this unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and ... · page 6 handout manage customer...

HANDOUT Manage Customer contact information 15jan16

ADVANCED DIPLOMA OF BUSINESS

BSB60215

Study Support materials for Manage customer engagement information

BSBCUE602

STUDENT HANDOUT


Elements and Performance Criteria

1. Select and set activity and transaction records and measurements

1.1 Analyse business plan and budget to identify relevant business information needs

1.2 Identify possible contact pathways

1.3 Identify measurement methods and MIS used in each step in contact pathway

1.4 Configure information systems to capture required measurements

1.5 Develop and implement testing procedures for transaction and call/contact pathway measurements

2. Collect data 2.1 Identify data-collection methods in information technology systems used

2.2 Monitor quantitative and qualitative data collection to ensure accuracy

2.3 Ensure data collection is segmented or sorted as required and provides the correct levels of information

3. Analyse MIS resulting from customer engagement activities

3.1 Identify call/contact traffic and transaction patterns, and other trends and activities

3.2 Apply correct data analysis methodologies

3.3 Accurately interpret data

4. Prepare and present information

4.1 Identify stakeholders for contact centre information

4.2 Tailor contact centre information presentations for each stakeholder as appropriate

4.3 Present both short- and long-term contact centre information system reports as required

Call centres are all about getting customers the information they need, as quickly as possible. To meet this goal, the knowledge resources of a call centre must be managed in a coordinated and integrated way. Distinct from call centre’s that purely handle telephone correspondence, contact centres have a variety of roles that combine to provide an all encompassing solution to client, and customer engagement. Contact centre’s, along with call centre’s and communication centre’s all fall under a larger umbrella labeled as the contact centre management industry. This is becoming a rapidly growing recruitment sector in itself, as the capabilities of contact centres expand and thus require ever more complex systems and highly skilled operational and management staff.


Manage customer engagement Information This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to effectively manage customer engagement information and the management information systems (MISs) used in a customer engagement environment. No licensing, legislative, regulatory or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of endorsement This unit applies to the use, design and implementation of customer engagement information and MIS’s. These systems are critical to the effective operation of contact centres. Managers design specific implementation programs within these systems including data collection, measurement types, and patterns and reporting strategies, and manage the use of information obtained. Competence in this unit requires using MISs to produce accurate and relevant information and reporting that supports the efficient running of the centre or business unit. It also requires knowledge of the requirements to design, implement, and tailor information systems to meet the changing needs of the environment. This work is undertaken by specialist staff or those with managerial responsibility, depending on the size and structure of the centre


First – let’s find out what is a “Contact Centre”…. A contact centre is a facility used by companies to manage all client contact through a variety of mediums such as telephone, fax, letter, e-mail and increasingly, online live chat. Distinct from call centre’s that purely handle telephone correspondence, contact centres have a variety of roles that combine to provide an all encompassing solution to client, and customer engagement. Contact centre’s, along with call centre’s and communication centre’s all fall under a larger umbrella labeled as the contact centre management industry. This is becoming a rapidly growing recruitment sector in itself, as the capabilities of contact centres expand and thus require ever more complex systems and highly skilled operational and management staff. The majority of large companies use contact centre’s as a means of managing their customer interaction. These centre’s can be operated in two major ways, the first, by having an in house department responsible for the day to day communications with customers, the second to outsource customer interaction to a third party agency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_centre_(business) Video – BBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARrmof9m3pQ – Happy People Sell A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving or transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. An inbound call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outbound call centers are operated for telemarketing, solicitation of charitable or political donations, debt collection and market research. In addition to a call centre, collective handling of letter, fax, live chat, and email at one location is known as a contact centre. A call centre is operated through an extensive open workspace for call centre agents, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration (CTI). A contact centre, also known as customer interaction centre is a central point of any organization from which all customer engagements are managed. Through contact centres, valuable information about company are routed to appropriate people, contacts to be tracked and data to be gathered. It is generally a part of company’s customer relationship management (CRM). Today, customers contact companies by telephone, email, online chat, fax, and instant message. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre By any measure, call centres are a growing business, with many large organisations looking to them as the primary way of interacting with their customers. Call centres provide many business advantages, including: improved efficiency, increased hours of operation, reduced costs and greater flexibility. Perhaps the greatest challenge of running a call centre, however, is ensuring that customers are provided with the right information in a timely fashion. Knowledge management (KM) has a number of practical tools and strategies for meeting this challenge, and call centre managers have much to gain by exploring KM principles Customer relationship management (CRM) is a model for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support. Sales force automation Sales force automation (SFA) uses software to streamline the sales process. The core of SFA is a contact management system for tracking and recording every stage in the sales process for each prospective client, from initial contact to final disposition. Many SFA applications also include insights into opportunities, territories, sales forecasts and work flow automation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_centre_(business)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARrmof9m3pQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre


Marketing CRM systems for marketing track and measure campaigns over multiple channels such as email, search, social media, telephone and direct mail. These systems track clicks, responses, leads and deals. Customer service and support CRMs can be used to create, assign and manage requests made by customers, such as call centres software which help direct customers to agents. CRM software can also be used to identify and reward loyal customers over a period of time. Appointments Appointment CRMs automatically provide suitable appointment times to customers via e-mail or the web, which are then synchronized with the representative or agent's calendar. Small business For small businesses a CRM may simply consist of a contact manager system which integrates emails, documents, jobs, faxes, and scheduling for individual accounts. CRMs available for specific markets for professional markets (legal, finance) are frequently touted for their event management and relationship tracking opposed to financial return on investment (ROI). Social media Social media is the modern form to build customer relationship. Some CRMs coordinate with social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus to track and communicate with customers who share opinions and experiences about their company, products and services. Once you have identified the trends through social media a business can make more accurate decisions on what products to supply to the society. Non-profit and membership-based Systems for non-profit and membership-based organizations help track constituents, fund-raising, demographics, membership levels, membership directories, volunteering and communications with individuals.

Adoption Issues In 2003, a Gartner report estimated that more than $1 billion had been spent on software that was not being used. According to KEN Insights, less than 40 percent of 1,275 participating companies had end-user adoption rates above 90 percent. Many corporations only use CRM systems on a partial or fragmented basis. In a 2007 survey from the UK, four-fifths of senior executives reported that their biggest challenge is getting their staff to use the systems they had installed. 43 percent of respondents said they use less than half the functionality of their existing system.

Market Leaders The CRM market grew by 12.5 percent in 2008, from revenue of $8.13 billion in 2007 to $9.15 billion in 2008. The following table lists the top vendors in 2006–2008 (figures in millions of US dollars) published in Gartner studies.

Vendor 2008

Revenue 2008 Share

(%) 2007

Revenue 2007 Share

(%) 2006

Revenue 2006 Share

(%)

SAP AG 2,055 22.5 (−2.8) 2,050.8 25.3 1,681.7 25.6

Oracle 1,475 16.1 1,319.8 16.3 1,016.8 15.5

Salesforce.com 965 10.6 676.5 8.3 451.7 6.9

Microsoft CRM 581 6.4 332.1 4.1 176.1 2.7

Amdocs 451 4.9 421.0 5.2 365.9 5.6

Others 3,620 39.6 3,289.1 40.6 2,881.6 43.8

Total 9,147 100 8,089.3 100 6,573.8 100

Trends Many CRM vendors offer subscription-based web tools (cloud computing) and software as a service (SaaS)). Some CRM systems are equipped with mobile capabilities, making information accessible to remote sales staff. Salesforce.com was the first company to provide enterprise applications through a web browser, and has maintained its leadership position. Traditional providers have recently moved into the cloud-based market via acquisitions of smaller providers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_AG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_CRM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdocs


Oracle purchased Right Now in October 2011 and SAP acquired Success Factors in December 2011.

