Workforce
Optimization:
Killing Two Birds with One StoneBy
Bob Furniss, Call Center Ideas, Inc.
and Kathy Kuehne, etalk Corporation
With turnover rates as high as 30 to 50 percent in many contact centers
across North America, companies are struggling to hire the right agent,
design the appropriate mix of training and implement the most cutting-edge
and effective technology in order to enhance the performance of their
contact center organizations. The newest breed of workforce optimization (WFO)
applications is helping meet those needs and allowing companies to track
their success in exceeding customer expectations.
The latest buzz from Datamonitor, Gartner and Forrester Research
indicates that workforce optimization is the next big solution in call
centers across the globe. Is this just another buzzword to descend upon our
industry or will workforce optimization really answer the long-standing
debate of how to effectively manage your contact center? If you lose the
hype and the buzz and get down to what workforce optimization means in the
real world of call center agents and managers, it is this: the blending of
process, management and people to produce real-time results across the
customer service organization.
As agents, managers and supervisors, we constantly struggle with how to
reduce cost and improve efficiencies ' and at the same time 'delight' the
customer while we provide a consistent experience across all of the channels
that we manage (phone, Web, chat and e-mail). As the call center becomes a
multimedia contact center, the new breed of quality management systems have
crossed over from just a monitoring tool to a complete optimizer of the call
center.
According to Frost & Sullivan, the key benefit of workforce optimization
applications is that 'they allow the contact center managers and corporate
executives to measure performance at both a micro (agent) and macro (center)
level and to analyze the meaning of these findings to plan accordingly.'
Without this information, the manager will continue to struggle with
disparate information across multiple systems and channels. If workforce
optimization systems can provide the closed loop that is needed between
efficiency and quality, along with employee and customer satisfaction, then
managers will be able to 'control' their own destiny and 'see' the direction
in which they need to go.
The Breakdown Of WFO
As we look to understand the systems and processes that fall into the
workforce optimization category, there are three main areas to consider.
Customer experience optimization. Obviously, everything we do in the call
center should be wrapped around the customer. Before we implement a system
change or a new process, the first thing we need to know is how can this
improve the overall customer experience? Can we see a tracked improvement in
the way our agents service our customers?
Enterprise optimization. Whether we manage a mid-sized, single-site
center or a virtual network of five nationwide centers of 800 agents each,
we all struggle with the issues of how new systems will affect our overall
organization. New systems must be able to interact with current technology.
The systems must also come equipped with the ability to report information
based on multiple vendors and data elements.
People optimization. If we take care of the customer and the technology,
we have only solved half of the success equation. People are the driving
force of the call center. While we want to find ways to make them more
efficient and effective, the focus also has to be on how to empower them to
make better choices and improve themselves. A true 'workforce optimizer'
will give the agents the ability to measure themselves against company
expectations and give them tools for improving on their own ' with limited
feedback from their manager.
Focusing on these three categories sounds easier said then done. Over the
past several years, many of us have struggled through the implementation of
new CRM tools that were designed to improve our bottom line and customer
service. The customer relationship desktop applications are designed to
provide the agent with relevant customer information to allow them to
customize the service and sales approach based on specific segments of the
market. However, we have often found that it did not meet our call center
user expectations or the financial improvements that were expected by the
company. So what does the future hold? How can workforce optimization become
a key focus in the future?
Customer Experience Optimization
As a normal course of business, our job in the call center is often reactive
in nature. No matter how much we want to be proactive, we find ourselves
responding to the latest direction of the company in the areas of sales and
marketing. The call center is expected to be the voice of the customer since
it is the key channel for customer interactions. We struggle to define and
report customer expectations. With the advent of true WFO we have some of
the most powerful tools available to put actual recorded customer
interaction in front of the organization.
We achieve customer experience optimization by using information to drive
our decisions. Just saying that we are focusing on the customer is not
enough. With the right tools, we can track the 'real-time' issues of the
customer. Using the systems to report on customer trends, we can set a
course for short-term and long-term by focusing on how our current processes
need to change, and how those changes are affecting the customer experience
in real-time.
Enterprise Optimization
Whether we are looking to optimize a medium sized center or a multisite
enterprise, we all have the need to be able to report information in a
consistent manner. Today's top WFO vendors have taken this fact and made it
an integral part of their platforms. Whereas 10 years ago we struggled to
find the data that we needed, now we often find ourselves drowning in the
amount of data that is produced in the call center. Relevant customer and
operational information is created throughout the call center in the ACD,
quality management, workforce management, IVR, e-mail and more.
In order to optimize the enterprise, we need the ability to integrate the
key reporting systems together so they can share information ' across
systems and even across multiple center locations.
We now measure our success in terms of seconds and pennies per call.
