Who's Doing What Very Well: Call Centers Innovating in Key Areas

Original Publication: Customer Management Insight - October 2007
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A look at true innovation in critical areas of contact center management.

Our industry is obsessed with awards and accolades — “best” this and “best” that. We seem to always be on the lookout for contact centers that “have it all” — veritable customer contact superpowers with nary a chink in their armor. But the fact of the matter is that, while numerous centers are doing many things very well, none are without their share of challenges and shortcomings.

Unearthing all-around contact center innovation and success requires one to expand his or her view beyond individual operations. Since no single center encapsulates exemplary practices in all the key areas of contact center management, the fun and intrigue is in scanning our entire dynamic industry and discovering the most progressive and effective practices.

That’s just what we at ICMI have been doing over the past couple of months; this article highlights what we feel are some of the most noteworthy processes, strategies, initiatives and tools that have been implemented by actual contact centers. It is certainly not an exhaustive list, but one that we hope will help to inspire managers, supervisors and agents everywhere to move well beyond the “ho-hum” and the “that’s nice.”

 

RECRUITING AND HIRING

U.S. Cellular. After years of struggling like many other contact centers to attract and obtain the most qualified and committed frontline staff, in late 2004, U.S. Cellular implemented its formal “Five-Point Strategy to Agent Acquisition” — a multi-hurdle hiring program comprised of five critical stages: 1) Announce, 2) Attract, 3) Source, 4) Assess, and 5) Acquire.

The strategy, which features an artful blend of high-tech and high-touch, has enabled the center to stock its frontline with people who not only have the ability to thrive in customer contact, but who actually end up doing so, and for extended periods. “Before, acquisition was very reactionary,” says Manny Torres, senior HR director of talent acquisition for U.S. Cellular. “In moving away from the ‘butts in seats’ mentality, we consistently have a pool that we are able to tap into.”

That emphasis is paying off. The center consistently meets or exceeds its performance objectives, agent retention rates are higher than industry norms, and customer satisfaction — based on direct feedback surveys — “rates us around the threshold of 100 percent consistently,” says Torres.

Highlights of the center’s recruiting and hiring initiative include:

• An online Career Center and Customer Care Microsite featuring a description of the organization's highly customer-centric service philosophy, details on each contact center location and the agent position itself, a “call to action” (challenging applicants to embark on an exciting career), as well as an automated application page (featuring a series of questions to gauge applicant's experience/core competencies) that can be filled out online.

• The use of an outside advertising agency — TMP-Worldwide — that was involved in every aspect of creating the center’s Announce and Attract strategy.

• A comprehensive, automated applicant tracking system (ATS) called PeopleFilter (developed by Tal­entology, LLC) that helps U.S. Cellular separate promising agent agents from the rest of the pack early on in the hiring process. The ATS evaluates all applicants who complete the online application process and compares them to “what matters most,” says Torres. The ATS rates each candidate on a wide number of competencies — each of which is defined as either “required,” “very important,” “important,” “desirable” or merely “nice to have.” The system also takes into account any contact center or customer experience the applicant has, and then assigns the applicant an overall score.

• The use of innovative assessment software, including the Call Center Simulator product from Employment Technologies. “It replicates a typical call center, and measures such things as comfort with typing, computer navigation, transferring audio information to text, etc.,” explains Torres. The second key assessment tool is the Call Center Fit Index (developed by the DeGarmo Group), which is de­signed to see if an applicant has the specific character elements needed to thrive in the challenging contact center environment.

• Alignment interviews, the first of which — conducted by U.S. Cellular’s HR department — is a 15- to 20-minute live interview to help determine cultural alignment. The second is an extension of the Call Center Fit Index assessment, where the hiring manager reviews the results and recommendations provided by the Fit Index, then probes further using a set of pre-defined, behavioral-based questions that are tied to the specific needs of the hiring manager and his or her team.

Davis Vision. When hiring new agents at Davis Vision’s contact center, mind-set trumps skill-set. That is, managers and supervisors believe that customer service skills can be taught, but that authentic customer service spirit cannot.