The era of the "social customer" refers to the use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram, Yelp, customer reviews in Amazon, etc.) by customers. CRM philosophy and strategy has shifted to encompass social networks and user communities. Sales force also plays an important role in CRM Ecosystem. To maximize the sales effectiveness and lead to the growth of sales productivity is equally important in the CRM food chain. The empowerment of your sales manager was mentioned as one of the top 5 CRM trends in 2013.

Another related development is vendor relationship management, or VRM which provide tools and services for customers to independently manage their relationship with vendors. VRM development has grown out of efforts by Project VRM at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Identity Commons' Internet Identity Workshops, as well as by a growing number of start-ups and established companies. VRM was the subject of a cover story in the May 2010 issue of CRM Magazine.

In 2001 Doug Laney developed the concept and coined the term 'Extended Relationship Management' (XRM).Laney defines XRM as extending CRM disciplines to secondary allies such as government, press, and industry consortia. CRM futurist Dennison DeGregor describes a shift from 'push CRM' toward a 'customer transparency' (CT) model, due to the increased proliferation of channels, devices, and social media.

The Customer engagement Management Association The CCMA provides a forum where customer engagement centre industry organisations and individual professionals across all sectors can interact having a common goal of customer engagement centre service excellence, industry improvement and professional development. Contact Management Software: What to Look For As you will see in the side-by-side comparison at the top of this page, each option for contact management software, also more commonly known as customer relationship management (CRM software), offers a variety of features, sales and marketing tools, and contact information for the contacts in your database. The ranking of the CRM software was determined by the following categories: Features In this category we gauged the accessibility and efficiency of each CRM solution. We took into account how users access the information stored in the CRM software (by on-premise or web-hosted access) and the integrated tools that are offered for connecting with contacts (integrated calendar, email and calling). We checked the syncing capabilities between computers, which is highlighted in this area, making sure each CRM solution always provided the most up-to-date information entered by the user. Contact Information The benchmark for this area is set by contact information used by a variety of businesses. Many CRM software options offer more than the standard name, telephone numbers, address and picture. Today’s top CRM software contact pages will include links to company websites, personal social networking pages and client contact history, which includes telephone calls, meetings, emails, etc. The purpose of CRM solutions is to help you document interaction and notes for each client, contact, and customer or lead you have in your directory. Having detailed, up-to-date contact information will help you stay current with each contact in your database. Sales & Marketing Tools specific for sales and marketing departments are a huge aspect of CRM solutions. Using this software you can organize your database into contact groups that cater to your company’s specific needs. Once the groups are created you can send out automated email campaigns to designated groups or contacts. Each CRM software application comes with customizable charts and graphs that you can view or add to reports to see an overview of your company’s progress and numbers in specific areas. In this category we ranked the software based on the number of options they provide in creating reports, charts, graphs and automated emails.


Help & Support In this area we look into the available help and support provided by each company marketing CRM solutions. We want to know that the company will back up their product and provide adequate support anytime one of their customer’s has need for it. We view tutorials, online help sections and frequently asked questions. We also put each company's support team to the test by the various contact methods they provide. The combination of each of these items creates the CRM software ranking for this category. The items we placed in our side-by-side comparison of contact management software are general items that a large variety of companies will need to utilize. If your company has a need that isn’t mentioned in the side-by-side comparison, we suggest you read the in-depth reviews of the best CRM solutions on the market, including: On contact, Sage Act! and AIM CRM. Each CRM software product offers a unique interface and navigational system which can be viewed through the screenshot link at the top of each company’s individual review. Managing Customer engagement Information This chapter describes how to use Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) Customer Center to manage customer engagement information, such as name, address, and telephone number. Managing Customer engagement Information Use Customer Center to change customer engagement information, such as name, address, and phone number. When a customer service representative (CSR) or a customer changes customer engagement information, BRM validates that it has been entered in the correct format. See "Specifying how to validate customer engagement information".

Specifying Multiple Account Contacts You can store contact information for more than one person in a single account. For example, if an account is held by a large corporation, you can provide a different contact for each department. When you choose the contact, the contact's account information is displayed. Allowing Customers to Change Account Information If you want customers to make their own changes at your Web site, create a Web page that allows customers to change their account information. Specifying an Invoice Contact You can designate a person other than the account holder to receive the invoice. You can also use the same invoice contact for multiple accounts. Displaying Information Received from Web Registration You can store information collected when customers register by using a registration kit or a Web site. If you collect this information, check the Summary tab in Customer Center to see the name of the third party where the customer registered and other information. Customer and Contact Management Software Having a database to centrally locate your entire customer and contact information is of benefit to most organisations. A CRM system will not only give you a single place to store the details of your organisations contacts but will allow you to collate all the related information that exists when dealing with people regularly such as file notes, tasks, reminders, email correspondence, plus much more. For organisations that aren't using CRM, the main benefits in the short term is a dramatic increase in productivity for all staff when it comes to contact management. Whether it be not having to re-type a contacts details onto a letter, through to having easy access to all email correspondence from all staff to a client, the time savings will be very noticeable. After centralising data in a CRM system the next logical step for most organisations is to start leveraging the information for marketing purposes. Having a CRM system will allow you to segment your data in any way you require for future targeted marketing activities. Segmentation is often a simple process of recording what industry a contact is in, whether they are a prospect or client and the type of business they are. By having a CRM system will enable you to instantly select a group of contacts by any criteria that you would like to market to. The CRM system can then assist with the mechanics of marketing to these contacts. Currently, the most popular way organisations want


to market to their database is with targeted email broadcasts. A Good CRM system will facilitate this as well as enable other types of marketing activities such as mail merging letters. With a CRM system being a critical piece of infrastructure for business it is important to invest in the right system. The Software we recommend for most clients is Sage ACT!. This software has been the leading Customer engagement Management Software for over 20 years and has of 5 million registered users internationally. Sage ACT! Is award winning software and is widely regarded as being very easy to use. It is also a very capable and customisable application that can be configured to suit a variety of client needs. Manage your customer care Customer care is a crucial element of business success. Every contact your customers have with your business is an opportunity for you to improve your reputation with them and increase the likelihood of further sales. From your telephone manner to the efficiency of your order-fulfilment systems, almost every aspect of your business affects the way your customers view your business. But there are also specific programs you can put in place to increase your levels of customer care. This guide outlines what customer care involves. It explains how you can use customer engagement, feedback and loyalty schemes to retain existing customers, increase your sales to them and even win new customers. It also covers how to prepare for receiving a customer complaint. What is customer care? Customer care involves putting systems in place to maximise your customers' satisfaction with your business. It should be a prime consideration for every business - your sales and profitability depends on keeping your customers happy. Customer care is more directly important in some roles than others. For receptionists, sales staff and other employees in customer-facing roles, customer care should be a core element of their job description and training, and a core criterion when you're recruiting. But don't neglect the importance of customer care in other areas of your business. For instance, your warehousing and shipping departments may have minimal contact with your customers - but their performance when fulfilling orders has a major impact on customers' satisfaction with your business. A huge range of factors can contribute to customer satisfaction, but your customers -both consumers and other businesses - are likely to take into account:

how well your product or service matches customer needs

the value for money you offer

your efficiency and reliability in fulfilling orders

the professionalism, friendliness and expertise of your employees

how well you keep your customers informed

the after-sales service you provide Training courses may be useful for ensuring the highest possible levels of customer care. Understand your customers In business-to-business trading, providing a high level of customer care often requires you to find out what your customers want. Once you have identified your most valuable customers or best potential customers, you can target your highest levels of customer care towards them. Another approach, particularly in the consumer market, is the obligation to treat all consumers to the highest standard. Collect information about your customers Information about your customers and what they want is available from many sources, including:

their order history

records of their contacts with your business - phone calls, meetings and so on

direct feedback - if you ask them, customers will usually tell you what they want

