EyeMed Vision Care Contact Center Achieves Its Fourth Certification as a BenchmarkPortal Center of Excellence

The EyeMed Vision Care customer contact center has been certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization. “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “This certification attests to the fact that call center leaders have successfully balanced efficiency and effectiveness in their operations. By optimizing their cost components and their ability to satisfy customers, they exemplify best practices in a very important consumer products sector.”

http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/press-release/2013/09/eyemed-vision-care-contact-center-achieves-its-fourt  

Survey Underway on Call Center Employee Retention Rates and Strategies

BenchmarkPortal in partnership with Talent Chaser, the award-winning Software-as-a-Service provider, has developed this quick survey to measure Contact Center Employee Retention Rates.

Call centers have the opportunity to participate in a study about Call Center Employee Retention Rates and Strategies.

Participants will receive the summary results of this survey, and will also be invited to a webinar with in-depth research results on how to improve contact center employee retention, at no cost.

Employee retention is one of the main challenges of contact centers. BenchmarkPortal and Talent Chaser are looking at the factors that affect the industry and will analyze the results to establish industry benchmarks and develop call center employee retention best practices. Talent Chaser has a proven track record for improving employee retention and will utilize this data to offer Solutions to Staff Retention Issues.

Please complete this survey to find out how your center measures up in comparison to the industry and how to improve your contact center’s employee retention.

Online surveys conducted by BenchmarkPortal begin on September 11 and are available for anyone to complete at http://benchmarkportal.One-Minute-Survey-Employee-Turnover.sgizmo.com/s3/.

"Please complete the survey and forward the survey link to other appropriate contact centers. Participation in the survey will take no more than 5 minutes and is confidential,” said Crystal Robertson, BenchmarkPortal's marketing director. “Participants will receive the results of this survey via e-mail, at no cost, within 10 business days of the survey’s close and an invitation to the webinar explaining the results."

Click the following link to access the Survey.

Quality Assurance Agents Love - CallTalk™ Caramels: Sweet Snippets from BenchmarkPortal’s Best CallTalk Episodes

Quality Monitoring, traditionally seen by agents as the dreaded ‘Big Brother’ operation of a company, can be transformed into a process appreciated by agents, as well as helping achieve customer service objectives. Key points include:

• Work to get everyone to accept that quality monitoring is an essential aspect of call center management and must be done well for everyone’s good;
• During feedback sessions, avoid criticizing agents frontally where possible. Ask questions to get them to critique themselves, then offer ways to improve;
• In grading, expectations must be clearly defined to agents before they start their jobs – not after they are graded;
• Have a clear understanding of company objectives and strategies and match QA objectives to meet those needs;
• Hire people who can work within the strategies of the company (i.e. don’t hire a ‘Techie’ for a sales job, or a customer service type for a sales position, etc.);

Click here to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2013/06/quality-assurance-agents-love-calltalk%E2%84%A2-caramels-swe

Provide strategic organizational value by transitioning your center from a service to a sales culture

Click here to listen to this episode of CallTalk: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show/4/12/provide-strategic-organizational-value-tra

Discussion points:
1.  Developing a strategic road-map
2.  Key strategies to excite your organization for change and growth
3.  Importance of measuring results for success

Russell Rossi is the Corporate Vice President of Customer Experience and Strategic Planning for New York Life Tampa Operations.  Russell’s responsibilities include all customer touch points and technology of the Customer Experience Program comprising the internal Quality Teams, Learning and Development Team, After Call Survey, Speech Analytics, Voice of the Customer, and Voice of the Agent programs.  Additional responsibilities include oversight for all Strategic Planning and Project Management for key Member Services technologies, initiatives, and enhancements.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Achieves Certification as a Center of Excellence

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis customer contact center has been certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization. “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “Contact centers that achieve certification are remarkable in their ability to balance a commitment to service excellence with cost effective service strategies.

Participate in Ground-Breaking Research - 4 Different Research Initiatives.

BenchmarkPortal has a long tradition of original research focused on the contact center sector. Twenty-six books, hundreds of white papers, case studies and articles are testimony to our research contribution to the customer contact sector.

We are inviting members of our community to raise their hands to participate in ground-breaking research for 2013-2014, including an innovative Harvard Business School-led project. This year's research concentrates on two areas:

1. Contact Center Agents
2. Financial Returns from Contact Center Improvements

Please Participate! If you would be interested in participating, visit our website here: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2013/08/participate-ground-breaking-research-4-different-res

The Projects Under Consideration Are As Follows:

• Harvard Business School Research on "Idle Time" During Work.
• Inner Work Life Research Study:
• Does Contact Resolution Lead To Sales?
• Customer Contact and Shareholder Value: Case Studies On Contact Center ROI.

Contact Center Economics 101: When WFM Means Workforce Manna

here are literally thousands of contact centers that are on (or over) the cusp of needing advanced workforce management systems.  Continuing to spreadsheet your workforce needs as your center grows and becomes more complex may seem like a thrifty thing to do – but it isn’t.  Some of the best returns on investment (ROIs) from contact center investments come from installing appropriate WFM systems.

Consider the fact that most contact centers spend 60% to 70% of their budget on front line personnel.  Consider as well the fact that a competent workforce management system can allow you to increase your agent-related metrics, including occupancy, utilization and adherence to schedule.

Click here to continue reading this article: Contact Center Economics 101: When WFM Means Workforce Manna

How To Understand & Embrace Advanced Workforce Management

In today’s advanced contact center environment, Workforce Management (WFM) should not be thought of as only a process, but a culture that uses data to drive systems and practices toward optimum results. Centers that continue to maintain their WFM practices on spreadsheets often miss out on the big picture in terms of planning and adjusting the needs of staffing. Conversely, centers that use WFM software can more readily and easily focus on the changing business needs of the center on a minute-by-minute basis. These changes include agent skill/split needs for product lines, inbound vs. outbound, voice channel vs. email or text, supervisor distribution, call monitoring, coaching, mentoring and training needs, and more.

Click here to listen to the show and continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show/calltalk-archive/workforce-management-advanced

Organizational Structure: Foundation for Contact Center Success

We have all seen photographs of sinkholes that have swallowed buildings whole.  Weak underpinnings can have tragic consequences; what you don’t see can really hurt you.

In the contact center world, organizational structure is often a weak underpinning that impedes success.  It is not necessarily the first thing we see when we assess a center, but it becomes apparent when we review org charts, operations and reports.  Most commonly, we see issues in the following contexts:

To Read about Growth Situations, Shrinkage, Functional Change, Mergers and Acquisitions, Outsource/Insource Decisions, and At-Home Agents...Click this link: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2013/08/organizational-structure-foundation-contact-center-s

MAXIMUS Physician Profile Operations in New York and New Jersey Achieve Certification as Centers of Excellence

BenchmarkPortal recognizes the exceptional efficiency and effectiveness of the MAXIMUS Physician Profile Operations in New York and New Jersey by awarding their call centers as Certified Centers of Excellence. The granting of certification is based on a company’s operational metrics, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction!