With the beautiful seaside sitting just outside its Customer Service Centre’s doors, it would be very easy for agents and management at American Express UK to get distracted. As it turns out, however, the only thing more impressive than the view through the center’s magnificent floor-to-ceiling windows is the level of performance and customer satisfaction sustained each day within the center’s walls.
A look inside the beautiful, modern facility reveals a highly people-centric culture, innovative processes, state-of-the-art technology, and a very solid grasp of the key principles of effective call center management. It’s almost enough to make you forget the beach that beckons just a few hundred feet away.
While the sound of surf would make it difficult for many people to concentrate on the call center task at hand, the folks at American Express UK have no trouble staying focused. “Our mission is to deliver exceptional, personalized service through empowered and engaged employees, 24 hours a day seven days a week – servicing our cardmembers through their channel of choice,” says Anthony Devane, vice president of American Express UK Customer Services. “In the Customer Service Centre, we are at the front line, representing the brand with every interaction.”
Continuous Operational Improvement in the Contact Center
All of that fresh sea air is apparently good for the health of the call center, as there are few operations that perform as strongly. The company’s innovative Call Centre Management HealthCheck initiative makes sure of that. CCM HealthCheck is a dynamic diagnostic process and tool based on a detailed set of industry benchmarked disciplines in call center management. The focus is on seven key areas:
1.Forecasting and Scheduling
2.Service Level Planning
3.Staff Management
4.Call Delivery
5.Real-Time Management
6.Performance Management
7.Organizational Review
The center uses a rigorous Six Sigma scoring and reporting tool to rate the center and to develop detailed action plans that address gaps highlighted by HealthCheck. As Devane explains, the whole process reveals how the Customer Service Centre compares to recognized best practices in the aforementioned critical disciplines, and enables management to continually raise the performance bar.
“The HealthCheck process has been pivotal in our increased focus across all teams on call center efficiencies and effectiveness metrics.”
Recognizing the Value of Agents
One area in which the call center has clearly raised the bar is agent engagement and motivation. There are so many opportunities for rewards and recognition in the call center, agents would almost have to go out of their way to not receive praise, kudos and extra cash.
Some of the center’s more noteworthy rewards and recognition programs include “Team of the Month,” “Employee of the Month”, “Team Leader of the Month”, and “Quality Performer of the Month.” All awards are based on a balanced set of performance metrics that drive agents to focus on the customer while still providing efficient service Award winners receive cash and/or some form of trophy or plaque, and are announced to the entire call center via giant plasma TVs.
There are plenty of smaller though no less meaningful ways the call center shows its appreciation of agents’ hard work, as well. A couple examples are personalized “Thank You” notes for a job well done, and on-the-spot shopping vouchers for agents who are overheard delivering exceptional service. In addition, any agent who scores 95% or better in a call review or 100% in an e-mail review receives a £10 (roughly $17 US) voucher.
Taking Agent Training Way Beyond the Classroom
The value placed on agents is further evidenced by the center’s extensive training and development programs. After completing a five week new-hire training program featuring traditional classroom sessions, e-learning, job shadowing and role plays, agents’ education is far from over.
“We provide our agents with continuous support and training after they have come out of the new hire training environment,” says Devane.
It starts with the center’s On the Job Training (OJT) program – a “transition training” initiative where agents handle basic customer calls in a heavily supervised and controlled environment for three weeks. Nurturing new agents in such a way truly prepares them for the move to the official phone floor, says Devane. “They receive a great deal of support from the coaches, including daily huddles, lots of one-on-one coaching, and five weekly call reviews. Employees are expected to reach a certain standard during their time in OJT, and if by the end of the three weeks, this has not been met, then we continue to support our agents in the OJT area until they are ready.”
Agents continue to receive ample amounts of training and coaching throughout their stay in the call center, including frequent “up-skills” and refresher courses, many of which are delivered via the center’s online Learning Management System. While e-learning plays an important role, the center hardly over-relies on technology to deliver training. Face time with managers and team leaders is a big priority; in fact, team leaders strive to spend 70% of their working week coaching and developing their agents.
That includes developing them into Lead Reps, a relatively new opportunity for experienced agents in the call center. Though not a full leadership role, Lead Reps mentor the peers on their team and gradually take on more supervisory responsibilities. “Our Lead Reps program builds a pool of talent, offering successful candidates exposure to a variety of tasks closely linked to leadership,” explains Devane. “They also receive a monetary reward for undertaking the additional responsibilities.”
With so much focus on agent engagement and development, it’s of little surprise that American Express UK was voted by The Sunday Times as one of the “20 Best Big Companies to Work for” in 2009. “We were honored to have earned yet again a place on this prestigious list,” Devane says. “Within American Express, our team’s engagement is a constant priority for us all, and despite our many priorities, we never reduce our focus on this core area.”
Capturing and Acting on Customer Satisfaction Data
To ensure that their customers are as happy as their agents, the Customer Service Centre has a comprehensive customer satisfaction measurement process in place. The center surveys customers via email through a link to a third-party vendor, Synovate, who provides the center with survey results on a daily basis. The survey itself features questions on all aspects of the call and the customer’s experience – everything from IVR functionality to the agents’ tone of voice. “We ask them to discuss their experience of the key drivers of dissatisfaction: hold time, dial transfers, accessibility, first-contact resolution and rep knowledge and authority,” says Devane.
The survey results are fed into a customer satisfaction action plan, and then the call center’s managers and team leaders are each assigned key areas on which to focus. Devane points out that, in addition to using survey results to drive key process improvements, the center uses direct customer feedback to enhance agent performance on an ongoing basis.
“[It serves] as a powerful tool for performance management, enabling us to give tailored and precise coaching to all of our representatives.”
Oh come on! Doesn’t his center EVER take a break from their strong focus on customers to enjoy the beach and boardwalk so close by?
“We have all been known to use our break time to take some fresh sea air and enjoy lunch on the seafront,” Devane confessed. “On a sunny day, there is no place better to relax and take in the glorious views!”
I knew it!
Located just meters away from the Southern English
coastline, the UK Customer Service Centre moved
into its state-of-the-art new facility in January 2009.
With an average of 26 square feet per workstation,
the center is both spacious and bright (boasting
spectacular views of the coast) and is fully equipped
with training and meeting rooms, refreshment facilities,
break-out areas (with satellite television), conferencing
capabilities, fully adjustable workstations and 27-inch
plasma screen TVs.
Greg Levin is the ICMI Community Services Manager. glevin@icmi.com