changes in individual customers' order patterns

changes in the overall success of specific products or services

feedback about your existing range - what it does and doesn't do

enquiries about possible new products or services


feedback from your customers about things they buy from other businesses

changes in the goods and services your competitors are selling

feedback and referrals from other, non-competitive suppliers Manage your customer information It's important that you draw up a plan about how customer information is to be gathered and used in your business. Establish a customer-care policy. Assign a senior manager as the policy's champion but make sure that all your staff are involved - often the lower down the scale you go, the more direct contact with customers there is. You can manage your customer records using a database system or with customer relationship management software. You should be aware that collecting and using customer information requires you to comply with Québec’s An Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector. Measure your customer service levels Where possible, put systems in place to assess your performance in business areas which significantly affect your customers' satisfaction levels. Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which reflect how well you're responding to your customers' expectations. For instance, you might track:

sales renewal rates

the number of queries or complaints about your products or services

the number of complaints about your employees

the number of damaged or faulty goods returned

average order-fulfilment times

the number of contacts with a customer each month

the volume of marketing material sent out and responses generated

time taken from order to delivery Your customers and employees will be useful sources of information about the KPIs which best reflect key customer service areas in your business. Make sure the things you measure are driven not by how your business currently runs, but by how your customers would like to see it run. There are important areas of customer service which are more difficult to measure. Many of these are human factors such as a receptionist's telephone manner or a salesperson's conduct while visiting clients. In these areas it's crucial that you get feedback from your customers about their perceptions of your customer service. Customer surveys, feedback programmes and occasional phone calls to key customers can be useful ways of gauging how customer service levels in your business are perceived. Customer feedback and contact programs Customer feedback and contact programmes are two ways of increasing communication with your customers. They can represent great opportunities to listen to your customers and to let them know more about what you can offer. Customer feedback can provide you with detailed information about how your business is perceived. It's a chance for customers to voice objections, suggest changes or endorse your existing processes, and for you to listen to what they say and act upon it. Feedback is most often gathered using questionnaires, in person, over the telephone or by mail. The purpose of customer engagement programs is to help you deliver tailored information to your customers. One example is news of a special offer that is relevant to a past purchase - another is a reminder sent at the time of year when a customer traditionally places an order. Contact programs are particularly useful for reactivating relationships with lapsed customers. Do your best to make sure that your customers feel the extra contact is relevant and beneficial to them - bombarding customers with unwanted calls or marketing material can be counter-productive. Newsletters and email bulletins allow you to keep in touch with useful information.


Customer loyalty schemes While good overall service is the best way of generating customer loyalty, sometimes new relationships can be strengthened, or old ones refreshed, using customer loyalty schemes. These are programs that use fixed or percentage discounts, extra goods or prizes to reward customers for behaviour that benefits your business. They can also be used to persuade customers to give you another try if you feel you have successfully tackled past problems with your customer service. You can decide to offer rewards on the basis of:

repeat custom

cumulative spend

orders for large quantities or with a high value

prompt payment

length of relationship For example, a car wash might offer free cleaning every tenth visit or a free product if a customer opts for the deluxe service. A mail-order company might seek to revive the interest of lapsed customers by offering a voucher redeemable against purchases -response rates with such vouchers can be improved by setting an expiry date. You can also provide key customers with loyalty cards that entitle them to a discount on all their purchases. Employees who deal with customers' orders should be fully aware of current offers and keep customers informed. Sometimes brochures and other marketing materials are the best way of getting word out about a new customer incentive. Don't forget though that your customers' view of the overall service you provide will influence their loyalty much more than short-term rewards will. Use customer care to increase sales Your existing customers are among the most important assets of your business - they have already chosen you instead of your competitors. Keeping their custom costs far less than attracting new business, so it's worth taking steps to make sure that they're satisfied with the service they receive. There are a number of techniques you can employ, including:

providing a free customer helpline

answering frequently asked questions on your website

following up sales with a courtesy call

providing free products that will help customers look after or make the most of their purchases

sending reminders when services or check-ups are due

offering preferential discounts to existing customers on further purchases Existing customer relationships are opportunities to increase sales because your customers will already have a degree of trust in your recommendations. Cross-selling and up-selling are ways of increasing either the range or the value of what you sell by pointing out new purchase possibilities to these customers. Alerting customers when new, upgraded or complimentary products become available – perhaps through regular emails or newsletters - is one way of increasing sales. To retain your customers' trust, however, never try to sell them something that clearly doesn't meet their needs. Remember, your aim is to build a solid long-term relationship with your customers rather than to make quick one-off profits. Satisfied customers will contribute to your business for years, through their purchases and through recommendations and referrals of your business. How to deal with customer complaints Every business has to deal with situations in which things go wrong from a customer's point of view.


However you respond if this happens, don't be dismissive of your customer's problem - even if you're convinced you're not at fault. Although it might seem contradictory, a customer with a complaint represents a genuine opportunity for your business:

if you handle the complaint successfully, your customer is likely to prove more loyal than if nothing had gone wrong

people willing to complain are rare - your complaining customer may be alerting you to a problem experienced by many others who silently took their custom elsewhere

Complaints should be handled courteously, sympathetically and - above all - swiftly. Make sure that your business has an established procedure for dealing with customer complaints and that it is known to all your employees. At the very least it should involve:

listening sympathetically to establish the details of the complaint

recording the details together with relevant material, such as a sales receipt or damaged goods

offering rectification - whether by repair, replacement or refund

appropriate follow-up action, such as a letter of apology or a phone call to make sure that the problem has been made good

If you're proud of the way you rectify problems - by offering no-questions refunds, for example - make sure your customers know about it. Your method of dealing with customer problems is one more way to stay ahead of your competitors. http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/ Improving Call Centre Performance through Process Enhancements The great American philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, chances are you will end up somewhere else.” Yet many utilities possess only a limited understanding of their call center operations, which can prevent them from reaching the ultimate goal: improving performance and customer satisfaction, and reducing costs. Utilities face three key barriers in seeking to improve their call center operations:

Call centers routinely collect data on “average” performance, such as average handle time, average speed of answer and average hold time, without delving into the details behind the averages. The risk is that instances of poor and exemplary performance alike are not revealed by such averages.

Call centers typically perform quality reviews on less than one-half percent of calls received. Poor performance by individual employees – and perhaps the overall call center – can thus be masked by insufficient data.

Calls centers often fail to periodically review their processes. When they do, they frequently lack statistically valid data to perform the reviews. Without detailed knowledge of call center processes, utilities are unlikely to recognize and correct problems.

There are, however, proven methods for overcoming these problems. We advocate a three-step process designed to achieve more effective and efficient call center operations: collect sufficient data; analyze the data; and review and monitor progress on an ongoing basis. STEP 1: COLLECT SUFFICIENT DATA The ideal sampling size is 1,000 randomly selected calls. This size call sample typically provides results that are accurate +/- 3 percent, with a more than 90 percent degree of confidence. These are typical levels of accuracy and confidence that businesses require before they are likely to undertake action. The types of data that should be collected from each call include:

Call type, such as new service, emergency, bill payment or high bill, and sub call type.

Number of systems and/or screens used – for example, how many screens did it take to complete a new service request?

Actions taken during the call, such as greeting the customer, gathering customer- identity data, understanding the problem or delivering the solution.