Being able to track and report on calling trends and patterns ' across the
enterprise ' is a key factor in controlling expenses. At the same time, we
need the data to be consistent. Whether we are looking at the sales center
in Topeka or the customer service center in Ottawa, the data must be
consistent and the systems must have the ability to compare data across
centers, systems, teams and agents.
With this enhanced information, we can compare one agent, group or center
to another, using the same key customer and productivity data. As we
understand how our decisions are affecting the individual work that is
performed, we can make informed decisions that will optimize the entire
enterprise.
Today's workforce systems have reached a new level of reporting access.
The new platforms have integrated the key optimization systems in the
center, including quality management, workforce management, e-learning, ACD,
IVR, Web and more. With this new platform, the quality suite has been taken
to a new level, providing the key place to analyze customer and employee
trends. With this information, the call center manager is able to see
real-time issues across all the advanced systems that now populate the call
center.
People Optimization
All our efforts to improve the technology to impact the customer
experience will have limited success if the key component of the system does
not focus on the fundamental improvement of the two to five minute
interaction between the agent and the customer. We need this information for
two reasons: to reward the agent that is meeting and exceeding the
customer's expectations, and to identify which agents need to improve.
Although the second reason is the one that usually gets the focus, the first
one is probably even more important. If we reward the positive, we will
usually see a change in the negative.
People optimization is really made up of two key areas: management
efficiencies and agent behavior.
Management Efficiency
With the improvement in the information provided by the workforce
optimization systems, executives can make better decisions for the company
and the call center. If we understand more about the present, we can make
better decisions for the future.
At the same time, the implementation of the new capabilities offered by
today's workforce optimization systems can have a major impact on the
front-line management in four areas:
Time management. Effective workforce optimization systems now have the
ability to interact with the supervisor through the key time management
systems used today ' e-mail and calendar. The system can now interact with
Outlook, and once defined, can literally manage the success of the
supervisor. The systems will send updates and even track recorded monitoring
files within the supervisor's e-mail desktop. The systems can be programmed
to send e-mail reminders, team trends and even reports showing when work
schedules are falling behind expectations. While five years ago, the
supervisor had to manage the calendars of 10 to 15 agents, the workforce
optimization systems can now manage the calendar of the supervisor.
Calibration across enterprise. One of the best tools for defining quality
in the call center is created by conducting management calibration sessions.
Finding time for these sessions is hard. Scheduling sessions across multiple
groups and even call center sites is almost impossible. The new WFO systems
now allow us to automate much of this process. We can choose a specific call
for calibration, send the call to the entire management staff via e-mail
along with an automated form with scoring guidelines that allows the
management team to rate the call. The supervisors can listen to the call,
rate the individual attributes of the call and effectively calibrate the
definitions of quality across the enterprise directly from their desktop and
phone.
Coaching. The new WFO systems are making this process even more automated
than in the past. The systems have perfected the 'voice mail' ease of
notating sessions, attaching messages to e-mails and creating processes that
make it easy to provide information to the agent ' in a format that will
help improve agent behavior and the overall customer experience.
Agent Efficiency
In the end, all of the advances and improvements are of little value if the
systems do not allow the call center to effectively improve the level of
customer service provided. The key component has to be the ability to
effectively change the behavior of the agent while maintaining a high morale
level in the call center.
Change behavior. With the newly automated processes, the agent can now
take an active role in improving his or her level of service. The agent can
actually take the responsibility to actively seek feedback through the
system and even self-assess performance. In addition, the improved tracking
capabilities will allow the front-line supervisor to track the change in
behavior and quality and compare it to other agents, other groups and even
other call centers within the enterprise.
Improve morale. One of the fundamental risks of monitoring is the feeling
among the agents that there is a 'big brother' watching every move. The new
WFO systems allow the call center manager to ensure that everyone receives
the same level of focus. Monitoring is random throughout the day and even
the time period for capturing a call. In addition, the agents are able to
seek their own feedback by logging on to the system and listening to their
own calls. With this option, the supervisor can take a more supportive role
of verifying improvement, while allowing the agent to seek his or her own
improvement path.
Adjust call center processes. Even agents with the best customer service
skills can fail because of poor business processes or system applications.
New WHO applications provide tools to view and analyze an agent's desktop
processes. With this information, the management team can discover processes
that hinder an agent's success or productivity.
Workforce optimization is really about changing the overall performance
of the call center. Now that the vendors have made the time-consuming
process much more 'user-friendly,' the future could not look brighter for
improving our ability to develop an optimized, effective workforce while
setting a new level of customer experience.
Bob Furniss is president of Call Center Ideas, Inc. (www.callcenterideas.com),
which provides consulting, writing and speaking services to Fortune 500
companies and global call centers focusing on improving customer retention
and reducing agent turnover. Kathy Kuehne is director of product management
for etalk Corporation (www.etalk.com), a provider of Performance Impact
solutions for enterprise contact centers.
For information and subscriptions, visit
www.TMCnet.com or call 203-852-6800.
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