Supporting Technologies and Processes · 2012-09-14 · Supporting Technologies and Processes an...

Section 7

Supporting Technologiesand Processes

Customer Relationship Management

Supporting Technologies and Processes

Call Center Customer Relationship Management Study Guide • Version 2 • Copyrighted to ICMI, Inc., 2002

Contents

Providing Enabling Technologies

1. Customer Relationship Management Technologies .......................................................1

2. Desktop Tools and Workflow.........................................................................................8

3. Data Warehousing and Data Mining ...........................................................................12

4. Designing and Improving Self-Service Systems ............................................................17

5. Creating a Technology Migration Plan [Strategic]........................................................23

6. Maximizing System Acceptance ...................................................................................28

Establishing Supporting Processes

7. The Components of a Quality Contact .......................................................................31

8. Fulfilling Promises to Customers .................................................................................34

9. Managing Customer Complaints .................................................................................38

10. The Role of Business Rules .......................................................................................41

11. The Planning and Management Process ....................................................................45

The Role of Teams and Individuals

12. Aligning Hiring and Training Initiatives ....................................................................50

13. Empowering People to Build Customer Relationships ..............................................54

14. Individual and Team Performance Objectives ...........................................................57

15. Cross-Functional Teams and Accountabilities ............................................................61

Exercises............................................................................................................................64

Reference Bibliography .....................................................................................................68

Introduction to Supporting Technologies and Processes


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Call Center Customer Relationship Management Study Guide • Version 2 • Copyrighted to ICMI, Inc., 2002 1

1. Customer Relationship Management Technologies

Key Points

• Technology plays an essential role in effective customer relationshipmanagement. It may not be the be-all and end-all of customerrelationship management, but it is paramount in helping call centersunderstand, satisfy and retain customers.

• Any customer relationship management technology strategy shouldfocus on such crucial areas as:

• The efficient collection and storage of key customer data• Utilizing that data to enhance systems’ and agents’ ability to

provide differentiated customer support• Enabling customers to choose from a variety of support options• Monitoring the performance of both technology and staff in the

call center to ensure customer satisfaction and retention

• Specific systems and tools that will help to enhance success include:• Contact management and data analysis tools • Intelligent routing applications• Screen pops and other desktop productivity tools• E-support tools• Customer interaction recording (CIR) systems

Explanation

Technology plays a crucial role in customer relationship management success byenhancing the organization’s ability to learn as much as it can about eachcustomer and use that information to deliver top-notch, differentiated service,regardless of contact channel.

Call center managers should work with people from across the organization(including telecommunications, IT, marketing, frontline agents, and otherdepartment executives) to determine the specific customer relationshipmanagement technology strategy for their centers. In doing so, the managershould focus on such areas as:

• The efficient collection and storage of key customer data

• Utilizing that data to enhance systems’ and agents’ ability to provide


differentiated customer support

• Enabling customers to choose from a variety of support options

• Monitoring the performance of both technology and staff in the callcenter to ensure customer satisfaction and retention

Key Tools for Success

Many technologies can fall under the definition of customer relationshipmanagement. Some are elements that may already exist and need to be foldedin with the new CRM-enabling technologies. Others may be new capabilitiesthe call center will need to acquire.

While the technology platforms that create the cornerstones of managingcustomer relationships include customer information systems and customerinteraction tools, there is no set “CRM technology list” that will suit all callcenters. However, consider the following core customer contact technologiesthat will help organizations achieve greater success:

• Contact management and data analysis tools: These tools enable callcenters to collect, track and carefully analyze key customer information(e.g., sales and service history, individual preferences, etc.), and thus play

2 Call Center Customer Relationship Management Study Guide • Version 2 • Copyrighted to ICMI, Inc., 2002

What Might CRM Entail???

Workflow

DataMining

Sales ForceAutomation

ElectronicDocumentation

Scripting

KnowledgeBase

DataWarehousing

Monitoringand Reporting

CTIIntegration

CRM

Call Routing,Management,

Reporting

DesktopInterface andIntegration

IntegratedDelivery

Channels

CommonContactHistory

IVR, Fax

©2001 Vanguard Communications Corporation


an essential role in any customer relationship management strategy.Typical contact management tools include:

• Call tracking and logging systems: Track such information as thetypes of contacts received, customer history, call coding, etc.

• Data warehousing tools: Ensure the accurate storage, cleaning andextraction of detailed customer information gathered duringtransactions in the call center.

• Data mining tools: Analyze complex customer information stored indatabases and report on common trends and correlations that can beused to enhance such things as call routing, IVR functionality, agentscripts and workflows. (See Data Warehousing and Data Mining,this section.)

• Customer-focused reporting tools: Provide “cradle-to-grave”reporting on all customer activity that takes place through any accesschannel. These tools, while difficult to manage, can show call centerssuch things as the types of contacts that generate revenue versusthose that are costly, as well as differentiate between high-valuecustomers and those who are expensive to retain.

• Intelligent routing applications: The process of customer differentiationand personalization needs to begin as soon as the customer “enters” thecall center. To do this, call centers must use tools that help to identifycaller needs, preferences and value as soon as the contact arrives, andthen quickly route the customer to the most appropriate resource. Forexample, contacts may be routed to the best-qualified agent available, aspecific area within the IVR unit, or, in the case of an email or Web-based transactions, to an appropriate or even customized Web page.Some of the call center capabilities that contribute to intelligent routinginclude:

• Automatic number identification (ANI): A telecommunicationsnetwork feature that identifies customers based on the telephonenumber from which they are calling.

• Dialed number identification service (DNIS): The telecom-munications network passes a string of digits to the call center’sACD, IVR or other system to indicate what number the callerdialed. The call can then be processed based on predefined criteriarelated to the number identified. A single trunk group may havenumerous DNIS numbers.



• Priority queuing applications: Programming that recognizes and“bumps” higher-value customers up in the queue to ensure that theyreceive the most efficient service possible.

• Skills-based routing tools: Applications that match a customer’sspecific needs with an agent who has the particular skills to handlethe contact effectively.

• Dynamic IVR systems: Systems that recognize customer accountnumbers and offer specific options based on each customer’sindividual needs and preferences.

• Web-based routing tools: Capabilities that recognize individualcustomers and “push” specific Web pages or documents to theirdesktop

• Screen pops and other desktop productivity tools: Capturing keycustomer information is only one part of an effective customerrelationship management strategy. That information needs to bedelivered to agents in a concise and manageable format. Well-implemented computer-telephony integration (CTI) applications do thisvia screen pops that appear on the agent’s desktop at the same time thecall is being routed. With such crucial data as account historysummaries, personal preferences and revenue potential at their fingertips,agents can provide the kind of personalized, proactive service that powers


' 2001 Van guard Communications Corporation

11. Account number toPC 192.128.15.3

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Voice (Circu it Switched) Data (LAN and TCP/IP)

CTI HW/SW

1. Jane Smithfrom 201-555-4000calls Catalog Center

2. ANI & DNIS

ACD or PBX

8. Agentx1234phonerings

12. Query on Account Number

7. Route toAgent x1234

9. Agent x1234 ringing

10. Agent x1234 =PC 192.128.15.3

ISDN

3. ANI and RouteRequest

4. Business Query on ANI

5. Query Response: - Gold Customer - Upsell Opportunity

6. Route to Best Available Agent inGold Group, x1234

13. Query response and screen popJane SmithGold CustomerValue: $2,243Upsell/cross-sell

CustomerApplicationDatabase

CTI Server

CTI SW

CTI SW

Call Flow: Customer Segmentation Routing(w. CTI Controlled Routing)


the success of customer relationship management initiatives. (SeeDesktop Tools and Workflow, this section.)

