Employee Engagement: Blocking and Tackling

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What is going on
here? They say bad
luck comes in threes,
so maybe I am just
on a losing streak.
Whatever the case,
the last three interac-
tions I have had as a
customer with a contact center
have been just awful. Not just
garden variety bad, but awful.
And while I know that my job
tends to make me more critical
than most, it would be difcult
for even the hopelessly upbeat
to fnd any good in any of these
transactions. (You are welcome
to try, thoughI
outlined them in the
sidebar on page 9.)
Poor service tends
to get me a bit edgy,
and in one of the
tirades I threw after a
frustrating interaction,
I found myself using a term that
comes up occasionally in our
consulting work: blocking and
tackling. We generally use it to
refer to foundational activities
that need to take place in just
about any contact center
managing phone coverage,
monitoring
Employee Engagement
July 2010
Sell Leadership on
Smart Technology
Create an emotional
connection to
drive the behaviors
that contribute to
customer loyalty and
business success.
www.ContactCenterPipeline.com
BY SUSAN HASH
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Brian Hinton
Blocking and Tackling
Jay Minnucci
What is it that makes the employees in
certain companies especially enthusias-
tic about their jobs and more committed
to delivering a high-quality customer
experience on call after call? Higher
pay alone wont produce passionate
concern for the companys well-being
and dedication to helping it achieve its
vision or goals.
Employee engagement has been
widely discussed in recent years as a key
contributor to customer satisfaction and
retention. There has been a great deal of
research into the correlation between an
engaged workforce and positive opera-
tional results, including higher proftabil-
ity, improved performance and lower
costs. It seems like employee engage-
ment has become the new corporate
brass ringbut its impossible to grab
if the companys leadership fails to
demonstrate a sincere interest in their
employees well-being and growth.
What exactly is employee engage-
ment? Defnitions difer from study
to study and company to company,
although there are overlapping
themes. A few years ago,
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The Conference Board took a look at 12 major
studies on employee engagementeach of
which had a diferent defnition and varying
key drivers of engagement. It came up with the
following composite defnition of employee
engagement: a heightened emotional con-
nection that an employee feels for his or her
organization, which infuences him or her to exert
greater discretionary efort to his or her work.
According to HR consulting frm Hewitt
Associates, employee engagement can be
measured by three primary behaviorssay,
stay and strive:
Sayconsistently speaking positively
about the organization to coworkers
and referring potential employees and
customers
Stayan intense desire to be a member
of the organization, despite opportunities
to work elsewhere
Striveexerting extra efort and
exhibiting behaviors that contribute to
business success
Impact on Profitability,
Customer Experience
How much impact does employee engage-
ment have on a companys bottom line? A recent
Gallup study estimated that disengaged employ-
ees wasted more than $300 billion in productiv-
ity in U.S. frms; however, organizations with an
engaged workforce have 2.6 times the earnings
per share growth rate compared to others in the
same industry with a less-engaged workforce.
Focusing on employee engagement and
measuring the impact of company decisions on
that engagement has shown a direct correla-
tion in customer engagement and proftability
at Nicor National, a provider of turnkey energy
efciency and warranty solutions for utilities
nationwide. The organization, which measures
both employee and customer
engagement on a monthly
basis, has found that the results
are very closely aligned, says
Barbara Porter, vice president
of business development and
customer service.
Employee engagement
in any organization is very
dynamicit trends positively
at a pretty steady rate, and then you might
see a dip in one month; for example, due to a
reorganization that might not have been com-
municated properly, she says. When we see a
dip in employee engagement, we see a similar
dip in our customer engagementand when
we fx our employee engagement, our customer
engagement goes up.(See the graphic on page 4
of Nicors Engagement Index, which illustrates the
month-to-month correlation between employee
and customer engagement.)
Weve been able to demonstrate that cor-
relation pretty directly, adds Nancy Korman,
senior manager of call center operations. When
we address employee issues upfront and take
action to make things better, we will see an
almost immediate and dramatic improvement in
employee engagement, and therefore, customer
engagement.
In some organizations, a 30- or 60-day lag
time is typical before customer engagement is
impacted, Porter says, but Nicor Nationals results
have been more real-time due to its comprehen-
sive employee feedback program.
Ask Employees for Their
FeedbackFrequently
Companies with high engagement typically
place a high priority on employee input, and they
tend to solicit their feedback more frequently
than others. At Nicor National, management
frmly believes that employee feedback is the
cornerstone to creating a positive, open culture.
The environment that you create for your
employees is the environment that your cus-
tomers will experience, stresses Porter. To keep
a pulse on the workplace mood and the impact
of management decisions on the culture, Nicor
National implemented Allegiances Voice of
Employee (VOE) program. The call center uses the
VOE tools to collect unsolicited questions, sug-
gestions and concerns from employees online.
Employees can log into the tool whenever they
want to ask a question, make a suggestion, ofer
a comment or bring up a concern. They can also
take an online survey that asks for their feedback
to statements like: Nicor National values my rela-
tionship; the company really cares about me; and
the company invests in my success.
On a monthly basis, the company also con-
ducts a benchmarking survey using the VOE tool.
In addition, culture surveys, or pulse checks,
are sent out to random groups of employees
on a regular basis. Their responses make up an
employee engagement index, which is tracked on
a weekly and monthly basis to help management
to identify trends.
Face-to-face time with employees is also
important. Another method that management
uses to collect employee feedback
PUBLISHER
Linda Harden
linda@contactcenterpipeline.com
EDITOR
Susan Hash
susan@contactcenterpipeline.com
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Lori Bocklund Strategic Contact
Jay Minnucci Service Agility
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Rebecca Gibson
Susan Hash
Brian Hinton
Jon Pratz
Dan Rickwalder
Lesley Vereen
Jay Minnucci
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Mark Knight
mark@contactcenterpipeline.com
TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR
Steve Harden
steve@contactcenterpipeline.com
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Employee Engagement
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BARBARA PORTER
Contact Center Pipeline 4 JUL 2010
is through monthly roundtables and daily man-
agement walkarounds. We believe that personal
contact and involvement provides a complete
culture, says Porter.
The VOE program has been invaluable dur-
ing operational changes, she adds. We can use
the tool to keep a fnger on the pulse of our
employee engagement. We can see when the
things that were doing havent been commu-
nicated in a way that makes the type of change
that were implementing palatable. Then we can
shore up those things and ensure that, as were
making changes and moving forward, everybody
is staying with us.
A Transparent View of Issues
that Affect Customers
Sharing the big picture with employees
especially regarding issues that impact customer
satisfactiondemonstrates their value in the
organization and ensures that they are well
informed of company initiatives when speak-
ing with customers. At SciQuest, a provider of
on-demand strategic procurement and supplier
enablement solutions, an internal customer
rating process helps the company to focus
on continuously improving
the customer relationship.
Management looks at each
customers satisfaction feed-
back from surveys, the number
of recent support incidents and
the use of the frms application
compared to other customers
of similar size, says Director of
Customer Support Jef Woody.
Customers are given a simple A, B or C classi-
fcationA customers are highly satisfed, and
B customers are satisfed. The C customers are
those whose usage may have dropped of in the
previous month or who have generated more
than the typical amount of support tickets. We
then put an action plan around the customer
to fgure out whats wrong, what we need to
do, who is doing it, and by when, Woody says.
SciQuests internal rating system takes a much
tougher look at its processes than its customers
do. For instance, some customers may be clas-
sifed as C customers even though they have
given good scores and feedback on the external
customer satisfaction survey. Were a lot harder
on ourselves than the customers are, he says.
The Ccustomer list is well-known throughout
the organization, Woody says. Its posted on the
intranet homepage so that any employee can
see who those customers are, why they have
been classifed as such and the action plan for
improving the rating. Everyone is keenly aware
of it, in case theyre speaking to that customer or
handling something for that customer, he says.
We communicate changes to the list as they
happen via email.
Show Staff How They Impact
the Business
One key driver of engagement is the ability to
clearly link the employees work to the companys
performance. SciQuests customer support lead-
ers take a proactive approach to communicating
business results to staf. When our support team
hears that a specifc customer renewed their
contract or gave us a great referral to a prospect, it
helps to tie it back to what theyre doing, Woody
says. If they see that a customer they were speak-
ing with earlier has renewed, they realize that
they had a hand in making that happen.
He advises contact center leaders to obtain
external information, such as additional sales or
renewals, which emphasize the frontline stafs
contributions. You have to go out and seek that
type of information because, many times, the
sales or fnance group is not going to proactively
send it to you,he says. You also have to help your
team tie it together, because it wont be their frst
thought when they see that a particular customer
bought an additional license or product.
At Nicor National, Porter posts a monthly
message on the intranet that shares information
from its Voice of the Customer surveys, as well as
verbatim comments and customer compliments.
Once a quarter, the entire call center meets on
a Saturday to go through the VOC feedback,
including all of the survey data, to look at how
the company is trending and review verbatim
comments from customers. We talk about the
drivers that create an engaged customer and
what we need to do as a team and as individuals
to create more of those experiences, she says.
Empowerment Demonstrates Trust
in Employees Skills and Value
There is nothing more frustrating than working
in an environment where you dont have the
authority to do the job that you were hired to do.
Thats not the case at SciQuest, where customer
support reps are respected and valued for their
input.
In one initiative, called the buddy system,
Feature Article
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page 3
Employee Engagement
Culture Shift and Performance
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Aug-09 Sep-09 Oct-09 Nov-09 Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10
Engagement Index
Customers
Employees Source: Nicor National
JEFF WOODY
product development professionals are teamed with
customer support reps for new product releases. As
[product development] is going through the process
of designing and developing new features, they get
feedback from customer support on how customers
might view the functionality, or to identify any gaps
that might cause issues with particular customer
confgurations or the way that they use the applica-
tion, Woody explains.
Customer support reps also participate in Kaizen
events to improve support processes, like time to
close tickets or to prevent issues and problems
altogether. Customer support drives the process,
pulling together crossfunctional teams that consist
of representatives from product development, profes-
sional services and customer support. The group is
brought together for two or three days to go through
a segment of customer tickets to identify the root
cause and to come up with a list of action items to
improve the process.
Customer support reps are encouraged to attend
SciQuests user group meetings that take place several
times a year, and each rep visits a customers site
at least once a year with a colleague from account
management or professional services. We want them
to understand how the customer runs their business
and how theyre using our application or products to
do it, as well as what impact theyre having on that
when theyre assisting them, Woody says.
Create a Culture of Respect
In The Conference Boards review of employee
engagement research, the one key driver that all
of the studies agreed to be the strongest was the
employees relationship with his or her manager.