Actions taken after the call – for example, entering data into computer systems, or sending notes or Emails to the customer or contact center colleagues.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/


Having the right tool can greatly facilitate data collection. For example, the call center data collection tool pictured in Figure 1 captures this information quickly and easily, using three push-button timers that enable accurate data collection. When a call is being reviewed, the analyst pushes the green buttons to indicate which of 12 different steps within a call sequence is occurring. The steps include greeting, hold and transfer, among others. Similarly, the yellow buttons enable the analyst to collect the time elapsed for each of 15 different screens that may be used and up to 15 actions taken after the call is finished. This analysis resembles a traditional “time and motion” study, because in many ways it is just that. But the difference here is that we can use new automated tools, such as the voice and screen capture tools and data collector shown, as well as new approaches, to gain new insights. The data capture tool also enables the analyst to collect up to 100 additional pieces of data, including the “secondary and tertiary call type.” (As an example, a credit call may be the primary call type, a budget billing the secondary call type and a customer in arrears the tertiary call type.) The tool also lets the analyst use drop-down boxes to quickly collect data on transfers, hold time, mistakes made and opportunities noted. Moreover, this process can be executed quickly. In our experience, it takes four trained employees five days to gather data on 1,000 calls. STEP 2: ANALYSE THE DATA Having collected this large amount of data, how do you use the information to reduce costs and improve customer and employee satisfaction? Again, having the right tool enables analysts to easily generate statistics and graphs from the collected data. Figure 2 shows the type of report that can be generated based on the recommended data collection. The analytic value of Figure 2 is that it addresses the fact that most call center reports focus on “averages” and thus fail to reveal other important details. Figure 2 shows the 1,000 calls by call-handle time. Note that the “average” call took 4.65 minutes; however, many calls took a minute or less, and a disturbingly large number of calls took well over 11 minutes. Using the captured data, utilities can then analyze what causes problem calls. In this example, we analyzed 5 percent of the calls (49 in total) and identified several problems:

Customer service representatives (CSRs) were taking calls for which they were inadequately trained, causing high hold times and inordinately large screen usage numbers.

IT systems were slow on one particular call type.

There were no procedures in place to intercede when an employee took more than a specified number of minutes to complete a call.

Procedures were laborious, due to Public Utilities Commission (PUC) regulations or – more likely – internally mandated rules.


This kind of analysis, which we describe as a “longest call” review, typically helps identify problems that can be resolved at minimal cost. In fact, our experience in utility and other call centers confirms that this kind of analysis often allows companies to cut call-handle time by 10 to 15 seconds. It’s important to understand what 10 to 15 fewer seconds of call-handle time means to the call center – and, most importantly, to customers. For a typical utility call center with 200 or more CSRs, the shorter handle time can result in a 5 percent cost reduction, or roughly $1 million annually. Companies that can comprehend the economic value and customer satisfaction associated with reducing average handle time, even by one second, are likely to be better focused on solving problems and prioritizing solutions. Surprisingly, the longest 5 percent of calls typically represent nearly 15 percent of the total call center handle time, representing a mother lode of opportunity for improvement. Another important benefit that can result from this detailed examination of call center sampling data involves looking at hold time. A sample hold time analysis graph is pictured in Figure 3. Excessive hold times tend to be caused by bad call routing, lengthy notes on file, unclear processes and customer issues. Each of these problems has a solution, usually low-cost and easily implemented. Most importantly, the value of each action is quantified and understood, based on the data collected. Other useful questions to ask include:

What are the details behind the high average after-call work (ACW) time? How does this affect your call center costs?

How would it help budget discussions with IT if you knew the impact of such things as inefficient call routing, poor integrated voice response (IVR) scripts or low screen pop percentages?

What analyses can you perform to understand how you should improve training courses and focus your quality review efforts?

The output of these analyses can prove invaluable in budget discussions and in prioritizing improvement efforts, and is also useful in communicating proposals to senior management, CSRs, quality review staff, customers and external organizations. The data can also be the starting point for a Six Sigma review. Utilities can frequently achieve a 20 percent cost reduction by collecting the right data and analyzing it at a sufficiently granular level. Following is a breakdown of the potential savings:

Three percent savings can be achieved by reducing longest calls by 10 seconds.

Five percent savings can be gained by reducing ACW by 15 seconds.

Five percent savings can be realized by improving call routing – usually by aligning CSR skills required with CSR skills available – by 15 seconds.

Three percent savings can be achieved by improving process for two frequent processes by 10 seconds each.

Three percent savings can be realized by improving IVR and screen pop frequency and quality of information by 10 seconds.

One percent savings can be gained by improving IT response time on selected screens by three seconds.

STEP 3: REVIEW AND MONITOR PROGRESS ON AN ONGOING BASIS Although this white paper focuses on the data collection and analyses procedures used, the key difference in this approach is the optimization strategy behind it. The two-step approach outlined above starts with utilities recognizing that improvement opportunities exist, understanding the value of detailed data in identifying these opportunities and enabling the data collected to be easily presented and reviewed. Taken as a whole, this process can produce prioritized, high-ROI recommendations. To gain the full value of this approach, utilities should do the following:

Engage the quality review team, trainers, supervisors and CSRs in the review process;


Expand the focus of the quality review team from looking only at individual CSRs’ performance to looking at organizational processes as well;

Have trainers embed the new lessons learned in training classes;

Encourage supervisors to reinforce lessons learned in team meetings and one-on-one coaching; and

Require CSRs to identify issues that can be studied in future reviews and follow the lessons learned.

Leading organizations perform these reviews periodically, building on their understanding of their call centers’ current status and using that understanding to formulate actions for future improvement.

Once the first study is complete, utilities also have a benchmark to which results from future studies can be compared. The value of having these prior analyses should be obvious in each succeeding review, as hold times decline, average handle times decrease, and calls are routed more frequently to the properly skilled person and IT investments made based on ROI analyses begin to yield benefits. Beyond these savings, customer and employee satisfaction should increase. When a call is routed to the CSR with the requisite skills needed to handle it, both the customer and the CSR are happier. Customer and CSR frustration will also be reduced when there are clear procedures to escalate calls, and IT systems fail less frequently. IMPLEMENTING A CALL CENTER REVIEW Although there are some commonalities in improving utilities’ call center performance, there are always unique findings specific to a given call center that help define the nature and volume of opportunities, as well as help chart the path to improvement. By realizing that benefit opportunities exist and applying the process steps described above, and by using appropriate tools to reduce costs and improve customer and CSR satisfaction, utilities have the opportunity to transform the effectiveness of their call centers. Perhaps we should end with another quote from Yogi: “The future isn’t what it used to be.” In fact, for utilities that implement these steps, the future will likely be much better. http://mthink.com/book/improving-call-center-performance-through-process-enhancements/

http://mthink.com/book/improving-call-center-performance-through-process-enhancements/


Big Data in your call center: Managing the numbers Takeaway: The data collected by your call center software is huge and varied. But which metrics matter and how can you make changes based on those metrics? The data collected by your call center software encompasses a wide variety of metrics: time spent on hold, call abandon rates, transfer rates, conversion rates, and cost per call. In fact, there is so much data available within your system that it can be difficult to manage your numbers effectively. Which metrics matter? How much do they matter? How can you make changes within your center in order to produce improvements in specific metrics? Utilizing big data in your call center can help you establish baseline metrics, identify areas within your center that require improvement, and help improve your efficiency overall. Prioritising metrics Of the many metrics you may be tracking within your call center, two of the most important performance indicators you will come across are your first call resolution rate (FCR) and average handle time (AHT). These rates are often in conflict with each other, and your decision to prioritize one over the other should be based upon the particular functions and goals of your center. Your call center’s FCR is a measurement of how well your agents provide your customers with a solution the first time they contact you. The more your customers have to call back in order to find a solution to their problem, the lower the quality of your customer service. A low FCR incurs higher operating costs as agents repeatedly interact with the same customers. FCR can be a difficult to objectively track. You may have to rely on customers to self-report their satisfactions via phone, web, IVR survey, end-of-call survey, or voice menu. You can also use your CRM system to see whether individual callers have called multiple times or only once. The average handle time metric tells you how long your agents are on the phone with customers. The lower your AHT, the less time your representatives spend on the phone with each customer, and the les each customer costs. Working to lower your AHT can also decrease your call center’s operating expenses, reduce the number of agents you need on staff, and reduce customer wait times in the queue. Applying changes By tracking and analyzing your performance metrics, you can gain the insight into your call center that you need in order to effectively change your processes for the better. Whether your goal is to increase customer satisfaction or reduce costs, any attempts to make improvements should be informed by the data you glean from your call center’s analytics.

