A Lean Six Sigma Approach to Contact Center Process Improvement

Customers are demanding more efficient and effective service from Contact Centers throughout all industries. Host Bruce Belfiore chats with veteran manager Walt Sweeney about a Lean Six Sigma approach to Contact Center process improvement that Contact Center leaders could use to improve their centers.

Click here to listen to this CallTalk show: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show/6/4/lean-six-sigma-approach-contact-center-proc

Call Center Law

Listen now on demand to our latest CallTalk Show on Call Center Law. Adam Losey, Esq., an attorney with Foley & Lardner, will share tips on monitoring communications as well as other legal issues important to contact centers. As privacy counsel for call centers, Adam works with client-side management to develop and implement policies governing monitoring and recording of telephone calls and electronic communications, as well as data management issues associated with call recordings and electronically stored information.

Guest Host: Adam Losey, Attorney, Foley & Lardner LLP

Adam Losey is an internationally recognized attorney, author, and educator in the field of technology law. He represents a number of Fortune 100 companies in high-stakes complex litigations across the country involving challenging issues at the intersection of law and technology. In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Losey routinely advises clients large and small on a variety of sophisticated information security, incident response, privacy, electronic discovery, and data management matters. Mr. Losey is a member of the New York, Florida, and District of Columbia bars.

Click here to listen to the show: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show/5/9/call-center-law

Employee Recognition - Why is everyone talking about it?

Why are so many people talking about Employee Engagement? We'll find out a few tips on the effectiveness of employee recognition and how it can potentially provide financial success to your company. Zane Safrit, CEO, Business Consultant, and Author will share some of his experiences and lessons learned on building employee awareness of company goals, raising morale, and increasing productivity.

To listen to this episode, click the following link: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show/5/8/employee-recognition

CallTalk Caramels: Team Meetings-How Your Employees Will Benefit

Team meetings are regularly scheduled, compulsory gatherings of the contact center team that usually last at least an hour. They are often perceived as being drab and boring - or they become the hurried huddle where a manager or supervisor hastens to push out information, and then rushes the staff back to their cubicles. Although regularly scheduled team meetings are tough to schedule, they also provide enormous benefit to the center and bond colleagues to each other.

Expert research shows that for team meetings to be successful, they need to be well-planned and structured. A well-balanced and structured approach to team meetings avoids them becoming either elaborate agent gripe sessions, or supervisor “dump sessions” where agents become overwhelmed with too much information. Here are some suggestions that will help your team meetings be more successful:

Click here to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/08/call-center-team-meetings-how-your-employees-will-benefit

Revitalizing Your Call Center: Small Changes that Make Big Differences

Like any other work environment, call centers can either become a place of joy or the proverbial dungeon – that dreaded place to which we must go to serve out our time. The difference between the two are tied to many factors.  Some simple changes can lead to increases in performance and ROI while making the workplace enjoyable for the worker. Our experts suggested looking at facilities, food and environmental issues. Here are some of the suggestions they offered on how to make your center a joy and not a dungeon.

Click here to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/08/revitalizing-your-call-center-small-changes-make-big

CallTalk Caramels: Avoiding Agent Burnout

CallTalk is a monthly internet radio program featuring the most innovative managers and thought leaders in the customer contact field, interviewed by BenchmarkPortal CEO, Bruce Belfiore.  “Caramels” distills key moments from these interviews into practical, bite-sized nuggets to inform and assist you as a contact center professional.
Agent burnout is often correlated to the culture of the call center and to the culture of the people working in the call center. Sweatshop centers and “crisis call” centers have particularly high levels of burnout. A statistical proxy for burnout is agent turnover, which exceeds 100% per year in some cases.
Helpful tips to identify early warning signals of agent burnout include:

1. Agent Adherence to Schedule – When burnout occurs, agents lose their appetite and interest for work and become less responsive to occupancy levels and service levels.
2. Quality Scores – as attitude slips, so does the quality and accurateness of work. This is reflected through the tone and pace of the agent- -and can be perceived by customers as well.
3. Apathy – Agents lose interest in the activities of the center, or in interacting with others.