As weve seen with Nicor National and SciQuest,
leaders who can establish a high level of trust and
respect are able to create the type of positive culture
that, in turn, generates passion for the workplace.
Where do you start?
Managers need to truly care about the people
who theyre responsible for, and look at them as
people vs. metrics, says Porter. You need to care
about their success in your organization, more so
than your own success.
The most important people in our organization
are the people who communicate with and take care
of our customersand thats our contact center
representatives and our technicians in the feld. And
so our job is to support the people who take care of
our customers.
Editors Note: Learn more about SciQuests award-winning
customer service initiatives in next months Inside View column.
The process of measuring employee engagement can range from very simple
to very complex. Measuring your employees passion about work and the
work environment can be as simple as issuing a survey with a few scaled
questions around the ideas of:
Job satisfaction
Productivity
Quality of peers
Likelihood to change jobs
Likelihood to recommend company products or services
Likelihood to recommend as a great place to work
Satisfaction with compensation & benefts
Susan Hash is the Editor of Contact
Center Pipeline.
susan@contactcenterpipeline.com
(206) 552-8831
Measuring Employee Engagement
USE A LIKERT SCALE
Using a scale of agreement (or Likert Scale), a survey can express
quantitative measurements of your employee engagement. Often times,
gathering open-ended comments along with numerical, scale data yields a
rich source of inexpensive opportunities to make employees happy.
A Likert scale (pronounced lick-urt) is a type of psychometric response
scale often used in questionnaires, and is the most widely used scale in
survey research. For example:
I will look for another job in the next 12 months
By gathering compliments in addition to concerns, companies can find out if their engagement
efforts make a meaningful, lasting contribution to employees.
Consider the following anonymous compliment and complaint printed verbatim:
My manager is very proactive in discussing my abilities and goals with me and we
arrive at a goal together; one that is realistic and achievable.
It bothers me that our customers get better benefts with their accounts than we
do as employees. Everybody makes a mistake once in a while with their accounts; its
unbelievable that an employee gets two overdraft reversals in a lifetime.
These two feedback items helped a business confirm the effectiveness of its management
program and work on moral boosters for its employees. Engagement is most effectively measured
both quantitatively through scaled questions, and qualitatively through open-ended comments.
Source: Kyle LaMalfa, Allegiance Best Practices Manager and Loyalty Expert; excerpted from The Top 11
Ways to Increase Your Employee Loyalty, Engagement: Winning the Battle for Customer and Employee
Hearts & Minds, www.allegiance.com
GATHER COMPLIMENTS
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree nor disagree
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree
When was your
last performance
review? Was it
completed on time?
Was it truly refec-
tive of your overall
performance? How
specific, fair and
valuable was the
feedback? Did you
track your progress
and milestones against your goals throughout the
year, leading you to a thoughtful self-evaluation?
Most companies have some type of annual
performance evaluation process in which each
employees performance is evaluated according
to a standard performance evaluation template.
Organizations that take formal performance
management (PM) more seriously include a
period for annual goal-setting, in which individual
employee performance goals are established that
align with and support cascading corporate and
departmental goals. Throughout the year, then,
the expectation is that managers are monitoring
and coaching employee performance toward
these goals.
With all this time devoted to PM and the
thousands of dollars poured into Web-based
performance management systems, how many
employees cite the annual performance manage-
ment process as motivator, a major contributor
to satisfaction or a reason they stay with the
company? In too many companies, performance
management is a checklist activity that many
managers and employees dont spend much time
thinking about, except when goals or evaluations
are due.
A Three-Phased Approach
Whats the solution? A PM process that shares
accountability equally between employees and
managers, and devotes the time necessary to
allow all employees to refect meaningfully on
the goals and behaviors that matter most.
Each phase of the PM process is equally impor-
tant and dependent on the next to be successful.
If you shortchange one, the next step will sufer.
Logically then, good planning sets the stage for
performance management success.
PHASE 1: PLANNING
The planning phase includes individual
employee performance goal setting and
anticipating the demands and challenges of the
upcoming year. This phase may be daunting to
a manager with many employees, especially if
every employee has customized goals. However,
there are many ways to simplify and streamline
the individual employee goal process. Try to
incorporate some of these ideas in the planning
phase:
1. Document individual performance goals that
align with and support department and organi-
zational goals. To streamline this step, provide
your employees with your departmental goals
and ask them to develop the frst draft of their
performance goals. What better way to familiarize
employees with the departmental goals and their
role in achieving them? Alternately, you may pair
employees in like jobs and ask them to work
collaboratively to develop their goals together.
What about your frontline employees? Consider
implementing a collaborative, social networking-
style Web interface, posting the contact center
goals and asking agents for input about most
efective best agent goals.
2. Set development goals. Development
goals are related to an employees skill devel-
opment and career aspirations, often separate
from the requirements of their current position.
Development goals are developed in collabora-
tion with the employee and are meant to beneft
both the employee and the company, albeit in
less direct ways than performance goals. Help
employees develop their own development
goals during coaching conversations. You are
asking employees about their future aspirations,
professional interests and long-term goals, right?
You can easily build a few of these questions into
your regular employee feedback and prompt
employees to keep track of them for annual
development planning.
3. Identify the resources needed to meet
performance goals and anticipate performance
barriers. An important component of planning is
asking the employee to anticipate the resources
required to meet the goal (e.g., training, time, your
involvement), the barriers that might get in the
way and how you or the employee will address
them if they do.
Performance planning is really a series of teach-
able moments: Youre teaching your employees
how to set professional goals, how to think stra-
tegically and proactively, and demonstrating the
importance of career planning.
PHASE 2: OBSERVATION
After the performance and development goals
are set and documented, the employee begins
working on his goals, fne-tuning his work, moni-
toring his or her progress and marking milestones.
The manager, of course, observes performance
and provides feedback, too. Although this phase
is commonly identifed as the observation phase,
that doesnt mean that its all on the managers
shoulders. Dont move from planning to observa-
tion without clearly communicating to employ-
ees their accountability for self-evaluation and for
tracking their own progress toward their goals.
Set specifc expectations around how and how
often you want to see a progress update on their
goals (e.g., during performance feedback meet-
ings, through email, using a report template),
then hold them accountable for tracking their
own performance, as much as possible.
The observation phase blends in with much of
the daily work of the contact center. Employees
do their work, which leads them closer to their
goals, and you observe and provide feedback on
Online Resource
The Three Phases of Performance Management
A better approach to performance management: Share accountability
for planning, observation and evaluation phases with your agents.
Performance Matters
View Available CCP Training Resources at:
http://tinyurl.com/CCPTraining
Rebecca Gibson
Learning Currents
their work, which is part of a managers
responsibility. Dont forget, though, that
you need to continually tie that per-
formance and observation back to the
goals that were set at the beginning of
the PM process. You can easily build this
into your regular one-on-one meetings:
1. Discuss progress and results. Pull
out the complete goal plan (perfor-
mance and development goals) at
regular intervals throughout the year
and discuss progress, barriers and suc-
cesses. Praise progress and encourage
the employee every step of the way
toward goal achievement.
2. Review and refne goals. Dont be afraid
to revise or refne goals, if necessary. In todays
business environment, corporate goals or even
our strategy can change quickly and employee
goals should fex with those changes.
PHASE 3: EVALUATION
Your employees have been tracking their prog-
ress toward their goals and providing you with
regular status updates. Youve been observing,
coaching and encouraging throughout the year.
Now youre ready to complete your employee
evaluations:
1. Review your documentation and create
an overview performance and progress against
goals. Now is the time to gather all your employee
progress report and status updates. If both
employees and managers kept up with their
documentation and communication throughout
the year, then the end-of the year evaluation
should be much easier. This why I advocate
employee self-evaluation and tracking. It makes
life much easier for the manager, who has many
employees to track.
2. Complete self-evaluation (employee) and
evaluation (manager). Self-evaluations are a
valuable component of the evaluation process.
They provide employees with the opportunity
to refect on their performance, help managers
understand employees perspective of their own
performance, and fll you in on accomplishments
you may not have noted. Review the employees
self-evaluation before you begin the performance
evaluation and refer to it as you would other
sources of performance data. As you prepare for
the evaluation conversation, be prepared to share
with the employee areas of the self-evaluation
where you agreed or disagreed.
3. Transition seamlessly from Phase 3 to Phase
1. Devote a portion of your evaluation meeting to
planning for next year. The employee should leave
their performance evaluation meeting with an
assignment to start thinking about what he or she
wants to accomplish in the next year. That way,
when you distribute next years departmental
goals, the employee is ready to get down to the
work of planning their goals for the next year.
Three Performance Management
Pitfalls
The pitfalls associated with performance man-
agement programs can be traced to not spend-
ing enough time on the process. Managers who
follow these three guidelines will vastly improve
the quality of their performance management
process:
1. The process should be collaborative.
Some managers and employees interpret the
performance management process as one in
which managers set expectations and evalu-
ate employees against those expectations. This
approach casts the employee in the role of passive
observer rather than active participant. Involving
employees in goal setting, monitoring and track-
ing, and evaluation eases the manager workload,
encourages ownership and
increases the likelihood that
your employees will fnd the
PM program relevant and
valuable.
2. The process should be
fair. Its no surprise that many
employees dont feel the PM
process is fair. Some of this
will be remedied through col-
laboration and involvement,
as well as ongoing com-
munication throughout the
year. There are several steps
you can take to ensure the
fairness and validity of your
PM process. HR departments
or department heads should
consider analyzing manager
scores across teams to verify
managers arent unjustly rat-
ing their teams higher than
others. Ask employees opin-
ions about the PM process in employee
evaluations. Have HR review a sample
of goals and evaluations each year and
make the quality of goal setting and
annual evaluations part of every man-
agers scorecard.
3. The process should be meaning-
ful. Employees and managers need the
timemental time and clock timeto
refect on what they want and how they
feel as much as the realities of meeting
milestones and deadlines. Employees
should feel that their manager values
them enough to take the time to set
individual goals (not just cookie-cutter
ones), observe daily performance and achieve-
ments, and write refective, meaningful evalua-
tions that seamlessly integrate employee goals,
performance, dreams and aspirations.
Your performance management process can
be meaningful and relevant. It can bring out the
best in your employees and demonstrate your
commitment to the companys success and the
employees professional growth. Dont miss out on
the opportunity to implement a PM process that
improves the future prospects of the company,
your employees and you.
Rebecca Gibson is a workplace
learning and performance consultant
and Principal of Learning Currents.
rebecca_gibson@yahoo.com
(443) 255-9387
Phase 1:
Planning
Phase 3:
Evaluation
Phase 2:
Observation
ADVERTI SEMENT
calls, measuring performance, coaching staf,
etc. During an assessment, these are the tactical
activities we evaluate to ensure that at least a
basic level of service is provided.