For the average customer engagement center, a 1% improvement in FCR would result in a $276,000 reduction in annual operational costs. You can improve your FCR by providing your agents with more training and coaching to increase their knowledge and ability to solve customer problems.

U.S. call centers receive 45.4 billion inbound calls per year, and each call costs, on average, $5.90. You can reduce the cost per call by working to reduce your AHT. Optimizing your inbound call center’s script to include answers to frequently asked questions and other scenarios can help bring down your AHT.

Your call center analytics can also help you schedule your agents more effectively by predicting call volumes by day and hour. You can then schedule your employees so that you have enough agents on the clock to handle the volume of incoming calls without any idle time. Keep track of when you start making changes within your call center and assess how effective they are at improving performance as compared to your baseline. This can help you determine whether your changes are worth the effort, or need to be modified for greater efficacy. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/big-data-analytics/big-data-in-your-call-center-managing-the-numbers/430

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/big-data-analytics/big-data-in-your-call-center-managing-the-numbers/430

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/big-data-analytics/big-data-in-your-call-center-managing-the-numbers/430


A QUICK GUIDE TO CONTACT CENTRES For many organisations, contact centres are their primary interface with their customers or at least the first port of call. For these customers, the experience they have when they contact the organisation (inbound) or are contacted by it (outbound) will influence their short- or longer-term decision on whether to remain a customer or become someone else’s. And the implications extend beyond that decision; a bad experience with a contact centre may be relayed to friends, family, work colleagues or even farther afield via talkback radio and social media. Of course, contact centres are a balancing act... You must deliver a positive experience without sacrificing profitability – which requires matching the needs of your customers with the realities of your business. So what are the basic components of a contact centre, and how can each of these contribute to both the customer experience and business profitability? As in many organisational areas, they can be roughly categorised as people, process and technology. As we’ll see, all are irrevocably intertwined. PEOPLE For inbound contact centres, a primary goal is to connect the person best equipped to answer a query or enact a request in as short a time as possible. For outbound contact centres, effectiveness is based on the ability to generate the optimum results with the greatest efficiency. Contact centres and their agents can best achieve these goals when they are supported by the right technology – which includes integrating multiple core applications to give agents full visibility over customer accounts and activity, automated call routing to subject experts (inbound) and an ability to execute successful outbound calls. Effective processes which maximise the connection of the ideal agent for each customer engagement include agent scheduling, careful design and implementation of call routing, and initial/ongoing agent training. It is important to bear in mind that agents represent a considerable proportion of the costs of a contact centre. Agent turnover – which can be up to 40% per annum – is a critical issue, given it costs an average of $6,000 to replace an agent. The profitability of outsourced contact centres is primarily based on their ability to retain experienced agents, and this is a lesson for organisations operating the function in-house. Thus, it’s vital your agents are happy, as their attitude has significant implications for customer satisfaction as well as your own bottom line. Keeping them fit is important – consider the environment they work in, from ergonomics, seating arrangements, and air conditioning and lighting systems to engaging local authorities to provide no-cost flu shots for your team every autumn. Psychological assessment of potential agents and their supervisors are tactics you should deploy, as are counselling for stress and rapid, effective response to inappropriate customer abuse or in-team bullying. Put thought into generating team spirit, carefully crafting incentives and rewards for desired results, your physical contact centre environment, convenience of location (public transport, parking and local cafes) and fair work practices – and your investment will be repaid in agent productivity and customer experience. An effective agent team leader is worth her/ his weight in gold. Again, process and technology both play a part. For example, Workforce Management systems enable flexible rostering to meet personal preferences. And the ability to access your systems remotely and provide appropriate equipment (along with integrated monitoring) ensure those who choose or need to can work productively from home or in other remote locations. In particular these latter elements can help provide business continuity or after-hours coverage for your customer support. PROCESS


For many organisations, contact centre process is fundamental to overall business operations. Contact centre processes must align with – and seamlessly integrate into – business processes within the greater organisation. Examples are new customer onboarding, service/product billing, change requests, upgrades, cancellations and consumer feedback. Within the contact centre itself, process must support business imperatives for increased efficiencies, cost reduction, risk mitigation, competitive advantage and revenue growth. Continuous process enhancement is required to support all of the above, plus changing trends in customer communications needs. Metrics are integral to process, as they enable contact centre and line-of-business managers to measure operational efficiency, with a view to continuously improving the customer experience and managing costs. Like everything else in the contact centre industry, metrics are changing. Traditionally, the time taken to respond to an inbound phone call has been a critical metric. As we’ll see in the next section of this guide, increasingly important metrics are the time an organisation takes to respond to an email, request to chat, tweet or Facebook comment – on their own Facebook page or their customer’s. TECHNOLOGY Today’s contact centres are heavily dependent on a combination of hardware, software and communications technologies. Here are some short explanations of technologies increasingly deployed by Australian contact centres. INBOUND TELEPHONE NUMBERS The relative locations of your contact centre(s) and your customers would normally result in high or indeterminate telephone call charges for the customer when he or she calls. Also the advertising and promotion of multiple landline numbers can be a problem. Telecommunications service providers such as Optus offer a range of options where a ‘virtual’ inbound number can be used from anywhere in the country to access the contact centre, 1800 (or free call) numbers don’t incur any charge from landlines, whereas 13 and 1300 numbers result in only a local call fee to customers, regardless of the location of your contact centre. How your provider routes these calls will determine any cost to your organisation of inbound calls. INTELLIGENT CONTACT ROUTING Leveraging intelligent technology within the Optus network, contacts can be routed to your contact centres based on your business rules. To name a few, you can route calls based on

Boundaries, (ie. geographic – state – area code – political – local government – franchise boundaries or your business zones)

Language

Customer value status (ie, Silver, Gold or Platinum)

Account status (ie. debtor/creditor status)

Follow the sun – time of day, day of week, geographic routing

And numerous other criteria Working with Optus, we are able to provide high availability, a high level of disaster recovery and superior reporting, direct from the Optus core network. Rather than routing calls to site, depending on the solution architecture, we are able to determine agent availability to minimise queue lengths and customer wait times – resulting in improved customer satisfaction. OUTBOUND CALLING Again, the locations of your contact centre(s) and your existing or potential customers will inform your choice of communications services. If you have a centralised outbound contact centre, there are many IP-based options which will reduce your costs in servicing a national or even regional base.


INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE (IVR) IVR is the technology which enables your callers to be routed to the most suitable agent to service their specific enquiry. It also enables the collection of key data – such as account, reference and personal identification numbers (PINs) – so that when the call is put through, the agent is prepared to answer the query/conduct the transaction in the fastest possible time because the caller’s account details are displayed on their screen. Alternately, entire transactions can be accomplished through IVR, without an agent being involved. SPEECH RECOGNITION A technology which has made significant advances in recent years, Speech Recognition enables callers to simply speak to your contact centre system rather than (or in combination with) making keypad selections. Again, entire transactions can be accomplished, without an agent being involved – although it is generally used to ensure the caller is connected to the best agent to respond to their call. BIOMETRICS Secure identification in dealing with your customers is essential. Three-factor security comprises: 1. What you know – account number, PIN, mother’s maiden name, etc 2. What you have – smart card, keychain security devices generating one-time keys according to an algorithm, etc 3. Who you are – this is where biometrics comes in... Such as fingerprint, retinal scan, voice pattern recognition Obviously, two-factor security is stronger than single-factor. Biometric technology enables contact centres conducting highly secure transactions to apply a second factor in identifying a caller when ‘what you have’ is not an option given the distance. Increasingly, mobile and Internet technologies are enabling biometric identification, without the issue of auxiliary devices such as fingerprint readers – and voice pattern recognition is increasing in effectiveness. QUEUE MANAGEMENT AND CALLER PRIORITISATION Different queries and different customers call for different treatment. Systems that prioritise calls in conjunction with IVR ensure that all calls are dealt with appropriately. Caller Prioritisation fast-tracks, for example, emergencies, inbound sales calls or second (follow-up) calls over run-of-the-mill account enquiries. Queue Management ensures that even these standard enquiries are managed in a way to prevent hang-up or breach response guidelines and customer Service Level Agreements (SLAs). CONTACT ROUTING Given that connecting the customer with the best-possible agent in the fastest possible time is the fundamental aim of an inbound contact centre, Contact Routing is the ‘architecture’ of a contact centre system and underlying Routing and Transfer Rules are the struts or beams in its fabric. As well as best practice processes, call routing systems also need to take agent skills and training into consideration. Constructing this platform is an important and expert task – and your success (or failure) will make a significant difference in terms of operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, acquisition and retention rates. As we’ll see in the next section on emerging trends, customers increasingly want non-voice contact options, and these too need to be effectively routed. The process of contact routing, as well as queuing and prioritisation, are normally delivered by an application in contact centre systems called Automatic Call Distribution (ACD). CLI AND FNN CLI, or “Calling Line Identification” is typically the telephone number which the caller is using to call another party. This number will usually be visible to the person to whom the call is made, unless the number has been withheld or the call is being made from a shared phone (office phone, for example).


