SUBSCRIBE TO TMCnet
TMCnet - World's Largest Communications and Technology Community

CHANNEL BY TOPICS


QUICK LINKS




Creating A Culture Of High Performance In The Contact Center
Workforce Optimization Featured Article

Creating A Culture Of High Performance In The Contact Center

 
May 23, 2006

Share
Tweet

 

Running an efficient and effective contact center requires a dedication to excellence. In most contact centers, there are more hidden inefficiencies and performance issues than can be uncovered and corrected. However, the ability to get to the root of the problem is often hindered by the difficult nature of combining performance information from disparate customer- and employee-facing systems: ACDs, workforce management systems, quality monitoring solutions, etc. As a result, many centers find themselves grappling with inconsistent measurements, inefficient processes, inaccurate data, dissatisfied employees and suboptimal management decision making.

Performance management systems help contact centers overcome these challenges by combining data from their most critical systems to create an overall view of current business trends and operating conditions. Armed with this information, companies can form solid, actionable conclusions based on the operational results of the organization. That information can then be used to drive the day-to-day practices of the center toward a higher level of performance and profitability. These systems enable organizations to successfully develop a culture of high performance and accountability because they do what reports and dashboards alone cannot. Performance management systems provide the tools and enable the practices necessary to provoke and enforce change. They don’t just supply information that may or may not be acted upon at the whim of a manager or team member. Performance management technology offers analytical results that are tied directly to operational goals. That way, leaders can better understand exactly what moves their organizations, supervisors know whom to coach and what to coach them on and agents are empowered with access to accurate and timely performance data. This article describes 10 ways contact centers seeking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operation can benefit from performance management technology.

1. Manage By Metrics That Matter
Many companies employ a form of performance management today. But they are often at a loss to explain how their performance metrics influence employee activity and overall results. Performance management supplies the insight decision makers need to make strategic business decisions based on timely analysis of key performance indicators (KPIs) and then closes the loop with operational results. As a result, the center can identify the key metrics that drive the business and tie every employee’s individual objectives to those measurements. By aligning everyone’s goals and providing visibility into their individual performance, organizations can successfully change behavior to improve productivity.

2. Develop A Culture Of High
Performance And Accountability Performance management establishes clear goals and performance targets for each employee. Since all goals and metrics are directly tied to performance, there are no surprises. Every employee can see that the standards they are being evaluated against are consistent across the organization and are grounded in business goals. This helps eliminate the sense of unfairness among agents who might feel they are being judged solely on the preferences or desires of a single line manager. Instead they are assured of fair treatment because they know what is expected of them, can see how they are performing and, most important, what they are responsible for accomplishing.

3. Reward Employees Promptly And Accurately
From the agent’s point of view, this step provides the payoff for buying into the culture of high performance and accountability. Performance management systems track and report employee behavior without distortion or prejudice. Results can be measured against key metrics and fed directly into recognition and reward programs. With dashboards at their disposal, employees never need wonder how they are being measured or how they stack up against their peers. By tying performance directly to incentives, the operation can effectively reinforce desired behaviors.

4. Use Information To Improve Customer Satisfaction
So much of the customer experience hinges on their interaction with an individual agent. Creating an environment in which agents are given responsibility for their own performance as well as the visibility and tools necessary to make meaningful improvements empowers the agents. That sense of empowerment naturally leads to a happier workforce with lower turnover, and one better prepared to competently and pleasantly handle customer inquiries and concerns. In addition to creating more motivated agents, performance management applications provide the tools necessary to drive targeted behaviors, including customer satisfaction. By integrating a performance management application with customer satisfaction tools such as IVR-based postcall surveys, operations can easily incorporate customer feedback into agents’ balanced scorecards.

5. Replace Time-Consuming Tasks With High-Yield Activities
In a nutshell, performance management automates the delivery of information to employees and guides their activities, freeing-up management to focus on helping everyone improve results. Specifically, performance management allows agents to track their own performance. This allows supervisors to spend coaching sessions reinforcing key messages instead of just providing feedback. As a result, these sessions are transformed into true development discussions because the conversation has been shifted from delivering statistics to skill coaching.