There are other intelligent desktop tools that further enable agents toprovide efficient, personalized service and support. These tools can beprogrammed with user-defined business rules to provide agents with theright screens, scripts, checklists, FAQs, sales/service tips, etc., for eachcustomer contact. Other key capabilities that desktop productivity toolsprovide include:

• Online access to key forms, documents and assistance

• Email and Web contact management applications

• Automated fulfillment and workflow management for fax and otherwritten correspondence

• Computer-based training modules

• Real-time team and individual performance measurements

• E-support tools: A big part of managing customer relationships is givingcustomers choices, which include electronic channels. To determine theaccess channels that are appropriate for your customers – and then toprepare the business argument for the chosen channels – know yourcustomers and their expectation, needs and desires; analyze the way inwhich your customers touch your business; and understand theinfrastructure that is necessary to reach the customer consistently acrossthese channels.

Here are the crucial tools to help call centers provide efficient andcustomer-focused e-support:

• Email management systems: Automatically distribute customeremail inquiries among agent groups, provide auto-replies tocustomers to confirm that the message has been received, suggestappropriate response templates for agents to use, and enable callcenters to easily store and track all email activity, thus enhancingquality assurance efforts and ensuring more customized serviceduring future transactions.

• Text-chat applications: Allow customers visiting the corporate Website to have real-time, text-based conversations with live agents,provide agents with appropriate text templates to insert in theirresponses, can enable agents to co-browse Web pages with customersand direct them to relevant areas or “push” specific pages to the



customer, provide form-sharing capabilities, which enable agents tomove the customer’s cursor and help fill in complex forms andapplications, and allow call centers to easily capture and archive keycustomer information uncovered during chat transactions.

• “Click-to-talk” applications: Enable Web site visitors (provided theyhave a multimedia PC equipped with sound card and microphone)to have live voice conversations with call center agents. As with chatapplications, click-to-talk can provides agents with co-browsing,page-pushing and form-sharing capabilities.

• Web “callback” tools: Enable Web visitors to contact the call centerand request an agent to call them back. Once the callback is made,the transaction carries on by telephone.

• Web self-service tools: Enable customers to receive information andanswers to questions, place orders and view order status directly fromthe corporate Web site without contacting the call center forassistance. The key components of Web self-service include FAQs,interactive search engines, personal accounts, customized Web pages(that enable customers to update/change preferences), as well as“virtual assistants” (digital characters programmed with advancedartificial intelligence and that can interact in real-time with onlinecustomers via chat or voice). In addition to empowering customersto help themselves, Web self-service tools can capture a wealth ofcustomer information that can be used to provide highlypersonalized support. (See Designing and Improving Self-ServiceSystems, this section.)

• Customer interaction recording (CIR) systems: No customerrelationship management strategy is complete without a system in placeto ensure that all agents and applications are contributing to customersatisfaction and loyalty. Customer interaction recording (CIR) systemsenable call centers to monitor the performance of both service staff andthe center’s customer-facing technologies, thus capturing what thecustomer experiences from the moment they “enter” the call center to thetime they “leave.” Here are some of the specific features of today’s CIRsystems:

• “Follow the contact” functionality: Records everything that occursduring a customer transaction, including:

• The customer’s experience with the IVR system or automatedattendant



• The customer’s voice conversations with agents

• The agent’s keyboard activity throughout the call

• The customer’s interaction with the center’s Web site and Webagents

• Customized recording: Lets supervisors and managers programexactly what type of customer calls they want the system to record.Systems can also be programmed to flag potential problem calls,such as those with excessive hold times, talk times or multipletransfers.

Numerous vendors claim to offer all-in-one customer relationship managementsolutions. While many of these products offer rich features that may be relevantto a call center’s technology strategy, it’s unlikely that they will meet all of thecenter’s specific needs. Managers need to decide whether it makes more sense topurchase such solutions, then add, subtract, customize and tweak as necessary,or to build their own customer relationship management solutions. Managersmust also consider that no solution will last forever since the call center’sobjectives and requirements will continue to evolve over time.

(A comprehensive review of call center technologies can be found in ICMI’sCall Center Operations Management Study Guide.)



Key Points

• Customer relationship management has sparked significant changesto the call center agent job role, as well as the tools that agents needto do that job effectively. The agent desktop has evolved into adynamic multimedia command center equipped with tools tomaximize workflow and customer relationships.

• Among the key applications and features that should be incorporatedinto the agent desktop are:

• CTI-enabled screen pops• Business rules based applications • Online access to key documents, forms and customer support

assistance• Automated fulfillment applications• Email and Web contact management applications• Computer-based training (CBT) tools• Online access to performance measurement results.

• Call centers can choose between “thick clients” and “thin clients” foragent desktops. In a thick-client world, much of the software resideson the PC on the agent’s desktop. In a thin-client world, thesoftware resides on a server that is accessed by the agents’ desktopcomputers equipped with a browser and/or minimal software. Thethin-client approach has a few distinct advantages, namely betterprocessing power and easier maintenance.

Explanation

The huge impact of customer relationship management in the call center hasbrought about significant changes to the agent job role and the tools agentsneed to effectively do that job. As a result, the agent desktop has evolved frombeing merely a static terminal for data input to a dynamic multimediacommand center equipped with tools for enhancing workflow and managingcustomer relationships. In call centers serious about managing customerrelationships, agents have everything they need at their fingertips to provideefficient, consistent and customer-focused sales and service.

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2. Desktop Tools and Workflow


Desktop Tools that Enhance Workflow

Call center managers have a wealth of options to choose from that will help tomaximize agent desktops and workflow. Here are some of the key applicationsand tools agents should have at their disposal to help them effectively managethe customer experience:

• CTI-enabled screen pops: The more the agent knows about thecustomer, the more personalized service he or she can provide. Screenpops – a common CTI capability – deliver key customer data in aconcise format directly to the agent desktop as the call arrives. Agentscan see the customer’s account history (including past problems andpurchases), personal preferences, current order status and otherinformation to help them treat each customer like a valued individual.

• Business rules based desktop applications: This is the crux of desktopproductivity in relation to customer relationship management. Whilescreen pops provide agents with useful customer information that canenhance interactions, business rules-based applications help to steeragents through transactions to ensure efficiency and customer


Instant Messaging/Email Distribution Queue

Source: FaceTime Communications


satisfaction. In such applications, business rules trigger appropriatescreens and workflows based on the individual customer, his or herrelationship with the organization and the nature of the transaction.When programmed with strategic business rules and linked to powerfulknowledge bases, these tools assist agents with specific customer scripts,relevant and concise FAQs, important checklists, as well as specificupselling, cross-selling and customer service tips for each contact. (SeeThe Role of Business Rules, this section.)

