’ve moved beyond phone and email to engage customers with chat, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, text, mobile, and other means. Some customer conversations span multiple channels which makes keeping track of everything even more challenging.

Kathy Hutchens from Sharp Rees-Stealy and David McCann from Varolii co-presented an interesting session on this topic. They talked about ways that Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Centers engaged customers through multiple channels by learning and acting upon customer preferences. Hutchens gave the example that picking the right channel for appointment reminder notices reduced appointment no-shows by 25 percent.

Many participants told me their companies are still struggling to determine who owns some of these channels. I think this Tweet may have said it best:

Theme #2: Technology + People = Success

Technology was a hot topic. It dominated the exhibit hall. Many participants were in search of new technology solutions for their contact centers. It was even a hot topic on the call center tours.

The most successful uses of technology also accounted for the people using it. For example, technology is making it easier than ever before for contact centers to utilize home-based agents. I toured the Starbucks call center where I learned some of their best people practices for making home-based agents successful.

The tour featured a coffee tasting hosted by some of the contact center employees (known as Partners as Starbucks). One of our hosts was a home-based agent who participated via conference call. Their home-based agents regularly participated in these types of events to maintain their connection to the team.

Theme #3: Resource Constraints

Many contact centers don’t have a lot of resources. This puts a lot of technological solutions out of reach, but they still have to find a way to get the job down.

One example came from Tamara Taylor and Dorian Anid at Abbot Vascular. They were part of a session on creative solutions at small call centers. Taylor and Anid used Microsoft Access to create their own CRM system after their request to buy a technology solution was denied. Their homemade system has helped reps work more effectively, but it is also enabling Taylor and Anid to gather data to make a business case for a more robust solution.

I also participated in a roundtable discussion about gathering voice of the customer feedback. The discussion was hosted by Josh Chapman from Cars.com. Chapman’s company employs a lot of sophisticated tools and third-party research firms to gather useful VOC data. This makes sense for Cars.com, but what about a small contact center with no budget for VOC? The roundtable participants discussed a simple solution where the contact center could leverage their company’s existing Survey Monkey account to start a rudimentary VOC program at no cost. It was a small step, but would still yield data they could use to improve customer satisfaction.

On a side note, Josh Chapman was one of several people honored at ICMI’s Global Call Center Awards Dinner. He won the Customer Service Business Leader of the year award and created a memorable moment where his wife tuned into the ceremony via Facetime to see his acceptance speech.

If you attended, what were your biggest take-aways?

Inside ACCE: Global Call Center of the Year Awards Dinner Recap

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:00:24 GMT

The ICMI crew and more than 200 ACCE attendees had a blast last night celebrating call center success at the first annual Global Call Center Awards Dinner!

The food was awesome, the conversations engaging, and the passion in the room was infectious. We are already looking forward to hosting the Second Annual Global Call Center Awards Dinner next year, and if you weren't able to make it this time, I highly recommend you attend next year! In the meantime, here’s a rundown of the winners, and some of the highlights of the evening.

The Awards Dinner kicked off with a cocktail hour, mingling, and a fun opportunity to pose for photos on the red carpet in front of our Step and Repeat.

After the cocktail hour, we began the dinner (which was delicious) and awards portion of the night. Our awesome rockstar host, Dayna Steele, kicked things off with her characteristic wit and energy, and we heard an amazing performance from the Seattle Children’s Chorus! (They were seriously so talented and moving!) After the entertainment we began the awards portion by recognizing the Agent of the Year finalists, and of course announced a winner. Noe Vazquez of North American Bancard set the tone for the awards portion of the night by delivering a dynamic acceptance speech for Agent of the Year. After hearing him speak, it was obvious why he won! Following Noe’s acceptance we presented awards in the rest of the categories.

The Winners:

Contact Center Supervisor of the Year: Brian Fornuto, NewYork Life
Contact Center Manager of the Year: Deb Brown, Guardian Life
Customer Service Business Leader of the Year: Josh Chapman, cars.com
Best Quality Assurance and Customer Service Program: Troy Shaffer, Optum RX
Best Use of Technology: Hyatt
Best Strategic Value to the Organization: NewYork Life
Best Small-to-Medium Call Center: UniSuper
Best Large Call Center: Wells Fargo

Watching all of the winners accept their awards was so exciting, but one of the highlights for me was when Josh Chapman of cars.com accepted his award while facetiming his wife. Dayna Steele joked that his wife should have been nominated for the Best Use of Technology Award.

After the awards were all presented we ended with an after-party complete with desserts, cocktails, and lots of networking, celebrations, and laughter.

Overall, the night was a huge success and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our awesome sponsors, (Jabra and iQOR), our gracious judges, our rockstar emcee, and all of the amazing finalists and entrants that applied for the awards this year!

Thanks to everyone who made this event possible, and cheers to all the winners!

We look forward to toasting to call center success again in 2014.

You can read more about the Global Call Center awards winners on the ACCE page, and be sure to check out photos from the evening (and tag yourself!) on our Facebook page.

Inside ACCE: Puget Sound Energy Site Tour Recap

Tue, 14 May 2013 05:22:07 GMT

Today, more than 500 ACCE attendees had the opportunity to tour call centers all around the Seattle area. We had groups tour Starbucks, Alaska Airlines, and Virginia Mason to name a few. I personally had the privilege of touring the Puget Sound Energy site.

Just to give a little background, here are some quick facts about the Puget Sound Energy:

Location: Bellevue, Washington
# Employees: 350 (40 remote)
Facility: 2 buildings, 75,000 square feet
Hours of Operation: 24 x7; core hours 7:30-6:30pm
Number of Calls: 2,000,000 handled by live agents each month
Emails Handled: 70,000 per month

We toured many different parts of the facility, including:

Special projects: The teamwork and energy were infectious!

Billing: I was fascinated by how efficient their machinery was. They have a machine that opens more than 12,000 envelopes every day (that would take at least 4-5 additional full-time employees). They also have another machine that processes around 25,000 payments on a daily basis. Both machines were mind-boggling to watch in action!

Training room: The (fairly large) room was abuzz with new agents.

Call center: A call queue and up-to-the-minute metrics were displayed on a large flat screen TV. Each agent had a cubicle decorated to reflect their individual personality, and agents were dressed casually.