The Customer Perspective
on Basics
Having been on the short side of these last
three transactions, though, I found myself think-
ing about basic blocking and tackling from a
diferent perspective. While consultants may think
in terms of inputs, a customer really only cares
about the output. When a customer makes a call,
for example, the expectation is that there will
be someone there to answer it in a reasonable
amount of time. The processes that make that
happen are of no concern. And while there are
many things that might wow a customer, block-
ing and tackling is really only about the basics.
While in the throes of my frustration, I came up
with this very short list of what those basics are:
Acknowledge me and my request.
Answer my questions correctly.
Follow through as stated/expected.
That is a pretty simple list. Let us not confuse
it with any list of what customers want, or what
impresses them, or what builds loyalty. This list
is about the bare minimum. Think of it as the
customers version of food, water and shelter. The
last two basics in the list above are pretty obvious,
while the frst changes a bit based on the channel
selected (see the table below).
Inside the Center
If you are thinking that this blocking-and-
tackling defnition sets the bar pretty low, you
get no argument from me. Yet, if the bar is set
this low, why is it that multibillion dollars com-
panies are sometimes unable to clear it? It would
be easy to say that they usually do and that my
experience was just bad luck. When I relate the
stories to someone else, though, I always fnd
myself listening to an in-kind response of a
similar experience every bit as egregious as the
ones I encountered. While no one is suggesting
that such service is always the case, the sheer
number of these stories, coupled with key pieces
of evidence from some of them (note Case #2 on
page 9, for example, where they explained, it is
not our policy to notify you if we are not going
to show up), make it clear that way too many
interactions fail to meet the minimum.
Inside the contact center, the surfacing of
one of these complaints from a VIP often fuels
a blame gamethe CSR should not have said
that, the knowledge management system
wasnt updated properly, etc. Finding fault and
laying blame might be natural, but it is not very
productive when the problem is systemic. We
need to take a more proactive approach with our
blocking-and-tackling issues. As an industry, the
stakes are certainly high enough. Review all the
criticisms we receive from the mainstream media,
and before long it becomes clear that the issues
that rankle our customer most are those that are
squarely in the blocking-and-tackling category.
Clearing the Hurdle
The nice part about a low bar is that we dont
need to make a herculean efort to cross it. In
fact, we do not need anything close to a 12-step
program to bring about positive change. Three
will work just fne:
1. Recognize and accept that every contact
center has to perfect blocking and tackling before
going on to the fancy things like voice analytics,
social media and whatever else may come next.
2. Empower the frontline with whatever is nec-
essary to avoid or immediately correct a situation
where a block or tackle is missed.
3. Test vigorously. We can never assume that all
is going well, so you should have test accounts
available where you can model diferent service
scenarios (like, say, a customer having problems
with an out-of-warranty product that has a
known defect) and call in to make sure the right
processes are in place and are followed by all
staf on all channels.
The three items above should be within the
grasp of everyone running a contact center. No
huge investments are required, and no special
expertise is needed to make it happen.
A Consistent Approach
Yes, blocking and tackling may seem boring
compared to all the other things that we can
accomplish with a service or sales transaction.
Yet the ability to deliver the basics time and time
again is a powerful way to build an image and
create loyalty. Just ask the TV manufacturer pro-
fled in Case #2. With a quick, accurate response,
I would have decided to remain a customer. Now
I have my eye on one of their competitors fat
screens which will ft perfectly in the spot that
the old TV is about to vacate.
Create a winning contact center by executing well on the service
fundamentals. By Jay Minnucci, Service Agility
page 1
Agility Factor
Blocking and Tackling
Customer Basics by Channel
Basic Expectation In-Person Service Phone Call Text Chat Email
Acknowledge me and my
request.
Make eye contact, indicate
that you will be with me soon.
Get to me within a couple of
minutes.
Provide some messaging,
get me to an agent in a
reasonable amount of time.
Acknowledge my text quickly,
even if just to let me know you
will be with me soon. Respond
consistently throughout the
chat session.
Send an acknowledgement
immediately. Answer me in
two days or less.
Jay Minnucci is Founder and President
of the independent consulting firm
Service Agility.
jaym@serviceagility.com
(215) 679-5250
We are going to
leave the company
names out of this
but other than that,
the details are all
accurate. Here are
the three cases that
led to this article:
THREE CASES
Illustrate the Impact
of Poor Service
1 Case #
2 Case #
3 Case #
Service Requested
Situation
Outcome
Service Requested
Situation
Outcome
Service Requested
Situation
Outcome
Tired of my landline phone
bill going up (yes, I still have
a landline phone), I decided
to check out a packaged
offer from a local cable
company (phone, internet
and TV for one low price).
I checked the information
out online, then sent an
email (initiated from the
companys website) to get
information and request a
call.
None. Its been three
months, and I still have
not heard a thing.
Still paying for
the landline.
Would have gladly
switched over by
now had someone
contacted me.
Called to set up phone
service for my wifes
new business. Provided
all information except
for the company EIN
(tax number), which I
did not have with me. I
was assured this was
not a problem, and the
technician would get
it at turn-on. I verified
twice at the end of the
call that the company
had everything they
needed, and that
they would be on site
between 8 a.m. and
noon the following
Thursday.
Its the only phone
company in the area
if you want a land
line. Complaints
were made and the
issue was finally
addressed. Of
course, a technician
was not needed. They
were able to turn on
service remotely.
An out-of-warranty big-screen TV stopped
working. Got a replacement part from
the retailer, who indicated that the
simple solution would probably not work.
There was a known defect, and the fix
would likely cost hundreds more than
the replacement part. The retailer kindly
provided information on how to contact
the manufacturer and what to provide,
since they may be willing to assist in
paying for the fix.
Manufacturer contacted, with original
receipt and cost estimate for the fix
scanned in an email to the contact, as per
instructions. Acknowledgement received
indicating that a response would be
coming in two days. Fourteen days later, I
have not heard anything. They finally call
(even though I specifically request email
communication) and seem unable to come
to resolution. After one month, they finally
call (again) and leave a voicemail indicating
that they think the problem can be fixed
with the simple solution (the one I originally
told them we tried and it did not work), and
I can order the part from them.
After great effort, I finally get a supervisor
to call me back. An offer is made that I
can get a brand new TV for the money
that it would cost to fix the oldless than
half of the retail price, and far lower than
I would spend for a comparable TV from a
competitor. It is a good deal, but it feels
too much like I am making it with the devil.
Product quality is questionable, and the
service has been awful. In the end, I decide
to spend the extra money for a product from
a competitor.
Thursday comes,
and no one shows
up. Shocking. Call
made to the phone
company, and we
are told that the
technician cannot
come out because
we did not supply
the EIN. We asked
why no one called
us to request the
information so that
the appointment
could be kept, and
were told that it is
not company policy
to make calls to
notify customers
when information is
missing.
MONTH
01
MONTH
02
MONTH
03
In too many organizations, leadership efective-
ness has been impaired by constantly shifting priori-
ties and favor-of-the-month strategies. When the
companys vision is not aligned with its policies,
procedures and management style, its hard on the
employees and morale sufers.
Good leadership requires a consistent approach,
says Mike Harris, executive director of Legal Intake
Professionals, a 24-hour legal intake and attorney
answering service for injury lawyers. The trick is to
maintain a uniform management style during good
times and bad, and even when the organization
is undergoing considerable change, like extreme
growth. Legal Intake Professionals is currently more
than tripling its capacity, and is in the process of
moving to a larger center this fall, but the change
hasnt had a negative impact on its current staf.
Keeping a Finger
on the Morale Pulse
Employee morale is high at Legal Intake
Professionals. Thats because the management
team places a high priority on job satisfaction and
makes the time to listen to employee feedback
and concerns. Employees are surveyed about their
satisfaction on a quarterly basis. All of their com-
mentspositive and negativeare posted on
the company intranet, along with managements
responses. In addition to quarterly surveys, staf
can ofer more timely feedback and suggestions
through postings on the intranet, which is checked
on a weekly basis. Harris and the operations man-
ager take the time to review and respond publicly
to all comments every single Friday.
Employee morale is thoroughly discussed in
the companys quarterly staf meetings, as well
as in the contact centers weekly team meetings.
We set aside the last hour of each staf meeting
to discuss morale, Harris says. We try to encour-
age employees to talk about the things that are
bothering them in a group environment, which
allows everyone to build on each others ideas,
and hopefully, we can defne issues for improve-
ment from those discussions.
Online Resource
Inside View
Download more Inside View articles on our website at:
http://tinyurl.com/CCP-InsideView
AT-A-
GLANCE
LOCATION(S):
Nashville, Tenn.
CONTACT CENTER SIZE:
45 intake specialists
OPERATING HOURS:
24x7
CUSTOMERS:
120 injury law firms
SERVICES PROVIDED:
Handling new case calls for
law firms; outbound calls for
web forms
CHANNELS:
Phone and email
VOLUME:
Approximately 17,000 calls/
week (about 5,000 of which
are new case calls)
TOP CHALLENGE:
Coordinating a move to a
larger center that will more
than triple capacity, along
with new phone and software
systems.
KEY STRENGTHS:
Consistency in call quality
and driving internal values of
respect, growth, confidence
and a supportive culture.
Legal Intake
Professionals
Consistency in leadership, rewards, discipline and call quality
is the key to employee engagement and high morale.
By Susan Hash, Contact Center Pipeline
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Leaders Work to Ensure
a Consistent Approach
Harris attributes the contact centers low
turnover (well under 20%) in part to a consis-
tent management approach in both rewards
and discipline. You have to be consistent with
your praise, as well as the corrective action
process, he says. If not, you may have a high-
performing employee who sees someone else
constantly underperforming and getting away
with it. That will ultimately afect your high per-
former adversely.
Harris credits Operations Manager Netcha
Rodriguez with establishing uniformity in the
centers policies and procedures, which has
increased staf productivity. To ensure align-
ment in vision and goals, Harris and Rodriguez
have scheduled twice-weekly meetings to
review long-term planning, upcoming pri-
orities and ways to improve call efciency,
productivity and staf appreciation. Contact
center managers also schedule weekly one-
on-ones with each of the intake specialists to
discuss performance. Managements goal in
these conversations is to focus on the positive
by giving more praise than discipline, and to
make specialists feel appreciated for the work
that theyre doing.
You have to schedule the time to do the
things that you promise youre going to do for
your managers and specialists, and you have to
follow up, Harris says. Sometimes it takes extra
work and energy, but you owe it to your staf.