• Online access to key documents, forms and customer supportassistance: Business rules based applications are valuable, but can’tprovide agents with everything they need during every transaction.Agents sometimes require additional documents or information toeffectively service customers. Providing such data online in a well-organized and easily retrievable format for agents saves significant timeand leads to smoother interactions with customers. Consider creatingfully searchable online training/support manuals to help agents quicklyand accurately handle complex inquiries.

• Automated fulfillment applications: Even in today’s advanced contactcenters, agents still need to respond to traditional customercorrespondence, such as letters and faxes. Automating the process notonly enables agents to tackle fulfillment tasks much more quickly, itequips them to track such contacts and tie them to particular customeraccounts more easily. Among the features to include in desktopfulfillment applications are fax server access, automated form/lettergeneration and text templates for common requests/inquiries, as well asmore customer-specific scripting triggered by business rules.

• Email and Web contact management applications: Customer email andchat transactions are becoming more prevalent in call centers every day.Providing agents with easy access to customer email inboxes andsupport/management features right from their desktop goes a long waytoward cutting response times and creating customer loyalty. Enablingagents to easily “push” relevant documents and Web pages during chattransactions establishes customer confidence in your center’s Web-basedsupport capabilities. The more information and features that agents haveat their fingertips, the better your chances of achieving success in the e-commerce arena.

• Computer-based training (CBT) tools: Agents no longer need to log offthe phones for ongoing coaching and training sessions that will helpthem to strengthen their customer support skills. Computer-based



training applications can be embedded right into the agent’s desktop. ViaCBT – which may take the form of CD-ROM-, video- or Web-basedmodules – agents can receive quick refresher courses and product/serviceupdates without the need of direct supervisory assistance. In addition,with some Web-based CBT applications, managers/supervisors can createcustomized coaching modules online in a matter of minutes, then sendthe mini-session directly to individual agents at their workstations.

• Online access to performance measurement results: To managecustomer relationships most effectively, agents need to be empowered.Providing agents with access to performance measurement results fromtheir desktops lets them see how they and their teams are performing andenables them to focus on what needs to be done to improve. Theseagents will feel like integral members of the customer contact team andwill likely develop a more vested interest in the success of the call center– and the satisfaction of customers.


“Thick Clients” Vs. “Thin Clients” for Agent Desktops

Call centers can choose between thick clients and thin clients for agent desktops. Ingeneral, these terms refer to where the software that drives the desktop applicationsresides. In a thick-client world, much of the software resides on the PC on the agent’sdesktop. The thick client was popular when LANs were not so reliable. The downside to athick client is that software must physically exist on each desktop, which means that itmust be maintained on each desktop. The other thick client downside is the constantlyincreasing processing power and hard disk requirements needed whenever adding/upgrading software.

In the thin-client world, the software resides on a server that is accessed by the agents’desktop computers equipped with a browser and/or minimal software. These computersdo not require exceptional processing power or disk space, and are often referred to asnetwork computers. The advantage is that the software is maintained, upgraded andaugmented on the server as opposed to multiple (often hundreds) of desktop computers.In addition, the pressure to upgrade to new chips for faster processing speeds andexpanding disk drives is minimized.

Excerpt from “Understanding and Implementing Desktop Productivity Tools” by BruceCalhoon, Call Center Management Review Special Technology Issue, December 1999.


Key Points

• There are many ways organizations access and work with data touncover patterns. Three are:

• Report generator query• Data warehousing• Data mining

• Data warehouses store vast quantities of statistics generated byseparate business operations in a single, massive database. Thisapproach helps eliminate redundancy and errors, and the datawarehouse serves as a repository of data that can be used for manydifferent analyses of business issues.

• Data mining examines information in a database using any of anumber of different mathematical models and seeks to identifypatterns hidden there. But data mining is often used to create thehypotheses, rather than just testing a hypothesis defined by analysts.

Explanation

As organizations develop sophisticated tools for customer support, they alsodevelop rich databases. But, how can these databases be used to maximize thevalue of each customer and each customer contact? Smart organizations arelooking at the data they have collected about customers and their behaviors,and are starting to apply sophisticated analysis tools to extract information. Andthe managers and executives in charge of customer support centers are nowrealizing that information gleaned from customers can provide early warningsof product deficiencies, valuable insights into product improvements, andinformation about competitive developments. But this data must be capturedand sent to the appropriate department for action – or its power to affect thebottom line will never be realized.

The data available in databases can be used for many different purposesincluding:

• Determining how to handle each customer interaction through asnapshot of that customer’s past history

• Allowing customers to indicate how they wish to be treated

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3. Data Warehousing and Data Mining 1 2 3


• Gathering a history of individual customer interactions and analyzingthem to drive processes across the organization

Of these, the one that has the most impact long-term is the last one. Theability to compile a historical account of individual customer interactions withthe organization and then analyze that information provides powerfulinformation to virtually all other business units. (See Disseminating BusinessIntelligence to Appropriate Stakeholders, Section 6.)

There are many ways organizations access and work with data to uncoverpatterns. Three are:

• Report generators using SQL queries accessing databases

• Data warehousing

• Data mining

The three approaches provide different levels of capabilities and benefits. Thebasic differences in these three approaches revolve around the purposes involvedin working with the data, and the ways in which queries might be run againstthe data to reveal additional information.

Report Generator Query

Most organizations typically have separate databases, often developed atdifferent times for different purposes: one for sales, another for customerrecords, etc. Report generators access the databases and pull together relevantinformation. For example, a customer service manager may need informationabout trouble calls over the previous month. Report generators can accessrecords of all service transactions, group them into product classifications orgeographic regions, and provide a summary report.

In another example of access to databases, CTI systems provide to the agentinformation about a caller as the call is routed to the correct agent queue.Consider an inbound service center for group insurance claims. An incomingcall is accompanied by the caller’s telephone number; that number is used toaccess the correct record in a database and a field in the record shows that thiscaller is a member of a premier group – one of the organization’s bestcustomers. Recognizing this, the system places the call in a priority queue. Asthe call is being sent to a priority agent, the system sends a record locator tothat agent’s workstation. Software in the workstation then uses the locator toretrieve information about outstanding claim requests, and the agent canquickly deal with the caller’s question – he has all the data he needs, even as heis saying “hello.”



Data Warehousing

Still, organizations using the report generator query approach often find thatdata relevant to a particular business decision is actually scattered through anumber of databases and might even be redundant or inconsistent in places.Data definitions may not agree from one database to another. So organizationsare using data warehousing – storing vast quantities of statistics generated byseparate business operations in a single, massive database. This approach helpseliminate redundancy and errors, and the data warehouse serves as a repositoryof data that can be used for many different analyses of business issues; e.g.,fraud detection for a credit card division, purchase behavior for a salesorganization, factors leading to equipment maintenance problems for amanufacturing operation. To ensure accessibility to the data, data warehousingsystems are now commonly designed on open, standards-based platforms.

Extracting information from a data warehouse can be achieved with reportgenerators, similar to the first approach described above. But to retrieve orsearch for information, more sophisticated decision support systems areavailable, as well, incorporating case-based reasoning, decision trees and otherknowledge-based decision tools. Online analytical processing allows sequentialanalysis of a series of variables in a multidimensional database, and enables theuser to “drill down” to specific data at the intersection of a number of variables.