Workforce management team: Lean and mean. The WFM team consisted of 2 resource management staff.

Call monitoring/QA: I thought this was one of the most interesting stops on the tour. We got to meet the remote employee supervisor. She makes monthly (unannounced) visits to her 40 remote agents, giving them coaching and feedback on a random selection of their recorded calls. In order to work from home, agents must have been a customer service representative for at least one year, and they must pass a 90 day testing and assessment period.

While I was fascinated and amazed by the billing department, and really enjoyed learning more about Puget Sound Energy's QA efforts, one of the things that most impressed me about this contact center was their focus on health and wellness and employee morale.

All throughout the building were inspirational quotes, motivational photos and bulletin boards touting agent and call center accomplishments. It was impressive and refreshing to see a call center that truly cared about and invested in the morale of its agents.

Each month, Puget Sound recognizes an employee, supervisor, and safety professional of the month on a bulletin board that also displays contact center stats and achievements. Additionally, the contact center has a “Kudos Board” that is completely employee driven. Employees can share customer service success stories, recognize their peers for great work, or acknowledge their bosses and supervisors. The board was filled to the brim!Puget Sound also recognizes hard working agents with FRED (Friendly, Resourceful, Enthusiastic, Dependable) Awards.

While none of those efforts take a significant monetary investment, they can go a long way in improving employee morale, which as a result lowers turnover, and training costs.

Beyond their general employee morale efforts, Puget Sound Energy places a strong emphasis on the overall health and well-being of their employees. On site there’s a gym and showers, and there are also quiet rooms devoted to napping or reading during breaks. Vending machines are stocked with healthy snacks, ice water is readily available, and a local Apple vendor delivers fresh fruit to the office every Monday.

Beginning in 2010, Puget Sound Energy began a company-wide health and wellness initiative that integrated health and wellness into overall employee training. Other components of the program include a biggest loser challenge (more than 100 employees have participated to-date), and partnership with the Heart Association in which 48% of employees participated in National Walking Day. During the first year of the new health and wellness program, the center saw a 10% decrease in absenteeism (in turn saving the company money). In my opinion, that kind of payoff is more than worth the effort involved.

Overall, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the center from several differnt perspectives was fun, interesting, and insightful.

Did you go on one of the site tours? What insights or lessons did you take away? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Agent Perspective: Worthless or Worthwhile?

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:31:40 GMT

This post originally appeared on the Call Center Weekly Blog, and was submitted by an anonymous agent.

When you're a call center agent, each day begins the same way. You log into your programs, put your headset on and turn on your phone. If you're like me, taking the first call of the day means so little to you because you take hundreds of calls a week, and most of the calls are exactly the same. The work environment and culture of a call center determines whether taking these calls feels worthless or worthwhile.

I work in a fairly large call center (over a hundred reps) that has no workplace morale or culture. I’m not just saying that to be dramatic – I actually received a letter from the president when I started saying that the company is not concerned with building morale, but only with providing service for our customers. Truthfully, I never knew much about contact center culture until recently when a close friend of mine, a manager in a different call center, began dissecting my work complaints and suggesting how I, a lowly tier one rep, should advise our management on changes. Truthfully I haven’t taken much of it to heart because I do not see myself with this company for an extended period of time. And this, as stated by my friend, is where the problem lies… decent and hardworking employees like me leaving companies because they do not empower or appreciate us.

Not surprisingly, my center has a huge turnover rate. Since I was hired 7 months ago, we have taken on somewhere over a hundred new reps, granted to fill new shifts, but nonetheless people are rolling in almost daily. Our company boasts strong customer service but, honestly, we don’t track it. We don’t have any programs, surveys or data proving that our customers find our service strong. The only way we are evaluated is by the number of calls we take and the amount of time we're not availble to handle calls, which includes break time and time doing any after call work. This method of evaluation doesn't motivate me or my fellow coworkers to do great work. Most of us don’t care about call totals or availability, because these have no real impact on us, and doing good work goes unnoticed. We don’t get an award for the most calls taken or even a nod from the manager, or a "job well done" – we are simply “drones” as my peers say.

The point of me sharing my experience is to give contact center managers some insight. If your center is run anything like mine, chances are your employees are miserable and constantly looking for another job. Without a strong company culture, your agents start to hate the customers, the management, and their coworkers. They complain about work all the time and consider becoming servers, retail workers, or even janitors (I have heard this before) to get out of the thankless job.

Creating culture, and morale, in your center and genuinely caring about your reps can make a huge difference in customer and employee satisfaction, and save your company a ton of money in the process. Hiring new people isn’t cheap and training them is practically a fortune – but if you try to keep the good employees around, they will then garner a positive work environment for the next round of reps (when the time comes to hire again). Simple things can create a sense of pride in the company and result in better representatives of your company on the phones. Your agents may not be making any big decisions, but they are the voice of your company and if they aren’t treated with respect and appreciation, I guarantee they won’t treat your customers with it either.

Put yourself in the shoes of your reps, and invest in making your agents feel their careers are worthwhile, not worthless.

Let's Get a Pedicure Today

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:45:22 GMT

In today's Agent Perspective, Tanesha Bailey of iContact shares her thoughts on passionate customer service. One way to inspire passion in your employees: treat them like they're special. Dayna Steele shares her tip below.

Surprise your staff today. I used to take The Space Store staff for a pedicure. A large Internet company calls everyone to the company cafeteria and gives out cash. A Washington state principal cancelled school for a Sun Day instead of a Snow Day. Big or small, do something that shakes up the norm and makes them smile. Then, watch the cooperation and the creativity zoom.

Cheers,

Dayna

Dayna Steele, Chief Tipster at YourDailySuccessTip, Speaker, Author

On a stage speaking to and inspiring people since she was a teenager, Dayna Steele is the author of several books, including, 101 Ways to Rock Your World: Everyday Activities for Success Every Day,’ and ‘Rock to the Top: What I Learned about Success from the World’s Greatest Rock Stars. Dayna creates custom success strategies for individuals and companies with her Rock Star Principles of Success. Readers’ Digest magazine calls Dayna “one of the 35 people who inspire us,” AOL says she is “one of the foremost experts on career networking,” and Successful Meetings magazine calls her “a pep talk from the deejay booth.” Audiences consistently rate her as one of the best speakers they have ever seen.