Show Daily Appreciation with
Small Rewards and Fun Activities
Employee appreciation is another key
contributor to high morale at Legal Intake
Professionals. The company has an Employee of
the Year award, for which winners receive a gift
card for $500
and extra
personal days
of. However,
Harris points
out that you
dont have
to offer big
rewards to
make them
meani ngful.
Its more the
little things
that you do
on a daily basis and being consistent in how
you show that you appreciate the job that your
employees are doing, he says.
In the contact center, each month, the spe-
cialists with top scores in quality and call audits
are recognized, and are taken out to lunch by
management. On a daily basis, top performers
receive emails or letters of recognition.
In addition to recognition for performance,
a spirit team plans regular celebrations and
entertaining activities to provide an enjoyable
atmosphere. Those include monthly potlucks
and semimonthly events, such as an ice cream
day, best baby picture day and silly hat day, to
name a few.
The company intranet provides another
channel to lighten the atmosphere. It contains
fun bios and pictures of staf members, as well
as industry information and defnitions to help
keep employees knowledge up to date. Also,
recent law cases are posted to illustrate the
importance of the work that the intake special-
ists do. The company also participates in local
charity events twice a year, and encourages
volunteer work.
Transparency in Policies,
Performance and Feedback
Look inside any company that has high attrition
and youll likely fnd internal barriers to informa-
tion and managers who dole out details on a
need to know basis. But thats not the case at
Legal Intake Professionals, where the frontline
staf has access to all of the centers metrics and
reports. Intake specialists can also retrieve their
past call audits at any time, listen to the calls, and
view their scores and feedback.
There is nothing hidden in any way, says
Harris. You cant fx something unless everyone
knows what is going on and when we have
an opportunity for improvement, we look to
our specialists for answers.
Besides making information and feedback
readily available for contact center staf, man-
agement also takes the time to communicate to
staf the underlying reasons for any decisions or
policies. We always tell them the why behind the
process, so they will understand why we need to
do things a certain way. They may not agree with
it, but at least they will know the reason for it.
People Helping People
Legal Intake Professionals customer-centric
culture is based on its values of respect,
growth, confdence and maintaining a fun
environment, says Harris.
Our purpose as an organization is helping
helping injured people connect with an attorney
who can help them, as well as helping each other,
he says. We try to instill in our specialists the
confdence that theyre the right person to help
the caller. While they dont give legal advice,
theyre there to take care of the caller by asking
the right questions, providing an appropriate
amount of empathy, and making the callers feel
like they have the process started with a law frm
that truly cares about their needs.
MIKE
HARRIS
Contact
Center
Training
Check out our ever-growing
training resources at:
http://tinyurl.com/CCPTraining
We look forward to being your
new training partner in 2010
Online Resource
New in the Pipeline
zational support. To identify which projects are
right, you have to get clear on your corporations
strategy and the role the contact center plays
within that strategy. Then focus on projects that
link to the strategyprojects that really matter
to the contact center and the corporation.
When your CxOs, board members and other
stakeholders make decisions about project fund-
ing, they demand a strategic link. Most of them
have scar tissue from bad technology choices
that proved costly to the organization. Because
money is tight, theyll be especially careful to
fnd the synergy between the overall corporate
strategy and your proposal for new technology.
Without a strategic link, they risk making isolated
tactical decisions that dont fll the highest priority
strategic gaps.
As you defne a project strategically, ask your-
self: Whats our goal? What pain are we trying
to alleviate? What roadblocks to achieving busi-
ness goals are we trying to tear down? Use the
strategic triumvirate to guide project defnition:
Business Strategy. Defne the business
drivers that create the need for
technology. Identify the corporate goals
that the contact center will not achieve
without project funding.
Operations Strategy. Relate the
technology requirement to the contact
center functions and operational
initiatives that support the business
strategy. Identify the changes that the
technology facilitates and relate the
changes to achieving corporate goals.
Technology Strategy. Show how the
required technology fts within the overall
IT Strategy and technology roadmap,
and how that strategy aligns with and
supports the operational and business
goals.
The goal of the strategic synergy is to move
beyond generic contact center staf efciency.
Instead, take a penetrating look at the opera-
tional barriers that impede your centers ability to
contribute to the business strategy. For example,
your business goals may include aggressive rev-
enue increases that require the contact center
to step up the direct or indirect impact on sales,
thus requiring cross-sell and upsell tools. Or you
may fnd yourself in a situation where aggres-
sive corporate growth goals did not prompt a
commensurate budget increase for the contact
center. Your project defnition should identify
these barriers and the means through which the
project breaks them down.
It is important for credibility to move a step
past the strategic level by defning the project at
a tactical level. State the project in terms of how
your operations will change to allow the con-
tact center to contribute more fully to corporate
goals. For instance, to increase the contact center
impact on revenue, your project might be to
implement a dialer to make outbound sales calls
during low inbound periods. Or, to do more with
less, you might propose web or IVR self-service
to ofoad agent-assisted contacts.
This discussion might leave you with the
impression that if you defne your roadblocks
and gain approval for projects that break the
roadblocks down, you can rest easy knowing that
youve fulflled your end of the strategic equation.
Unfortunately, that is not the contact center real-
ity. As shown in Figure 1 on page 13, continuous
change drives new requirements. These changes
come through internal and external business
drivers, ever-changing operational plans and
possibilities created by new technology.
Include the Right People
Figure 1 reveals that drivers for change can
come from varied sources and impact parts of
the organization outside the contact center. For
the credibility of your project requests, you should
acknowledge the crossfunctional impact of tech-
nology projects. Engage other organizational
stakeholders during the project defnition phase
to sow the seeds of your future project team.
The IT department is a key collaborator on
any technology project. As shown in Figure 2,
they work with operations to see whether or not
existing technology can meet near-term needs.
If new technologies are explored, IT establishes
parameters that are aligned with the corporate
infrastructure. IT needs to be engaged to review
budget proposals to ensure that all costs are
refected and to assist with building the busi-
ness case.
Budget season is coming upits time to start building a solid case to get
your technology projects approved and funded. By Brian Hinton, Strategic Contact
Tech Line
Sell Leadership
on Smart Technology Investments
page 1
Table 1: Cost categories of a TCO calculation
Cost Categories Initial Ongoing
External w Hardware
w Software
w Installation
w Implementation professional services
(vendor, consultant, contractor)
w Maintenance
w Additional phases
w Expansion, upgrades, new features/
functions
w Additional professional services
Internal w Process design
w Training
w Change management
w Project management
w Development/integration
w Operations
w Administration
w New roles for administration and
management
IT isnt the only stakeholder that might
need to be involved. Last months Tech Line
article, Technology Bridges Organizational Silos,
detailed some technology categories that require
crossfunctional planning and project teams.
VoIP: an enterprise implementation
and virtualized staf including other
departments as backup
Unifed communication: cross-
departmental collaboration to reach
subject matter experts
Business process optimization: process
fows throughout the organization
Social media: marketing crafts the
messages and drives the strategy
Analytics: enterprise learnings for
optimization opportunities
Customer relationship management and
knowledge management: intrinsically
enterprise applications
Review Current Technology
for Optimization Opportunities
Most contact center technology is highly unde-
rutilized so you might fnd your solution already
exists without capital investment. Considering
all options prior to requesting capital dollars for
a technology investment lends credibility and
may accelerate your timetable.
Technology investments alone dont deliver
business value. Technology enables operational
improvements that drive the value. Companies
often implement new applications that are func-
tionally identical to what they are replacing and
never get around to the operational improve-
ments that would drive value creation. You may
want to look at past investments that fell short
and invest in achieving the originally projected
potential.
You can facilitate driving additional value from
current technology by creating new support roles
to apply the technology in current processes
or by adding responsibilities to existing roles.
You may need to take on the difcult task of
redesigning processes that may have been more
readily changed when the technology was frst
implemented. To get full value from current tech-
nology, you may need upgrades, added modules
or integration. With the reduced investment of the
past couple of years, you may need to invest in
current revisions to mitigate the risk of unstable
or unsupported products. These suggestions
emphasize that getting more value from current
technology is not free, so make sure you build the
people, internal process efort and upgrades into
your project planning.
Build the Case for New Technology
Building a business case for new technology
can be a challenge, but by following a formal pro-
cess you can get your projects approved. Figure
3 on page 14 shows the four steps in building
credible business cases that result in project fund-
ing: Build a baseline, quantify the costs, quantify
the beneft, and create success metrics.
Build a Baseline
You cant build a credible business case unless
you start with a baseline model that shows how
current processes drive the need for resources
staf, technology, facilities and budget dollars.
As you consider technology investments and
their impact on business processes, youll adjust
the baseline model to refect future processes
and the requirements for resources they drive.
The required investment, the change in your
expenses, plus the projected impact on revenue
(if applicable) will impact the baseline and con-
tribute to your ROI calculation. This exercise may
seem like a lot of work, but your detailed under-
standing of contact center economics speaks a
language that senior management understands
and lends credence to your capital requests.
Quantify the Costs
Quantifying the costs of a technology project
is not easy (see the sidebar). For page 14
Figure 1: Forces of change impacting strategy and contact center operations
Figure 2: Technology project approval path to success
Tech Line | Sell Leadership on Smart Technology Investments
Figure 3: Fours steps to building a credible business case
a credible business case it is important to include
a complete accounting of costs, not just vendor
quotes. You must approach the costs from a Total
Cost of Ownership (TCO) perspective. Consider
internal and external costs driven by the project
and include initial investment costs and costs
you will incur over time as a result of the project.
Table 1 on page 12 details the cost categories to
consider in a TCO calculation.
Quantify the Benefits
By defnition, the benefts associated with a
technology project are assumptionsyou cant
predict the future. Beneft calculations are there-
fore much less exact and open to challenges. The
key to success is to defne and clearly state your
assumptions. Decision makers may choose to
challenge your assumptions, but youll have the
beneft of a reasoned defense for your position.
And as long as you can show how the assump-
tions drove the projected beneft calculations, you
can keep the debate focused on assumptions.
If youve built a robust model, youll be able to
tell quickly whether or not a change in assump-
tions makes a material diference on the benefts
calculation and ROI. That will focus the discussion
around judgment calls that really matter.
To quantify the beneft, we need to alter the
baseline understanding of our current resource
requirements and drivers that we developed ear-
lier. The following is a partial list of assumptions
or variables that you can change as a result of a
technology project.
Decrease process volume
Shift process volume to an alternate
(ideally lower cost) resource
Eliminate or automate processes
Eliminate, automate or combine process
steps
Reduce process step duration
Once you have identifed the variables to
alter, remember to project the assumptions
or the value of the variable through the entire
planning period. If you base your business case
on fve-year cash fow analysis, then you should
page 13
project the changes in the variables through
that entire period. You may need to phase in the
beneft over time until it reaches the value that
you project as the maximum improvement. This
lends a great deal of credibility to your calculation.
