Recorded
Webinars On Demand
Communication
is Not A 4-Letter Word!- How to Establish Relationship
with Your Customers
Poor communication is the single most frequently reported major
source of frustration in companies today. Since you and I spend
approximately 80% of our day communicating, the impact of this is
profound and far reaching. What is the distinction between communication
and talk? How do you imbibe information? How does your customer?
Are you ‘in synch with’ or ‘on the same page as’
your customer (both external and internal)? How do you listen? Are
you reactive or pro-active? Or, do you even listen? Do you make
requests in such a way that people make commitments to honor those
requests?
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FIRST
CALL RESOLUTION: HOW TO DEFINE AND MEASURE
First call resolution (one and done) is the #1 driver for customer
satisfaction with best practices reported at 86%. However, this
means that 14% of your customers are contacting you more than once
(or twice) to resolve their issues!
Repeat calls
are costly not only to operations and the bottom line, but they
negatively impact customer satisfaction. 34% of customers who didn’t
get their inquiry or problem resolved will likely to go to a competitor.
What does
losing that customer cost you? Plug in your own numbers to our formula.
How do you define first call resolution? And how do you—if
you do—calculate it? Know that research shows that there is
no common method for measuring this.
However,
what gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets better.
More than 90% of companies measuring FCR reported improvement in
performance.
One of the
foremost methods to boost customer satisfaction—and improve
FCR—is to consistently and ongoingly train, train, train your
front lines in world class customer service skills such that they
can do their job right the first time.
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Workforce
Management Demystified-Part 2
It is not difficult
to learn the fundamentals of Workforce Optimization as what really
counts with respect to your call centre performance is being
efficient with the scarce resources available. It is not difficult
to define the optimal solution between reducing costs and overhead
to increasing morale and loyalty amongst your front line staff.
It is not difficult to recognize how to identify wasteful steps
and critical inefficiencies that impact contact centre performance.
It is not difficult to discover how to establish a discipline
of continuous improvements that delivers ongoing productivity
and call quality results. It is not difficult to uncover the
cost of chronic call centre problems related to service management,
sub-standard productivity and poor quality. It is not difficult
to learn how to integrate the right call centre metrics that
drive total customer experience that in turn delights them in
each interaction with your contact centre.
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Workforce
Management Demystified
The contact center has evolved from the early analog days with resource hungry
enterprise systems to innovative, agile workforce optimization solutions in
a digital environment. In spite of these technological advances and the automation
of basic activities, contact centers by and large are still utilizing people
and no operation is critical than the efficient operation and allocation of
the workforce. If planned and executed well with a small margin of error, the
operation runs smoothly with adequate number of agents to respond to the expected
workload.
If done poorly, the
organization is saddled with significant costs both in customer
dissatisfaction and in payroll dollars wasted. In an increasing
competitive environment with low margins and higher than normal
expectations from the discriminating and informed customers,
organizations are starting to review and reform some outdated
models of thinking within their enterprise.
Using basic workforce optimization techniques, the contact center can solve
very critical business problems by scheduling efficient schedules based on
historical data and predicting reasonable outcomes for future volumes. Aside
from training and coaching agents, scheduling plays an important role in managing
costs. In and of itself, workforce optimization does not solve basic contact
center problems nor do they develop agents however it is part of the overall
solution necessary to ensure that all members of the workforce are aware of
their role in the contact center success.
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HIGH
PERFORMANCE COACHING WEBINAR SERIES
“ UNLEASHING THE HUMAN POTENTIAL WITHIN”
HOW TO BOOST AGENTS PERFORMANCE
As competition heats
up in the marketplace for talent, contact centers must find a
way to retain the top talent or “crème de la crème” of
their staff. It is not uncommon for rival firms to poach or entice
your top talent to come work with them. "Coaching" isn't
a category all by itself in a contact center. Instead, it's more
helpful to think of coaching as a skill like leadership in which
you learn more about yourself, your teams and your organization
as you evolve. It is not for the faint of heart, this is not
for everyone. Attrition and Replacement Costs like Unnecessary
repeat calls mean millions of wasted dollars on up to 25% of
your operating budget. The resulting low customer satisfaction
and lost sales opportunities cost you even more. Focusing on
meaningful metrics like Call Quality (QA), First Call Resolution
(FCR) and Handling Time (AHT) provides a balanced view of your
contact center’s overall performance. Scorecards, daily
ACD metrics or surveys can’t give guidance on which agent
to coach or which processes to fix.
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Sales
Coaching for Contact Center Managers
How many sales have slipped away because your Agents have
not received effective sales coaching? Coaching sales skills is different
than dealing with call quality standards. Learn the secrets to becoming
a successful contact center sales coach.
This webinar is designed specifically for a call center environment. As a result,
these techniques can be applied immediately within your contact center.