For example, an organization selling personal computers might have a datawarehouse full of information about warranty repairs to various components.The data can be accessed in multiple dimensions, by failed component, byprocessor, by software, by owner’s state of residence, by date of failure, etc. Ifthe organization wants to understand failure causes, for instance, thenconducting an analysis that looks for a statistical correlation between the typeof processor, the failed component, and the geographic repair center used mayjust uncover the vein of gold in a mountain of otherwise unrelated customerinformation.

Applying analytical tools to data in a warehouse typically helps companiesunderstand events that have occurred in the past. The mathematical tools usedseek to understand the causes or interactions by looking at historicalinformation and testing a hypothesis. The user postulates some relationship,then uses analytical tools to test it. For example, an analyst with a bank mightassume that customers with high personal debt would be poorer credit risks.She could perform an analysis of that hypothesis by looking in historical datafor a relationship between the ratio of debt to income versus loan defaults.



Data Mining

Data mining examines information in a database using any of a number ofdifferent mathematical models and seeks to identify patterns hidden there. Butdata mining is often used to create the hypotheses, rather than just testing ahypothesis defined by analysts. In a dramatic example, scientists using datamining techniques discovered a previously unknown relationship betweenchildren who took aspirin and children who developed Reye’s syndrome. Thesescientists didn’t hypothesize the correlation and then test it, they created thehypothesis after studying the patterns that emerged from the data miningexercises. In a banking milieu, data mining might reveal that there areadditional predictors of bad credit risk beyond the ratio of debt to income – forinstance, the number of household moves in the past five years.

Across the enterprise, there are many applications for mining customer data.Some of the most common include ways to link specific characteristics of aparticular customer with identified market segments showing specific behaviorsand predilections. If an organization can identify clusters of customer behavior,for example, there may be an opportunity to sell more effectively to thosecustomer types or to provide better service.

But data mining can also provide information that will help develop decisionrules for customer support organizations and call centers. A retailer, forinstance, can analyze their customer database to determine the correlationbetween purchases of different products and demographic information aboutcustomer segments. When speaking with a customer regarding a return or acomplaint, then that retailer’s call center agent might be in a better position tosuggest specific replacement products that are complementary to thatcustomer’s currently owned products or portfolio – ones that the customer maybe predisposed to buy. (See The Role of Business Rules, this section.)

In some cases, though, organizations are finding that “more is actually less,”and here, too, data mining can reveal such instances. For example, the abovescenario reflects the widely held view that selling additional products isuniversally a good thing. But that’s not always the case. If a customer isunprofitable because of the high level of support that he requires, providingadditional services may not be desirable. Further, making a decision to migratea customer from one service to another may or may not always make goodsense.

There are numerous other applications for data mining. Today, a support callcenter can be linked to data and decision support systems to provide




instantaneous, call-by-call assistance to the call center agent. Before a call isanswered, CTI-enabled systems retrieve a caller’s past purchasing behavior andlink it to profitability profiles developed through data mining. Applicationscalculate the impact on profitability of various products or services availableand make suggestions to the agent about what (if anything) to offer to thecaller. These suggestions might include different service options tailored to thespecific caller to engender customer loyalty and retention. In some cases, it maybe appropriate to enable cross-selling and upselling of products and services.

This section is adapted from the white paper “Data Mining: Powerful Tools for InformationExtraction” by Don Van Doren of Vanguard Communications Corporation, Copyright 2001.


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4. Designing and Improving Self-Service Systems

Key Points

• Self-service opportunities not only directly benefit the organization’sbottom line, but also provide new avenues for increased customerservice and retention.

• Advanced interactive voice response (IVR) applications include faxon demand, text-to-speech capabilities and speech recognition.

• Best practices for implementing IVR self-service options include:• Provide customer education• Sell the services of the IVR• Keep it simple• Allow callers a way to get live assistance• Listen to your IVR

• Self-service applications on the Web include:• Customizable pages • Searchable databases• Enhanced FAQs • Natural language• Web forms • Ecommerce applications • Integrated email management capabilities

• Several success factors for implementing a Web-based self-servicestrategy include:

• Know your audience • Focus on simple transactions first• Always make it easy to access an agent• Spend time educating your customers • Enlist help from your agents• Be realistic about savings in staff

Explanation

Today, organizations in almost every industry have begun to exploreopportunities for additional self-service. As the following chart illustrates, self-



service opportunities not only directly benefit the organization’s bottom line,but also provide new avenues for increased customer service and retention.

Interactive Voice Response

A common self-service option available via the telephone is interactive voiceresponse (IVR). These systems enable callers to use a telephone keypad (orspoken commands if speech recognition is used) to access an organization’scomputer system for the purpose of retrieving or updating information,conducting a business transaction or routing their call. IVR systems can also beused to help gather customer information for customer segmentation purposes.Examples of the use of IVRs include:

• Banks allowing customers to check balances, transfer funds and verifypayments

• Airlines providing customers with up-to-the-minute flight information

• Cellular phone companies providing automated air time and availableminutes/usage

Advanced features of IVR systems include:

• Fax on demand: Customers are able to get more content-intensiveinformation by inputting a fax number and selecting the desireddocument. The IVR interfaces with the fax server to send the documentto the caller without any agent intervention.

The Financial Perspective

Cost (US$) (Estimates from TARP and others)Correspondence/fax – $10.13Web transaction – $.25 to $.50Email handled automatically – $.25 to $2.00IVR – $.36Agent handled call – $5.00

The Customer Service Perspective

Quicker transaction (no wait time)Easy access (especially for IVR)Longer coverage hoursIncentives:

• Fees waived• Coupons• Shorter wait time accessing an agent



• Text-to-speech capability: The IVR system is able to read and speakinformation from the organization’s databases. Examples of thisapplication include providing customers with shipment trackinginformation or verifying the customer’s contact information.

• Speech recognition: Speech recognition is one of the fastest-growingnew applications for IVRs. It has evolved from being able to recognizebasic numbers and letters to accurately understanding natural languagephrases and providing accurate customized responses. Although set-up ismore difficult than for touchtone applications, speech recognitionprovides a more intuitive user-interface that will attract customers whowould not use touchtone self-service.

IVR systems are often criticized by users for being too long and/or toocomplex. There are many best practices that keep satisfaction and completionrates as high as possible, including:

• Allow callers a way to get live assistance: Customers who are not ableto get service through the IVR should have a convenient way to reach alive agent. Providing this option up front ensures that callers feel incontrol of the system. The security of knowing that a live agent isavailable when needed is vital to successful IVR self-service.

• Provide customer education: Let customers know how to navigate themenus quickly and easily. This education can be accomplished throughmarketing and product literature, information on the Web and IVRannouncements.

• Sell the services of the IVR: Customers aren’t the only ones who needto be educated on the system. Ensure that agents and other employeesunderstand the system so they can encourage customers to use theseservices when appropriate.

• Keep it simple: Prompts should quickly get to the point, and menulayers and choices should be limited to three to five options. Messagingshould be short and to the point.