By determining how processes will change with
your new technology, you can specifcally defne
the source of the beneft and add credibility to
the result.
Labor savings is obviously going to be a big
hitterin driving a positive ROI as that is the largest
part of a contact center budget. However, dont
forget to consider possible ways that revenue
will increase based on the technology project.
Revenue increases can drive extremely appealing
ROI calculations.
Create Success Metrics
Any variable or assumption that you changed to
quantify the beneft of the project now becomes a
metric to monitor once the project is completed.
Success metrics created in a business case do not
assure success, but they do ensure very credible
reports stating success or progress toward success
and enable action to mitigate a lack of progress.
This approach to post-project success analysis
removes any skepticism caused by past failures to
achieve projected ROI. Make sure the metrics that
you choose align with strategic goalsbringing
us full circle to the strategic alignment discussed
at the beginning of this article.
Proving project success using strategic metrics
isnt the end of the process. Credibility builds
on itself. Once you have proven that decision
makers can trust your business cases, gaining
funding approval for each project becomes less
challenging.
Put the Technology Investment
in the Right Context
Technology and its operation are a relatively
small part of the cost of contact center operations.
Your business case should carry the key message
that a reasonable investment can have a huge
impact on your primary budget categorylabor.
Figure 4 (below), taken from the white paper,
Cost Structure and Distribution in Todays Contact
Centers (Strategic Contact, March 2008, www.
strategiccontact.com), shows that technology
costs, while they may seem large when faced with
an investment decision, are a relatively small slice
of the pie (2.65.9%). Investing in technology to
make the workforce more efcient can have a
profound and lasting impact.
Tech Line | Sell Leadership on Smart Technology Investments
Brian Hinton is a Senior
Consultant at Strategic Contact.
brian@strategiccontact.com
(706) 310-0544
Figure 4: Contact center cost distribution
Challenges in Gaining
Project Approval with
Credible Business Cases
Chances are, you can relate to these
typical challenges in gaining project
approval.
Tighter budgets
Decision authority at higher levels in
the organization
Credibility problems with decision
makers due to unrealized benefts
from past projects, an inventory of
shelf ware, and past purchases based
on vendor generated excitement
rather than actual business need
Difculty in measuring project benefts
Clearly, youll need to produce highly
credible business cases, but credibility
is easier said than achieved. There are
two components of any business case
cost and benefitseach having specific
challenges.
Typically, on the cost side, a contact
center business case is built around a
vendor bid. The bid is usually fixed price
based on assumptions about variable
costs. Those assumptions may not be
correct. Also, the bid does not include
all internal costs, external costs, current
investments and ongoing expenses that
need to be addressed. Sharpen your
penciland your thinkingto make sure
that your cost estimates are reasonable
and comprehensive. If you habitually go
back to the well for unplanned expenses,
youll have trouble gaining project
approval down the line.
The typical approach in determining the
benefits starts with reducing headcount.
Since labor is the largest part of most
contact center budgets, most, if not
all, contact center projects impact the
labor budget. However, the problem is
the approach that planners often use to
quantify this labor reduction. The proper
way to estimate staff reduction is to
work through the potential operational
impact of the new technology and
then determine the impact on labor.
Unfortunately, most folks decide on the
labor savings up front and then force-fit
the implementation into that framework.
They ignore the key variables that drive
the benefit. That approach is neither
reasonable nor effective, and risks a
reduction in headcount that surpasses the
benefits truly gained.
Someone once
asked me to choose
between a workforce
management system
and a quality tool.
As a self-proclaimed
workforce manage-
ment guy, my answer
should be obvious.
After all, I believe that
all the savings in the
center are around
stafng and efciency. If anything, shouldnt I
want to cut handle time so we can answer more
calls?
Without hesitation, I chose the quality system.
There is no doubt that workforce management
(WFM) systems can help you save money by staf-
ing more efectively. The return on investment for
WFM is very real. Scheduling improvements often
provide short-term savings that quality systems
do not realize. Because of this, WFM is easier to
sell to executives. But the efective application of a
quality process can drive dramatic changes in the
way agents handle calls. These changes produce
better service, resulting in fewer interactions and
less overall workload. In the long run, this lower
workload can save more than stafng correctly
to a higher workload.
The value of decreasing overall workload pres-
ents both an easy argument and a challenge to a
manager who oversees a quality monitoring (QM)
program. On one hand, the math is simple: Less
workload equals fewer agents. However, the easy
math gets complicated by inconsistent handle
times, seasonal forecasts and sudden increases in
volume, like from new business. As a result, quality
managers often turn their attention to the thing
that they can controldelivering efective quality
coaching. Over time, this focal point causes the
purpose of quality monitoring to devolve from
efectively decreasing workload to being the
people who listen to calls.
Quality monitoring programs can go through
several stages in their life cycle. They begin as
performance management programs targeted at
process consistency. Over time, the focus shifts to
improving processes within the center. Ultimately,
they can evolve into a companys voice of the
customeraiming to improve organizational
processes. Organizational improvements result
in an excellent return through improved frst-call
resolution and eliminating organizational issues
that cause customer dissatisfaction. The key to
successfully moving to the next stage is proving
the value of the current program and demonstrat-
ing the potential of investing in the next steps.
The Value of Process
Standardization
When an organization begins a QM program,
managers initially concentrate on developing
forms and guidelines, and implementing the pro-
cess. During this time, the managers are usually
bogged down with startup details, and they often
overlook the need to prove the value of the QM
programwhich is necessary to move the pro-
gram past the initial stages. Yet quality programs
often do not deliver typical cost improvements
in the initial stages. New QM programs focus on
two main areas:
1. Service consistency: delivering the same
service every time
2. Compliance: ensuring that all rules and
regulations are followed correctly
The primary goal at the beginning is standard-
izing processesmaking sure that all agents
handle interactions the same way. Removing vari-
ability in a process is a necessary precursor to real
process improvement. Unfortunately, consistent
performance will not result in immediate savings
that will justify the initial costs. As calls become
more consistent, they do not necessarily translate
into fewer or shorter calls.
At this stage, QM can generate savings through
call control. Making call control skills a key ele-
ment of the quality scorecard helps agents under-
stand how to move a customer through the call
in a friendly and efective way, which decreases
handle time without afecting customer service.
These changes often are not apparent in overall
results due to other fuctuations in handle time.
Quality managers can also show value by
capturing critical call type data. A quality form is
an excellent tool for identifying which call types
come into the center, and even the handle time
by type. Whereas agents label call types as an
afterthought and system defnitions tend to
be too generic, quality monitors can do a more
accurate job. They have the time and training to
correctly determine the call type and provide the
level of detail that system parameters cannot.
They can also tie actual handle times to those
detailed call types through the quality system.
While this method is a great start to collecting
call type data, it does have some limitations.
Unlike system tags, which label every call, only
a relatively small proportion of calls are reviewed
(i.e., a sample of calls).
There are two factors related to sample data
that you need to understand to use it efec-
tivelysample bias and how many calls are
required to make up a sample that represents
all of a centers calls. The goal when collecting
sample data is to draw from a completely random
group of calls. When certain calls are excluded, the
analyst introduces sample bias into the results.
This often happens during the QM process when
short calls, long calls or calls meeting certain
criteria are not evaluated. For instance, to get
meaningful data at the agent level, a team may
exclude short transfer calls from the individual
scores. This practice can then bias the call type
sample by not reporting any short transfers.
The second goal of sampling data is to ensure
a representative samplea group of results that
looks just like the whole data set of calls. While
a system can tag every call that comes in, QM
representatives can only evaluate so many calls in
a month. Therefore, cost increases as the number
of monitored calls (and, therefore, quality moni-
tors) increases. Obtaining a representative sample
By Dan Rickwalder
Proactive Planning
Group
Management ROI
Proving Quality
Demonstrate the value of your quality program:
Take it from employee-centric to enterprisewide process improvements.
Email Us!
Share your suggestions, questions and story ideas.
info@contactcenterpipeline.com
balances the accuracy of the results with the
cost. As a rule of thumb, reviewing as few as 230
randomly selected calls will provide a representa-
tive sample for analysisregardless of the queue
size. This also means that reviewing thousands
of calls will not provide dramatically diferent
results. The key is to remove bias to ensure a truly
random sample.
While capturing call type data may not refect
direct cost or revenue, it is often seen as a critical
piece of business intelligence. In that light, it is
a quick and efective win for proving the value
of a quality program. In addition, it prepares the
center for the next stage of qualityprocess
improvement.
The Value of Process Improvement
After standardizing processes, organizations
begin to see the value in improving the way calls
are handled. Next, they look to eliminate steps,
remove confusion and speed up transactions
through process improvements. At this stage,
the value of a quality program becomes more
apparent, but the additional costs begin to add
up, as well. Improvements that are identifed often
have development or training costs that, if not
efectively balanced against future benefts, will
not be approved. To prove the value, managers
must implement an efective methodology for
comparing improvement values and costs.
There are a number of process improvement
methodologies, including Six Sigma and its
variants, TQM, ISO and Deming. While they all
have strengths and weaknesses, there are also
several commonalities that are critical for efec-
tively placing a value on a process improvement.
First, an organization must understand its current
statehow things are really done now. Second,
the benefts must outweigh the solution cost.
And fnally, a methodology must be in place to
review the efectiveness of the solution.
The initial phase of quality monitoring sets
the stage for understanding the current state.
By focusing on consistent processes, the center
has prepared itself to identify how calls are actu-
ally handled and to benchmark those results.
Benchmarks are the defned metrics that describe
the starting performance for a process that will
be improved. For example, an after-call work
time of 300 seconds to manually fax a docu-
ment would be the benchmark to improve upon.
Benchmarks ensure that improvements can be
evaluated against prior performance. They should
include both direct and indirect measures. In our
example, a savings in ACW is a direct beneft to
improving the fax process, but an increase in
customer satisfaction may be in indirect beneft.
Without setting benchmarks, it is impossible to
place a dollar value on improvements.
Once benchmarks are set, savings can be esti-
mated and compared to the solution costs using
standard ROI methods that determine how long
an improvement will take to pay for itself. In our
fax example, we may be able to eliminate 270 sec-
onds of ACW from all fax calls by implementing
electronic document distribution (PC faxing and
emailing documents). If fax calls make up 10% of
all calls, then the time savings is roughly 27 sec-
onds over all calls (270 seconds times 10% of calls
=27 seconds). This savings, when converted into
payroll dollars, can clearly demonstrate the value
of the improvement. Say, for example, it equals
a total 5% decrease in payroll when adjusted for
shrinkage. A 100-seat contact center with an
annual payroll of $4 million can save $200,000
a year. If a new electronic document delivery
system costs $300,000, then the improvement
will pay for itself in a year and a half. In general,
improvements that pay for themselves in less
than three years are great investments; however,
your corporate tolerance may vary.