“Finding people who possess qualities that are in line with our corporate credo and values is more important than obtaining a candidate with the right skill set,” says Tom Iachetta, assistant vice president of customer service. “People can be taught the business processes, but they cannot always learn to be positive, …to treat each other with respect, and to understand that ‘quality’ is doing it right.”

To obtain agents who represent a good fit, the contact center squeezes many components into its hiring program, and seeks input from employees at every level —from existing agents to senior management. Of course, prior to selecting qualified staff, quality applicants must first be found. This is not a problem at Davis Vision, where ample employee referrals and the company’s excellent reputation perennially provide the contact center with a deep pool of applicants. In addition, the center posts job ads online and in the local paper.

All applicants go through a telephone screening process that includes general information about the job and company and solicits information from each applicant to help Davis Vision to assess how well they present themselves. Applicants who are deemed a potential match are invited into the center for — if all goes well — a rather long day:

First, they meet with an HR specialist, who further screens them for cultural fit and service aptitude. Candidates who ace that assessment then interview with one of the center’s supervisors. Following the supervisor interview, successful applicants are treated to a front-row seat to witness one of the center’s experienced agents in action. The goal of such observations is twofold: 1) to give the applicant knowledge of what the position is really like so he or she can make an informed decision; and 2) to give the experienced agent input into the hiring decision (the agent with whom the applicant sits evaluates the protégé’s attentiveness, interest, and friendliness and respect.

Applicants who impress an agent get a chance to do the same with a contact center manager. Even if the manager feels the applicant is Davis Vision-worthy, the agent-in-waiting still has to meet with a senior manager to earn his or her headset. Finally, all candidates targeted for hire are invited in for a group interview with the senior vice president, who completes one final assessment of each candidate as well as shares a little more about Davis Vision’s culture and expectations.

Iachetta acknowledges that it would be much easier to have HR and just one supervisor handle the interviews and hiring decisions, as many call centers do. But Iachetta’s center has something many call centers don’t: low voluntary turnover — just 16.5 percent in 2006, well below the industry norm.

 

TRAINING

McKesson Corporation. Re­cent research conducted by the Amer­ican Society for Training and Development (ASTD) revealed that the best organizations consistently evaluate the impact of training to demonstrate the link between learning and organizational performance. Historically, however, most contact centers have dropped the ball with regard to training measurement, says Sharon Daniels, CEO of training solutions firm AchieveGlobal. “Call centers measure what’s easy to measure — how long training is, who attends, how they score on mastery or behavioral assessment — but struggle to show training’s influence on business results. Call centers should measure how well the implementation works (level 1), how well the learners absorbed and are applying the skills (levels 2 and 3), and if the business is improving overall (level 4).”

Progressive companies like McKesson Corporation have heeded Daniel’s expert advice. McKesson’s contact center implemented a measurable training initiative with the help of its own agents, and has since realized huge gains in productivity, quality, em­ployee morale and customer satisfaction.

Through the initiative, the center’s management and staff identified the specific skills and knowledge required to succeed in various agent positions, defined those skill and/or knowledge areas in a matrix, assessed each agent based on the matrix (using both self- and mentor-led assessments), then documented in formal development plans in the areas in which each agent needed to improve.

Each agent was given six months to get within the acceptable skill or knowledge range for his or her specific position. Not only did all agents do so via self-paced training; the individual and team skills matrices that had been created revealed, over time, a significant increase in the overall skill or knowledge level within the contact center. Having a measurable training program in place also helped to expedite cross-training — enabling three separate groups to consolidate into one.

Susan Evilsizer, manager of support at McKesson’s contact center in Charlotte, N.C., doesn’t really know how the center ever functioned without such a measurable program in place. “All training is now tracked with a value that is consistent for all [agents]. We have assessments that validate their knowledge in each of the different areas they support. We have training agendas to validate what the instructor is teaching. And then there is a class assessment to ensure that individuals get out of the class what they need.”

