True Tales of Call Center Agent Empowerment

In today’s business world, where customer experiences rule the roost, certain immutable truths exist.  

•A company is only as strong as its contact center. 

•A contact center is only as strong as its agents. 

•A company is only as strong as its contact center’s agents (according to the transitive property of equality, conferred by the fact that the above points are true).

What it all adds up to is this: You’d better have some powerful people in place at your workstations.

We’re not talking biceps and bench presses here; we’re talking skills and knowledge -- and the ability to harness and unleash such strength on the job every day. The trouble is, in many contact centers, talented agents are held back by management’s reins rather than let loose to do what they do best: 1) provide an outstanding customer experience; and 2) help to continuously improve internal processes to enhance their own ability to provide said outstanding customer experience.  

Micromanagement and a lack of agent inclusion in key decisions and projects are all too common in today’s customer contact arena; however, there are a number of organizations that not only recognize the impact of an empowered frontline but also walk the talk in that regard. Managers at these centers view their staff not as butts in seats but as minds in motion. They view cubicles not as cages but as places where valued people interact, connect, solve problems and build relationships. And they view the contact center as an invention – an invention that is continuously enhanced by the ideas and contributions of everybody under its roof.

Where does one find such agent-centric organizations? They are all over (you might even be one of them). But rather than make you travel the globe in search of them, we thought it a good idea to bring several to you.

1-800-GOT-JUNK? While the company name is interrogative, there is no question that Vancouver-based 1-800-GOT-JUNK? understands the power agent empowerment. The center’s “Sounding Board” -- a peer-led advisory council that reviews all concerns, suggestions and ideas that come from agents on the sales floor -- has been invaluable in uniting staff and making key improvements that increase performance and morale throughout the center.

“Agents can openly voice their opinions and yet remain confidential,” Devin McNulty, sales coach, explains. “The Sounding Board basically serves as the voice of the call center.”

The Sounding Board is comprised of one agent from each of the center’s seven teams, with each member voted in by the peers on their respective team. To be eligible to serve on the Sounding Board, an agent must be a full-time employee who has been with the company for no less than six months, and “who embodies 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s core beliefs of passion, integrity professionalism and empathy (PIPE),” says McNulty. Each Board member is reviewed on a quarterly basis to ensure that he or she is effectively carrying out the Board’s mission. Depending on performance and turnover, occasionally new Board members are elected. 

A select number of non-Board members -- other agents from the contact center -- attend Board meetings to help regulate discussions, offer feedback and ensure that action is taken. Team leads select which agent(s) from their team get to sit in on Board meetings, regularly rotating agents to give everybody a chance to participate.        

With such broad-sweeping agent empowerment in place, it’s hardly a surprise that 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has been named one of the “Best Places to Work in British Columbia” by BC Business Magazine several years in a row (ranked #1 twice and #2 once). Naturally, such media attention has been a boon to the center’s hiring and retention efforts. “This has definitely had a positive impact on recruiting high quality applicants who are interested in being part of our team,” says McNulty. “Friends and even strangers always comment when they hear about our company, “I hear that is a great place to work.”

Mondial Assistance. Mondial won the ICMI Global Call Center of the Year award in 2008; a big reason we decided to pin the medal on their chest was how they treat agents as the most critical resource in the contact center, and how that approach has brought about big success in terms of performance and both agent and customer satisfaction.

“We believe that to be customer-focused, to live our values, to make this part of our company DNA, we must also treat our associates as customers,” says Pam Dufour, Mondial’s senior vice president and chief service officer at  Mondial Assistance, based in Richmond, Va. “We value making our associates feel truly appreciated and engaging them.”

One way Mondial does this is by having agents take turns leading aspects of the contact center’s divisional “Town Hall” meetings, during which the agent leaders and their peers brainstorm ways to improve operations, technology and the overall customer experience. The center has also launched a program call OPEX, where agents help managers and team leaders map out and evaluate key processes and performance metrics.  

“I am thankful that I work for such a diverse company that embraces all the talents of their associates,” says Mondial agent Fred Hardin. “The wonderful experiences and friendships I have had and developed while working on these projects have made me feel that I have had a direct impact on the success and growth of Mondial Assistance.”

In addition, Mondial has seemingly taken a page from 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s playbook -- tapping agents’ talents and knowledge by having a select group of them lunch with members of sales and marketing to gather key marketplace and business information, and to provide sales and marketing staff with a customer-eye view of the organization.

And those aren’t the only meaningful meals agents get to partake in. Once a month, Dufour hosts either a breakfast, lunch or dinner (to accommodate all agents’ schedules in the 24 x 7 center) that is attended by an agent from each of Mondial’s service departments and two members of the upper management team. Open dialogue is the aim of these catered meals -- agents discuss concerns, share customer feedback, make suggestions and get to know members of management.