In this interactive 75-minute webinar, Managers and Call Quality Coaches will
learn:
3 important differences between call quality skills and sales skills, so you
can focus your coaching time more efficiently
3 vital techniques to convert a "customer service ONLY" department
mindset into an enthusiastic "sales AND service" team culture
5 key ideas for running a structured daily huddle, to help your Agents deal more
successfully with industry competitors
5 crucial tips to help your Agents overcome price objections, so they can persuade
more people to buy
3 ways to close more sales by creating a sense of urgency. This includes key
phrases that lead to a commitment, as well as phrases that can sabotage a sale
before it even begins
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Lean
Six Sigma Demystified: Practical & Easy to Implement Ideas– A
Handy Guide for Managers & Supervisors
Measuring performance is fundamental to any contact center
operations whether it is a large or small. The measurement process
is the primary data collection vehicle for management, yet few
contact centers have a program or resources in place for identifying
and improving performance measures. As a result, many managers
operate with a haphazard collection of uncoordinated and often
irrelevant performance measures. In this situation, wasteful utilization
of resources can go undetected for long periods of time, objectives
may not be achieved, and actions to correct deficiencies often
attack symptoms instead of problems. To correct this, managers
must recognize that measuring performance is a basic need of an
organization and a fundamental responsibility of management. Most
performance measurement efforts focus on doing things well, assuming
that the contact centre is already providing the right products
and services to its customers.
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LeanSix
Sigma In Operations– A Practical Guide For Managers,
Supervisors and Team Leaders
It is 8 am on Monday
morning and before you place your cup of java down, you have
been notified by your command centre team that your Service Level
is in the red zone. To further complicate matters, the nice summer
weather and the latest federal ministers meeting in your city
has caused delays for your staff that rely on public transportation.
Your usual suspects have called in sick and are not reachable
by phone. Does this sound familiar? They're every manager's conundrum.
If this is still how you think and live your Monday’s,
then you're wasting everyone's time, including your customers
and stakeholders. You must take your game to the next level.
If operational reviews,
service level management and crisis management are going to be
valuable management tools — and they can be — you're
going to have to put more skin in the game by coming up with
a whole new strategy and game winning tactic in addressing some
of the common contact centre issues. If you're not already doing
this, start checking in with employees weekly or biweekly to
talk about their roles in your contact centre. This is when you
talk about what's working and not working, what your employees
are struggling with, and how they could use your help. By the
time the operations meeting rolls around, there shouldn't be
any surprises and you shouldn't need to dwell on the past. Instead,
use that time to plan for what's to come. When you sit down to
review an operational plan with your team leaders and supervisors,
how much time do you spend going over events that have already
happened?
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Attracting,
Retaining & Engaging the Next Generation Workforce
Leading & Coaching Contact Center Teams
Are You Ready
For the Looming Crisis?
Attracting, Retaining & Engaging the Next-Generation Workforce
Are you aware a Tsunami-sized labor and leadership crisis is about to crest
to shore, right at your doorstep? No business is exempt. That includes
Contact Centers globally.
Of a magnitude never before
seen, demographics (right now!) will wallop organizations around
the world as unprecedented millions of Baby Boomers leave the workforce.
This massive talent exodus will create overwhelming impacts on
costs, productivity and growth.
Coupled with the resulting
severe skills shortage, changing employee expectations will force
every industry to face some harsh realities:
1) Compensation and/or benefits costs will skyrocket as the up-and-coming workforce
chooses among their pick of employers;
2) Pension plan payouts will explode as Baby Boomers retire, significantly
affecting your expense line;
3) Recruiting, selecting and hiring expenditures will climb as it costs more
to attract and retain top players from among a shrinking pool;
4) Production and growth will slow as a result of severe skill shortages;
5) Many businesses will be forced to downsize – and may eventually go
bankrupt – as even drastic action cannot counteract these powerful demographic
realities;
6) Jobs will continue to be outsourced (already the case across North America)
as market share is lost, causing its own outward-rippling damage throughout
the economy.
Perhaps you doubt whether
you will be affected. Then, take a look around your Contact Center
and answer these questions for yourself:
• How easy is it
today for you to attract and retain the leadership bench strength
you require to propel you to the next level of growth?
• Who can fill the shoes of those who will retire?
• If you can promote from within, who will replace the employees whom you
move into to management?
Appreciating that your
Contact Center’s success depends on your workforce, every
single employee impacts your bottom line. The imperatives of a
shrinking labor pool should make it doubly obvious that the only
way you can continue to advance is to take measures that will turn
your organization into an employer of choice.
Unless you discover the
magnetic way to attract the best people to your company and keep
them there unable to be lured away by your competition, you will
be unable to leverage what is probably the biggest expenditure
in any business – human capital.
Further, don’t fall
into the false hope of believing you can simply fork out higher
salaries to attract the stellar GenX’ers and GenY’ers
required to replace your current staff and leaders.