Dayna is also the author of Your Daily Success Tip (http://www.yourdailysuccesstip.com/), a witty and informative piece of advice that is delivered directly to you every day. You can sign up here to start changing your life...one tip at a time.

Quick Poll Results: Do you currently support mobile as a customer service channel?

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:00:07 GMT

Last week we asked community members if they currently support mobile as a customer service channel. This included transactional self-service, automated self-service, and/or a live agent.

60% of our respondents said yes.

In the 40% who answered no? Check out our Mobile Marathon this week for advice on implementing mobile as a customer service channel!

Agent Perspective: How to Handle an Angry Customer

Thu, 09 May 2013 18:39:43 GMT

You know that moment when you take the next call only to be greeted with less-than-friendly (or even offensive) words from a frustrated, angry customer?

How do you react?

Do you:

A. Hang up the phone, clock out and leave your badge on the desk.

B. Adjust your tone to reflect that of the customer.

C. Reassure the customer that you are here to help.

As satisfying or tempting as it may seem to go with option A, or B, it’s pretty obvious that C is the best choice. So, how do you turn a frustrated customer into a satisfied customer?

Technology has changed the mindset of the average customer. We all want a Burger King experience. “Hold the pickles, Hold the lettuce Special orders don't upset us, all we ask is that you let us, Serve you your way.”

Customers don’t want to hear excuses, just solutions. It is imperative that as Customer Service Agents we put ourselves in the customer’s shoes.

Here are some tips for turning a frustrated customer into a satisfied customer.

1. Breathe.

It is best to approach a hostile issue when you are calm and have a clear head.

2. Greet the customer in friendly manner.

Hello my name is________ how may I assist you?

Your tone helps set the tone for the remainder of the conversation.

3. Reassure the customer that you are willing to help.

Greeting the customer and the acknowledging the issue reassures them that you are ready to assist.

4. Listen! Listen! Without interrupting or reacting.

Interrupting the customer may come across as combative. Remember you cannot listen when your mouth is moving, and you cannot solve the problem if you don’t know what it is.

5. Stay focused on the issue. Do not escalate a personal attack.

Remember that the customer is in need of your assistance. As cliché as it may sound, the customer isn’t angry at you.

6. Remain cheerful and respectful.

Throughout your interaction with the customer maintain a professional image. Refrain from using condescending tones and replies.

7. Follow through.

Under promise and over deliver!

What advice do you have for keeping your cool during a stressful call? Share your tips and thoughts in the comments.

Agent Perspective: Customer Service Is Passionate

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:09:12 GMT

This blog post originally appeared on the Call Center Weekly (http://callcenterweekly.blogspot.com/) on April 26, 2013.

As customer service representatives, we all can relate to how monotonous the same routine can be. Login, assist the customers, log out, go to lunch, login, assist the customers, log out, and go home.

Have you ever witnessed a newly hired agent full of zeal only to witness that same agent lack luster and completely devoid of any emotion months later? The passion that they once had has fizzled.

When you are passionate about something and enjoy it, it never feels like work. Passion leads to excellence.

Here's a quote from Mark Sanborn's book, The Fred Factor:

"Uninspired people rarely do inspired work. Passionate people in an organization are different. They do ordinary things extraordinarily well......"

In a lot of instances Customer Support Agents are the front line for all customer interactions. How can companies ensure that its Customer Support Agents are happy and displaying that emotion to its customers?

Boosting employee morale is a great way to keep spirits up. Managers should seek ways to:

Make the workplace comfortable. Consider changing the lighting scheme and allow for more natural lighting.
Increase the social environment at work by smiling more often and having casual conversations.
Create employee appreciation
Be authentic and honest. Act like you really care.
Simply have fun!

It is just as important to keep your internal customers (Customer Support Agents) as happy as your external customers.

Tanesha Bailey, Product Expert, iContact

Tanesha Bailey is a wife, mother, and member of an Award winning Call Center. Tanesha brings over 10 years of Customer Service experience to iContact. she enjoys shopping, reading, music, traveling, and is a self proclaimed fashionista.

Most Valuable Capability of WFM Software

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:43:44 GMT

In the winter of 2011, SWPP (http://www.swpp.org/) asked respondents to choose the most valuable capability of their current workforce management software. The most frequent answer was scheduling accuracy, followed by ease of use and forecasting accuracy. Reporting options and customer service from vendor were also mentioned.

Each quarter SWPP surveys the workforce planning community on critical workforce planning topics. Over 200 call center professionals representing a wide variety of industries participated and provided insight into this survey on workforce management software.

ICMI asked the same question of its community members last week. So how did the results compare?

In our poll, nearly half of respondents answered forecasting accuracy. Scheduling accuracy garnered the second highest amount of votes, and "other" came in third place.

Customer Service Success Story: Mobile Saves the Day

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:57:34 GMT

Have you ever had a customer service experience so awesome that you just had to tell everyone you know?

Especially in this age of mobile and social media, we hear and see about plenty of negative customer service experiences on a daily basis, but what about the positive ones?

I can think of a few personal experiences, but the most recent in my mind is a stressful situation my bank handled.

A couple of weeks ago, I logged into my online banking app to transfer some money into my savings. (I LOVE that I can now do that right from my phone!) Unfortunately, I was panicked to find hundreds of dollars missing from my account due to fraudulent charges made in Arkansas (by the way, I’ve never even been to Arkansas). I was admittedly pretty upset, and a little discouraged when I called the customer service hotline and found that it might take 10 business days to recover the missing funds. At the same I was incredibly thankful for their mobile app. If not for that, I might not have caught the error so quickly!

After my call to the hotline, I decided to give my local branch a call. The customer service representative I spoke with was so friendly and reassuring! She had me come in and sign a few documents and immediately faxed my paperwork to the national fraud department and got the missing money back in my account the next business day. I was so thankful for her prompt and friendly assistance, and so impressed by the level of customer service. Since then, I’ve shared the story with many of my friends.

When you’re blown away by great service, you want to share the story. On that note, our Speaker of the Week, ACCE keynote speaker, Ann Tardy, shared one of her favorite customer service stories with me this week.

