Today’s contact centers are complex, with many stakeholders, many opinions, and many objectives. Read on for key insights from an interactive session conducted at the 15th Anniversary Customer Contact West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange, where participants discussed tools and communications strategies for improving the enterprise contact center.
Moderated by Kandy White
KEY TAKE-AWAYS
- Learn how to deploy a data driven decision model to remove bias from disparate organizational biases
- Blueprint of strategies for leveraging data to drive change to overcome transformational adversity
- Tips for gaining buy in more creative way – program branding
INTRODUCTION
Moderator Kandy White shared her varied contact center experience: she has worked at a Verizon contact center that moved to a mega center model with 24/7 support; she has worked for ADP which was very regionalized and geared to small business owners; and she currently works at Altisource, where there is one small center that serves everyone. Kandy asked the group a series of discussion questions, starting with this one:
Do you think of the enterprise contact center as internal? Or as unified, serving all of the enterprise?
- Most participants said unified
- Customer-facing was emphasized
- One participant said external rather than internal facing
When you tried something that didn’t work, how did you improve it?
- By coaching our customer sales reps, using peer coaching
- Realized it was the right concept, but needed a different flavor
- Technology was a determinant
- Managers had a weekly escalation channel, they talked to teams
- Recognized that the agents wanted to learn from each other, they were more open and this made escalations go down
TAKE-AWAY
Ideas for keeping the C-suite connected to the front line
One participant shared that T- Mobile’s tight pods environment was successful because of an atmosphere of direct, close work with the customers and the teams
Ideas for keeping employees motivated and dealing with employee complaints
- Use the Career Ladder Program for employee promotions–it goes both ways, up anddown
- Remember to show employees appreciation and bring the C suite on the floor to help bring up the energy
- Try gamification; it helps employees to be more engaged and can also aid in the on-boarding and training process
- Coach employees, and also employ the right technology
- Use weekly, consistent reviews that encourage employees to discuss and fix their mistakes, and be okay with talking about it
KEY INSIGHTS
Comments on the contact center
- It takes approximately six weeks to get an employee on the phone
- It takes a full six months for employees to be exposed to everything – including those
- Issues that rarely come up
- People don’t always follow the IVR
IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINES
Make the training more fun
- Use role play scenarios
- Show videos
- Several organizations used gamification in training and found it was well received. Was viewed as non-threatening, less boring, etc.
BEST PRACTICE
How to improve the call center
- Lots of coaching needed, address a particular customer set
- Some people are great at chat versus phone, and usually the same person is not good at both
- Culture is critical
- Try a compliance-oriented approach; people drive the metrics more than the technology
- Publish employee’s career route; one company is trying that with six different levels
- Including guaranteed promotions at a certain level
- If you stop performing, you start to drop in the ladder, including salary (eek!)
Show appreciation
- At one company, since no opportunity for a raise, the manager tried an appreciation approach
- Consider a Customer Service week that included raffles, food
- Another call center focused on coaching, not metrics
- Work towards getting call center employees to be solution oriented, as opposed to just complaining
- Allow venting as long as it’s not excessive
What is success rate to become a subject matter expert and maintain it?
- One organization required two training sessions a month. Then learnings must be shared
- Assessments at SME level, matters at a certain level, not initially
- Build their competency, proficiency comes over time, minimum of six months
FINAL THOUGHT
How do you keep your C-Suite connected to the front line?
- Bring them in; when the C-Suite is in the center, it actually builds the energy there
- Recommend having monthly listening calls, listening to a few calls, mapping out calls