“These are not business meetings,” Dufour points out. “They are casual meals among colleagues. And each and every time, I leave those meals more inspired than ever by the dedication and caring our associates have for serving our customers.”

Salt River Project. Unlike in many contact centers, SRP agents rarely complain; that’s because if they don’t like something, they are given the chance to change it. SRP -- which could very well stand for “Show Reps’ Potential” -- firmly believes in empowering agents to make a key decisions that positively impact their jobs, the company’s well being and the customer experience. Most members of the frontline staff get to do this by serving on one or more of the numerous action committees and task forces in place at SRP.   

   

“Being involved in other projects as a customer service rep has had a hugely positive impact on my experience here at SRP,” says Derek Brechner, one of the center’s veteran agents. “You get to meet and sit alongside management, and they ask you your opinion about how to make things better. But more importantly, they value what you have to say, and actually implement what you say into the creation of a new program. It really makes you feel important to help make decisions that will best affect our customers as well as SRP.”

In addition to serving on task forces and committees, experienced agents at SRP assist with new-hire training as “transition coaches.” These coaches work closely with trainees in a nesting area after the new-hires complete several weeks of classroom training, helping them handle basic customer calls and providing tips and positive feedback. “Having the opportunity to serve as a leader or a supervisor to new-hires makes coming to work that much more enjoyable,” says Brechner.

It figures that being treated so well themselves would inspire agents to do the same with customers, as well as with members of the community in need: 85 percent of SRP employees participate in community programs, volunteering an average of 3.3 hours each week. Agents donate their time to such organizations as Habitat for Humanity, Andre House (which fights homelessness in the greater Phoenix area), the Arizona Special Olympics, as well as local Adopt-an-Angel and Adopt-a-Family programs.    

Georgia Power. At Georgia Power, agents get to do a lot more than just sit in a cubicle and handle contacts. The center has a highly valued team of agent “liaisons” whose aim is to develop healthy working relationships between the contact center and the company’s various departments and business partners.

Typical tasks for an agent liaison at Georgia Power include attending their assigned team’s (e.g., sales) staff meetings, regularly reporting contact center activity to the team, and discussing ways that the team and the contact center can help each other achieve their respective goals. New processes and improvements are often developed in an effort to better serve external clients.   

In addition to strengthening interdepartmental ties, the use of agent liaisons has had a positive impact on sales revenue, profitability and customer relationships, says Lisa Williams, assistant to the call center Director at Georgia Power. 

“Because many of our liaisons work directly with the sales teams, they are learning about – and educating the rest of the call center on -- how to better identify lead opportunities for particular products when handling service calls in the center.” 

McKesson Corporation. When agent training has been falling short for a long time, most contact centers create a management team or call in a consultant to remedy the situation. At McKesson Corporation, a healthcare distribution company in Charlotte, N.C., management called on their agents to do so.

Though some may question placing a critical training initiative in agents' hands, for McKesson management it was the logical way to go.

“Prior to implementing the Knowledge Committee,” recalls Susan Evilsizer, manager of support at McKesson’s contact center in Charlotte, NC, “agents noted many areas that needed improvement in training, and they had questions about whether or not instructors were teaching what they needed. Since it was the agents, themselves, who had expressed the concerns, we decided that an agent-led committee would be the best way to address those concerns.”

The employee-directed Knowledge Committee was comprised of three experienced agents (each of whom had worked in the center for at least five years) who had eagerly volunteered for the challenge, with Evilsizer serving as a facilitator for the committee. The committee’s overall objective was to create training programs that were measurable -- where performance gaps and improvement could be easily tracked. 

After determining the specific skills and knowledge required to succeed in the various support positions in the contact center, the committee defined those skill/knowledge areas in a matrix. Each agent was then asked to complete a self-assessment using a rating scale of zero to five -- with zero being “no skills/knowledge” and five being “expert” -- for each skill/knowledge area listed in the matrix. After the self-assessment, agents were assessed by a mentor, using the same rating procedure. Each agent then worked with the Knowledge Committee to determine the areas in which the agent needed to improve, and to create a personal development plan.

Since tasking theKnowledge Committee with leading the center’s training face-lift, McKesson has seen a big increase not only in productivity, first-contact resolution and quality, but also in the number of smiles on agents’ faces and in customers’ voices.

Employee satisfaction and retention isn’t exactly slumping, either. Evilsizer attributes this rise in employee morale and commitment to the fact that agents know exactly where they stand, what they need to do and how they are developing, as well as value the fact that their colleagues played a big part in creating and managing the training initiative. The center further ensures agent buy-in and engagement by frequently asking all staff for their feedback on the effectiveness of the training they receive.

So ask yourself this question: Is your contact center missing an opportunity to harness a powerful resource? If not, take a cue from these innovative companies. 

If you are putting your frontline strengths to work for your call center, let us know how! Email me at glevin@icmi.com with your center's true tale of agent empowerment.