Her blog post Mentoring: Then and Now was featured on Monday, but I’d like to take this time to more properly introduce her and help you get to know her a little better. Check out her awesome customer service story below, along with her answers to a few other questions. If you’re attending ACCE, you don’t want to miss her presentation!

ICMI: What excites you most about presenting at ACCE this year?

Ann: Having been the keynote speaker at the ICMI Conference in Dallas in 2012, I am an enormous fan of the team at ICMI. The team treats its speakers like its best customers, thereby allowing us to deliver our best to the audience. It is an absolute pleasure to be involved with such a high caliber team.

ICMI: What quirky customer service fact would you like our ICMI community to know about you?

Ann: As research for my fourth book, a new keynote speech, and a documentary, I rode a bicycle from San Francisco to New Jersey and from Key West to Bar Harbor Maine in 2011 and 2012, respectively, to reach our customers at their jobs in their communities. I pedaled a total of 6,889 miles to connect with people I never would have met otherwise and hear insights that would otherwise not have been revealed.

ICMI: What is the one takeaway you hope to give your audience?

Ann: We all succeed on the shoulders of others. Through strategic mentoring, we can take this concept and intentionally progress organizational strategies and individual success simultaneously.

ICMI: What is the one question YOU hope to get an answer to while at ACCE?

Ann: How are you currently leveraging mentoring to elevate the effectiveness of your customer service teams?

ICMI: What is the best customer experience you’ve had where you’ve been on the customer side?

Ann: I flew to Indianapolis one night after minor surgery on my leg that morning. After checking into the hotel at midnight and going right to bed, I woke at 3am with terrible pain. The ACE bandage had cut into my ankle from the swelling as a result of flying. The burn was deep and painfully throbbing. I could barely walk. I called down to the front desk to ask for burn ointment, but the overnight front desk clerk said they only had Band-Aids. Upon hearing the lump in my throat and the tears welling in my eyes, she said she to give her 10 minutes. She then walked across the street to another hotel and obtained some ointment for me. I was blown away by her commitment to take care of a hotel guest as if I were a close friend.

Mobile Q&A with Tony Kavanagh

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:29:42 GMT

Next week at ACCE Tony Kavanagh, VP Service Cloud for salesforce.com, and Steve Wickens, Senior Director of Product Services for FICO, will deliver a keynote address on Becoming a ‘Customer’ company. If you’re attending ACCE you don’t want to miss it! But the good news is that even if you can’t attend, you can livestream the keynote address, directly from the ICMI Facebook page. Just go to: www.icmi.com/keynotestream and "like" our page to follow along!

In honor of mobile month, and to get to know Tony a little better, we asked him a few questions about mobile customer service. Check out his answers and be sure to tune in next week for his keynote presentation.

ICMI: Do you think that Mobile customers expect a different level of customer service than those from the more traditional channels?

Tony: Mobile customers expect service at anytime and from anywhere. With traditional channels like phone and email, customers have become accustomed to listening to hold music or waiting for a personalized email response. Consumers have a choice in how they want to contact a support organization and when they reach out via mobile the expectation is that they will receive great service not later, but now.

ICMI: Do you think Social Media customer service or Mobile Customer Service is a harder channel to support within a contact center?

Tony: The key to delivering amazing service is ensuring that your contact center is equipped to deliver service on any channel, any time. The question is not whether social or mobile is more difficult but whether your agents have the tools they need to meet customers on any channel. In the social and mobile era, the companies who embrace multichannel service will be best prepared to amaze their customers on the channels the customers choose, whether that’s social, mobile, email, phone, web chat, or even via self-service portals and communities.

ICMI: Where do you see contact centers facing the biggest challenges when trying to implement some of the emerging channels like Social, Mobile or advanced Self-Service?

Tony: One key to success is navigating through all of the “noise” and finding the real service inquiries. There are billions of tweets and social posts each day, and it’s imperative for companies to have the ability to filter down to the critical ones. Implementing a new channel requires a plan, such as deciding which questions to prioritize and which are merely comments that don’t necessary need a response.

ICMI: Would you say Mobile is a competitive differentiator? Why?

Tony: With more than 1.7 billion mobile devices shipped in 2012 according to IDC, companies today have to be mobile, and mobile will be a key competitive differentiator. If you look at shipments of mobile devices vs. notebooks and desktop computers, notebooks and desktops are flat over the last 10 years and projected to stay flat while mobile devices continue to grow. Companies who do not embrace the new mobile era will be left behind.

ICMI: What impact do you see business facing if they DO NOT implement customer service around the emerging channels currently being favored by customers?

Tony:The biggest impact will be on customer satisfaction. In the new mobile and social era companies need to be connected to their customers in the channels that the customers choose. It’s no longer up to companies to dictate how customers communicate with them – companies need to meet the mobile and social challenge and engage with customers and the channels where they already are.

ICMI: Do you think that the balance of power is shifting from the business to the consumer? Why?

Tony: Absolutely. Jeff Bezos has a great quote from several years ago – before the advent of social technologies but after the advent of the Internet. He said that before the Internet if you upset a customer he would tell 6 people. And after the Internet he would tell 6,000 about a bad experience. In the social and mobile revolution today it’s not unreasonable to think that a customer complaint could easily reach 60,000 or 600,000 or even 6 million people. In a world where a consumer has that kind of reach, the consumer is definitely sitting in the driver’s seat.

Speaker of the Week: Mentoring then and Now

Fri, 03 May 2013 21:02:30 GMT

In “The Corner Office” in the Business section of Sunday's New York Times, Ilene Gordon, CEO of ingredient manufacturer Ingredion, took the opportunity to pay tribute to mentoring then and now.

The Impact of a Mentor

Following business school, Ilene was responsible for acquisitions at Tenneco when a self-appointed mentor saw potential in her. He recognized her intellect, ambition, and focus, and challenged her to run those businesses she was acquiring. He put her in a job bigger than her and committed to helping her hone her business skills. Today she is on Fortune magazine's list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business as the President/CEO of a Fortune 500 company with $6.2 billion in net sales.