6. Measure Processes To Improve Results
Performance management provides a common frame of reference to measure the impact of key metrics while supplying visibility into processes that have traditionally been paper-based, such as coaching and training. By automating management activities through integrated workflow, organizations create consistent processes and standardize activities across all levels of the operation. This allows organizations to establish and track best practices by providing guidance and setting targets for the amount of time managers should spend in activities like hiring, coaching and training.

7. Optimize Existing Technology Investments
Performance management solutions produce advanced insight with data collected from multiple sources in the organization, including customer databases, ACD logs, IVR input and CRM applications. While many organizations may already have these systems in place, they often lack the ability to draw deep insight about their operations from each source. As a result, they end up relying on point reporting and surface-skimming metrics that keep much of the power and potential of the data locked up. Performance management systems, however, are designed from the ground up to incorporate data from multiple sources. They offer a comprehensive view of the operation, helping the center gain a better understanding of the entire customer lifecycle while maximizing existing technology investments.
 
8. Leverage Predefined Solutions
Modern performance management solutions come pre-built and ready to integrate with the systems that already power the contact center. By selecting a performance management solution designed to interface with the center’s workforce management system and other operational tools, implementation time and integration expenses can be greatly reduced. Furthermore, some performance management systems are bundled with predefined metrics and KPIs – allowing everyone from executives to agents to quickly see the information that matters most to their daily activities – without a large upfront investment in professional services.

9. Choose A System That Will Grow With Your Business
In the past, some performance management solutions have required heavy customization and were quite invasive. The latest performance management solutions are focused on meeting the long-term needs of organizations. This gives companies the chance to find a performance management solution that is right for their business, incorporating the right mix of performance measurement and process improvement tools. The best third-generation performance management solutions also allow companies to expand their applications and easily incorporate new functionality as the organization’s performance management needs grow.

10. Think Big, Start Small
Performance management creates a clear and measurable return on investment without a long ramp-up time. These tools can reduce average talk and hold time, increase agent online time, improve schedule adherence, reduce attrition, boost first-call resolution rates and enhance customer quality ratings. Performance management can help rapidly narrow the productivity gap between standout and sub-par performers, which can be as great as 4:1 in some environments. Giving agents the tools they need to self-evaluate and take corrective action, as well as to understand and follow endorsed best practices, can lead to both increased call productivity and revenue generation. Supervisors and managers are able to view much more performance data with minimal effort, giving them the maximum opportunity to make meaningful changes through policy adjustments and one-to-one interaction. Business analysts are freed from designing and deploying routine daily reports, allowing them to put their expertise to work on long-term business analysis and highly targeted investigation. Ultimately, the mindset of the performance-focused organization will have a ripple effect that makes top performance the expectation rather than a luxury. Performance management provides a logical evolutionary step for companies that take the day-to-day operations of their contact center environments seriously. By leveraging existing investments in workforce management and other customer interaction tools, performance management delivers a complete view of the effectiveness and efficiency of customer contact, both at the individual level and in aggregate. This makes it easy for front-line agents and managers alike to understand their role in the performance chain and how improvements may need to be made. The ROI on performance management solutions can be seen within just 6 to 9 months in most organizations. Performance management represents a clear competitive advantage for companies looking for continuous improvement and consistent excellence in their customer organizations.

------------
Debbie May co-founded IEX Corporation (http://www.iex.com) (news - alert) in 1988. As president, she is responsible for setting the vision and direction of the company while overseeing its daily operations. Under her leadership, IEX has attained recognition as a global leader of workforce management and optimization technology for contact centers. She can be contacted at [email protected].
-------------
Mark Selcow co-founded Merced Systems Inc. (http://www.mercedsystems.com) (news - alert) in 2001. As president, he sets the company goals and direction while overseeing its daily operations. During his tenure, Merced has gained a reputation as a contact center and related back-office performance management leader. He can be contacted at [email protected].
 
 
**This article appeared in the April 2006 issue of Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine.
 
If you are interested in purchasing reprints of this article (in either print or PDF format), please visit Reprint Management Services online at http://www.reprintbuyer.com or contact a representative via e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 800-290-5460. For information and subscriptions, visit http://www.TMCnet.com or call 203-852-6800.
 

Workforce Optimization Homepage





Technology Marketing Corporation

2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: +1-203-852-6800, 800-243-6002

General comments: [email protected].
Comments about this site: [email protected].

STAY CURRENT YOUR WAY

© 2024 Technology Marketing Corporation. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy