Industry Research

Effective workforce management (WFM) involves the totality of forecasting, staffing, scheduling, and making adjustments in real time when unexpected changes occur. The objective is to get the right number of people in the right places at the right times, doing the right things. No more, no fewer -- overstaff your center and profitability will deteriorate as costs increase; schedule too few agents and customers will abandon, handling times will increase and poor word of mouth will put your brand at risk.

In March/April of 2010 ICMI conducted its largest research study yet on workforce management. Participating in the study were 545 call center professionals -- representing a wide range of industries and geographic regions -- who shared their centers’ forecasting and scheduling practices, allowing us to evaluate and offer insight on how centers embrace workforce management technology and tools today, and to examine the various staffing strategies employed to manage a dynamic workload, including:

• Forecasting and Scheduling Practices
• Key Forecasting Practices and Strategies
• Forecasting for Email and Chat
• Use of WFM Technologies and Tools
• WFM System Purchasing Process
• WFM System Features and Functions
• Workforce Management Training
• Staffing/Scheduling Practices and Alternatives
• Permanent Part-Time Agents
• Seasonal Agents
• Outsourcing
• Alternative Full-Time Schedules
• Reserve Teams
• Home Agents
• Staff-Sharing Initiatives

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39 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)

ICMI’s 2008 People Management and Operations Survey is the largest such study in its 20-year history. Contact center professionals from around the world,representing various industries and center sizes, answered comprehensive questions on a substantial assortment of critical topics and challenges managers face today. Topics include recruiting, assessment, training, development, motivation and retention, workforce management, performance measurement, quality assurance, budgeting, and contingency planning.

Research by the North American Telecommunications Association shows that 90 percent of customers on silent hold will abandon after 40 seconds. That means that you could lose those customers if they’re not hearing something. Playing music for callers who are on hold will increase the hold time by 30 seconds; however, the type of music played will have an affect on the caller’s perception of delay.

Customers want choices—and offering them options on how their time is used while on hold is key to satisfaction and loyalty. This ICMI special report will take you through 14 steps that will help you to develop effective delay messages that will keep your callers on the line. In addition, the report looks at several key issues involved such as the following:

• When Do Callers Abandon?
• Impact of Delay Messages on Customer Satisfaction
• The Seven Factors of Caller Toleranceli
• Impact of the Queue on Average Handle Times

13 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)

Successful contact centers are highly customer-centric, and the specific technologies they have in place reflect that. Few tools have a bigger impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty (as well as on operational costs/efficiencies) than do those with which customers interact directly—i.e., interactive voice response (IVR) systems, email/chat applications, and Web self-service tools.

To help uncover common trends and highlight best practices with regard to the utilization of customer-facing technologies, ICMI conducted a comprehensive survey on the topic in August/September 2006, with responses coming from 276 contact center professionals who collectively manage small, medium, large and enormous centers in a variety of industries.

The 2006 Contact Center Customer-Facing Technologies Survey Report includes findings on the following tools:

• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
• Virtual Queuing Tools
• Email
• Web-enabled Tools

7 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)

The contact center represents the ears of the organization, collecting invaluable customer data that can lead to overall business improvement and increased revenue. Consequently, companies don’t want to hand over their contact center operations to just any agency. Nor do many want to hand over the entire operation.

To get a better glimpse of what’s happening today in contact center outsourcing—including what percentage of organizations currently outsource customer contacts, what types of contacts they are outsourcing and the biggest outsourcing benefits and challenges they’ve experienced—ICMI surveyed 279 call center professionals. Most were from North America, but managers around the globe also responded in late-March/early April 2006.

The 2006 Contact Center Outsourcing Report includes the following:

• Contact Center Outsourcing Survey Results
• Foundations of Effective Call Center Outsourcing
• The Truth about Global Outsourcing: 10 Lessons Learned about the Difficulties of “Getting It Done”
• Call Center Recall: Bringing Outsourced Operations Back In-house

16 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)

Telework initiatives are nothing new to the contact center world; centers started experimenting with home-agent models/pilots in the late 1980s. However, with major advances in telework-enabling technology coupled with increased contact center growth/competition and the impact on the availability of quality labor, telework has become a rather hot topic in our industry.

While numerous studies and telework proponents have touted the big potential benefits of a well-implemented home-agent initiative, ICMI wanted to gather our own current data on this late-blooming staffing trend. In June 2006, ICMI conducted a focused survey on contact center telework programs, with 265 contact center professionals representing a wide range of industries and sizes participating in the survey.

The 2006 Contact Center Telework Report includes the following:

• 2006 Contact Center Telework Survey Results
• Telework Hitting Home in Customer Contact
• Companies and Agents Benefit from Work-at-Home Program for Disabled
• How to Maximize the Success of Your Telecommuting Program

16 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)

Moving from a pure service environment to a blended service/sales one typically brings with it new challenges and necessary changes to such critical areas as agent recruiting/hiring, training, incentives and performance measurement.