Nationwide’s San Antonio Claims Center. Nationwide doesn’t believe in keeping enthusiastic trainees cooped up in a classroom for too long. However, the center doesn’t think it’s a good idea to throw them to the wolves, either. That’s why managers have incorporated a transitional aspect into new-hire training that enables trainees to handle select calls in a controlled “nesting area” prior to graduating to the official phone floor. “We keep them ‘incubated’ and focused,” says Stephanie Morrison, one of the center’s managers, “and make sure we are available to them. Then, after about two weeks, we put them into the general population and assign them to teams.”

Trainees begin the hands-on, transitional training period in the fourth week of new-hire training. The nesting area is supervised by a leadership team as well as by a select group of senior agents. Having the latter present to assist with questions and coaching helps to put trainees at ease, says Morrison. “We understand that sometimes [a trainee] feels more comfortable asking a peer for assistance instead of asking somebody on the leadership team.”

The senior agents themselves are also very much in favor of the approach, adds David Taliancich, another manager at the center. “They look at it as a real development opportunity and a leadership opportunity. It’s something that they are always happy to help out with.”

The nurturing of new-hires doesn’t end when transition training is completed. New agents, after graduating and joining a team on the phone floor, are assigned a mentor to help further ease them into the challenging position and provide them with the extra support they may need.

 

STAFFING AND WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

1-800-flowers. The company’s Enterprise Service Center, like many other contact centers, experiences formidable yet predictable peak seasons when contact volumes spike sharply. Until about five years ago, the increased workload was handled by temporary phone staff or outsourced to a service bureau. Neither were ideal solutions, as they each resulted in high turnover and operating costs.

Hungry for a better option, the company decided to try something entirely different — to share staff with another contact center that had peak seasons that were countercyclical to that of its own center. The famed florist found its innovative answer in Choice Hotels.

“As it turns out, their off-season complemented our seasonal peak, and vice versa,” explains Ed Fields, Senior Manager of the Enterprise Service Center. “Our primary objectives have been to reduce our seasonal hiring ramps and retain more agents on a year-round basis. We have been very successful in meeting those objectives.”

Today, about 40 to 50 Choice agents handle 1-800-flowers.com calls around the Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day seasons. In turn, 1-800-Flowers.com has 40 or 50 agents who help out on Choice calls year-round, with as many as 180 of the florist’s agents lending a Choice hand over the summer months.

“We end up with a pool of more than 200 agents trained in both Choice and 1-800-flowers who can be utilized as needed on either side,” says a gleeful Fields. …”It’s a win-win.”

He adds that the integration was very straightforward from a technological standpoint, as both centers use an Avaya switch. “We simply dropped T1s and data circuits in each other's sites, and each company routes their own traffic.”

The two centers are in constant communication with one another to ensure that each stays on top of its contact traffic. Agent training is also key, and has evolved substantially since the inception of the agent-sharing initiative. When the relationship first started, each company would send trainers to the other’s sites to conduct in-depth training and to ensure that the enterprise’s respective brand identity and mission and/or goals were effectively communicated and embraced. How­ever, to cut down on travel time and expenses, each company’s trainers have since become certified to conduct training on both centers’ products and services.

Quality assurance is handled virtually, with each center able to monitor off-site agents from its command post. Recruiting, hiring and compensation are also relatively straightforward: Each center hires and pays their own agents according to its internal policies.

In addition to enabling each center to save on operating costs and avoid the knowledge-draining effect “hire/fire” scenarios associated with the use of temps, both companies have found that all shared agents welcome the job diversity that the unique initiative affords. “Agents love the variety of work that this offers them,” says Fields. “The relationship has undoubtedly helped retention.”

Agent-sharing isn’t the only example of staffing innovation at 1-800-flowers; the contact center further pushes traditional staffing parameters with a highly effective and popular telework program. Many of the center’s most tenured agents have been handling customer contacts from home for over a decade. The virtual staffing model has been instrumental not only in enhancing scalability, customer service, sales and first-contact resolution, but also in helping the center to retain its best agents for long periods. In addition to its own crew of home agents, the center partners with virtual outsourcers Alpine Access and LiveOps — both staffed entirely with teleworkers — to help the center with its seasonal spikes.

