March 1999
Uniting High-Tech And High-Touch Workforce Management
BY ROBERT P. TALTY, NEC AMERICA, INC.
When call center executives develop workforce management solutions, they usually
evaluate call-flow management, as well as their capacity to generate the greatest
productivity from their technological resources. However, concentrating on productivity
alone rarely yields optimal results.
The best solution considers that a successful call center simultaneously satisfies two
basic goals: productivity and customer satisfaction. Process-management principles
indicate that these objectives require different approaches: call-flow (high-tech)
management, which impacts the business more directly, and work-flow (high-touch)
management, which impacts the customer more directly. Both of these processes ultimately
affect the customer, as well as the organization, but a closer look at the two helps to
decipher the issues that need to be addressed.
High-Tech Call Flow: The Technology Behind The Customer Experience
High-tech call-flow management describes the technology implications behind the flow of
inbound and outbound calls in a call center. These dynamics are more centered on
effectively handling calls from a business-management perspective rather than from a
customer interaction perspective. High-tech call-flow management focuses on the technology
deployed to manage the business. To establish this process successfully in the
organization, the elements that comprise it must be examined.
Contact Center Direction
First, an overall direction for the customer contact center must be set. Today's direction
must be established to decipher tomorrow's expectations. Steps such as developing a needs
analysis, determining which solutions meet those needs and planning how best to implement
the solutions are the primary steps that must be taken.
Center Resource Management
With direction in place, call center resources must be considered, including those already
in place and those to be acquired. Considerations should include the facilities needed to
house staff, the capital to equip them, the technology platforms needed to build upon and
the applications that will reside on them.
Call-Flow Optimization
With direction and resources firmly in place, the flow of calls in the call center must be
mapped out. Which department should receive which calls? What routing options are most
efficient and cost-effective? What are the alternatives when traffic increases? How can
lines be kept open? The platform, services, applications and ACD scripts should all be
working to the company's best advantage.
Call-Handling Management
What about each specific call? When are some calls more important than others? How can the
distribution steps that lead to an ultimate transaction be minimized? How can queues be
shortened?
These issues can be addressed by developing specific scripting rules for specific
high-impact circumstances. These procedures should be published, implemented and enforced.
In addition to the procedures, the technology deployed within the call center must be
equipped to support these steps quickly and efficiently.
Service-Level Management
With so many calls coming in at once, control must be maintained. Call flow should be
examined on a structural level before the agent level can be managed. Monitoring the types
of calls being made and received is important. Determining what types of products,
services or information data are most required is another key component. Based on the
findings of these reports, key members of management should evaluate the effectiveness of
current traffic flow and consider alternative modes.
Any enhancements made in the five areas of high-tech call flow will help establish a
better-managed customer contact center. Calls will flow in and out more efficiently and
staff and resources will be better, as well as more evenly, utilized. Most call centers
try very hard to excel in the above high-tech processes. However, what makes a call center
truly a customer-oriented operation is a concerted effort to improve the customer
experience - and to strive to become high-touch.
High-Touch Work Flow: When Technology Enhances The Customer Experience
Essentially, high-touch work flow explores the human implications behind the flow of
inbound/outbound calls in the call center. This flow works from a customer-interaction
perspective rather than a business-management perspective and evaluates the capacities of
the human (versus technological) resources employed in the call center and how they are
serving customers. It focuses on the people deployed behind customer service. The elements
that comprise the high-touch work flow must be examined to establish this process
successfully.
Work-Flow Management
What processes are in place to give agents the ability to effectively handle each call?
The customer contact center must evaluate every potential work-flow possibility and ensure
that the procedures are published and practiced to accomplish each particular goal.
Failure scenarios should be reported and used as learning examples. Successes should be
established as benchmarks.
Service-Level Management
In a customer contact environment, the need for accurate and meaningful reporting cannot
be stressed enough. There should be online monitoring and real-time status reporting to
gauge shifting traffic patterns. Resources should be adjusted accordingly. Customers
should never be penalized when business becomes too brisk. Batch reporting helps
illustrate long-term trends that can be helpful in fine-tuning the big picture.
Workforce Management
Customers aren't calling a company - they are calling people. It is imperative that the
very best people are recruited and sufficiently trained. Use reported information to
identify trends. These forecasts can be used to determine when it is necessary to
downsize, upsize or reschedule staff. Don't be afraid to part with convention and shift
resources rapidly and often. There is only one first chance to make a good impression and
repeated infractions can erode long-term loyalties.
Performance Supervision
Even the best people can perform only as effectively as they are trained. Investment in
training should never be taken lightly. Monitor performance and monitor it deeply. Make
sure sales and service messages aren't being compromised. Institute personal-development
programs that will motivate associates to improve the delivery of the business' offerings
and sales. From this, satisfaction figures should grow in direct correlation.
It is the combination of both these task sets - high-tech call flow and high-touch
work-flow management - that results in an ideal customer contact center environment. In
such an environment, agents find everything they need right at their fingertips to ensure
a more streamlined, cost-effective call. At the same time, customers feel they were
treated well enough to judge the experience as a pleasant one.
So, what is left? In a word - fulfillment. The customer has ordered. The agent has
sold. Is the back office prepared to deliver?
Information Flow: Uniting High-Tech And High-Touch Call Flows
Information flow is the last piece of the puzzle. All the planning accomplished with
high-tech call flow and high-touch work-flow dynamics means nothing if the information
generated from these functions doesn't flow to the back office. All departments, including
sales and marketing, data processing, data warehousing, human resources, order processing,
credit and finance, manufacturing and production, and shipping and delivery, must be aware
of what the front office is doing, saying and promising. In other words, a successful
customer-oriented call center must not only be well connected to its customers, but also
to its own organization.
When deployed together, high-tech and high-touch call flows dictate seamless workforce
management solutions that ensure not only greater productivity, but, more important,
customer satisfaction.
Robert Talty is marketing vice president for the Corporate Networks Group of NEC
America, Inc. The Corporate Networks Group markets a complete line of advanced
communications products and software, including digital key telephone and PBX systems, ATM
switching systems, facsimile equipment, videoconferencing equipment and data
communications products. |