To find out how today’s organizations have made or are making the transition from a reactive service/support center to a proactive profit center, in January 2007, ICMI surveyed call centers that have implemented a formal cross-selling strategy. In all, 264 centers—representing a highly diverse array of industries and call center sizes—responded.

The 2007 Call Center Cross-Selling Survey Report includes the following contents:

• Cross-Sell “Triggers”
• Cross-Selling Investments
• Impact on Hiring, Training and Coaching
• Compensation/Rewards for Cross-Selling
• Impact on Attrition, Support Functions and Processes/ Workflows
• Cross-Selling Metrics
• Cross-Selling Technologies
• Cross-Selling Challenges and Success Factors

13 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)

Few call center topics engender as much controversy and as many varying views as performance metrics. What are the most critical metrics to measure? What is the “right” objective for each of these measures? What should be the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the call center? How—and how often—should each KPI and each metric be measured?

The old days of “measure everything that moves” have come to an end. Most call centers realize that, to be successful in this age of stiff competition and customer relationship management, they must be able to cut through the clutter of available stats and data to find the metrics that truly impact—and reveal key insights into—the customer experience, while simultaneously enabling the organization to remain efficient.

To help reveal how call centers are doing with regard to such critical metrics, ICMI conducted a comprehensive survey on the topic in January 2007, with responses coming from 211 call center professionals who, collectively, manage small, medium and large centers in a wide variety of industries.

The 2007 Call Center KPI/Performance Metrics Survey Report includes the following contents:

• Service Level
• First-Call Resolution
• Email Response Time
• Adherence to Schedule
• Forecasting Accuracy
• Average Handle Time
• Self-Service Accessibility/Completion Rate
• Interactive Voice Response
• Web-Based Self-Service
• Quality
• Customer Satisfaction
• Agent Satisfaction
• Additional Call Center Metrics

12 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)

Few processes in the call center are as critical as quality monitoring. In this era of “customer experience is king,” the companies that truly thrive are those that have in place a comprehensive quality program that:

• ensures each customer contact—regardless of the channel used—is handled as effectively and as efficiently as possible
• incorporates a customer-centric view of the call center
• features the full support and participation of the people being monitored
• features timely eedback and coaching of those people and drives key changes to training centerwide
• involves the sharing of key trends and data captured via monitoring with the rest of the enterprise

Companies that take shortcuts with regard to quality monitoring short-change their customers, their staff and, ultimately, themselves. The potential power that monitoring and subsequent coaching has to create and sustain customer loyalty, foster agent development and engagement, protect and increase revenue, and make the entire organization smarter and more effective is undeniable.

In January 2007, ICMI conducted a highly detailed study focusing on some of the most important monitoring issues and challenges. In all, 870 customer contact professionals from a wide variety of industries, call center types/sizes and countries participated—and, in doing so, helped to shed ample light on who and what is being monitored, how, to what extent and why.

The Call Center Quality Monitoring Study IV includes the following information and results:

• Respondents’ Background
• Types of Customer Contacts Monitored: Voice Calls, Email, Web Chat, Web Self-Service, Etc.
• Monitoring Objectives and Evaluation Criteria
• Who Is Monitored
• Who Monitors
• Monitoring Methods
• Feedback and Coaching
• Planned Improvements

23 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)

High-touch will always supersede high-tech when it comes to ensuring lasting customer satisfaction and loyalty. Thus, having solid agent recruiting and hiring practices in place is critical. Talented and engaged agents don’t just come knocking on a call center’s door; centers must continuously strive to attract qualified staff and use effective applicant screening and assessment methods to help identify the potential top performers.

To uncover how today’s contact centers are actually tackling the recruiting and hiring challenge, ICMI conducted a survey in November 2006. In all, 256 call center professionals representing a wide array of industries and center sizes participated in the survey—sharing how they attract potential agent stars to their center, how they quickly weed out the "wannabes" and how they determine if those who show promise truly are a good fit in the fast-paced and challenging call center environment.

The 2007 Call Center Recruiting and Hiring Practices Report includes key data on the following:

• Recruiting Practices
• Tracking Recruiting Effectiveness
• Top Labor Pools
• Prescreening Tools and Methods
• The Assessment Phase
• Top Recruiting and Hiring Challenges

This special issue also includes following instructional articles:

• The Contact Center Agent of the Future: How Call Centers and Agents’ Jobs Are Changing
• Recruit Agents with the Right Blend of Attitude and Ability
• Generation-Specific Recruiting: How to Attract Various Age Groups
• The Often-Ignored Art of Supervisor Selection

16 pages, PDF download (requires Adobe Acrobat or Reader)