Despite the geographical separation, all home agents are fully connected to — and kept abreast of all happenings at — the physical contact center site. Quality monitoring, coaching and training of home agents is conducted virtually. And the center uses VPI’s Agentivity and Agent Dashboard to keep teleworkers in the loop at all times. “They can see their real-time performance statistics and receive messages and updates as needed,” Fields explains. He adds that the center uses Pipkins Wave tool, which enables all agents to view, change and swap schedules. In addition, “our virtual helpdesk is a phone call away from any agent, and chat rooms allow constant flow of communication.”

What was once viewed as one service center in five cities, says Fields, is “now one service center in five cities and several hundred living rooms!”

American Diabetes Association. The American Diabetes Assoc­i­ation’s call center may be small (fewer than 30 agents), but its staffing strategy is big.

For years, the center — as do many centers its size — struggled to maintain service levels and to lower abandon rates whenever call volume peaked. But ADA has battled back with a resourceful solution that combines flexible agents and technology.

Today, the center utilizes a sort of internal SWAT team to help overcome call spikes, customer frustration and agent burnout. Whenever call volumes reach a set threshold, a team of cross-trained reserve agents — advanced members of the center’s staff whose primary duties include working on various projects and/or handling ADA’s professional membership or donations lines — dive into the main diabetes queue to help out. Then, when things settle down, the reservists go back to their primary responsibilities.

Such transitions are made quickly and seamlessly, thanks to software by Avaya called Business Advocate, explains Lee Barona, national director of ADA’s call center. “The software enables us to do this automatically and saves us so much time. We are able to program who our reserve agents are and at what thresholds they are to be pulled in to help out on the diabetes line.”

Prior to implementing Business Advocate, she adds, supervisors had to manually pull people in and out of queues, and, often, by the time the extra agents were in place, the queues were flooded.

That’s not a problem any more. Since implementing the new reserve agent initiative, the center has seen a big reduction in hold times (and, consequently, in toll-free costs), and the center’s abandoned call rate has dropped from double-digits to below 3 percent — all without adding any new agents. In addition, “our supervisors spend less time managing real-time volume and more time supporting staff,” says Barona.

 

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MEASUREMENT

Purolator Courier. A leading provider of overnight shipping services in Canada, Purolator Courier boasts one of the highest first-contact resolution (FCR) rates around — with 95 percent to 96 percent of all contacts being fully resolved the first time a customer contacts the center regarding a specific request or inquiry. The company attributes its enviable FCR — and customer satisfaction rates — in large part to its contact center’s multifaceted quality program.

Quality monitoring and coaching is conducted jointly by regular managers and members of the center’s dedicated Quality & Training team. The latter also looks at trends and common improvement areas uncovered via monitoring, customer and agent feedback and root-cause analysis, then creates appropriate training modules to be delivered in monthly training programs.

Each agent has a minimum of six calls monitored per month. While call recording (using an advanced monitoring system by Autonomy etalk) is the most common monitoring method used in the center, remote listening (in real-time) and side-by-side sessions are not uncommon. For recorded calls, agents are given the opportunity to listen to their interactions and self-evaluate prior to receiving feedback and coaching from a manager and/or Quality & Training team member, which typically occurs within a day or two of the actual transaction with the customer. Managers and members of the Quality & Training crew regularly hold calibration sessions to make sure everyone is scoring calls fairly and in a uniform, consistent manner.

To ensure that the center clearly captures the customer’s experience, Purolator has contracted with a third-party firm that surveys a random sample of customers monthly — soon after the customer has completed a transaction with an agent. The customer’s rating and comments are later shared with the agent who handled the contact. “We are proud of the overall focus on quality that this 360-degree approach offers,” says Debbie LeBlanc, contact center director. “Four customer feedback surveys are performed per employee per quarter. This is also included in the employee’s performance review." LeBlanc adds that one of the key things focused on in the customer surveys is first-call-resolution.