• Listen to your IVR: Experience what the customer experiences and usereporting capabilities to troubleshoot and improve your application.Determining where most customers opt for live assistance may indicate atransaction type that cannot be handled well through self-service.

Web Self-Service

Web-based self-service is another common approach to allowing customers



more control over the when and how they interact with an organization. Withmore of the population Internet-enabled (home and/or work), organizations arefinding that migrating interactions to the Web provides an economic benefit byreducing simple transaction telephone volume, expanding coverage hours,expanding services and potentially reducing the overall staffing supportrequired.

Once static Web sites have evolved into opportunities for organizations todifferentiate themselves by not only promoting their brand and by making iteasier for customers to get the information they desire. Below are some of theevolving self-service applications being deployed on the Web:

• Customizable pages: Allow customers the option of saving theirpreferences, which then display automatically each time they visit theWeb site. These preferences may include personalized greeting, makingthe customer’s areas of interest the most prominent links on the page,and showing customer-specific information, such as a wish list of itemsto purchase.

• Searchable databases: Provide a variety of search options within specificareas of the site or the site as a whole. For example, many healthinsurance organizations provide customers with the ability to search for aparticipating doctor in their area.

• Enhanced FAQs: Display a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs)that are dynamically updated based on historical input.

• Natural language: Enables customers to search for information based onthe questions they have, instead of having to use keywords or wadethrough lists of search categories.

• Web forms: Allow customers to request or provide information via pull-down menus and text fields. This information can be easily integratedinto databases for action and compiled for reporting capabilities.

• Ecommerce applications: Provide customers with the ability to purchaseproducts and services without human intervention. These applicationsstore customer purchasing history in databases, calculate shipping andrelated costs and can even be programmed to upsell and cross-sell duringthe purchasing process.

• Integrated email management capabilities: Provide automatedresponses to customer emails. The system can simply generate anautomated response indicating that the email was received and settingresponse time expectations, or can search databases to possibly provide



resolution to the email without agent assistance.

Similar to a bad telephone experience, a poorly designed Web self-servicestrategy can result in customer frustration that can create a poor impression ofthe organization. Several success factors for implementing a Web-based self-service strategy include:

• Know your audience: Organizations have to be sure that their Webofferings are in line with customer expectations and needs. Whendeveloping the strategy, customer input should be included in as many ofthe plans as possible.

• Focus on simple transactions first: Don’t get so caught up intransitioning complex processes that you withhold the simple and easilyimplemented transactions from your customers.

• Always make it easy to access an agent: A Web site should be viewed asan extension of an organization and its customer service strategy. Withthat in mind, different customer access channels, such as phone, textchat, email and Web callback, should be made visible to the customerwith a single click.

• Spend time educating your customers: When additional self-serviceinformation or functions become available, find creative ways to let yourcustomers know that it’s there and how they can get the most of it. Theupdates should be included in a variety of touch points with customers,e.g., live agent, customer bills or other correspondence and telephonedelay announcements.

• Enlist help from your agents: No one in the call center knows moreabout your customer’s needs than your frontline staff. Including themin the development not only benefits customers, but also encouragesagents to educate customers.

• Be realistic about savings in staff: All too often, Web self-serviceprojects are funded at the expense of the existing call center staff. Acommon misconception is that fewer staff will be required to handle livecalls once the self-service tool is functional. Remember, these servicesnot only automate existing transactions, they expand services theorganization provides, creating more customer demand. Be sure that thereduction in staff is implemented only after it’s a proven reality.



Benefits of Providing Self-Service

The primary reason that many organizations implement self-service options isto reduce operating costs. However, there can be many other benefits toproviding customers with self-service. Some of these include:

• Capability to handle more call volume

• Reduce staff requirements

• Lower cost per contact

• Broaden hours of coverage

• Improve accessability

• Increase customer satisfaction

• Provide customers with choice and control

When planned carefully, these capabilities can contribute to customersatisfaction and loyalty and help further the organization’s customer relationshipmanagement initiatives.

(For more information about self-service technologies, see ICMI’s Call CenterOperations Management Study Guide.)

Assisted Self-Service and Web Integration


1 2 3Ready?


Key Points

• A clear technology migration strategy helps to ensure maximumtechnology value, a defined focus on overall business goals, successfulachievement of operational objectives and an organizational “fit.”

• The first phase in building a call center technology strategy is toform the team, develop the plan and identify assumptions.

• The second phase involves brainstorming, developing the vision andstrategy, and determining the design principles.

• The final phase includes developing the implementation plan andgetting buy-in from the organization’s stakeholders.

Explanation

Creating a technology migration plan that supports overall customerrelationship management objectives is essential to success. A clear technologymigration strategy helps to ensure maximum technology value, a defined focuson overall business goals, successful achievement of operational objectives andan organizational “fit.” Although plans and strategies will differ from oneorganization to the next, many processes, steps and critical success factorsremain the same. The table on the next page outlines the elements of effectivemigration planning. These key steps apply to other types of processimprovement initiatives as well.

5. Creating a Technology Migration Plan [Strategic]

1 2 3

(continued, next page)



Building an effective migration plan that addresses requirements, synchronizesdevelopments and stays within the organization’s financial boundaries requires amulti-departmental approach. (See Aligning People, Processes andTechnologies, Section 5.) Successful plans begin with cross-functional teamsthat are diverse enough to represent all the impacted departments, yet smallenough to efficiently make decisions. The group should have at least aconceptual knowledge of the customer relationship management technologiesthat are available and in development, and have a working knowledge of theorganization’s current systems.

Clearly, the development of a technology migration plan requires a significantamount of time, effort and money. Selling recommended strategies and plans tothe executive level requires more than just a simple cost/benefit analysis. Theplan must specify the impact of developments on such important objectives as:

Key Steps in a Technology Migration Plan

Steps Critical Success Factors

• Form a project team• Develop a project plan• Develop assumptions• Learn

• Representation from key areas includingfrontline employees

• Strong, empowered project manager• “Champion” – credible senior-level

manager• Solid support from senior management

Phase 1: Planning the Strategy

Phase 2: Vision and Design for the Strategy

• Brainstorm• Develop design principles• Create the vision and strategy

• Availability of resources to work with theteam and provide information

• Open mind to hearing what can be doneand thinking differently about the callcenter

• A true commitment to act on therecommendations

• Consensus on business direction andparticipation by all stakeholders

Phase 3: Selling the Strategy

• Develop the implementation plan• Build the business case• Sell the strategy

• Good workflow analysis of existingoperations

• Business unit buy-in on the benefits• Good baseline cost figures

Source: Vanguard Communications Corporation, copyright 2001.



• Revenue

• Market share

• Customer retention

• Customer data capture

• Customer satisfaction

• Employee satisfaction and retention

• Errors and rework

Implementation

Once the plan is in place, the approvals have been received and the project istaking shape, the team also has to develop an implementation plan. This planshould address the details that make the difference between a rough transitionand a smooth one. Some examples include:

• Reviewing and revising testing strategies to ensure that selectedapplicants have the right skills to succeed in the new environment.

• Addressing compensation issues that will arise as assignments change andsome staff members become proficient in more than one channel.

• Developing forecasting methods that address all the different entry pointsinto the organization.