There are two common pitfalls at the process
improvement stage. The frst is the tendency to
overanalyze low-hanging fruit. All centers recog-
nize that some things need to change. They either
cost too much or are
simply too dissatisfy-
ing to customers. In
these cases, a quality
team bent on proving
their worth may force
a detailed analysis of
an issue when none
is needed. The end
result leaves the
organization feeling
bloated by the excess
work for something
they knew needed
to be fxed.
The second pit-
fall is beginning
improvements too
soon. Faced with
pressure to make
improvements, teams
often grasp for a big
change without frst
setting benchmarks,
identifying what is
best to change or
even understand-
ing the root cause
of an issue. The end
result is a haphazard
approach that imple-
ments changes, but
cannot validate them.
As organizations fnd success improving call
center processes, they often begin to look at how
to spread process improvement to the rest of the
company. For example, our fax opportunity may
evolve into a paperless company initiative. At this
point, it is critical to implement an ofcial process
improvement methodology and gain executive
support for the efort. This will ensure buy in
from the rest of the company, help to remove
roadblocks and silos, and create a crossfunctional
view of issues facing the company.
Its a challenge to prove the value of a quality
program. But by taking the appropriate initial
stepsbenchmarking, focusing on standardiza-
tion and then process improvement, and identify-
ing call driversyour team can quantify benefts
of the improvements they recommend.
Dan Rickwalder is the Owner of the
independent consulting firm
Proactive Planning Group, which
specializes in workforce planning and
call center analytics.
danr@proactiveplanning.net
(443) 451-4301
ADVERTI SEMENT
Customer-centric
companies invest a
substantial amount
of time and money
toward the develop-
ment and success of
their contact centers.
Most centers have at
least one workforce
manager to help
guarantee that suc-
cess. Along with the
workforce manager, there are generally other
expenses, such as workforce management soft-
ware and/or forecasting and scheduling person-
nel. Yet all of these resources are wasted when
agents fail to adhere to their schedules.
One of the most important lessons that
managers can provide to their frontline staf is
the impact that a single agent can have on the
centers performance by going to lunch a little
earlier than scheduled, running out for a quick
break, or returning from lunch or break late.
In the workforce management world, there is
one widely known exercise that is used to dem-
onstrate the importance of schedule adherence.
We are staunch advocates of this exercise, and
we try to incorporate it into seminars as often as
possible. It seems obvious, but we all need to be
reminded once in awhile of the impact that we
have on our environment.
This simple exercise can be conducted cheaply
and is easy to set up. After multiple demonstra-
tions of the exercise, weve found some diferent
variations and additional props to be helpful in
getting the point across to agents. The following
are the basic items that you can use, and what
they represent.
REQUIREMENTS
Eight balls (inbound customer calls) that
are soft and easy to toss from customer to
agent (tennis balls work well)
A container for the balls (the queue)
Table or chair for the container
(Optional) Props such as hats, headsets or
badges to designate the agents
To begin the exercise, ask for 12 volunteers.
You can adjust the amount of participants based
on the size of the room youre in, the number
of people in the audience and the amount of
time you have to conduct the exercise. If you
have trouble getting the audiences involvement
(which is common), simply pick a certain group,
side of the room, or a specifc row or two to
participate.
Assign six people to be agents, and the rest to
be the customers. Have the agents line up arms-
length from each other, preferably perpendicular
to the seats of your audience.
Place the container (the queue) on a table or
chair, centered, about six to eight feet across from
the line of agents.
Have the customers form a single line behind
the container of balls. Customers will stand in the
line across from the agents when they have a ball
and are looking for an available agent. When all
agents are on a call, you should have a row of
agents with a row of customers facing them
any other customers must wait in line behind the
container. A customer must wait across from their
agent until their call is fnished (ball is back in
the container), at which point they will return to
the back of the queue line.
Get the rest of the audience involved by asking
them to keep track of the customers wait times
in line.
Write a diferent number on each of the balls
to indicate diferent handle times. When an agent
catches a ball, he must toss the ball up in the air
or pass it around his back the number of times
printed on the ball. One variation used to dem-
onstrate the efectiveness of having multiskilled
agents is to write transferon one of the balls. This
will simulate an agent receiving a call that he is
unable to complete without the help of another
agent, department, supervisors assistance, etc.
Agents who receive the transfer ball must wait
for another agent to be available, throw it to
them, and then take the next call.
Round 1
To start the frst round, each customer acquires
a ball and then proceeds to a spot across from an
available agent. The customer then passes the ball
to their agent, who handles it for the amount of
seconds written on the ball, and then returns to
the queue line when their call is over.
When an agent has fnished his call, he will
throw the ball back into the container from where
he is standing in line. The agents standing farthest
from the container may have a hard time making
the shot. If they miss, they will have to leave their
desk to retrieve the ball, which now represents
after-call work. You may have agents either try
the shot again, or simply drop the ball into the
container after they pick it up.
Stop the round after a few minutes or when
the frst customer has cycled through a few times.
Jon Pratz
Human Numbers
Forecast Focus
Schedule Adherence:
In the best-run centers, agents understand the importance of their
individual contributions to the operations success.
A Fun Exercise for Your Agents
This exercise is easy to put together, fun to facilitate and really
gets the point across to agents about the impact that every
individual can make on the level of service customers receive.
Online Resource
You can download this exercise from our website,
@ http://tinyurl.com/CCPscheduleEx
Discuss with everyone how the fow of
calls went. Was there a lot of waiting? Was
there much frustration?
Round 2
For the second round, start the process
over again. After one minute, demonstrate
the efect of losing a single agent by
removing one from the group. Some fun
props to use as a reason for the agent
leaving could be a bathroom key pass, a
candy bar or bottled water. Toss the prop
to the agent and tell him that he decided
it was a good time for him to take a break.
After another minute, have another agent
take a break while the frst is still out.
Debrief
Stop the exercise after a few more
minutes and discuss what everyone wit-
nessed. Ask the customers about their
level of service. Ask the agents how they
felt when their peers went on their breaks.
Get feedback from the audience on what
they observed, and ask: What diference
did one person make in this exercise?
The ultimate goal is to try to get agents
to explain why they should adhere to their
schedule.
Everyone who has worked in a call cen-
ter knows how stressful it can be to have
calls backing up in the queue, and knows
the frustration you will hear from the call-
ers when you fnally do get to them. This
exercise is easy to put together, fun to
facilitate and really gets the point across
to agents about the impact that every
individual can make on the level of service
customers receive. It is also a simple way to
demonstrate that the purpose of creating
efcient schedules is to provide the best
possible service to the customers.
Editors Note: You can download this exercise
from our website,
http://tinyurl.com/CCPscheduleEx
Jon Pratz is an independent
Workforce Manager at Human
Numbers, a firm that provides
contracted forecasting and
scheduling services.
Jon@HumanNumbers.com
(678) 494-1506
Create knowledge and awareness of the importance of schedule adherence by effectively communicating the
impact that a single agent can have on customer service and resource utilization. The exercise will effectively
illustrate how individual agents fit into the overall goal.
Schedule Adherence Exercise
Objective
Requirements
Round 1
Round 2
Debrief
Six people to assume the role of agent
Six people to assume the role of customer
Remaining audience members are observers
Eight tennis balls (the calls)
One container to hold the balls (the queue)
Adequate space for the agents to be standing across from the customers
Ask for 12 volunteers to act as agents and customers.
Select six volunteers to be your agents, and ask them to stand in a row, a few feet apart from each other.
Instruct them that they will be receiving calls from customers. They will handle each call for 57 seconds
(give each agent a different time). They should count the seconds out to themselves (one, one-thousand, two,
one-thousand three, etc.), then return it to the container by throwing the ball from their position. Agents who
are farther from the box have farther to throw the ball. Any call that doesnt go into the box has to be picked
up by the agent and counted as after-call work before taking a new call.
Line up the remaining six volunteersyour customersbehind the container (call queue), which should be
placed about 68 feet across from the agents, centered. Instruct your customers to pick up a ball from the
box, find an available agent to stand across from, and toss the call to their agent. Any customer waiting in line
for an available agent should count their hold time. A new call cant be taken until the old call is released.
Start the call exchange and let it run for about 3 minutes. Stop and review delay times with customers. Ask the
agents how they feel. Ask observers what they noticed.
Remove one agent from the line to go on break. Begin the call exchange again.
After 2 minutes, remove another agent (because they saw their friend go on break and decided to leave, too)
and continue the exchange. Make sure customers are counting delay times. Stop after 1 minute.
Review delay times with customers. How different did agents feel about their ability to handle inbound calls
after someone was missing?
Review the differences in delay time based on various agent situations. Include observers in discussion.
What was the efect on customer service?
What was the efect on agents?
What happened when a call was dropped outside of the box and went into ACW?
Ask the group: What difference did one person make in this exercise? (Try to get them to explain why they
should adhere to their schedule.)
Point out that THEY are that one powerful person in their own call center. When you do something that is
not scheduled, it has a direct impact on utilization and adherence, which, in turn, has a direct effect on the
customer.
Ask for additional questions, and close.
Source: Human Numbers, www.HumanNumbers.com. Questions about this exercise? Contact us at (678)
494-1506; Tiffany@HumanNumbers.com (Tiffany LaReau) or Jon@HumanNumbers.com (Jon Pratz).
Maturity models
are nothing new.
They are products
of quality initiatives,
and are commonly
used to assess and
improve processes
related to manu-
facturing, software
implementations,
project manage-
ment, risk management and information tech-
nology. But they can also be used to identify
phases or developmental levels of numerous
other types of processes, such as contact center
development.
The inherent value of the maturity model is
that it provides a proven set of practices, proce-
dures and process improvement to compare with
your centers current level of development, which
sets the stage for establishing process improve-
ment strategies. While most maturity models
have fve or six levels, or stages of development,
weve developed a simplifed, four-level Contact
Center Development Model, which describes the
factors that diferentiate high-performance con-
tact centers from those with lower performance
(i.e., lower level of development). It represents
the critical practices and processes that drive
continuous improvement in key functional areas
of contact center management.
There are three key benefts of using this
approach: 1) It is a place to start when you want
to assess and understand problems or obstacles
to attaining your desired contact center perfor-
mance; 2) it identifes a continuum of success
factors at each level of development that helps
to communicate the strengths and weaknesses
in the operation; and 3) it provides the roadmap
to ongoing improvements that ultimately con-
tribute to the organizations success.