American Express de España. This award-winning Spanish contact center is all about “la experiencia del cliente” — the customer experience. The center’s comprehensive Voice of the Customer initiative is as robust and holistic as any we have seen — featuring a host of integrated tools and processes to help continuously identify and act upon emerging customer needs.

Here’s a list of some of the main components that comprise Amex de España’s progressive VOC initiative:

• Transactional customer email surveys. These are sent to customers after they have reached an agent in the contact center. Results and open-ended comments are gathered and fully analyzed on quarterly basis.

• Customer focus groups. Amex de España company invites customers to participate in formal focus groups. From these sessions, the organization receives invaluable feedback on what customers like or dislike about products and services.

• Customer listening programs. Side-by-side call monitoring is performed by all levels of the Call Center & Organization Manage­ment Team, who use the key customer feedback captured to help create strategic action plans for agents and the contact center.

• Executive Customer Relation Report. An executive representative receives, investigates and responds to customer complaints and compliment letters. Customer complaints are shared with the corresponding department. and action plans are put into place to avoid related incidents in the future. Customers compliments are used to develop internal best practices, as well as to provide recognition where deserved.

• Feedback from contact center agents. The contact center solicits feedback from frontline staff regarding customer needs/expectations — via a variety of forums: staff meetings, skip-level meetings, “town hall” meetings, etc.

• Call monitoring reports. Quality monitoring results are carefully evaluated and used to spot common customer issues as well as training and coaching needs in the contact center.

From all these sources, the top 10 topics and issues that are documented in the center’s primary Voice of the Customer action plan. This is a “live” document that is constantly changing as key issues are resolved or improved. There is full ownership of and responsibility for each issue, with designated managers being charged with addressing and fixing each process that causes customer dissatisfaction. Results of and updates on improvement efforts are provided to staff members during each month during a review meeting.

GE Capital Solutions. Critical customer data and actionable feedback are pure gold to an organization, and GE Capital Solutions Customer Support Center is one company that's not afraid to dig. With a dedicated Reporting and Analytics team focused on data mining and trend-spotting, and a third-party survey specialist focused on capturing the Voice of the Customer, GE Capital Solutions continually uncovers well more than its share of precious metal.

The center’s Reporting and Analytics team — once a mere reactive entity serving purely a reporting function — today is powerfully dynamic group dedicated to mining critical contact information and using it to drive improvements to existing processes, procedures and programs, as well as to successfully launch new ones.

“We have close to 1 million inbound customer contacts each year, plus another 1 million offline transactions,” explains Ed Faulstick, general manager of the GE Capital Solutions Customer Support Center, located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “We are able to capture the details on each transaction and tie it to the respective customer, sales program and asset type. Using this data, we know who is calling and why. We know which programs perform better, and which ones require less customer contact.”

Even more direct and actionable data comes straight from customers’ mouths — and the call center has the perfect process in place to capture and act on such valuable information. Each night, the center sends a file of the day’s contacts to an outside survey firm that then conducts a random-sample phone survey to gauge customers’ satisfaction levels and to gather key customer insights and preferences.

The survey is comprised of agent-related questions (e.g., courtesy, knowledge), service-related questions (e.g., wait time, first-contact and/or timely resolution, IVR effectiveness), and process-related questions (e.g., reason for the call). Occasionally, the center also drops in ad-hoc questions to “get the customer pulse on a particular subject,” explains Faulstick.

While most of the survey questions involve a rating scale, some are more open ended, with the survey company reporting verbatim responses to such question back to the call center.

GE Capital Solutions uses the survey data in several ways:

• To provide agent-level feedback on specific contacts, and as part of agents’ overall performance review.

• To identify process improvement opportunities. “For example,” Faulstick explains, “if we find customer satisfaction is lower than expectations on a particular call-type, we will review the process around that call-type to see what needs to be done to improve customer satisfaction.”

• As a powerful tool when working with GE Capital Solutions’ vendors and dealers — allowing the center to share what customers are saying about its service on a broad basis, as opposed to mere anecdotal information.