Agent burnout is also characterized by the following types of behaviors:

Click Here to Continue Reading This Article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/08/calltalk-caramels-avoiding-agent-burnout

CallTalk Caramels: Compensation Strategies For Agents and Supervisors Part 2

CallTalk is a monthly internet radio program featuring the most innovative managers and thought leaders in the customer contact field, interviewed by BenchmarkPortal CEO, Bruce Belfiore.  “Caramels” distills key moments from these interviews into practical, bite-sized nuggets to inform and assist you as a contact center professional.


Studies show that the majority of call centers set their agent compensation purely to meet that offered by the “call center down the street.”  Experts, however, say that compensation should be viewed as a corollary to company strategies and mission. Therefore, managers should ask “does our compensation strategy promote the goals and mission of the company in a concrete fashion?”

Consider how your compensation program lines up against these Best Practices considerations:

Click the following link to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/07/calltalk-caramels-compensation-strategies-agents-and

CallTalk Caramels: Social Media and The Call Center

CallTalk is a monthly internet radio program featuring the most innovative managers and thought leaders in the customer contact field, interviewed by BenchmarkPortal CEO, Bruce Belfiore.  “Caramels” distills key moments from these interviews into practical, bite-sized nuggets to inform and assist you as a contact center professional.


Companies need to have a defined strategy toward Social Media in order to leverage it properly.  This means managers must understand SM and feel comfortable engaging with the SMNs such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. To avoid disaster and gain the optimal experience, our experts suggest close monitoring of SM platforms and development of appropriate engagement mechanisms.

Applications and hosted services are available to monitor your SMN’s. It is important to have the ability to monitor and respond where you are being mentioned, and your customers tend to aggregate. Select the Social Media Networks that fit well within your plan, using the P.O.S.T. system:

Click here to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/07/calltalk-caramels-social-media-and-call-center

Customer Effort - CallTalk - Listen Now On Demand!

Just because research is published on the internet or in a business journal does not mean the research findings are true. Look at survey methodology and design to determine validity. Join host BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore and guest host Frederick Van Bennekom, Principal at Great Brook Consulting, as they discuss customer effort.

Guest Host: Frederick Van Bennekom, Principal, Great Brook Consulting

Dr. Fred Van Bennekom helps organizations collect and apply customer and employee feedback in a statistically valid manner. The author of "Customer Surveying: A Guidebook for Service Managers," Fred teaches operations management in Northeastern University’s Executive MBA program. Before earning his doctorate, he served as an information systems consultant for Digital Equipment’s field service organization. Through his company, Great Brook, Dr. Van Bennekom conducts workshops and advises clients on their survey practices.

Click here to listen to this show: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show/5/6/customer-effort

Tips on Adherence to Schedule Adherence

By definition, schedule adherence is the percentage of time agents are where they are supposed to be, according to their assigned schedules - - which can include work time, lunch and break time, training time, team meeting time, etc.  Poor adherence can be surprisingly expensive for a center. We can calculate that a single agent who is regularly “short” on work-time adherence by 20 minutes per day throughout the year, costs the company 83 hours of lost work and $1,000 in wages (based upon an avg. $12/hr.). This extrapolates to nearly 1,000 customer calls not handled by that agent over that same period!

Research suggests that there are two major reasons for poor performance in schedule adherence. The first is a general lack of understanding by agents of the importance and impact that schedule adherence has upon the company,  The second reason is poor supervision and management.

Of call centers surveyed, 71% track or follow adherence to schedule whereas 28% do not. Of those centers that track adherence, 66% use commercial WFM systems. About 42% of centers surveyed revise their workforce schedules as required, without established intervals; 20% of respondents revise schedules on a monthly basis, 15% revise on a quarterly-basis, and 4% revise weekly.