Ilene's Commitment to Being a Mentoring CEO

Ilene excites people with fresh opportunities as her Mentor did for her. She leads with a mentoring mindset. Her commitment:

See potential in others where they don't see it themselves
Stretch people who demonstrate talent, people skills, and drive
Put people into roles they're not quite ready for
Allow people to grow into those big roles
Offer young managers an opportunity to share with the board how they're creating value for the company

Her Belief in the Lasting Impact of Mentoring

Ilene believes that people carry their mentoring experiences with them. "I'm not just hiring the person sitting there. I'm hiring the four people who mentored him. I don't think there's anybody who's successful in their role today who hasn't been mentored by somebody."

In each interview, she asks the candidate:

Who mentored you?
Who did you learn from?
What was their expertise?
What companies did they work for?

What can we do to become a Mentoring Leader like Ilene?

Make a list of your own Mentors
Acknowledge their influence on your success
Discover other people's list of influencers
Work to earn a spot on their influencers list
See what they don't see in themselves
Take a risk on their potential
Push people into their uncomfortable
Allow people to surprise you

It takes a true Mentoring Leader to leverage the spotlight of the NY Times to mentor aspiring, inspiring, and expiring leaders everywhere. Through her interview, Ilene influenced leaders everywhere to make a difference by leading with a mentoring mindset.

Ilene's message is beautifully encapsulated in Author Antoine de Saint-Exupery's powerful quotation: "As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it."

About Ann Tardy

Organizations such as Duke Energy and Kaiser Permanente cite Ann Tardy with building legacies by preparing people to evolve.

As a former corporate attorney and CPA, and current entrepreneur, Ann knows business from every dynamic: financial, legal, customer, leadership, operations, and ethics. She served at two of the largest law firms in California, headed the legal department of two start-up companies, and started her own law firm to successfully launch over 75 entrepreneurs.

To make a more strategic impact, Ann launched her own consulting firm to revolutionize succession planning, mentoring, and the evolution of employees from on-boarding to up-boarding to de-boarding. As a result of her work, Ann allows leaders to leverage a strategic talent advantage.

Ann cycled from San Francisco to New Jersey to produce the documentary Work Matters. In addition, Ann is a frequent keynote speaker and the author of three books on mentoring and leadership.

Twitter: @LifeMoxie

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lifemoxie

Blog: lifemoxie.com/blog

Contact info: ann@lifemoxie.com / 415.828.7799

Demystifying Social and Mobile Customer Service

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:40:00 GMT

This post kicks off our month of Mobile. It was originally posted on the Genesys blog on March 8, 2013.

Social media and mobile technologies have radically changed how consumers communicate, interact with, share and spread information. But, while the public adores new technology, it can give customer experience executives heartburn.

Customers can voice their opinions on Facebook, Twitter and other social channels, anytime, anywhere using their phones. These outlets give customers more power and leverage than they’ve ever had before — especially when problems arise. One moment of anger or frustration can turn into a hasty, 140-character rant that could potentially reach millions of people.

Bad Breaks

One of the first — and perhaps most famous — examples of this was the United Breaks Guitars fiasco in 2008, in which a musician saw United Airlines baggage handlers throwing — and as he later discovered, breaking — his favorite guitar. After United refused to pay for a replacement, he wrote a song called “United Breaks Guitars” and posted it to YouTube. The song turned into a viral hit, racking up 5 million views in one month (12 million to date) and became a hit on iTunes. No doubt, the incident was a disaster for United — the managing director of customer solutions ended up personally calling the musician to apologize.

While most companies now realize the potential impact — both negative and positive — of social media and mobile technology, very few tend to think about them in the context of holistic customer service. Most still tend to view social channels as marketing or communications platforms, and frequently turn to them as Band-Aid solutions to bigger problems — responding selectively to vocal customers, for instance, or offering temporary fixes like coupons to solve more complex internal problems with service.

Similarly, many companies today miss the boat in plotting smart mobile strategies. For many, their mobile presence (often in the form of an app) serves as an ineffective branding opportunity, instead of a potentially powerful service opportunity. And they do this increasingly at their own peril: Mobile users are ever more present and active — and increasingly immune to corporate branding and messaging. Simply redirecting app users who need customer support to a 1-800 number overlooks an opportunity to better serve a customer.

Don’t Waste a Perfect Opportunity

These new channels are the ultimate opportunity to reach customers at the precise moment they are in need. That said, both social and mobile have their own unique strengths and capabilities: Social provides a one-to-many approach, while mobile delivers personalized attention through self or assisted service. Organizations need to strategically consider how to leverage each channel’s unique strengths to meet their business objectives.

The mobile and social opportunity is wasted when social and mobile service become siloed without a unifying purpose. Social media interactions become strictly reactive when they could be used to address larger or ongoing customer service issues, and mobile apps mostly tend to be the domain of the marketing department, and ignore service.

Think about it: When was the last time you saw a section, button or tab on a mobile app that was dedicated to customer service? That aspect is largely ignored, even though mobile interactions are instant, highly personal, and build brand loyalty.

Max Ball, Director of Customer Solutions, Genesys

Max has been in the self service, customer care and contact center world for over twenty years working at a variety of companies including Edify, IBM and now Genesys. Max has been at Genesys for over seven years and serves as the company’s Director of Solutions Marketing responsible for their “Innovations” product lines. Max’s background includes expertise on web based banking applications and natural language text interpretation software, he is a graduate of Stanford University.

Was it good for you Si or No?

Thu, 02 May 2013 18:38:07 GMT

Every manager should pretend to be on the show Undercover Boss. If your staff recognizes you, have a friend do it or hire someone to go through your entire process. I bought a chair this week. Love the chair but will probably never go back to the store – attack sales people, a too-long process, rude checkout staff, a toll free number that was not toll free that led to 4 more 800 numbers for delivery information, and a delivery that was 4 hours later than the ‘approximate’ time. Yes, this is an actual picture of the electronic survey I was given by the driver.

Have you ever bought your own product? Try it.

Dayna

Dayna Steele, Chief Tipster at YourDailySuccessTip, Speaker, Author

Dayna is also the author of Your Daily Success Tip, a witty and informative piece of advice that is delivered directly to you every day. You can sign up here to start changing your life...one tip at a time.

WFO Insider: Forecasting Shrinkage

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:27:38 GMT

Shrinkage in the call center is inevitable. Things will come up. Whether planned or unplanned, agents will be late for work, call in sick, or have to leave early from time to time. So, how do you plan for that?