Faulstick adds that the center recently leveraged its customer survey process to help gauge its “Net Promoter Score” (NPS). “NPS is a systematic way to look at customer loyalty and [customers’] propensity to recommend your business to their peers and colleagues. NPS is a powerful metric and tool that we are using to ensure we are doing the right things to continue to grow our business.”

And whenever the survey reveals that the center did not do the right things with a particular cus­tomer, a proactive Service Ex­cellence team is there to save the day. Members of this effective team follow up with any and all customers who indicated via the survey that they were less than satisfied with their recent interaction. “We have a ‘red-alert’ process with our third-party survey provider,” says Faulstick, “When they find a customer who is not satisfied, we immediately contact them to ensure that the issue has been resolved.”

 

SELF-SERVICE

Amazon.com. Amazon.com fully understands that, although many online customers are intrigued by not having to rely on a person to serve them, they still want the experience to be personal. The online retailer effectively provides such an experience via customer portals — personalized Web pages that greet customers (who have already visited the site) by name and enable them to access and view their account information (e.g., past purchases; pending orders, etc.).

The company’s self-service technology is able to track all customer activity and apply that information to each customer’s private portal, thus enabling Amazon to make automated product recommendations based on each customer’s preferences and past purchasing behavior. Such low-key and well-targeted product suggestions help the company generate tons of revenue via the Web without appearing pushy, and without having to pay agents to probe.

In addition to the impressive customer portals, Amazon.com’s Web site features a powerful search engine and concise online help functions. Further, on each help page, Amazon makes it easy for customers to contact the company via either email (using a Web form) or via Web callback, where customers who provide their phone number receive a call from a live agent right away.

Pacific Gas & Electric. Thanks to PG&E’s sophisticated speech recognition application, callers can quickly and easily take care of many of their key needs without the help of a contact center agent. The powerful speech solution enables callers to pay or ask a question about a bill, stop or start (or transfer) service, receive an outage report, or report an outage, among other functions.

Prior to implementing its speech-powered IVR system a few years ago, several of the aforementioned call types required live-agent assistance, as the center’s previous IVR app — a traditional touch-tone system — wasn’t able to capture customers’ addresses and other key information. Not only has the increased functionality of the center's IVR helped to reduce operating costs, agents are now able to focus on customers’ more complex is­sues, resulting in both better service and lower agent burnout (since staff no longer must contend with so many repetitive, routine transactions).

Since deploying the speech-enabled system, overall IVR completion rates have increased as much as 10 percent to 15 percent for most functions — significantly higher than PG&E’s initial expectations of 5 percent to 9 percent. And customer satisfaction rates have risen significantly across most business areas since the center’s foray into advanced speech.

But PG&E isn’t resting on its laurels; the company has several plans to enhance its speech recognition application, including automating more transaction types and upgrading its customer information systems so that customers’ IVR activity will be captured and sent to agents whenever calls require live assistance.

“We are excited about the results we’ve achieved so far using speech,” says Kent Barnes of PG&E. “and look forward to continued improvements as more customers use the application and experience the power of speech.”

 

AGENT DEVELOPMENT AND EMPOWERMENT

Canadian Tire Financial Ser­vices.   With an average length of service (for agents) of seven years, you can guess that CTFS knows a thing or two about employee development and engagement. The call center has a dynamic skill path in place that enables agents to increase their pay in small increments after obtaining valuable new skills and knowledge through experience and continuous training. Further, once they demonstrate proficiency with their new capabilities and know-how, agents are empowered to share what they know with colleagues as either a “subject-matter expert” or a “peer coach.” Both of these positions are highly coveted by CTFS agents — not just because the positions come with higher pay, but because they are viewed by the company and the call center as critical roles.

Subject-matter experts are the “go-to-guys” for the rest of the staff on specific topics — serving as help-desk reps for fellow agents who need assistance during customer contacts. Typically, the subject-matter expert provides agents with the answer(s) they need to continue the call, though occasionally — for particularly complex issues — the agent will transfer the call to the expert for direct handling.