• Ensuring that technology support processes are in place to address downtime and response time issues quickly and effectively for every channeland all supporting hardware/software.

(continued, next page)



SelectionCriteria

(2)

Business Case

AssessmentBusiness

Requirements

Business ProcessReengineering/Design

RequirementsDefinition

• Application/Capabilities

• Technical/Architecture

• Solution/Vendor

StrategicVision

ExistingVendorPartner (3)

VendorEvaluationRequired

Implementation!

RFI/RFP/RFQ

VendorSelection

• Pros and Cons• Evaluation/Scoring• Pricing Analysis

FunctionalSpecification

High LevelDesign

DetailedDesign

ProjectTeam

Automation

Transformation (1)

(4)4

2

3

1

Designing and Developing Your Solution

Notes: 1) For transformation change, process reengineering must be competed prior todefining an automated solution.2) Selection Criteria is developed when a vendor evaluation is required.3) The path directly to Functional Specification is more likely when working with anexisting vendor partner; to RFI is more likely when a selection process is required.4) With today’s rapid implementations, a functional specification, high level design,and detailed design, while desirable, are often skipped or shortened, or delivered bythe vendor.

Overwhelmed by Integration

Integration is the greatest challenge to an effective CRM solution. Many technologyconcepts may have to be integrated with each other to achieve your CRM goals. You mayhave a combination of existing technologies (switch, IVR, Legacy applications anddatabases, Web server, desktop and LAN) and new elements you are adding (emailsystem, workflow tools, scripting engine). Because the CRM umbrella is so wide,integration can present a challenge. And while some of the application software ordatabases may come out of a box, the total solution or the integration does not.

Speaking of things coming out of the box, one of the great questions today is whether youshould build or buy the CRM-enabling technology. If you can find a solution thatprovides the types of capabilities you need, can be scaled to your environment and hashooks for integration with your existing systems, buying a solution has lots of advantages.These include ease of implementation, some pre-integration of technology elements,

Source: Vanguard Communications Corporation, copyright 2001.



Note: CIAC competencies and support documents refer to both technologymigration planning and to creating enabling technology strategies. In practice,technology migration planning and technology strategy development areusually the same thing. These subjects are covered in detail in ICMI’s CallCenter Operations Management Study Guide.

suppliers and partners with experienced resources for implementation and integration,robust product suites that let you expand your capabilities, and a product that willmigrate with the market to offer new capabilities in future releases. That may cost moreon the surface, but will prove much more cost-effective in the long run.

One other key challenge to consider is building the business rules, workflows, datarequired and the desktop interface (screen designs). The technology is where youimplement it, but the ideas come from the visionaries, marketing, sales and serviceprofessionals, trainers and others. They must not only understand what the technologywill enable them to do, but also define the rules, workflows and screens from a businessperspective. That is no small task, and it requires the collaboration of many people toachieve the vision defined.

Excerpt from “Technologies Enabling Customer Relationship Management” by LoriBocklund, Call Center Management Review, December 1999.


1 2 3Ready?


Key Points

• To gain maximum utilization of new CRM technologies, the entireorganization should have a clear understanding of short- and long-term customer and financial impacts.

• Each customer relationship management initiative should beevaluated against a technology alternative, but the technology itselfshould be positioned as the enabler and not the solution.

• System acceptance begins at the agent level. Proper, focused trainingis essential to gain full advantage of CRM technologies.

Explanation

Not surprisingly, incorporating customer relationship management technologiescan be challenging and extremely expensive. It’s important to carefully analyzeyour organization’s specific customer relationship management goals beforegoing on a technology spending spree in hopes of gaining customer loyalty andcompetitive advantage. There are many creative alternatives to begin to see thebenefits realized once customer relationship management technology has beenimplemented. To ensure continuous buy-in, technology should always bepositioned as the enabler – not the total solution.

The Impact of New Technologies on People

In order to successfully implement customer relationship managementinitiatives, acceptance begins with call center agents. When asked to make thetransition from reactive order-taker or service provider to proactive customermanagement specialist, agents often have to quickly learn how to use newtechnology and make sense out of a potentially overwhelming amount ofcustomer information. It is up to call center managers to consolidate data sothat agents can spend more time interacting effectively with customers and lesstime searching for relevant information.

But just because a call center may have the ability to deliver key customer datato agents’ desktops doesn’t mean that agents will instinctively know what to dowith that information once they receive it. While tools like recommendation

6. Maximizing System Acceptance



engines are helpful in guiding agents during transactions, the training agentsreceive prior to handling calls is vital to success.

It is also important for organizations to recognize that agent reward andrecognition programs should be adjusted to gain maximum acceptance. Inmany cases, the additional opportunities offered by customer relationshipmanagement initiatives will result in increased call handle times. Ifmanagement expectations don’t allow for this additional time, it is oftendifficult to motivate agents to fully embrace the new technologies.

Ways to Illustrate Organizationwide Benefits

To be effective, new technologies must be accepted and embraced by the entireorganization. A good place to start is to create reports that focus on the keybenefits of the technology. Listed below are considerations that can be includedin a customer relationship management technology business case to helpillustrate the corporate, customer and employee benefits:

• Creating competitive advantage: High-tech, high-touch service is a salestool and a differentiator. Customer relationship management technologycapabilities may help retain or improve market share.

• Increasing customer retention: Improved service can contribute toincreased retention, as can more personalized and proactive service.Knowledge of how you are really treating your customers, based onreports, can help you address issues before they become problems.

• Adding new customers: Technology is an important enabler to satisfyingcustomers and satisfied customers are the best form of advertising.

• Improving service: Look at ways the technology can address keyproblems the customer is experiencing and therefore improve service.This includes fewer busies, less time on hold and in queue, faster callhandling, fewer transfers, getting to the right person with the rightinformation, not repeating information already provided and handlingmultiple transactions on a single call.

• Increasing revenue: Technology can provide agents with more time toreceive or make revenue-producing calls – with existing customers andnew prospects. This may include creating and acting on opportunitiesfor cross-selling and upselling.

• Offering new services: Technology can enable specialized or customizedservices to meet evolving customer needs, build new relationships, offermultimedia and provide other new capabilities.



• Improving employee satisfaction: Technology can lead to lower turnoverand happier, more productive agents who find their jobs more interestingand satisfying. It can also empower agents by providing access to theright information at the right time to service customer needs andpromote teamwork among employees.

• Reducing costs or keeping costs under control: These include reducinginefficiencies that are costing your business both network and agent timeand often affect headcount and overhead. Benefits are achieved byautomating many of the routine tasks.

Ensure Ongoing Support with a Cross-Functional Review Team

Maintaining ongoing support for customer relationship managementtechnologies is not a part-time project, nor can it be handled effectively by oneperson. Developing a cross-functional team is a good starting point for on-going communication and evaluation of technologies. Cross-functionalrepresentation, not only allows for feedback from all stakeholders, but alsoprovides a way to maintain organizationwide support for current and futuretechnology projects.

According to industry consultant Cheryl Helm, the following is a list ofpersonnel that should be considered for inclusion on the cross-functional team:

• A telecom representative who understands the voice and data routingoptions, as well as the technologies currently in place at your center.

• An IT/IS person who can address the issues surrounding dataconfigurations or any systems changes.

