The Workforce Management Boot Camp

A comprehensive, four-day workshop that integrates all aspects of workforce management to give work force management professionals the precise, start-to-finish skills that will improve accuracy, efficiency, increase employee and customer satisfaction, and consistently meet service levels.

ICMI's Workforce Management Boot Camp is an unparalleled opportunity to learn an integrated approach to call center workforce planning based on the realities that managers and analysts face every day. This workshop not only teaches you proven techniques to improve forecasting and scheduling, but allows you to practice those techniques with input from expert instructors. You and your colleagues will work through realistic exercises to solve common forecasting, staffing and, scheduling challenges. You will leave with a laptop full of true-to-life examples. Plus, you'll receive comprehensive course materials to reference for many years to come.

Through this boot camp, you'll supplement your on-the-job experience with formal training, learning how the best in the industry provide accurate forecasts and schedules that balance the needs of the organization and employees. You’ll focus on gaining a complete understanding of the theory and actually use and practice all the key functions of the WFM process. So bring your laptop and gain four days of hands-on experience improving forecasts, calculating staffing resources, and enhancing existing scheduling approaches.

*Please note - due to the hands-on, intensive nature of this course, participants will need to bring a laptop computer.

Advancing Contact Center Quality Through Monitoring and Coaching

Design a comprehensive, cost-effective monitoring and coaching program that boosts quality, drives performance improvement initiatives, and increases agent performance and commitment.

Your call center agent is the critical link between your customers and your products and services. Through ICMI's Monitoring and Coaching for Improved Call Center Performance two-day course, you'll discover how to bring out the best in every agent and deliver exceptional experiences to your customers.

You'll start right from the beginning defining what it takes to create a performance culture in your organization. You'll examine the costly threat of agent turnover and how you can prevent it by using monitoring and coaching to create lasting motivation and engagement.

Using case studies of real companies, as well as hypothetical practice company exercises, you'll discover how to use your organization's mission statement to guide you in developing performance standards. You'll work through defining the purpose and objectives of your program, as well as determining roles and responsibilities. Using numerous examples and exercises, you'll decide which of your performance standards are "foundation standards" and which are "finesse standards", and how to monitor for each. You'll review sample performance standards before learning the elements that show you how to define and document your own performance standards.

Having determined your performance standards, you'll move on to the monitoring process: Why do we monitor? Who should monitor? How often? What should you be monitoring for? To answer these questions, you'll have the opportunity to discuss the answers to these questions with your fellow participants as well as review the results of several ICMI community member surveys in order gain insight about what peers are doing. Armed with this information, along with sample forms and exercises, you'll develop your own monitoring form that meets your unique situation.

Finally you'll explore the ways to use the data you gather from monitoring to make lasting improvements in your contact center through coaching. You'll review the six basic principles of coaching and the SAFE coaching model. You'll also role play and practice your coaching skills, so you learn by doing. Whether you're starting from scratch or fine-tuning an existing program, this course offers the tools and the know-how you need to design an approach that's tailored to your budget, your culture, and your business objectives.

Contact Center Strategy: A Planning Workshop

This 2 day executive-level planning workshop will provide the tools and direction necessary to develop, implement and manage a contact center strategy and leadership process.

Apply the lessons of the world’s best customer contact centers to transform your service and sales delivery systems to conquer new competitive challenges through ICMI’s Smart Strategy=Strong Leadership Contact Center Strategy, an executive-level planning workshop. This two-day workshop will give you the information, tools and direction necessary to develop, implement and manage a contact center strategy and leadership process. You and your colleagues will work through realistic exercises to discuss key contact center challenges. You will leave with a laptop full of tools, techniques and strategies you can implement immediately. Plus, you'll receive comprehensive course materials to reference for many years to come.

This intensive and effective executive program is guaranteed to give you the direction needed to manage the changes in customer relationships driven by today’s multi-channel environment. You’ll become an even stronger leader with the capacity to effectively implement a contact center strategy that drives value and recognition.

Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Contact Center Management

The fundamental principles of contact center management that equip professionals to build exceptional operations and careers.

Advance the success of your call center and achieve your professional career goals with a solid foundation in planning and managing an exceptional call center through ICMI's Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Contact Center Management course. This is ICMI's flagship course – the highest rated in the industry and attended by more key call center management personnel than any other contact center course available.

Evolving customer expectations, the rise of social media, proliferating contact channels and the heightened strategic role of customer services are changing contact centers dramatically. You'll learn how to apply the core principles of managing a contact center to these critical new environments.

This two-day course is an intensive and effective training program guaranteed to give key staff involved in resource planning, call center analysis, and performance reporting the tools necessary to make real, lasting, bottom-line financial impact. You will come away with practical, proven strategies for creating a planning culture that you can apply right away to see an immediate return on investment in your call center.

You and your management staff will learn what thousands of other call center professionals have learned through this course: Practical, proven strategies for creating a planning culture that you can apply right away to see an immediate return on investment in your call center.

Mastering Contact Center Financials: Strategies for Planning, Measuring, and Reporting

Develop and manage an effective contact center budget.

Managing a call center budget is not just about hitting your numbers. In addition to cost performance, you must still reach your goals in quality, efficiency, and strategic impact. Call centers typically have larger budgets that have a bigger impact to the business and require more coordination of multiple departments; this course breaks down these specifics. Plus, you will gain the knowledge of accounting and finance required to build a business case to earn support for expediters by promoting the value of the call center’s contribution to the organization.

This intensive two-day course is designed to provide contact center professionals with a solid understanding of strategic analysis to make better decisions and improve performance through planning and building a strong contact center budget, measuring overall financial performance, and reporting results back to the business. Discover tips to think and act like a CFO and successfully communicate important metrics, such as: cost per call, adjusting fixed costs, and revenue per call.

Walk away with call center budget templates, cost models, and Excel tips to make real, sustainable, bottom-line financial impact. Participants will also come away with practical, proven techniques for measuring hard to measure things such as: the value of a training, quality, and workforce management program ROI. Further, you'll be able to understand how to quantify the contact center's contribution to customer loyalty.

Cultivating Your Leadership Style

Unlock the power of DISC behavioral analysis and refine your leadership skills in this one-day workshop.

Unlock the power of DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance) behavioral analysis and refine your leadership skills in this one-day workshop with ICMI’s Strategic Training Director, Linda Riggs (certified DISC instructor). Reviewing various behavior profiles, you’ll acquire tools required to work with other personalities - how to spot each type and how to work effectively with them. By understanding and using DISC, you’ll explore how your own personality style fits into your team. You’ll leave this workshop ready to drive extraordinary customer service and achieve your own personal and professional goals!

Effective Contact Center Home Agent Management

Learn the ins and outs of implementing and maintaining an effective home agent program.

Learn the ins and outs of implementing and maintaining an effective home agent program, and explore a methodology for planning, communicating, and implementing a home agent staffing plan. Discover the tactical issues and considerations with daily operations with the Home Agents Staffing model from the people, processes, and technology perspective.