No, no, no. This is not
a problem that can be fixed by simply throwing money at it. Money
is not enough.
The rising stars you need
to attract are a different breed from their parents. The young
generation witnessed their folks being downsized, cross-sized,
back-sized, and right-sized. They watched as their parents worked
60 to 70 hours per week only to be reshuffled or given a severance
package. And guess what? They aren’t willing to pay the price
Baby Boomers eagerly did all in the name of a job.
Add the fact that the
next generation will be able to pick pretty much any position they
want. So, if your Contact Center is not as leading edge as your
competition, guess where they will be going?
Yet, things need not be
all doom and gloom.
Businesses that choose
proactive measures today will not only survive, they will thrive.
Forward-looking Contact Centers know the solution to this brewing
revolution is to respond proactively to the swelling demand for
transformation. They foster leadership as the means by which to
build high-performance cultures where people unleash their potential
while achieving bottom-line goals.
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How to
Manage Gen X and Gen Y in the Contact Center Environment
Managing Gen X and Gen
Y Employees -Lessons learned and emerging trends:
Generation X (aged 26 – 46)
and Generation Y (aged 18 to 28) form the core of present day’s
and the future contact centre workforce. Gen X and Gen Y are highly
educated, technologically literate, networked socially and optimistic
about their future. They have high and sometimes impossible expectations
of their leaders for guidance and career aspirations for their
success. They have also grown-up in times of economic prosperity
and have limited coping skills for today’s more challenging
economic environment where they have to interact with Baby Boomers
and other generations including the silent generation before the
baby boomers. The aging of the workforce and the increased focus
on ongoing healthcare, retirement and pensionable benefits within
the organization is causing many organizations to review the cost
of carrying high costs for staffing within the new economic model.
In leading contact centers,
complaints are increasingly seen as sources of valuable insight,
rather than irritating distractions. In today’s climate however,
the value is created not by dealing with one complaint at a time,
but as groups, expressing the true “Voice of the Customer”.
How do best-in-class, customer-centric, businesses extract this
freely given value? Skills such as encouraging customers to talk
and provide feedback to you, managing customer responses to feedback & complaints
and listening to the ‘Voice of Customer’ and setting
priorities within your contact centre involves several key elements
for a winning recipe.
The current turmoil has
spawned a great sense of urgency for businesses to respond by reducing
their workforce and trimming capital spending as they scramble
to cut costs and preserve shrinking profits. Many face the reality
of restructuring and downsizing, including business giants like
AIG, Sony Corporation, and Nortel who had announced massive restructuring
plans. For many business leaders managing large-scale restructuring,
it is easy to get lost in the challenges of immediate financial & organizational
pressures, without giving much thought to maintaining employee
engagement, motivation, & strong employee relations. This can
affect employees' long term performance and also have a detrimental
effect on your business - something shareholders and investors
are keen to avoid. This presentation will take you through the
systematic change processes that will enable organizations to move
forward and positioned for growth in the economic recovery period
The war for talent has
also begun and more organizations are seeking innovative ways to
recruit, train and retain talent within the Gen X and Gen Y as
the Baby Boomers are planning their retirement and succession planning
programs for the transfer of skills, knowledge and expertise. Nowhere
is this more critical than the contact centre industry which historically
has struggled with high attrition rates. Coupled with this new
phenomenon that appeared a decade ago at the turn of the century,
many thought leaders and strategists within key industries have
approached their national leaders to focus on skills for the new
economy including technology spending and leadership training in
colleges and universities. Subjects like environmental sciences
and biotechnology inspired new innovative ideas like voice recognition
and intelligent routing within a contact centre. Seamless data
flowed through sites and time zones to enable and empower employees
to serve and manage customer relationships 24X7 days.
Indeed the industry has
been shaped significantly by these Gen X and Gen Y ideas fuelled
by the inspiration from the Baby Boomers. Never has the world seen
collaboration and innovation amongst 3 (perhaps 4) different generations
in a workplace environment. This means the leader or the manager
has to be equally equipped with the knowledge, skills and tactics
to survive in a most unforgiving workplace environment. The shortage
of talent has placed added stress to HR managers and Contact Centre
leaders where outsourcing as an option creates other challenges.
What to do? So little time…this seminar will be able to shed
some light on key tactics and strategic options you can choose
to avoid the problems that other organizations faced a few years
ago. Two case studies will be reviewed as well.
In this seminar, Mohan will discuss the lessons learned from some organizations
and the emerging trends that HR departments are commonly seeing within
the workplace environment specific to the contact centre profession.
1) Daily Interactions
with Gen X, Y and Baby Boomer Employees
2) Expectations of workplace from Gen X, Y and Baby Boomer Staff
3) Career Aspirations, Pay and Work-Life Balance, Can they co-exist?
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