• Marketing and sales representatives, in order to give them a clearunderstanding of how new technologies will impact their departments, aswell as how the actions of their units support the overall operation of thecall center(s).

• Representatives from distribution, inventory and logistic management.

• Call center representatives, including a manager, a team leader/supervisorand a frontline agent.

• Top-level management within the company. Find one key executive atthe vice president level to be an ongoing customer relationshipmanagement champion (preferably one who has the political clout to getthings done). (See Building Executive Sponsorship and Support, Section5.)


7. The Components of a Quality Contact 1 2 3Ready?


Key Points

• The components of a quality contact are typical from one call centerto another.

• Good quality will have a direct and positive impact on service level.

Explanation

The components of a quality contact include:

• Caller is satisfied.

• All data entry is correct.

• Contact is necessary in the first place.

• Agent provides correct response.

• Customer receives correct information.

• Agent captures all needed/useful information.

• Customer is not transferred around.

• Customer doesn’t get rushed.

• Customer has confidence contact was effective.

• Call center’s mission is accomplished.

• Unsolicited marketplace feedback is detected and documented.

• Customer doesn’t feel it necessary to check up, verify or repeat.

• People “down the line” can correctly interpret the order.

• Agent has “pride in workmanship.”

• Customer does not get a busy signal when using telephone or “noresponse” from Web site.

• Customer is not placed in queue for too long.

These items apply almost universally. Using this framework, think about thepossible repercussions if quality is lacking. For example, what happens if thecustomer is not satisfied? What happens if data is entered incorrectly? What



happens if the agent does not provide the correct response? Things like repeatcalls, unnecessary service calls and escalated calls probably come to mind.

To avoid these and other negative results of poor quality, it is important for callcenter management to monitor contacts and provide related coaching forimproved importance. These quality monitoring programs should be builtaround customer expectations and should include ways to measure specific callcenter initiatives, such as suggestive selling or gathering appropriate customerinformation. (For a detailed discussion of monitoring and coaching practices,see ICMI’s Call Center People Management Study Guide.)

The Relationship of Quality and Service Level

The conventional wisdom that quality and service level (or response time) are atodds and must therefore be "balanced" is one of the most fundamentallydamaging misconceptions in the industry. There are two objectives that flowout of the definition of call center management: Get the right people andsupporting resources in the right places at the right times, and do the rightthings. They are complementary.

On the surface, it does appear that accessibility and quality are at odds. Afterall, you can have an excellent service level, but your agents can still:

• Misunderstand callers' requests

• Enter the wrong information

• Relay the wrong information to callers

• Make callers mad

• Fail to accomplish the primary purpose (sell or service)

• Unnecessarily cause repeat contacts

• Miss opportunities to capture valuable feedback

But it is important to put this issue in context. Poor accessibility will rob thecall center of productivity. For example, as service level deteriorates, more andmore callers are likely to verbalize their criticisms when their calls are finallyanswered. Agents will spend valuable time apologizing to callers. Call handlingtime goes up and occupancy increases. If this condition continues, employeemorale will sink. Turnover and burnout go up, as will recruitment and trainingcosts. On top of that, callers abandon the queue and may take their business tothe competition.



When you consider the specific results of poor quality, the complementaryrelationship between accessibility and quality becomes more clear. For example,what if data are not entered correctly? What if the caller doesn't haveconfidence the call was handled correctly? What if the agent didn't captureneeded and useful information about the transaction? These problemscontribute to repeat calls, escalation of calls and complaints to highermanagement, callbacks, etc., all of which further drive down service level. Or, ifa customer doesn’t receive a reply to an email as quickly as expected, he or shemay send another; this can be the start of a similar cycle.

In short, there is no such thing as balancing quality vs. service level or responsetime. These objectives work hand in hand.


1 2 3Ready?


Key Points

• The image the organization promotes helps to set customerexpectations regarding the service they will receive. Therefore, thecall center must internalize the brand and deliver on its promisesthroughout customer interactions.

• Call center managers should develop cross-functional teams toreview and design business processes to ensure fulfillment ofpromises.

• Beginning with the hiring process and continuing through training,monitoring and coaching, managers should examine these processesagainst the customer expectations set by the organization’s brand andpromises.

Explanation

Just about every organization makes a significant investment on brand strategydesigned to attract customers who resonate with the promises made throughadvertising, collateral, product labeling, packaging, etc. The image theorganization promotes helps to set customer expectations regarding the servicethey will receive. Therefore, the call center must internalize the brand anddeliver on its promises throughout customer interactions. Call centers mustview leveraging the brand promises through a wider lens than that of “customerservice,” a component of any brand identity. The focus needs to incorporateprocess and technology implications, as well as people practices.

Process Implications

Evaluating operational processes and procedures through the lens of theorganization’s brand ensures that business processes align and support promises.For example, a company whose brand suggests “ease” and “easy-to-do-businesswith,” would staff its center with agents who are trained to navigate multiplecomplex issues rather than rely on specialization (and transferred calls) tomanage complex tasks.

Conversely, a financial services firm that presents the image of “authority on all

1 2 38. Fulfilling Promises to Customers



your financial strategies” may create specialized teams to handle differentcustomer or investment types.

Call center managers should develop cross-functional teams to review anddesign business processes to ensure fulfillment of promises. Examples ofspecific processes that should be reviewed include:

• IVR options: Simple or complex? Multiple levels? Services provided?Alignment with customer segmentation?

• Web site self-service: Is there an appropriate balance between self-instruction/self-help and access to assistance from agents?

• Workload management: Is there a good match between workload andscheduled resources?

• Customer data tracking and management: Is customer data accessibleacross all channels of interaction? How much customer-specific data canthe customer access through the Web site?

• Policies and procedures: Do the policies and procedures facilitatepromised services?

Lastly, consider call and email interaction processes. How do representativesnavigate the call or email? What opportunities for branding the interactionexist within the structure of the interaction itself? Branding involves muchmore than using the organization’s name at the beginning and ending of aninteraction. Applying key phrases and words that define the brand promise anddeveloping and implementing interaction strategies that are peppered withbrand language assists representatives in internalizing the brand and deliveringit to customers.

HR Practices

A variety of HR practices can be leveraged to ensure delivery of customerpromises. Beginning with the hiring process and continuing through training,monitoring and coaching, managers should examine these processes against thecustomer expectations set by the organization’s brand and promises.

Hiring: Brands have defined personalities – easygoing, capable, intimate,knowledgable, fun, to name a few. Using the brand personality in a hiringpractice ensures that call centers hire representatives and managers who embodythe brand essence. Hiring people who match the organization’s brand makes iteasier to ensure that the team integrates and delivers the brand promise tocustomers.



To develop a hiring practice for a company whose personality is “easygoing,”the hiring managers would be recruiting for the usual competencies – oral andwritten communication, service focus, multitasking, etc. Additionally, acompetency for flexibility might be added to ensure that agents hired are ableto adjust easily to different customers and situations, and that their demeanorand personality are appropriate to the essence of the organization.