The concept of forecasting shrinkage is somewhat new to me. I've always been told shrinkage is very erratic and difficult to forecast. Most call centers I‘ve spoken to just use a flat line approach or go with the most recently observed shrinkage percentage. Our call center uses the most recently observed shrinkage percentage to plan for and forecast future shrinkage. It seems to work for the most part, and is much better than a flat line approach, but I've wondered if we could be forecasting more accurately.

I recently had the opportunity to hear Penny Reynolds, of The Call Center School, speak at SWPP in Nashville and she shared some great insights on forecasting. Not only did she share advice on forecasting for agent shrinkage, she discussed call center forecasting methods in general. One takeaway: perhaps the most important step in forecasting shrinkage (or any other metric, for that matter) is gathering the proper data. If you’re not keeping an accurate log of agent time, how can you even begin to forecast for the future?

Generating historical data allows you to look for trends and plan and prepare for those similar times in the future. For example, which days do more agents tend to call in sick? Which month is the most popular for vacation time?

As Penny suggested, many companies are now trying to retain interval level historical data for 12-18 month periods. That’s not something we’ve tried in the past, but we are now considering it for the future.

How does your company forecast agent shrinkage? What have you found works best? Feel free to drop me a line or share your thoughts in the comments.

Jeffrey Bretana, Business Operations Analyst- Technology and Operations- Workforce Management, Navy Federal Credit Union

Contact Jeff: jeffrey_bretana@navyfederal.org

Conquer the Biggest Threat to Business Success with Exceptional Leadership

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:55:42 GMT

I recently encountered an interesting statistic:

“84% of senior leaders globally say disengaged employees are one of the three biggest threats facing their business - yet only 12% of them report regularly working to address employee engagement.”

(The Economist, Reengaging with Engagement Report, 2011)

So, how do you address employee engagement? A recent study by Mercer revealed the top five factors that influence employee motivation and engagement globally are:

Being treated with respect
Work/Life balance
Type of work
Quality of coworkers
Quality of leadership

Quality of leadership is critical for motivating and engaging employees.

What is necessary to boost the quality of your leadership in order to increase productivity and profitability?

The single most important factor in employee engagement is creating an emotional commitment between the employee and the organization. To do this, leaders need to focus on the following building blocks to become a magnetic leader who conquers the threats disengaged employees present to their business.

1. Be Authentic:

Being comfortable in your own skin, finding your passion and pursuing that passion will empower people to step up and create their own value within the organization.

2. Ask & Listen:

Asking questions of your employees and actually listening and responding to their concerns builds trust. 60% of employees with a low degree of trust in management intend to leave their organization, compared to 20% with a high degree of trust. (Center for Creative Leadership, World Leadership Survey, 2010)

3. Communicate:

Almost 2/3 of all employees are 33% as productive as they could be because they don’t understand what they are being asked to do. (The Conference Board 2010) Leaders who communicate regularly, clearly and effectively with their employees will significantly increase productivity.

4. Be Confident:

When you make a business decision considering all factors, potential outcomes and risks and then present those to members of the organization when initiating a change, individuals will be more inclined to embrace the changes presented. Confidence in your decision is critical to getting others to believe in the change.

As a leader, when you begin to harness the irresistible forces of exceptional leadership, you will create a culture where the emotional connection between individuals and the organization is palpable and inevitably measurable in the increased profitability and productivity of the organization as a whole.

At this year’s ACCE, Dianne Durkin of Loyalty Factor will be presenting a preconference workshop Increase Productivity and Profitability with Exceptional Leadership. This 3.5 hour session will delve into the process of becoming a magnetic leader and provide valuable tools for leaders to improve their organizations through communication, trust and engagement and gather tips on how to create the essential emotional connection between individuals and the organization! Don’t miss it!!!

Dianne M. Durkin, President and Founder of Loyalty Factor

Dianne Durkin is the President and Founder of Loyalty Factor, a consulting and training company that enhances employee, customer and brand loyalty for some of the nation’s most prominent corporations and smaller businesses. She has a very unique background including finance, direct sales, international marketing and training and development.

Widely recognized as a visionary thinker who has a rare combination of creativity and a strong business sense, Dianne has been interviewed as a Loyalty Expert by ABC News. She has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily and the Boston Globe, among numerous other publications. Dianne was the subject of two cover stories in Learning and Training magazine and Sales & Service Excellence.

Dianne is the author of two books: The Loyalty Factor: Building Employee, Customer and Brand Loyalty and The Power of Magnetic Leadership: It’s Time to get R.E.A.L. which recently received Clarion Review’s Five Star Rating. Others have stated The Power of Magnetic Leadership is the only leadership reference guide any manager needs.

If you need someone to quickly assess the core issues within your company and outline their impact on the organization, profits, productivity and people, Dianne is your person. She is continually sought after to lead companies into new markets, handle organizational restructures and set up programs to build lasting commitments with employees and customers.

Contact Dianne:

Email:dmdurkin@loyaltyfactor.com

Website: www.loyaltyfactor.com

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/queenofloyalty

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/loyaltyfactor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LoyaltyFactor

Blog: http://www.loyaltyandretention.com/

Sorry, not my job

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:56:19 GMT

Note from Erica Strother, ICMI Community Specialist: Today's tip from Dayna is good advice for any working professional, but it's particularly pertinent for call center professionals. In today's rapidly changing contact centers, agents, supervisors, managers, and executives all have to wear many hats. Stepping up and going the extra mile not only impacts your colleagues, but also improves the overall customer experience, which in the end is beneficial for everyone. What can you do to go the extra mile?

My dad used to tell me to always do a quality job and always, always give 110%. His language was a little more colorful but you get the idea. Step up, do a little extra, take care of something that needs to be done whether it is in your job description or not. Arrive a little earlier, stay a little later – whatever it takes – get the job done today. Watch this Chinese reporter stop what she was doing to immediately start reporting on an earthquake. In her wedding dress at her wedding.

That is what rock stars do,

Dayna

ICMI will be featuring one of Dayna's Your Daily Success Tips each Friday! You can subscribe to YourDailySuccessTip.com directly, or subscribe to the audio version on iTunes or Podbean .