The following Best Practices are suggested by experts to help managers gain control over adherence:

Click here to continue reading this article:  http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/06/schedule-adherence

Complaint Resolution: When 30% of Your Time is Spent on “I’ve got a Complaint!” Calls

Across all industries the complaint ratio is approximately 7.5% of all calls, with complaints in the auto-manufacturing industry skyrocketing to a high of nearly 20%. Regardless of their nature and origin, the correct and proper handling of complaint calls is one of a call center’s most sensitive tasks.  Poor handling will result in lost customers; great handling can actually result in higher loyalty from customers, who are delighted with your response.  As managers, we need to keep in mind that complaints can be very emotionally taxing on front-line agents and can hurt morale as well. Here are some tips and guidelines for complaint handling:

Click the following link to continue reading: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/06/call-center-complaint-resolution

First Call Resolution Revisited

First call resolution (FCR) is a double-edged metric in that it relates to the quality of calls as well as the efficiency of the call center. In terms of quality, FCR is a customer-facing metric, as customers are very aware as to whether their call was satisfied on the first call or not. In terms of efficiency, the more times a customer must call the center in order to satisfy an inquiry, the higher the costs. For these two reasons, FCR is recognized by many as the single most imporatant driver of call center optimization and performance.

According to research conducted at BenchmarkPortal, in their attempts to document First Call Resolution, the majority of call centers instruct their agents ask the caller at the end of each caller interaction if the reasons for their call was satisfied (not always accurate). Other methods include:

Click here to continue reading this article...

Gamification Principles and Best Practices

Host: Bruce Belfiore, CEO & Senior Research Analyst, BenchmarkPortal

Guest Speaker: Bob Cowen, Snowfly

Join host BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore and guest host Bob Cowen, Snowfly, as they discuss gamification principles and best practices. What is it, why all of the hype, and how can we use it for our daily challenges like retention, adherence, quality, FCR, and upselling?
Guest Host: Bob Cowen

Bob has been in the contact center industry for more than 30 years. During those years, he has observed agent incentive programs that used contests or games, leader boards, badges and various rewards. Creating and managing these incentive programs appeared to be labor intensive; they ran only periodically, for a relatively short duration and quite often the ROI was not even measured!

Then in 2006, Bob saw an article in the Wall Street Journal describing how a large bank was using an on-line incentive application that motivated employees to improve attendance, adherence and reduce attrition, especially new-hire attrition. It used brief on-line games, leader boards and rewards - - and it operated full time. This led him to Snowfly and the rest, as they say, is history.

Developing a Customer-Centric Center

In a competitive market, the ability of a company to be customer-centric and develop strong relationships with its customers through its customer service channels becomes a prime differentiator that favors success. It is therefore essential that companies wishing to stay competitive and gain customer loyalty must stay focused on the customer. Being customer-centric begins at the highest levels of management and is often exemplified through its mission statement and executive actions.

Here is a list of 10 Best Practices that foster a customer-centric call center:

Click Here to Continue Reading This Article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/05/developing-customer-centric-center

Benchmarking Made Easy - CallTalk Caramels

Benchmarking is a tool best used for optimizing the performance of the contact center. Through its use, managers can pinpoint areas of opportunity for improvement, and support those initiatives that will result in the best ROI for the center and organization. Benchmarking answers the question, “How good is good enough?” and it allows managers to stay competitive within their industry and against industry peers. Benchmarking also provides a solid foundation for business proposals aimed at senior management for improvement initiatives. Click the following link to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/04/benchmarking-made-easy

Is The Net Promoter Score The One Number You Need to Know?

Join host BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore and guest host Dr. Frederick Van Bennekom, Principal at Great Brook Consulting, as they discuss Net Promoter Score, or NPS. A lot has been written about NPS, and some companies have embraced it as the holy grail of quality measurement. But what is the research relationship between NPS and customer loyalty? Can we scientifically identify those customers who are very likely to return and that are likely to provide positive "word of mouth?"