Peer coaches play an equally important role — assisting supervisors with quality monitoring and coaching of frontline staff. “We feel that the best person to help somebody to be better is someone who does the job very well,” says Scott Williams, CTFS’ director of customer service, “someone who has experience every day on the phone and who knows what it’s like to be [an agent].”

While the subject-matter expert and peer coach positions are referred to as “elevated,” neither is placed too far out of reach from any agent who has ambition. In fact, more than 15 percent of the center’s nearly 400 agents currently serve as either a subject-matter expert or a peer coach — or both.

Opportunities for development and job diversity don’t end there for CTFS agents; all frontline staff are frequently given the chance to work on various off-phone projects and task forces.

Virgin Mobile. At Virgin Mobile Canada’s Customer Care Center, managers know that the best way to keep agents sticking around is to simply get out of their way. The center’s retention tactics enable agents to dress down, chow down and get down. There is no documented dress code to speak of, and staff can eat, drink and even listen to their personal choice of music at their desk when not handling contacts.

According to Nancy Tichbon, director of customer experience for Virgin Mobile Canada, strong em­ployee commitment and stellar customer service is the result of empowering and respecting — not inhibiting — staff. “People can have purple hair in a Mohawk if they want; in fact, someone has one and it looks pretty cool!”

Empowerment in the center goes far beyond choice of hairstyle, clothes and music. Agents are also trusted to use their own judgment in managing the customer experience. For instance, they are given the green light to reward credit to any customer they feel deserves it.

“We do, of course, report on this every day,” Tichbon explains, “but the flexibility in our approach gives our staff confidence in their decision-making skills, while allowing us to manage the exceptions rather than the group as a whole.”

In addition to being empowered on the phones, the center’s agents play a key role in ensuring that systems and processes are easy to use and customer friendly. For instance, the center’s technology team frequently solicits agent feedback on things like workflow efficiency, script effectiveness and what customers are saying about the center’s self-service applications.

“Creating a happy, motivated and engaged workforce starts with respecting people and treating them like professionals. …We continuously spend long hours making sure our people are smiling.”

 

AGENT REWARDS AND RECOGNITION

AMVESCAP Retirement Re­source Center. AMVESCAP doesn’t just say that it is people-centric; it actively demonstrates its affinity for agents via various programs and initiatives that help to foster high levels of employee engagement and motivation — and that tie into the core values and objectives of the organization. Particularly noteworthy is the center’s focus on — and creativity with — agent rewards and recognition.

The company is an avid fan of Fish! — the popular book that focuses on “catching the energy and releasing the potential.” In addition to inviting all agents to attend a Fish! class to learn and embrace the philosophy, the center has launched a Fish!-inspired re­cog­nition program. Each time an associate is “caught” doing something above and beyond the call of duty, they receive a fish and, at the end of the month, all fish go into a fishbowl for a prize drawing. “Everyone loves to get recognition for a job well done,” says Thomas Ballard, the center’s director, “and Fish! provides an opportunity for everyone to participate in both giving and receiving well-deserved kudos.”

Another monthly reward program at the center is AMVES­Champ, where each agent who meets or exceeds objectives for productivity, schedule adherence and quality receives $25 cash and a coupon for one hour off the phones. The top overall performer, or AMVES­Champ, receives $100, as well as a coupon for a half-day off, and get his or her name engraved on a gold perpetual trophy.

“By rewarding associates that help the department and company reach its goals, the RRC team feels valued for its superior efforts,” says Ballard. “There are so many areas of achievement that make [RRC] worthy of recognition.”

He adds that the rewards and recognition programs are a big reason for the dramatic increase in agent retention that the center has experienced over the past several years.

Duke Energy. Not all rewards and recognition programs are tied to agents’ performance results; in some cases, centers proactively reward their staff in order to get performance results. And rewards aren’t always gift certificates, trophies, time off or cash; sometimes they take the form of… fitness?