Dayna will be featured as our opening Keynote Speaker at ACCE in Seattle next month - Rock Your World: 5 Things to Do Every Day to Rock Your Customer Service World . She'll also be hosting our first annual Global Call Center of the Year Awards dinner on Tuesday, May 14th. Join Dayna and ICMI for all these great events!

Dont Waste My Time: Meeting Customer and Agent Demands

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:39:12 GMT

Make no mistake: technology has fundamentally changed the nature of customer interactions.

Today’s customers are better informed and more empowered than ever before. Not only do they expect speed and accuracy from their contact center interactions – they demand it. Fail to provide satisfactory service and they can (and will) hit the social airways with instant feedback about your company and your brand.

As a result, many organizations have increased their focus on the customer experience, but improvements don’t come easily. Contact centers face increasing pressure to do more with less. They are constantly charged with operating faster, smarter and cheaper.

At the same time – while trying to meet the increasing demands of customers and the enterprise – a third stakeholder, the agents, play a major role in the success or failure of a company’s overall customer satisfaction program.

In order to be effective, agents must have the training and coaching they need to perform their jobs better and successfully interact and engage with customers. But as we all know, in the contact center, time is a scarce resource.

Where can you find the time to give agents what they need so that they can give your customers the experience they expect and deserve?

The truth is, this time already exists and you are already paying for it! Research shows that the average agent spends 49 minutes of every day sitting idle, waiting for the next call. The problem is that this time comes in 2-3 minute increments, which isn’t enough for agents to complete any meaningful activity.

In the past, a static approach to intraday management has not allowed centers to respond to unexpected changes in call volume in real time. The process is manual, with an agent’s day filled with scheduled time for either handling calls or various off-phone activities, as well as a sizeable chunk of unproductive downtime throughout the day as call volume fluctuates.

The most successful centers are taking a new approach to better utilize their time. Idle time is aggregated across the entire agent workforce, creating larger, more usable blocks for agents to complete the critical training and coaching they need as well as insert some variety into their day.

New intraday management technology is transforming agent idle time into active wait time for agents to complete prioritized activities that improve their performance and productivity. When call volume increases again, they are directed to answering calls so service levels are not negatively impacted.

By finding and utilizing time more efficiently, contact centers are able to better serve agents, enterprises and, most importantly, customers without wasting anyone’s time.

John Wolf, CMO, Intradiem

John is Intradiem's chief marketing officer. Before joining Intradiem to lead marketing and product management, John was assistant vice president of product management at Equifax Personal Solutions, where he was responsible for managing a $53 million online product line. Prior to Equifax, John founded MyoMarkets, where he created an online marketing and e-commerce solution that developed integrated marketing plans across online marketplaces and retail channels. John graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering and holds a master’s degree from Emory University. John will be speaking at ACCE, filling in for Matt McConnell. His practical session will challenge you to take a more holistic look at your center and devise a better approach to improving the customer experience. You will learn how to prepare your agents to more effectively interact with your customers and how to empower them with the knowledge they need to represent your brand.

Is Your IVR Working For You?

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:16:07 GMT

Millennials have a reputation for sharing their customer service experiences through social media.

I happen to be a Millennial, and it’s true. I can think of many situations in which I’ve taken to Twitter or Facebook to either share positive feedback, reach out to a brand directly in hopes of quickly resolving a situation, or voice a complaint.

Just this week I found myself in one such situation. I had a scheduled service appointment for a local internet and phone provider to come install a new phone line and faster internet for my home office. They gave me a window of time in which to expect them, and that window quickly came and went without any service.

Unfortunately, I was not surprised. The process of setting up the appointment had been daunting, to say the least. After multiple (at least five) phone calls, many of which never resulted in speaking to a live agent, the company still couldn’t get my order correct. Evidently, they had no record of my address in the system, but I couldn’t seem to get through the right person who could help. I just kept getting bounced around from department to department. It was not a positive IVR experience for me.

If my dealings with the company hadn’t already been so frustrating, I might have been a little more forgiving, but when my service technician was more than an hour late to my appointment, it was the last straw for me. Naturally, I went to Twitter to voice my frustration.

In this age of social media, customer expectations are higher than ever, and every point of contact makes up a part of the overall customer experience. Joe Alwan addressed this very topic in his Speaker of the Week post this week. His article, Stop Ignoring your IVR, is definitely worth a read.

Joe will be speaking at ACCE this year and I hope you can check out his sessions on IVR and Analytics. But, whether or not you’re attending ACCE, here’s an opportunity to get to know Joe a little better.

ICMI: What excites you most about presenting at ACCE this year?

Joe: I believe that the growing focus on the customer is having a transformative effect on contact centers and our industry. It’s not just cost and compliance and scheduling anymore, as evidenced by the
amount of energy being spent on customer satisfaction, willingness-to-recommend, and customer effort. At AVOKE, we’re helping companies discover something that manufacturers learned long
ago – that doing it right the first time is actually cheaper! The same is true in the contact center – if you focus on delivering great service, you’ll also get lower costs. I’m very excited about what our
industry can do if we stay on this path of using customer focused data and insights to drive our businesses. And about the difference we can make by starting with the customer’s first step in their
journey – interacting with your IVR.

ICMI: What quirky customer service fact would you like our ICMI community to know about you?

Joe: My first 2 jobs were in customer service! I got an electrical engineering degree, but rejected my professor’s advice to go design the next great microprocessor. Instead, I went to work for HP in a
call center supporting repair technicians around the world. My next job was in another HP call center, answering questions for sales reps selling HP computers. I still use what I learned in engineering
every day – which is really about understanding complex processes and knowing how to tackle difficult problems. But, I just enjoy the interface between a company and its’ customers too much to do
any other kind of work.

ICMI: What is the one takeaway you hope to give your audience?

Joe: My session at ACCE this year is about part of the contact process that is too frequently ignored and has a huge impact on customer satisfaction and contact center costs. And that is the IVR. The one thing
I hope people remember is that the fastest way to reduce agent-handled call volume and talk time in most centers is to get your IVR better aligned with your business processes. On average, companies
can reduce agent-handled call volume by 15% just by re-thinking their IVR strategy and optimizing it with real customer insights.