The FNN, or Full National Number, can be the CLI, usually when calling from a mobile, or from a personal landline. DATA DIP Based on information provided by an inbound customer (via IVR or Speech Recognition) or via Caller Line Identification (CLI), a search can be conducted of your databases to retrieve their information. For example, the unique account number they enter before their call is placed to an agent or the number they are calling from. Pertinent information can then be presented to the agent as they answer the call, providing product, service and/or location details to hand and enabling them to personalise their greeting on connection to the customer. COMPUTER-TELEPHONY INTEGRATION (CTI) CTI or ‘screen pop’ is the ability for agent screens to be populated with information from core business systems (such as CRM or ERP) once the customer and the issue/transaction is identified. The aim is seamless integration with all relevant core systems – both for customer experience (how often do we hear, “Sorry, please hold while I log out of this application and into another”?) and for agent productivity in dealing with contacts, inbound or outbound. Integration is critical for organisations providing support (technical and/or billing) and especially for those with additional revenue opportunities; agents should be able to see what a customer has and be prompted to enquire into potential interest in products/services for upselling/cross-selling within the call. CALL RECORDING Recording contact centre interactions has become increasingly important – both for managing, assessing and training agents to improve operational efficiency, and for retaining records of customer transactions for compliance and/or contractual purposes. Just as ‘contact’ now means much more than ‘call’, recording of interactions must extend beyond voice call recording to maintaining an auditable and searchable history of all contacts – whether chat, email, web enquiry or self-service transactions. WORKFORCE OPTIMISATION (WFO) AND WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT (WFM) WFO often includes WFM, Call Recording, Quality Management, Customer Analytics and associated reporting. Because agents are key to contact centre operations and profitability, increasingly sophisticated software applications are important for scheduling and managing these agents – as well as reporting to support capacity planning and measurement. REPORTING Reporting is essential to evaluating your contact centre and or improving the customer experience, managing your costs, improving staff productivity and responding to business changes and trends. Report views should include snapshots, time-series, trending and historical – in order to give you clear visibility of your contact centre operations and support continuous improvement. FORECASTING In addition to ‘as-is’ and ‘as-was’ reporting, forecasting is an essential component of your contact centre systems. Forecasting provide ‘what-if’ analysis for planned initiatives (such as a new service launch, advertising campaign or product recall) so you can predict and build your capabilities and resources for a surge in contacts. Accurate ongoing forecasting contributes to operational efficiency and informs your Workforce Management, Workforce Optimisation and agent training processes. DISASTER RECOVERY (DR) Maintaining operations in the face of disaster covers everything from coping with a flu outbreak among your agents to business continuity should your contact centre be affected by a natural disaster, a power or communications outage. From a technology standpoint, you need to engage your technology and communications providers to help you build an effective DR plan, with adequate redundancy of your systems, power supply and communications links.


Comprehensive, regular, backups of your contact centre data are essential, including off-site or cloud storage solutions – especially when call recording is integral for compliance or contractual purposes. Again, it’s a balance: continuous backup and data duplication along with a live recovery contact centre infrastructure will minimise your downtime, but you must also balance the costs of these measures with the level of potential risks to your business. TAKING A HOLISTIC APPROACH As we’ve seen, effective contact centre operations depend on a combination of people, process and technology – and all three are interdependent. So, in assessing your existing contact centre operations, or planning the establishment of a new contact centre, it is vital that all three are taken into consideration. To summarise, this calls for a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach that – assuming continual enhancement of the customer experience is a ‘given’ – addresses:

Matching agent skills to customer needs and connecting them fast

Providing a satisfying, stimulating and flexible environment for agents – to reduce their turnover and your costs

Integrating processes within the wider organisation for greater efficiencies

Delivery of effective and relevant metrics to support operational decision-making as well as strategic directions

Implementing technologies which support and enhance all of the above Next we’ll look at what’s happening in Australian and regional contact centres – with a focus on changing customer preferences for supplier engagement. This will add the need for your holistic approach to embrace scaling and responding to rapidly-changing customer needs and preferences in order to maximise. CURRENT MARKET TRENDS You know your business and your own customers best. However, in determining how your contact centre operations can improve – to increase revenues, reduce churn and costs, improve business processes and efficiencies, adapt to change and maintain competitive advantage – it is useful to study current market trends. This section draws heavily on recent research into contact centre operations, especially consumer sentiments in regards to interactions with their suppliers. While the data is generic, we trust it will be helpful in assessing your own contact centre operations and informing your strategies and planning. THE AUSTRALIAN CONTACT CENTRE INDUSTRY According to research by callcentres.net at the end of 2010 Australia had an estimated 200,000 contact centre seats with an annual growth rate of 3-5% per annum. Of these, around 37,000 seats were in Government (18%) and approximately 30,500 in the telecommunications industry (15%). These seats were spread across just under 4,000 call centres – two-thirds of them in NSW or Victoria. Key findings from the callcentres.net research, which built on similar research conducted during the previous year, were that:

Contact centres are increasingly seen as a strategic business unit – with the main challenges of surveyed organisations being the retention of distressed and emotional clients and the reduction of operating costs; with an estimated 80% of Australian customer interactions being handled by contact centres, boards are taking this into consideration

Perhaps consequently, many research respondents reported marketing slashed by 75% and HR by 30%, while contact centre budgets only experienced a 5% reduction

Despite technology budgets dropping around 20% over the previous year, there was increased interest in technologies relating to the customer experience – with greater levels of planned investment in CRM, WFM, CTI, IVR and Knowledge Management

While Australia lags in interest (and investment) in newer self-service channels such as speech and web chat, there is much local discussion about Social Media as a ‘coming’ contact centre channel

In contrast with previous surveys, staff attrition had dropped to the eighth most important challenge – with cost constraint the challenge most cited by respondents followed by ensuring sufficient headcount to meet business objectives and managing change


At the same time, contact centre managers reported a new trend in ‘trapped and disengaged’ agents, with an estimated six in ten workers ‘disengaged’; in 2008 some 49% of agents would seek another job (half of these outside the contact centre industry), but with less confidence in moving in difficult economic times, they now remain ‘trapped’ and pose other HR issues as well as an issue in terms of customer engagement outcomes

However, in its study of Asia-Pacific content centres, gent attrition is still cited by Frost and Sullivan as a major challenge – and given diminishing Australian unemployment levels over the past year, we can expect this to continue to exert a major impact on local contact centre operations. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION LEVELS In early 2011, industry analyst Forrester surveyed consumers who had contacted a customer centre across a wide range of industry sectors – financial services, telco, retail, hospitality/entertainment and healthcare – within the three previous months. They were asked to rate the statement: Do customer service centres always provide excellent customer service? Alarmingly, only 16% of Australian respondents agreed, while 62% disagreed – with the remainder neutral. Forrester concludes that this indicates room for enterprises across all industry sectors to better balance investments in people, process and technology in order to provide ‘excellent’ customer service. This challenge is highlighted by callcentres.net 2011 consumer research sponsored by Ayaya, which found:

A third of consumers are not getting what they need the first time, resulting in two or more interactions or irresolution – which decreases customer satisfaction as well as costing businesses more

If customers are dissatisfied with an interaction they will defect, with 94% of Australian respondent saying they are likely to tell their friends, family or colleagues of a customer service centre experience that caused them to move their business

Customers are increasingly inclined to spend more money with companies offering excellent service, with 70% saying they are willing to spend more money with such a company (up from 58% in 2010) and 15% saying they would spend 20% more (compared to just 5% in 2010)

CUSTOMER ATTITUDES TO OUTSOURCING For organisations with a significant requirement for contact centre operations, the decision to outsource is fraught with implications. While contact centre operations may not appear to be ‘core business’, and a commodity you can outsource or even transfer to a ‘cheaper’ workforce outside Australia, you have to weigh these considerations against quality of service delivered and impact on customer relations. However, consider this – At $49,663, (source: MyCareer.com.au survey), the average contact centre salary in Australia is more than double that of a UK contact centre consultant (UK equiv $20,911, based on an 14k pounds sterling, exchange rate 67 pence to the dollar, source of salary is Unison-scotland.org.uk – a Scottish trade union) . This may act as the burning platform for change and the adoption of more customer oriented service. To repeat: it’s a balancing act... You must deliver a positive experience without sacrificing profitability – which requires matching the needs of your customers with the realities of your business. Research by Forrester provides food for thought. Consumers surveyed showed an overwhelming preference for interacting with a customer service representative that they know is working ‘at home’ (51%), compared to outsourced agents in another organisation (25%) or another country (23%). Over half (56%) would prefer not to deal with agents operating from another organisation or overseas. CONSUMER COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES In reporting on consumer preferences in relation to contact centres within the Asia-Pacific region, Forrester yielded three additional key findings from analysis of survey results. 1. Consumers like diversity of contact channels. They want access to a wider range of ways to interact with the companies they do business with across both self-service and agent-assisted channels.


2. Managers of enterprise customer support centres are struggling with social media interactions. Currently the volume is small as compared to voice interactions – but this misses the point: it’s not about current volume, it’s about the future impact of web channels (email, web chat, self-service web). 3. Talking to an agent continues to be the most preferred channel by consumers. While 48% of consumers used the phone most often in the past three months, 79% responded that it’s their preferred channel. More detailed examination of channel preferences by callcentres.net found that consumers have interaction (media channel) preferences, depending on what they’re trying to accomplish. For example, consumers would rather not speak to a person to update information – but for a complaint (inbound) or service cancellation response (outbound), live agent contact may be critical in averting defection. Further, based on fully loaded costs of handling an interaction (including salary benefits and facilities) the callcentres.net research finds that:

At over $4, live phone interactions cost 2.5 times more than IVR

Self-service – both voice and online – is the least expensive way of responding to customers

Email, at less than $3.50 per interaction, is cheaper than voice calls The same research reports that, despite agent-assisted calls being more expensive than other contact interactions, it is still the channel most offered by Asia Pacific contact centres. Aligning contact centre strategy to consumer preferences can reduce costs and provide for greater customer satisfaction. All of the above research indicates that organisations should be looking to embrace new channels for engaging with their customers within their contact centre operations – and consequently adapting their technology, processes and people. EMERGING BEST PRACTICES As the research cited in the previous section strongly indicates, contact centres need to adapt to market forces – in particular, changes in customer demands. These need to be reflected in technology, process and people. CONTACT CENTRE TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE As previously discussed, the technology infrastructure of contact centres is composed of hardware, software and communications. Industry analyst Gartner has developed a rating tool which outlines two major use cases for contact centre technology infrastructures – best-of-breed versus suites. Its key findings indicate that:

Consolidation and restructuring of major vendors continue while sales have proved resilient during the global recession.

Enterprises continue to shift from custom best-of-breed or integrated point contact centre products to complete, broad suite solutions from major vendors.

Enterprise users of contact centre infrastructures must evaluate prospective vendor and channel partner abilities to deliver in their operating location.

In selecting contact centre technologies, Gartner recommends that enterprises:

Develop a customised, three-year road map to avoid tactical solutions that may cause stranded investments in the longer term.

Confirm planned contact centre infrastructure supports emerging multichannel demands by customers for self-service and social networking.

Ensure support for a wide range of workforce optimisation (WFO) and CRM tools along with integration of emerging unified communications and collaboration (UCC) and communications-enabled business process (CEBP) solutions.

Identify which of the two major use cases (integrated best-of-breed or all-in-one/compact suites) will best suit their enterprise’s contact centre infrastructure needs and the multichannel customer service media that must be supported.

All of these strategies can be supported by consulting services delivered by Alphawest’s Contact Centre Practice working together with Optus Business and the broader SingTel group for offshore requirements.


VOICE AND WEB SELF-SERVICE Frost and Sullivan reports increased activity in self-service applications and a strong push towards using integrated voice response (IVR) as a tool for call resolution instead of call routing. They say the move towards self-service is not limited to just IVR, but encompasses web self-service and mobile self-service to cater to customer preferences.” WORKFORCE LOCATION AND OUTSOURCING Increasing numbers of contact centres are enabling their agents to work from home, instead of within a controlled environment. This gives them access to a wider range of potential employees – working mothers, semi-retired agents with years of experience, and the disabled, regional or interstate agents – and potentially reduces costs by increasing employee satisfaction and decreasing the need for a centralised infrastructure. From the consumer viewpoint, as cited above, over half (51%) have a preference for interacting with an agent they know is ‘at home’, even if they are ‘outsourced’. All of these factors make it important that your contact centre technology infrastructure enables remote access, provides the right tools and connectivity, and allow you to effectively manage, measure and schedule your agents beyond your physical premises. When it comes to outsourcing, over half of Asia-Pacific consumers surveyed (56%) would prefer not to deal with agents operating from another organisation or overseas. These statistics indicate that Australian organisations need to seriously consider the customer satisfaction implications of outsourcing or off-shoring contact centre operations.

Consider outsourcing/ work from home for dealing with avalanches or high call events.

Consider also for business continuity and disaster recovery.

It may also be worthy to consider that if you establish a contact centre, you could offer services to other organisations.

CONTACT CENTRE PROCESSES It is evident that many consumers would now prefer to either ‘help themselves’ via the Internet or communicate with you in other ways than a voice call, often methods they prefer in their everyday social interactions. As we’ve seen, this is to your benefit in terms of contact centre costs and customer satisfaction and retention – so savvy organisations are making it easier for their customers to interact with them and changing their contact centre technologies and processes to embrace and capitalise on new ways of communicating and transacting. Ensure your email, chat, click-to-call, Skype, social media and fax contact details are as clear on your ‘contact us’ webpage as your phone number – so that your customer can select their preferred channel for interaction if your web self-service of support FAQs fail to meet their immediate needs. Alphawest encourages customers to develop new processes (and metrics to measure/enhance them) to deal with non-voice call interactions. CONTACT CENTRE METRICS With the rapid change in customer preferences for communications channels, traditional contact centre metrics need to be expanded and adapted. There are no universally-accepted metrics for interactions other than voice calls as yet but, at Alphawest, we are developing best practices and advising our clients along the following lines.