Agent wellness initiatives are a great way to show staff how much they are valued — and how much agents should value their own health. Few companies work harder than Duke Energy does to keep agents in peak condition and primed for customer care. For example, the utility’s agents have a couple of gym options: They can exercise at the company’s huge onsite fitness facility — “The Quality of Life Center” (which is actually owned and operated by the employees who are members); or they can take advantage of ample corporate discounts at some of the fitness centers in the area.

Duke Energy’s wellness efforts go far beyond getting agents lean and buff; there is also a strong focus on stress management and prevention. Meetings in the center frequently commence with a five-minute discussion on this topic, including how to identify stress and ways to reduce it. In addition, the center’s intranet Web site provides tips and links to assist staff with stress-related issues. Agents can also receive personal assistance with stress from supervisor specialists and/or HR.

Helping to keep agents fit and focused is Duke Energy’s full-fledged cafeteria onsite that provides nutritious food — such as chicken, fish and plenty of veggies — all day long, as well as nutritional information on all food items.

Finally, the contact center makes sure that all agents’ workstations are ergonomically sound — including using the company’s corporate intranet site to educate staff on key ergonomics issues. Managers also hang illustrated ergonomics posters in high traffic areas of the center to assist and/or remind agents of proper workstation set up.

“…The focus on wellness promotes an environment that is less stressful and one of higher morale,” says Bill Mann, contact center manager for Duke Energy, which has had its formal employee wellness initiative in place for years. “Employee opinion survey feedback supports an environment focused on increasing wellness. …It has become a way of life for our entire company.”

 

FACILITY DESIGN AND ERGONOMICS

Bell ExpressVu. Don’t believe that contact center facility design and ergonomics has a measurable impact agent performance and retention? Try telling that to the folks at Bell ExpressVu’s (a division of Bell Canada) contact center in Toronto. Several years ago, the center experienced explosive growth and had to move to a larger facility several miles down the road. Management was concerned that the extra 20- to 30-minute commute time for existing agents would lead to high attrition, thus the center focused on innovative and alluring facility design to entice agents to stick around.

The company contracted with a local architectural design firm, which transformed the new contact center facility from a drab and rigid office space into a modern, high-tech space that also emits a sense of belonging and community. The center’s workstations are arranged in “grape clusters,” which are more conducive to team-building — and require less space — than the traditional “egg-crate grid” design typical in many contact centers. In addition, workstations are opened up to 120-degree angles (as opposed to traditional 90-degree angles), thus creating more of a sense of space for agents. A beautiful stained concrete walkway serpentines through the center to help create a soothing sense of  flow, and plenty of greenery — including vine-covered trellises that mask overhead cables — is featured throughout.

The result of Bell ExpressVu’s emphasis on interior design and aesthetics? Agent attrition (around 16 percent to 18 percent) has not increased despite the longer commute; morale in the center is high; and the creative design has become “the envy of other people in the building,” says Mark Knapton, vice president of call center sales ad customer service at Bell ExpressVu.    

Panasonic. When it comes to contact center design, Panasonic is “green” in more ways than one. In addition to all building products used in the company’s Customer Call Center in Chesapeake, Va., being recycled or recyclable, the first thing that employees see upon entering the 60,000-square-foot center is a captivating Zen garden flourishing in the reception area — a symbol of the link between the United States and Japan.

Additional plants are located throughout the facility, including out on the phone floor. There is plenty of natural light for all that vegetation — and, more importantly, for all the agents — due in large part to the center’s asymmetrical atriums at the main and rear entrances.

Further enhancing agent comfort and performance are the center’s ergonomically designed workstations, which are grouped in clusters to foster teamwork and collaboration.  The overall tone of the internal space is dynamic — with numerous glass partitions and curved structures located throughout. The center’s soothing colors help keep agents cool, calm and focused on providing an excellent experience for each customer. Add to all this aesthetic and agent-centricity a lot of logistical and practical design. For instance, a low-profile raised floor covers the entire facility — contributing to substantial savings in electrical and telecommunication installation costs.

 

Greg Levin is Community Services Manager for ICMI.