CallTalk Caramels: Investments in Employee Training… Are you getting bang for your buck?

Call center leaders want well-trained employees who are good performers, but they need practical training solutions that can be implemented quickly, without breaking the bank. IF they can be assured that the investment will yield the desired results; call center leaders are willing to invest in high-quality training, even in tough economic times.

BenchmarkPortal research has identified best practices that will result in optimal learning programs:
Create performance-based training: this is training designed to focus on job tasks and goes beyond topics such as corporate policies or use of software applications. Advantages include:

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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

Contact Center Economics 101: Nobel Prize for Economics - The Link Between Customer Contact and Economic Growth

By Bruce Belfiore, Senior Research Executive and CEO, BenchmarkPortal

Ok.  Here’s my bid for a Nobel.  One of the macro questions for the customer contact industry is: “Does a robust customer contact industry correlate with higher economic growth?”

The implications of this question are enormous.  If such a relationship can be shown to exist, then governments that want to foster economic growth should actively encourage the growth of the customer contact industry within their borders.

As we grow our database of contact center performance metrics here at BenchmarkPortal, we look forward to the day that we will have enough data to prove a correlation between the state of the contact center industry and GDP growth in countries throughout the world.  However, there are already circumstantial indications that this relationship exists, and governments would do well to consider their policies even now.

I note as well that contact centers represent clean, non-polluting operations that involve “knowledge worker” skills at a variety of levels.  Contact centers are often the first point of entry for workers who later are promoted into other parts of the enterprise - - but hopefully retain their appreciation for customer service and bring their experience with them as they advance professionally.

Estimates regarding the number of people who work in contact centers in advanced economies is astounding. It was estimated that about 3% of the working population in the United Kingdom is employed in contact centers, while the estimated percentage is over 3% in the United States and Canada.  These economies have been among the most resilient over the last 20 years, while advanced, G7 economies like Japan and Italy, which have much less robust customer contact sectors, have languished.

My hypothesis is that consumers the world over are more likely to trust and buy a product or service when:

Click here to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/10/contact-center-economics-101-nobel-prize-economics-l

Call Center Campus Week There Is Still Time To Register! Las Vegas, NV at the Planet Hollywood Hotel November 10-14, 2014

There Is Still Time To Register! Lodging & Classroom Seats Available. Join Us For a Unique Week of Learning. Pre-Symposium Certification Workshops Management Certification Workshop Nov. 10-14, 2014 Quality Assurance Certification Workshop Nov. 11-14, 2014 Workforce Management Certification Workshop Nov. 11-14, 2014 - Lodging is Included - Complimentary Access to 2-Day Symposium - Complimentary Access to Welcome/Networking Reception - Networking Breakfasts 2-Day Symposium Symposium November 13-14, 2014 “Imagine Excellence” People, Technology, Connections - From Today to Your Tomorrow - Lodging is Included - Guest Speakers - Breakout Learning Sessions - “Hot Topic” Roundtable Discussions - Welcome/Networking Reception - Networking Breakfasts Opening Keynote Presented by Prof. Richard Feinberg, Purdue University, Consumer Sciences and Retailing.   Customer Centric Culture   Net Promoter Score and Customer Effort   Imagining a Healthier Call Center: Lessons From The Industry's Biggest Loser   Stretching and Fitness in The Call Center   Transforming Training Approaches - Getting Better Business Results   2-Days of Roundtable Discussions!   Your Centers Customer Satisfaction Challenges & Resolutions   and more... Click Here To Learn More About Call Center Campus

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:

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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

First Call Resolution - It’s Not Only a Quality Metric

I consider First Call Resolution (FCR) the “magic metric” for call centers, because it has impact on both quality and costs.  

Most managers concentrate on the quality side of FCR, and for good reason.  Our statistical studies show that FCR correlates with customer satisfaction.  It is very easy to understand, intuitively, why customers are happier when they can resolve their issue with their first call.  

Often ignored, however, is the impact on contact center economics.  Relatively few managers do the math to understand how improving their FCR can help the bottom line, and help them justify needed investments. While an in-depth analysis of a particular center requires considerable customization, the following is a short primer for inbound customer service/tech support centers that will help you to begin wrapping your mind around this issue.

First, calculate your average cost per call.  As an initial cut, simply take your entire budget (include all direct costs) and divide by the number of calls taken; let’s say the cost is $8.00 per call.

Benchmark your FCR against that of your industry.  If your FCR is 65% and your industry’s average is 75%, then you know your window of opportunity for improvement is, at least, 10%, to be on par with the average for your industry.  

Next, determine how many calls, on average, are needed to resolve issues that are not resolved on that first call.  Our studies show that 1.5 is a reasonable estimate.  

Pulling things together, here is a sample situation:

Click here to continue reading this article....http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/04/contact-center-economics-101-first-call-resolution-i

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