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Workforce Optimization Featured Article

June 18, 2008

Arizona Federal Credit Union Selects IEX TotalView for Workforce Optimization

By Anuradha Shukla, TMCnet Contributor

The Arizona Federal Credit Union has deployed IEX (News - Alert) TotalView in a bid to slash its contact center ASA and boost agent adherence.

With more than $1.8 billion in assets, 230,000 member accounts, and 26 Arizona locations, Arizona Federal runs a 96 agent contact center to effectively service their members.

When the company found they were struggling at times with ASAs as high 8 minutes and corresponding caller abandonment rates of up to 25 percent, they knew they needed to make a change.

Before implementing IEX TotalView, Arizona Federal scheduled its agents manually, using spreadsheets. The process was very time consuming and each schedule took up to 16 hours of management time to prepare every week. Also, Arizona Federal had to make projections based on limited information, and found it impossible to plan long-term. They even had to take an hour out of client service time once per week to schedule interval tasks such as training.

Arizona Federal selected IEX TotalView Workforce Management to automate the staff planning and agent management process and improve scheduling accuracy, agent adherence, service level attainment, and first call resolution. Thanks to IEX TotalView, agents now have client, training, and off-hook time scheduled and enforced and have accurate, long-term forecast data, without the need for micromanagement by managers or workforce planners.

By leveraging the increased visibility and accountability, extended to agents as well as management through WebStation, Arizona Federal is now able to pay for performance that meets the organization's customer service goals. Using TotalView's Multiskill feature, Arizona Federal has expanded the usefulness of its IVR

without introducing unnecessary layers of complexity for callers. Today, they are rating the agents on six different skill levels, and callers more effectively reach the right agent on their first try.

Cathy Gordon, AVP of Teleservices at Arizona Federal Credit Union finds their staff to be much more accurately scheduled. She said that the TotalView Vacation and Holiday Planner ensure PTO time is more equitably managed, so they can have more than two team members off at the same time. Also, being able to ensure that all their events are scheduled, including agent appraisals and coaching sessions, has improved their employee and supervisor relationships.

Arizona Federal's adherence, which had been no better than 85 percent under the old procedures, now runs at 93 percent. In fact they have reduced nine internal support and services positions thanks to the gains in efficiency and automation from TotalView and improved practices. Moreover, ASA has dropped below 90 seconds, with abandonment rates coming close to single digits.

“Across the board, TotalView improved our efficiency and effectiveness in managing our call center,” said Gordon. She added that the level of service to their members improved not only in reduced hold times but an increased knowledge base for their employees.

For more, check out the Workforce Optimization channel on TMCnet.

Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

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