Click here to continue reading and to listen to this show: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show/5/4/net-promoter-score-one-number-you-need-know

Compensation Strategies For Agents and Supervisors

Typically, 60-70% of a contact center’s budget is focused on labor costs. Thus, many organizations seek to offer the lowest compensation packages possible when hiring agents. However, understanding compensation is important because it’s one of the glues that hold people to the center and, when properly calibrated, allows managers to build stable, effective teams of people. Research by BenchmarkPortal revealed the following insights to this important area of discussion:

To continue reading this article please click here: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/04/compensation-strategies-agents-and-supervisors

How to Minimize After Call Work Time

After call work time (ACWT) is a component of call handle time that deserves managerial attention. It usually involves completing the customer record before taking the next call. This is normally done via electronic systems, but may, in some centers, include paper-based documentation and fax transactions.  BenchmarkPortal research shows that the majority of centers use customer relation management systems (CRMS) for call documentation during and after the call. These systems often include automated call record keeping and pre-formatted text – allowing agents to copy and paste call records, or use hot-keys and codes to assist in the documentation of caller interactions. CRMS offer one of the highest ROIs for contact center investments. Regardless of approach used, controlling ACWT remains a vexing issue for many call center managers.

Click here to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/04/how-minimize-after-call-work-time

CallTalk - Listen Now - Virtual Agents – Implement a Home Based Support Center

Virtual Agents – Ideas for Implementing a Home Based Support Center

Join host BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore and guest host Jesse Hoobler, as they discuss virtual agents. We will be discussing the reasons why support organizations choose to go virtual, advantages to leverage, roadblocks to avoid, and some lessons learned from out in the field.

Listen Now On Demand
 

Guest Host: Jesse Hoobler, Director, Worldwide Software Support

Jesse Hoobler is the Director of Worldwide Software Support at Pitney Bowes Inc., a $4.9-billion company that provides technology solutions for small, mid-size and large firms that help them connect with customers to build loyalty and grow revenue.While at Pitney Bowes, Jesse has been on a five year journey to transform the support organization into an award-winning business service, driving excellence through customer experience. By focusing on customer adoption and realized value, his support organization has seen dramatic improvement in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, Jesse led the support organization at Chronicle Technologies, an industry leader in management software for the restoration and construction industry. During his tenure, Jesse virtualized Chronicle’s support center, cutting costs and driving efficiency gains through a 100% work-from-home agent model. Jesse holds a Masters in Computer Science from The College of Saint Rose.

About CallTalk™ 

Broadcast monthly, directly over the Internet to your desktop, CallTalk™ covers informative and educational topics that impact today's call center. This show is hosted by Bruce Belfiore, CEO of BenchmarkPortal. It is aired without the participation of vendor sponsorship, so that topics are free from their influence and guided solely by the needs of our listeners.

Reducing Abandon Rate

CallTalk is a monthly internet radio program featuring innovative managers and thought leaders in the customer contact field, interviewed by BenchmarkPortal CEO, Bruce Belfiore.  “Caramels” distills “Aha!” moments from these interviews into practical, bite-sized nuggets to inform and assist you as a contact center professional.

Call abandonment is often considered as a lower-level metric, and thus people do not focus on the implications of abandoned calls to the organization, which include staffing issues (too few agents indicates that staffing levels are not in alignment with business needs); technical equipment issues (lack of proper technology for directing and handling calls); and strategic business issues tied to the organization’s mission statement and positioning in the market. It is important that contact center managers be proactive in building relationships with other departments, so as to stay ahead of customer-impacting issues such as media ads, mass mailings and other marketing strategies that may impact call volumes.  In many instances a lost call is a lost sale. Sales centers, in particular, should calculate average revenue per call to determine what abandon rate is financially acceptable.

Here are some key strategies for your abandonment metric:
Click Here to Continue Reading This Article:  http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/03/reducing-abandon-rate