June 1999

Formula For Success At Major Teleservices Outsourcer Relies On Call Logging And Monitoring

BY MARTIN ANDERSON AND SUSIE COOK, PRIORITY FULFILLMENT SERVICES, INC.

Call logging and monitoring have traditionally been viewed as necessary evils, consumers of overhead expenses that are required to ensure teleservices representatives do not fall behind in their quotas. But in today's highly competitive teleservices industry, call centers may find it far more productive to take a fresh perspective on call logging, viewing the technology as a way to identify agents who perform beyond expectations - not below them. Simply put, in this new paradigm, logging is used to recognize agents who do their jobs well. The result: highly motivated call center agents who consider logging and monitoring essential elements to their own personal successes.

We have operated our call center under this model for five years now and one clear measure of its usefulness is the fact that our agent retention rates have increased 25 percent each year. In addition, through call logging, we have created a pool of disciplined employees who understand our business, and who, as a result, are prime candidates for promotion to other areas in the company. In fact, 40 percent of our total existing employee base began working for the company in our call center.

Priority Fulfillment Services (PFS) provides end-to-end transaction, inventory and distribution solutions on an outsourcing basis to companies around the world. A wholly owned subsidiary of Daisytek International, PFS was started in 1996 to leverage existing core Daisytek technologies. These included customer call centers and a multiple global distribution network.

PFS now differentiates itself in a crowded marketplace by providing a comprehensive service from the click of a mouse to the knock on the house - accepting, processing, picking, packaging and shipping orders. PFS now warehouses, manages and fulfills over $500 million annually in client merchandise and transactions for more than 30 clients.

We believe that it would not have been possible to achieve this success without our call logging and quality monitoring technology. The reason: had we not had the logging system to motivate our employees and positively reinforce exemplary performers, we would not have been able to meet our corporate objective of delivering order accuracy of 99.7 percent, 100 percent same-day processing, average speed of answer in 12 seconds and less than one percent call abandon. With a focus on both client satisfaction and employee development, we believe that our logging system is the key to achieving both objectives.

Our quality logging program begins anew with each client and each campaign. For the first two weeks, 10 percent of all agent calls are monitored; after this initial intensive monitoring phase, we scale back to monitoring 3 percent of all calls. All monitoring is performed randomly, but on the basis of parameters we specify. Parameters may include, for example, specific agent, percentage of calls, day of week or time of day. A scheduling feature of our logging and monitoring system then interfaces with our existing workforce management program (IEX Workforce Management System) to determine which agents are working and when. The call logging is then completed automatically. Since the logging system is voice-activated, we are always sure of monitoring a complete call - and having no dead time on the tapes.

These capabilities were just some of the functional specifications we had when selecting our logging and monitoring system  the AutoQuality call logger and P&Q Review performance management system, both from Teknekron Infoswitch. In addition to interfacing with our workforce management system, this logging and monitoring solution also interfaces with our call management system (Lucent's CenterVue). As a result, when preparing reports of agent performance, we can include call statistics along with quality scores.

Rating criteria for these quality scores are tailored to each individual client and campaign. This capability allows us to respond to a primary concern every client has: how can an outsourcer provide the same high level of service that a product manufacturer would? With a quality score reflecting criteria and numeric weighting schemes that are based on each client's preferences, we can effectively address these concerns. Plus, with our emphasis on agent development and a history of high quality scores, we can actually prove that we can provide more highly trained and motivated servicing of a client's needs than they could themselves.

Another way we can alleviate any issues clients may have with regards to our quality focus is by allowing them to remotely monitor our logging system. To listen to our tapes, they can dial into the system and enter a PIN we provide. They can then hear the same monitoring sessions our supervisors listen to. Alternatively, for some clients, we simply clone the recording tapes so they can listen to them in their own facilities.

Agents also benefit from listening to these recordings. On a regular basis, our supervisors sit with the agents, listening to calls and doing role playing to determine how the call handling could have been improved. Because all agents know that these sessions are designed to help them improve their quality scores, the sessions are very productive and motivational.

Agents actually want to be monitored so they can improve their quality scores. The reason: quality scores play a role in three key areas - base compensation, corporate mobility (internal career opportunities) and recognition programs (such as the 100 percent club, agent-of-the-month, agent-of-the-quarter, etc.). Teams of outstanding performance agents are also recognized in various ways. Recently, for example, a team of agents who excelled were treated to a breakfast, hand-delivered by the quality team on silver trays.

Prior to first implementing the Teknekron logging and monitoring solution at Daisytek, we relied on manual logging: supervisors either sat side-by-side with an agent and listened to calls with a Y-jack or they relied on manually sampling calls with a tape recorder. In either case, the process was time-intensive, inefficient and agents always knew when they were - and were not - being monitored. We realized that this was poor use of management resources and an inadequate way of motivating agents. Since launching PFS was part of the strategic plan, we decided to make the investment in an automated call logging and monitoring system. That decision altered the course of both Daisytek and PFS, enabling both entities to grow and excel in our respective markets.

The logging solution has also been at the root of our corporate culture change that emphasizes, as stated above, both agent and client. As PFS has grown from a single call center to a virtual network that includes eight call centers around the world, this culture has been replicated at each site.

In pursuing this logging-based corporate culture at each site, we have been aided dramatically by the scalability of our solution and its ability to centrally monitor multiple remote sites. In other words, rather than implementing a separate call logging and monitoring system at each site, we are now monitoring and logging calls from call centers in Memphis, Tennessee; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Miami, Florida and Chicago, Illinois from our Plano, Texas headquarters facility.

With logging completed centralized, overhead costs are slashed and administrative procedures are standardized enterprisewide. All we need is extra storage capacity on our main system to accommodate the additional recordings from these sites. This easy scalability and centralization have been real enablers for us; had we not had these capabilities, the costs of setting up the remote centers we need to capitalize on available labor pools might have been prohibitive.

The teleservices outsourcing industry is becoming more competitive on a daily basis and to be successful, all services must be provided with the highest possible quality. A new mousetrap will not get clients to beat a path to your door unless that mousetrap is of the highest quality.

To meet quality expectations in the teleservices industry requires a highly motivational environment where call center agents are always recognized for their achievements. By instituting a corporate culture that emphasizes the importance of logging and monitoring calls so that both agent needs and client requirements are met, this environment can be attained.

In many companies, employees feel like they give 150 percent of their effort and are rarely noticed; in PFS, we expect a lot - but we give a lot as well. We have worked hard to create an atmosphere of mutual respect between supervisors and agents and emphasize positive reinforcement for a job well done, rather than punishments for substandard performance. In so doing, agents clearly see the benefits of quality performance in their compensation, personal recognition and bonuses.

It is the perspective of PFS that when a company gives us the opportunity of playing a key role in their business, it is our obligation and responsibility to not only deliver to them the best possible service we can, but to do the same for their customers. Our call logging and monitoring system and enables us to meet these goals, and most important, has empowered us to succeed with both our clients and our agents.

Martin Anderson joined Daisytek International in 1990 and has been responsible for the PFS call center since its inception two years ago. He oversees the strategic direction of PFS's worldwide call center operations, systems technology and processes. Susie Cook has been with Daisytek for seven years and oversees training, quality monitoring and evaluation for the PFS sites in Plano, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee and Canada.