ICMI: What is the one question YOU hope to get an answer to while at ACCE?

Joe: How has our industry failed so miserably in making IVRs into helpful partners to deliver great service? Somehow we’ve managed to teach customers to hate IVR systems! Would your company keep a receptionist that treated people so badly that they hated coming to your office? We can’t throw out the IVR - that would cost too much in additional staffing. So, where did we go wrong? And what can
we do about it?

ICMI: What is the best customer experience you’ve had where you’ve been on the customer side?

Joe: I had a great experience with TIAA-CREF recently. They sent me a huge package of materials about an account change that I needed to make. The package was nearly incomprehensible because of the sheer volume of information and material. I felt like I had several hours ahead of me to read and re-read the cover letter to make sense of it – and then to wade through all the forms that were included. Fortunately, the representative had his name and phone number at the bottom of the letter. So, I called. In a few short minutes, he asked several questions to understand what I wanted to do with the account. Then he told me which 2 forms I needed, and that I could throw the rest of the package out. That alone was a huge relief. Then he stayed on the phone and walked me through the 2 forms as I filled them out. Can’t imagine how much time he saved me!

Stay tuned as we feature more speakers between now and ACCE!

Forecasting Agent Shrinkage

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:55:05 GMT

Do you forecast agent shrinkage?

ICMI recently asked community members if they forecast for agent shrinkage. 69% said yes, 8% said no, and 24% said they don't, but would love to learn how. If you're in the latter group, be sure to check out the WFO Insider next Tuesday, as Jeff Bretana, Business Operations Analyst III for Workforce Management at Navy Federal Credit Union, discusses forecasting agent shrinkage.

One Simple Way to Boost Agent Utilization: Social Media Customer Service

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:35:00 GMT

There’s a new way to get an even better return on your investment in dedicated agents at your outsourced contact center.

The percentage of each working hour an agent spends interacting with customers is called utilization, and it’s a key indicator of the value you’re getting from your contact center. The higher the utilization, the greater the value. Typically, even the most efficient contact center teams experience between 15 and 35 minutes of downtime in any given hour. During that downtime, agents on your account aren’t answering calls, responding to emails, or engaging customers in online chats, even though you’re being charged for a full hour of their time.

Reasons for the downtime and for variations in the volume of customer calls and emails include such unavoidable circumstances and events as seasonal demand patterns, recalls and crisis management, customer response to promotions, new product introductions and more.

So no matter how carefully you forecast demand and staff your account with dedicated agents, a certain amount of downtime is inevitable. Given that, how can you turn downtime into productive time and increase the value you get from your contact center?

The answer is social media customer care.

Engaging customers via social media

Customers talk online about your company and its products via Twitter, Facebook pages, review sites, forums, blogs and elsewhere. Monitoring that social media conversation, and more importantly, responding to it, has become essential for protecting and promoting your brand. An ingenious way to do that—and boost agent utilization—is to enable your contact center staff to use downtime to respond to customers online. When not occupied answering phone calls and emails, dedicated agents can respond to social media posts. Because online posts are not as high a priority as calls and emails, agents can respond during downtime, thereby increasing utilization and delivering a greater return on your contact center dollar.

In addition to responding to posts that mention your company by name and that require a customer care response, agents can proactively search out posts that relate to your company or its products and respond directly to a customer. This “social search-and-respond” function is more marketing than customer service and can promote the brand, convert new customers, and effectively cross-sell and upsell.

By adding social media customer care to the services your contact center provides, you’ll be extending a superior level of brand care to a channel where customers feel most comfortable, namely, social media. In addition, you’re giving your agents a chance to use their brand knowledge to interact with customers in a channel they use even when not at work and know well.

Implementing social media customer care

Implementing a social media customer care program is quicker and simpler than you may think. You do need to set up templates for responses, spell out which posts deserve a response, and make sure your call center platform enables social media interaction and reporting. Once that’s done, your agents—who already understand and speak your brand fluently—can easily transition to serving customers in the public space of social media. Agents delivering social media customer care enjoy the informal style of this new communication channel, value the ability to think through a response before posting, and benefit from reading the online conversation around the brand.

If you’d like to increase agent utilization on your account and engage with customers in social media, where the most active brand conversations are taking place, speak with your contact center about how to get started. At Global Response, we’re always open to finding new ways to deliver outstanding customer care and improve the customer experience for all the clients we serve.

This blog was originally posted on December 17, 2012 on The Global Response blog.

Phillip Crowe, Social Media Director, Global Response

Phillip is the Social Media Director at Global Response and has been working in the internet marketing industry since 2006. He has a Master's degree in Integrated Marketing Communication from Florida State University, and lives to create digital strategy. In his free time, Phillip writes and researches for his own social media/digital strategy blog. You can contact Phillip at PhillipACrowe@gmail.com

WFO Insider: Undertime in the Contact Center

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:59:00 GMT

How to address overstaffing in the call center.

We are all familiar with the concept of overtime. When we require more staff than we can provide on certain days and intervals, we have a staffing shortage. If this shortage is significant enough, we offer overtime to fill the need. But what happens when we have more staff than we need on certain days and intervals? Consider offering "undertime!"

Undertime is the opposite of overtime; when there is a staffing surplus, we can allow a certain number of agents to take full day or partial day leave without penalty. This will help reduce wasteful and costly idle time while allowing agents the flexibility to take leave on short notice. After all, agents have to take their leave sometime. Why not allow them to take leave when it doesn't negatively impact staffing levels? Your call center will reap the benefits as well as your agents, and your Workforce Management team will be seen as supportive instead of too rigid.

It is advisable to limit the amount of undertime you initially offer to ensure you don't unintentionally create staffing deficiencies. This can happen if a large number of agents call out sick or if your volume is higher than forecasted. Every call center and inbound queue has individual volatility, so determining the amount of undertime to offer can be an "art" more than a "science." Be conservative at first until you get a good feel for your specific situation.

Do you offer undertime in your contact center? Would you consider it?

Jeffrey Bretana, Business Operations Analyst- Technology and Operations- Workforce Management, Navy Federal Credit Union

Jeff Bretana is the Business Operations Analyst- Technology and Operations for Workforce Management and Navy Federal Credit Union.