Four Developmental Phases
The Contact Center Development Model has
four key phases, each with unique, identifable
characteristics and practices that must be in
place to support further progress: 1) initial, 2)
developing, 3) maturing, and 4) optimizing.
Organizations that achieve excellence have a
particular driving force associated with their
evolution and implementation of improvement
plans within each of the four levels. Each of these
forces, or factors, apply within the center, as well
as at the organizational level. They are like the
engine that drives management and employees
to achieve exceptional performance. Without
these components, the development path will
lack the passion for overall quality improvement,
and results will wane.
Each of these factors for evolution to the next
level are refected in the contact center processes
and results:
Awareness. Recognizing the need to
change and to improve.
- Plans for improvement in the contact
center are getting started.
Responsibility. Accountability for
efective management, defning roles,
responsibilities, processes, practices,
performance objectives.
- Processes refect that the center is
getting serious.
Leadership. No longer just managing, but
leadingestablishing direction, aligning
and infuencing people and outcomes.
- Continual improvement process
approach brings consistencies to results.
Enterprisewide involvement. The
organization fully supports and values
the contributions of the contact center.
Visions, goals, strategies are aligned across
departments.
- Continual improvement culture
everyone is reaping benefts.
LEVEL 1: INITIAL
Although processes at this level refect a con-
tact center that is starting to set the stage for
improvement, we might even fnd that nothing
has startedand that there is not yet even an
awareness of why performance results are low.
When we look at key functional areas we fnd
that processes are informal or not defned at all;
for example, training is all on-the-job and not
documented. Or we might fnd that the con-
tact center doesnt have a documented quality
monitoring program, only occasionally monitors
calls, and rarely provides agents with coaching.
Once there is awareness within the organization
and center that quality service is at stake unless
changes occur, activity begins and a plan is identi-
fed to implement a formal, documented quality
monitoring program. In general, we describe
this level as:
Low understandinglittle to no analysis
taking place
Undefned practicesfew performance
measures, no accountability
Processes are not yet fully managed
lacking customer focus
Contact center is not aligned to the
organizational business objectives and
customer requirements
Little or no contact center management
training or expertise to support the
processes
Negative perceptionsagents dont get
the big picture
Lots of fre-fghting
Awareness of the need for change
Lesley Vereen
Service Agility
What happens when the cycle of improvement gets stuck
or ceases to continue?
Leading Thoughts
THE CONTACT CENTER
Development Model
Is your center struggling to improve processes? The Contact Center
Development Model offers a roadmap to optimizing performance.
The critical driving factor for improvement is
the awareness. The recognition that change is
needed to get better results must occur at the
senior management level and carry through to
the front line. Needless to say, without senior
management support at every level, results will
continue to be limited.
LEVEL 2: DEVELOPING
Once there is awareness of the need to change,
we fnd processes developing that refect the
center getting serious about developing basic
foundational practices, addressing problems and
defning accountabilities. At this stage, a critical
success factor is that the contact center has a
defned mission statement, and has identifed
goals and objectives that are aligned to the orga-
nizational mission, goals and objectives.
If we visit a center with Level 2 processes, and
talk with management about the status of their
quality monitoring program, we would typically
get the following type of response:
We have documented our quality program,
defined our objectives, defined how we will do it,
who will do it, how often it will be done. We have
revised our monitoring form to align it with our
business objectives and customer expectations.
We have created a guide that defines each of the
performance standards that we evaluate.
Contact center management has received formal
training on the monitoring process and on effective
coaching.
We are finding a lot of inconsistencies in our call-
handling procedures and recognize that we need to
improve training as part of our quality efforts.
We know we need to do more calibrating for
consistency in our evaluations and coaching.
Accountability for the process and program needs
improvement.
General characteristics of this level include:
Accountability for processes and
performance begins
Focus on developing and documenting
policies and practices
Management committed to improvement
of knowledge, skills and motivation
Beginning to balance workload and
available resources
Data is primarily used for performance
development
Response to problems is more
reactive than preventativecustomer
requirements not fully understood
Inconsistencies in performance, results
Level 2 is usually a long phase, with much work
on developing detailed processes for training,
workforce management and quality programs,
to name a few. It cant be skipped or glossed over
simply by creating new organizational charts and
job descriptions.
This is the phase where contact centers often
get stucktheyre unclear about what changes
are needed and struggle to see improvement.
For example, mission statements, goals and
objectives have been created, quality monitor-
ing programs implemented, basic forecasting
is occurring and there are dedicated resources
for training and coachingbut performance
results are inconsistent and lagging behind goals.
So whats the problem? The key to success here
is responsibilitydefning responsibilities and
holding people accountable for results. Senior
management must be committed to supporting
the contact center, and center management must
defne and promote the value that the center
provides to the organization. Each person in the
center must know what they are responsible
for and how their actions impact results and,
ultimately, the ability to provide customers with
exceptional service.
LEVEL 3: MATURING
The objective in Level 3 is to build upon the
foundational processes and practices that were
put in place in Level 2 and tie performance to
strategic business objectives. Leadership is the
key factor for success in this stage, where we
see a shift from just managing to leading.
Management now knows what the centers
critical success factors are, and there is a focus
on identifying why problems and occur, and how
to improve. We fnd efcient, high-quality service
being consistently provided by a well-trained
workforce and, in general, things are running
smoothly.
If we again take a look at a centers quality
monitoring program, the following is an example
of processes at this level:
Supervisors are now spending more than 50% of
their time focused on improving the performance
of each agent on their team. They are highly skilled
at a coaching, setting goals and providing positive
feedback. Scoring between the supervisors and
the QA team is consistent and is
Contact Center
Development Matrix
How will you decide what areas to work on, what
actions to take and what resources are needed to
accomplish the plans?
While the model helps us understand levels of
development and noted characteristics, we have
also developed a matrix that applies the maturity
concept to critical aspects of contact center
management and serves as a tool to answer the
question: Where do we stand?
The Contact Center Development Matrix contains
six categories critical to high-performance contact
centers:
1. Senior management support
2. Contact center management leadership
3. Quality monitoring program
4. Workforce management
5. Training
6. Coaching
Within each category there are informal
descriptions reflecting perspectives that are
aligned with the four levels of development. We
will write more about this in an upcoming article,
with information about how you can use it as a
self-assessment within your own organization. If
you are interested, we invite you download a copy
of the Contact Center Development Matrix at www.
serviceagility.com, in the Resources section.
page 22
Leading Thoughts | The Contact Center Development Model
always improving. Calibration sessions are held on a
regular basis and consistency in scoring the calls is
very high.
Our training team collaborates with the QA team
and supervisors on the quality monitoring results,
makes revisions to the initial training program, and
develops recurrent training modules to address
areas in need of performance.
The WFM group works closely with us to ensure that
time for monitoring and coaching is part of the plan.
A summary of overall identifying characteristics
includes:
Shift from managing to leading
Defned processesconsistency
becomes the norm
Customer needs and expectations are
satisfed
Data is used for analysis and correlated to
key performance metrics
Data is integrated into training and overall
improvement of contact center operations
Competent people, efective processes,
supporting technology, participatory
environment with the infrastructure
solidly established for optimizing the
stage is set for the benefts of Level 4
Key diferentiating factors between those
at Level 2 and Level 3 are support for the right
resources, efective training and the appropriate
supporting technology.
LEVEL 4: OPTIMIZING
Optimizing is achieved when the contact cen-
ter knows how to take a leading role, preventing
problems and continually making improvements,
and ultimately being recognized for the stra-
tegic value added to the organization. Centers
operating at this level are recognized for their
overall contributions to the organizations success.
Keep in mind, however, that this level requires
enterprisewide involvementin other words, a
contact center cannot be assessed at this level if
other departments within the organization have
not defned and documented their processes, or
are still analyzing the problems and root causes.
When there is enterprisewide involvement, we
fnd everyone reaping the beneftsfrom cus-
tomers to the front line.
Characteristics of this level include:
Proactive planning and problem solving
(Prevention is key; no longer reactive)
Data is leveraged throughout the
organization to facilitate continual process
improvement and focus on customer
satisfaction
Individual and group performance is
aligned with corporate strategy
Contact center is involved in strategic
planning
The customer experience is monitored,
tracked and analyzed from end to end
Customer needs and expectations are
exceeded
Positive environment and sense of pride

The following description refects the perspec-
tive of quality monitoring program in a center
that has achieved Level 4:
Our quality monitoring program is truly motivating
our agents to peak performance. We have even
successfully implemented a peer monitoring
program. Our quality performance is consistently
exceeding our goals.
We have expanded our program to include
monitoring and coaching all customer contact
channels (email, live chat and fax).
As a result of our robust quality program, the call
center is truly adding value across the organization
and is building customer loyalty to levels never seen
before at our company.
Its a Journey
Optimizing your contact centers value is a
journey that requires time, resources and commit-
ment from everyone from senior management
to the front line. Are there risks associated with
not making the journey? You bet! What happens
when the cycle of improvement gets stuck or
ceases to continue? The table below identifes a
few known risks associated with failing to work
toward improvement. As indicated, even in
Level 4, there is the risk of complacency, which,
if left unchecked, will set you back and take you
of course. Conversely, while Levels 2, 3 and 4
each have incremental benefts, the beneft of
beingor worseremaining, at Level 1 brings
zero beneft.
The goal is for contact centers to keep stretch-
ingnot to feel like theyve made it, when
theyve adopted and integrated the latest best
practices. Customers expectations are chang-
ing constantly, and competitiveness, creating an
environment to deliver exceptional service is an
ongoing journey.
Risks and Benefits of Development Levels
Levels Level 1: Initial Level 2: Developing Level 3: Maturing Level 4: Optimizing
Risks of
staying at
this level
w Poor results
w No customer focus
w Loss of customer satisfaction
w Poor employee engagement
w Inefficient processes
w Inconsistent results
w Problems not identified
w No one is held accountable
w Limited use of data
w Lapse in continual process
improvement
w Stagnation
w Complacency
w Potential to regress
Benefits of
being at this
level
None! w Customer focus processes are
evident
w Objectives are established
w Understanding of quality and
efficiencyhow to align center to
organization
w Workforce committed to vision
and objectives
w Continual improvement process
generates results
w Happy customers
w Decisions made based on facts
w Effective control of processes
w Delighted customers
w Workforce involvement and
commitment
w Continuous improvement
process results in optimized call
center performance and value to
the organization
Lesley Vereen is a Senior
Consultant at Service Agility.
lesleyv@serviceagility.com
402-305-6644
page 21
DIRECTORY
To join the Pipeline Directory, contact:
WorkForce Management
Software Group, Inc.