Average Handle Time (AHT) – which includes after call work

Service Level – percent of calls answered within specific delay period (eg 80% of calls in 30 seconds)

Call Abandons (ABA)

First Call Resolution

Balanced Score Card

Shrinkage and effective FTEs


EMAILS Respond to emails in the same way you respond to voice calls – provide a rapid response and enable similar contact routing (through intelligent web forms) to the best agent to respond. Metrics applied to the management of emails should mirror those applied to call management. Typically, this would mean an initial acknowledgement email including details of the person handling their email. That person should then treat the email as their next work item. CLICK-TO-CALL, WEBCHAT AND SKYPE Treat interactions via these channels as you would voice calls, responding in real-time and applying call routing and queue management. Again, they should be managed according to the same metrics as an inbound call, with response times typically targeted as 80% of contacts made within 20 seconds. FAXES Guarantee a maximum four-hour response time to incoming faxes. SOCIAL MEDIA Continuously monitor social media and employ specialist agents to respond rapidly to posts and tweets based on a carefully-determined policy for either offering solutions or mitigating risk when customers express displeasure with your products/services. Rapid response to a positive post or tweet can amplify its benefits – and you don’t need to wait for your PR people to respond if your specialist agents are also trained/have an appropriate policy on hand to maximise these benefits in real-time. IN SUMMARY... You can no longer rely on traditional ‘call centre’ metrics to measure customer satisfaction. You need to take a holistic approach, changing your metrics and reporting to reflect the entire picture across your contact centre operations as you transform the way you interact with your customers. BUSINESS BENEFITS 2s we’ve seen, ‘getting it right’ is critical for every organisation offering a customer service contact centre. This is becoming increasingly the case as consumers grow more fickle – with 46% of consumers saying loyalty to companies is ‘a thing of the past’ .Along with rapid change in user contact channel preferences, the contact centre must adapt to a holistic view of the customer service function across new channels – responding to each with new processes, metrics and integrated technologies. The benefits of successfully responding to these trends include:

Reducing the cost of contact centre operations by switching to less expensive ways of interacting with customers

Avoiding the risks of infrastructure redundancy and wasted investment by selecting a scalable, highly integrated technology platform which will adapt to changing market conditions

Improving agent productivity through greater workforce flexibility and exploitation of new response tools

Increasing customer revenues and retention by delivering the interaction they want in the timeframe they demand

Enhancing customer satisfaction at a time when consumers are increasingly networked and vocal about good experiences – and even more vocal about bad ones

Competitive advantage through delivering a truly excellent and holistic customer experience

Alphawest’s Contact Centre Practice, our technology partner Ayaya and our parent Optus offer a compelling value proposition in helping your organisation ‘get it right by helping you change the game’ – and supporting you in continuing to do so in the turbulent times ahead. http://www.alphawest.com.au/icms_docs/138648_A_guide_to_Contact_Centres.PDF

http://www.alphawest.com.au/icms_docs/138648_A_guide_to_Contact_Centres.PDF


Key Terms Configure arrange or order (a computer system or an element of it) so as to fit it for a designated task Customer Satisfaction When an exchange meets the needs and expectations of the buyer Customer Service Customer satisfaction in terms of physical distribution, availability, promptness and quality Customer Relationship Management (CRM) The entire process of maximizing the value proposition to the customer through all interactions, both online and traditional. Effective CRM advocates one-to-one relationships and participation of customers in related business decisions. Uses technology-enhanced customer interaction to shape appropriate marketing offers designed to nurture ongoing relationships with individual customers within an organization’s target markets Data Collection Methods Data are usually collected through qualitative and quantitative methods.1 Qualitative approaches aim to address the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of a program and tend to use unstructured methods of data collection to fully explore the topic. Qualitative questions are open-ended such as ‘why do participants enjoy the program?’ and ‘How does the program help increase self-esteem for participants?’. Qualitative methods include focus groups, group discussions and interviews. Quantitative approaches on the other hand address the ‘what’ of the program. They use a systematic standardised approach and employ methods such as surveys1 and ask questions such as ‘what activities did the program run?’ and ‘what skills do staff need to implement the program

effectively?’ Forward Vertical Integration A firm incorporates more stages of the value chain within its boundaries and those stages bring it closer to interacting directly with final customers Market Surveys Structured questionnaires submitted to potential customers, often to gauge potential demand Measurement Methods The technique or process used to obtain data describing the factors of a process or the quality of the output of the process. Organizing By Function A way of structuring a marketing department in which personnel directing marketing research, product development, distribution, sales, advertising and customer relations report to the top-level marketing executive Pathways a way of achieving a specified result; a course of action. A track that constitutes or serves as a path Place or Distribution Is essentially about how you can place the optimum amount of goods and/or services before the maximum number of members of your target market, at times and locations which optimize the marketing outcome, i.e. sales Place/Distribution Variable The aspect of the marketing mix that deals with making products available in the quantities desired to as many customers as possible and keeping the total inventory, transport and storage costs as low as possible Quality Assurance The specific actions firms take to ensure that their products, services and processes meet the quality requirements of their customers Quality Circles These are meetings of group of workers committed to continuous improvement in the quality and productivity of a given line of production Quality Management Refers to systematic policies, methods and procedures used to ensure that goods and services are produced with appropriate levels of quality to meet the needs of customers


Relationship Marketing Places emphasis on the interaction between buyers and sellers, and is concerned with winning and keeping customers by maintaining links between marketing, quality and customer service Supply Chain A network of manufacturers and service providers that work together to convert and move goods from the raw materials stage through to the end user. These manufacturers and service providers are linked together through physical flows, information flows, and monetary. All of the activities related to the acceptance of an order from a customer and its fulfilment. In its extended format, it also includes connections with suppliers, customers and other business partners Supply Chain Management The management of all activities that facilitate the fulfilment of a customer order for a manufactured good to achieve satisfied customers at reasonable cost 360-Degree Appraisal Performance assessment of a person by the key people or groups with whom they interact. May include external people or groups such as customers. Helpful websites: http://www.forbes.com/sites/microsoftdynamics/2012/12/12/from-customer-management-to-customer-engagement/#2715e4857a0b7cb66c687bd2 http://www.measuringu.com/blog/segment-customers.php http://www.contactcenterworld.com/company/ccma-australia.aspx http://www.cio.com/article/2881612/collaboration/9-ways-to-improve-employee-and-customer-communication.html http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/03/how-to-measure-customer-service.html http://www.thewisemarketer.com/features/read.asp?id=120 http://www.tutor2u.net/business/ict/intro_information_data_collection.htm http://www.callcentrehelper.com/5-tips-to-improve-your-call-centres-sales-41225.htm http://smallbusiness.chron.com/tangible-benefits-information-systems-50155.html http://www.icmi.com/~/media/Files/Resources/Research/Balancing_Call_Center_Efficiency_and_the_Customer_Experience_Research_Report.ashx https://www.broadconnect.ca/blog/what-works-as-a-better-call-center-solution-fcr-or-aht/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/microsoftdynamics/2012/12/12/from-customer-management-to-customer-engagement/#2715e4857a0b7cb66c687bd2

http://www.forbes.com/sites/microsoftdynamics/2012/12/12/from-customer-management-to-customer-engagement/#2715e4857a0b7cb66c687bd2

http://www.measuringu.com/blog/segment-customers.php

http://www.contactcenterworld.com/company/ccma-australia.aspx

http://www.cio.com/article/2881612/collaboration/9-ways-to-improve-employee-and-customer-communication.html

http://www.cio.com/article/2881612/collaboration/9-ways-to-improve-employee-and-customer-communication.html

http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/03/how-to-measure-customer-service.html

http://www.thewisemarketer.com/features/read.asp?id=120

http://www.tutor2u.net/business/ict/intro_information_data_collection.htm

http://www.callcentrehelper.com/5-tips-to-improve-your-call-centres-sales-41225.htm

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/tangible-benefits-information-systems-50155.html

http://www.icmi.com/~/media/Files/Resources/Research/Balancing_Call_Center_Efficiency_and_the_Customer_Experience_Research_Report.ashx

http://www.icmi.com/~/media/Files/Resources/Research/Balancing_Call_Center_Efficiency_and_the_Customer_Experience_Research_Report.ashx

https://www.broadconnect.ca/blog/what-works-as-a-better-call-center-solution-fcr-or-aht/

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