877 668.6870
pr@wfmsg.com
www.wfmsg.com
WFMSG has emerged as the innovator in enterprise
Web 2.0, collaborative, low cost workforce
management solutions for the contact center.
WFMSGs Community is coupled with an intelligent
deployment process that results in very rapid
installation, product adoption and ROI for our clients.
Nuance
consultingteam@nuance.com
www.nuance.com
Nuance provides tailored customer service solutions
that support intuitive and pleasing interactions
between companies and their customers. Our full
suite of customer care solutions including speech-
enabled IVR, full-service hosting, proactive outbound
notifications, routing and CTI services, desktop
optimization and business consulting enable
organizations with complex and evolving customer
care operations to earn happy, loyal customers.
SATMAP
301 327.8714
David.Barnes@trgworld.com
www.satmaptrg.com
SATMAP (SATisfaction MAPping) is the worlds only
technology for matching callers to agents based on
a real-time analysis of caller and agent personalities.
SATMAP analyzes over one hundred different agent
and customer personality attributes in real time
with computational power approaching one billion
calculations per second to recognize optimal agent-
customer pairings and assign calls appropriately.
Touchpoint Associates
901 230.0567
bfurniss@touchpointassociates.com
www.touchpointassociates.com
Touchpoint Associates takes your contact center
to a higher level of service and profitability. Our
Strategic Call Center Roadmap is an actionable plan
to refocus people, process, leadership and technology
for maximum results. Our Frontline Management
Workshop is an engaging program to develop
frontline managers into top performers. Call today to
learn more.
Verint Witness Actionable
Solutions
1-800-4VERINT
info@verint.com
www.verint.com
Verint Witness Actionable Solutions is the leader
in enterprise workforce optimization software
and services. Its solutions are designed to help
organizations capture customer intelligence, uncover
business trends, discover the root cause of employee
and customer behavior, and optimize the customer
experience across contact center, branch, and back-
office operations.
M.E.R. Inc.
(McDaniel Executive Recruiters)
866 991.3555
mcdaniel@justcareers.com
www.justcareers.com
M.E.R. Inc. (McDaniel Executive Recruiters), a globally
recognized and specialized executive search firm
dedicated to the direct marketing, CRM, BPO, and Call
Center industries.
Acqueon Technologies
888 946.6878
sales@acqueon.com
www.acqueon.com
Acqueon Technologies specializes in developing
products for the Customer Interaction Management
industry using business logic to deliver distinctive
customer experience by enabling organizations to not
just interact with their customers but relate.
Acqueon products handle millions of transactions
everyday and are implemented across verticals such
as BFSI, Retail, BPO, Healthcare, Education, and
Transport.
Proactive Planning Group
443 451.4301
danr@proactiveplanning.net
Making Workforce Management work for you!
The Proactive Planning Group is a full service contact
center consulting firm specializing in Workforce
Management issues. Our mission is to improve
contact center performance by focusing on root
causes, real world solutions and return on investment.
Contact Center Professionals, Inc.
623 239.3699
martinprunty@contactcenterpro.com
www.contactcenterpro.com
CCPro is an independent contact center consulting
firm recognized for its experience and integrity. With
over 20 years experience in the industry, CCPro is
dedicated to helping its clients dramatically improve
the performance of their customer service and support
operations. We offer a full line of services including
contact center consulting, design, technology design,
performance optimization, outsourcing analysis,
management training, and other consulting services.
DIRECTORY
To join the Pipeline Directory, contact:
Look.Listen.Be.
443 742.1291
wandasitzer@looklistenbe.com
www.LookListenBe.com
Look.Listen.Be. is a consulting company providing
no-nonsense training solutions and customized
answers for contact centers. With more than 20 years
in the customer service and sales industry, Wanda
Sitzer coaches management teams and the frontline
to elevate their interactions and maximize their
performance.
OPTION 3 - Original Purple
(C=100 M=97 Y=27 K=24) and Black
RCCSP Professional
Education Alliance
708 246.0320
librarian@the-resource-center.com
www.the-resource-center.com
The Resource Center for Customer Service
Professionals (RCCSP), celebrating its
thirteenth year of service to the contact
center community, provides access to worlds
largest network of call center, help desk, and
IT support center training and certification
providers: the RCCSP Professional Education
Alliance.
Experience the industrys most comprehensive
training curriculum.
The City of Medford, Oregon
541 774.2000
bill.hoke@cityofmedford.org
www.ci.medford.or.us
Medford is located in sunny southern Oregon and
is conveniently located on Interstate 5, providing
the community easy access to all markets. Medford
offers a highly desired quality of life in which to
raise families in a business-friendly environment,
which includes an educated, diverse workforce, with
affordable and reliable utilities.
CallCenterJobs.com
CallCenterJobs.com is a leading niche employment
resource for experienced Call Center and Customer
Service professionals. CallCenterJobs.com boasts
the largest collection of QUALITY job openings in the
industry (not temp positions or staffing company
postings) and is the ultimate recruitment advertising
solution for call center related businesses.
TelePlaza.com
The MOST Tele-Relevant information in the LEAST
amount of time.
TelePlaza is a comprehensive online directory that
provides more valuable and relevant call center
content than any other niche industry Web site and
is the ultimate resource for locating quality contact
center information. TelePlaza offers more industry
specific information than the search engines AND
more call center supplier listings than any other
online industry search site.
Cooney Solutions Group (CSG)
210 687.2714
servicefirst@cooneysolutionsgroup.com
CooneySolutionsGroup.Com
Cooney Solutions Group (CSG) is revolutionizing
the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.
Founded by two of the most experienced and
respected experts in contact center customer
service management and further supported by a
dream team of advisors CSG offers world-class
outsourcing solutions for organizations committed
to delivering unparalleled quality and customer
experiences.
Fresh Perspectives
210 913.0868
beverley.mcclure@freshperspectivesllc.net
www.freshperspectivesllc.net
Drawing upon a 30-year career with customer service
champion USAA, and expertise as a certified coach,
Beverley McClure founded Fresh Perspectives, LLC. As
an executive coach, consultant, facilitator and speaker,
Beverley provides clients with fresh insights, actionable
solutions and accountability partnerships to facilitate
knowledge transfer and results-based behavior change.
nGenera Customer Interaction
Management
888 462.3484
cimsales@ngenera.com
www.ngenera.com/cim
nGenera Customer Interaction Management is the
global leader in next generation customer experience
solutions. Customers report increased customer
satisfaction and measurable cost savings within six
months of deployment. More companies trust their
customer experiences to nGenera CIM. Customers
include Cannon, Dell, eBay, Epson, Ford, Microsoft,
P&O, Scottrade, Sharp, Siemens, Sky Bet, Sony, and
Sprint.
Reflective Keynotes Inc.
905 567.8432
info@reflectivekeynotes.com
www.reflectivekeynotes.com
Reflective Keynotes Inc. specializes in helping inbound
contact centers improve their sales results. Our
workshops, webinars and keynote speeches provide
key insights to help your Agents close more sales and
help your Managers coach more effectively towards
sales results.
DIRECTORY
Service Agility
215 679.5250
jaym@serviceagility.com
www.serviceagility.com
Service Agility provides guidance to organizations
seeking substantial improvement in customer
satisfaction levels and in the efficiency of their
service and sales operations. Our expertise is
delivered through four channels: consulting, training,
speaking, and writing. We serve call centers
and face-to-face operations. We offer our clients
industry expertise, real-world experience, knowledge
transfer proficiency, and guidance independent from
partnerships with other vendors.
Strategic Contact
866 791.8560
consult@strategiccontact.com
www.strategiccontact.com
Strategic Contact is an independent consulting firm
that provides objective perspectives based on its deep
experience in contact centers large and small. The
firm helps companies plan for change and growth,
assess current environments, develop strategies,
evaluate and implement new technologies, develop
outsourced and virtualized center configurations, and
conduct business case analysis.
Human Numbers
678 494.1506
info@HumanNumbers.com
www.HumanNumbers.com
Human Numbers is a team of workforce managers
passionate about forecasting and scheduling.
They support call centers lacking WFM software
or a Workforce Manager. Their customers receive
the expertise of a seasoned Workforce Manager
who assumes the ongoing duties of data-mining,
developing bi-weekly forecasts, and generating
schedules.
RightNow Technologies
406 522.4200
www.rightnow.com
RightNow is a provider of on demand customer
relationship management (CRM) solutions that
help consumer-centric organizations deliver great
customer experiences. Founded in 1997, RightNow
is headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, employs
more than 700 people, and serves over 1,900
organizations worldwide. RightNow is listed on the
New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RNOW.
Convergys
888 284.9900
marketing@convergys.com
www.convergys.com
A global leader in relationship management.
We deliver a broad range of customer and HR
solutions, backed by technology, business analytics
and consulting services that help create valuable
relationships between our clients, their customers and
their employees.
Varolii Corporation
800 206.2979
info@varolii.com
www.varolii.com
Varolii is the market and technology leader in proactive
outbound communications. Its on-demand automated
communication applications help organizations more
effectively reach and interact with large numbers of
customers and employees, reducing cost of operations
and improving service. More than 380 companies trust
Varolii to send roughly four million communications
every business day.
The Call Center School
615 812.8400
www.thecallcenterschool.com
The Call Center School provides a comprehensive
training curriculum for all levels of call center
professionals, including call center executives,
frontline supervisors, quality specialists, workforce
managers, and frontline agents. Over 50 different
seminars are available with delivery available
as on-site classroom training, instructor-led web
seminars, self-paced e-learning programs, or train-
the-trainer licensing. For more information, visit www.
thecallcenterschool.com or call 615-812-8400.
Sponsored By:
Customer Service Manager
Amazon.com Huntington, WV
Quality Advocate
US Cellular Tulsa, OK
Senior WFM Analyst
Time Warner Cable Buffalo, NY
Customer Service Manager
UnitedHealth Group San Antonio, TX
Check out the careers section, as well as the Pipeline Directory and
other topics that were confident you wont want to miss.
Some of the job postings youll find include:
Be sure to check out the CCP LinkedIn Group
for more job postings. http://tinyurl.com/ccpLinkedin
Contact Center Careers
at www.contactcenterpipeline.com
Announcing the
Agility Factor Assessment
from Service Agility.
Improve Customer Satisfaction.
Reduce Costs.
Six Month Payback. Guaranteed.
Our Agility Factor Assessment is a specific, objective
analysis leading to workload reductions that will decrease
costs while improving customer satisfaction. In one
month, we will deliver results that will pay for themselves
with savings generated from six months or less of imple-
mentation. Guaranteed. Learn
how less is truly more at
www.serviceagility.com or call us
at 215-679-5250.
www.ServiceAgility.com
info@ServiceAgility.com | 215.679.5250
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