Training: Agents and managers who are hired with the company essence inmind need to be trained on the brand to internalize and deliver it seamlessly tothe customer. Brand training can be integrated into new-hire training. Manyorganizations have key executives responsible for brand development andmanagement. They can readily provide input and content for orientationtraining. Additionally, some organizations have “brand handbooks” that areprovided to employees to assist them in learning and understanding how thebrand is defined and applied.

Training should provide employees with concrete examples, perhaps through amodel, of what types of interactions are consistent with the brand and whattypes are not. Providing agents with a framework ensures a more consistentapproach to the brand and gives managers and quality teams a platform forcoaching performance.

Monitoring and coaching: Review monitoring forms to ensure the brandcomponent is defined and applied within an interaction. Look for terms andphrases that can bring the brand to life in the monitoring form itself. Helpagents and managers to apply the personality to interactions by clearly definingit through the monitoring and coaching process. Carefully consider and applystandards for delivering the brand.

As monitoring and coaching are applied, look for opportunities to reinforceeffective delivery on promises and coach for integration of the brand intointeractions. The more closely the coaching model and style of coaching matchthe brand personality, the tighter the integration between internalizing anddelivering the brand.

(See Empowering People to Build Customer Relationships and Individual andTeam Performance Objectives, this section.)

Impact on the Organization

Highlighting the call center’s impact on the organization as promises areroutinely delivered is powerful information and leverage for fundingimprovements and programs. Sources of customer satisfaction data should be



analyzed to ensure that the organization is delivering on its promises. Thisinvolves being aware of customer expectations, training agents on appropriateresponses to customer requests and measuring customer satisfaction againstexpectations. Only when all of these processes are in place will the center beable to articulate the impact of its ability to deliver on promises to customers.(See Communicating the Value of Customer Relationships Across theOrganization, Section 6.)

This item was developed by Initiatives Three Inc., an industry consulting firm specialized indelivering the brand at the point of interaction. www.initiatives3.com


1 2 3Ready?


Key Points

• Complaints offer an invaluable source of information aboutcustomer expectations and how well the organization is satisfyingthem. Managing complaints effectively can increase customer loyaltyand repurchase behavior.

• The key considerations of implementing a complaint managementprocess include:

• Identifying, gathering and disseminating customer feedback • Calculating and communicating revenue-at-risk• Managing multiple customer touch points• Establishing complaint-handling objectives

• The complaint-handling skills of frontline call center staff have asignificant impact on customer loyalty. Agents must be trained andempowered to resolve customer complaints on the first contact.

Explanation

Complaints offer an invaluable source of information about customerexpectations and how well the organization is satisfying them. An effectivecomplaint management process allows call centers to turn negative customerexperiences into opportunities for establishing a higher degree of loyalty, andidentifying processes and products that need improvement.

Research by TARP has found that when customers experience problems that arenot resolved to their satisfaction, loyalty drops by 15 to 30 percentage points.In other words, for every five customers who perceive they have had a problem,regardless of the outcome, the organization risks losing some, if not all, of thefuture revenue from at least one of those customers.

The manner in which the call center responds to and resolves complaintsgreatly impacts customer loyalty and future revenue. Research also reveals thatcustomers with complaints that have been efficiently and satisfactorily resolvedare more likely to repurchase than those who have never experienced a problemwith the organization. On the other hand, less than half of dissatisfied andmollified complaintants will repurchase. (See The Value of Customer

1 2 39. Managing Customer Complaints



Satisfaction and Loyalty, Section 3.)

In the long term, logging and reporting customer complaint feedback allowsthe call center to improve its processes and, essentially, “do the job right thefirst time.” As the quality of products and services continuously improve,customer loyalty will increase, as well.

Considerations of Managing Customer Complaints

Call center managers should consider the following when implementingprocesses to manage customer complaints:

• Identifying, gathering and disseminating customer feedback: Callcenters use several methods to identify, collect, log and report customercomplaint data. The most common techniques include: customersatisfaction survey results (via phone or written surveys), call monitoringdata, toll-free complaint lines and dedicated quality assurance teams. (SeeInterpreting Customer Feedback, Section 4.)

• Calculating and communicating revenue-at-risk: An importantcomponent of the complaint management process is internal reportingon customer complaint data, which should include the impact onrevenue of each identified issue and a cost-benefit analysis ofrecommended changes. (See Interpreting Customer Feedback, Section 4.)

• Managing multiple customer touch points: Customer complaintfeedback enters the organization through various channels, some ofwhich are designated touch points, such as the call center. Others offerinformal opportunities, such as comments made to delivery staff,company executives or outside distribution channels. Managers mustidentify less formal touch points within the organization and ensureprocesses are set up to collect customer feedback. (See InterpretingCustomer Feedback, Section 4.)

• Establishing complaint-handling objectives: Call center managersshould use objectives such as first-call resolution, customer satisfactionand quality contact handling scores to determine the center’s effectivenesswith complaint handling. The objectives and the call center’sperformance against the objectives need to be clearly communicated tofrontline agents. (See Supporting Call Center Objectives, Section 5.)

Managing Complaints on the Frontline

The complaint-handling skills of frontline call center staff have a significant



impact on customer loyalty. To ensure negative experiences are quickly andefficiently resolved on the first contact, call center agents must be trained andempowered to satisfy customer expectations. This involves:

• Establishing appropriate complaint-resolution guidelines and proceduresfor frontline staff. (For example, how long do customers have to wait toreceive a replacement part? Can online purchases be returned orexchanged at a brick-and-mortar retail site?) Managers must work withall involved departments to establish these processes. (See FulfillingPromises to Customers, this section.)

• Training frontline staff on conflict-management skills. For example,listening skills, communication skills, stress management, angermanagement, empathetic responsiveness and problem-solving.

• Empowering frontline staff to resolve complaints without managementintervention. (See Empowering People to Build Customer Relationships,this section.)

Managers must also establish procedures for escalating and handling morecomplex complaints and problems that cannot be readily resolved by frontlinestaff (e.g., via senior-level agents, dedicated customer relations teams,supervisors/managers). This ensures that, as a last resort, complaints of anynature are reaching the right level of the organization.


Key Points

• Business rules refer to various software and manual controls thatmanage contact routing, handling or follow up.

• Problems in creating business rules include: • Too complex • Too simple• Striving for perfection• Relying on official documentation

• Best practices in developing business rules include:• Maintain customer focus• Research, prototype, test and revise, then repeat• Include everybody affected• Communicate frequently and thoroughly

• Manual processes require business rules that define the actions staffshould take in specific situations, and may call for the use ofjudgment and experience.

Explanation

Business rules refers to various software and manual controls that managecontact routing, handling or follow up. The term is often used interchangeablywith workflow. Viewed simplistically, business rules are nothing but a sequenceof “if-then” statements. But when the entire range of possible actions that canbe undertaken by an organization is represented by such simple statements, theresult is a dense and complex forest of decision trees. Computer software andhardware can negotiate the complexity – that’s rarely the problem – but humanbeings have to develop the business rules. That’s a ongoing challenge bothbecause of the size of the job and because it is difficult to translate sophisticatedproblem-solving activity into “rules.”

Simple examples of business rules in action bombard us daily. When you go toyour favorite Web site and the screen greets you by name, a business rule thatchecked for a cookie on your computer correctly presented the personalizedgreeting. When you call your bank and the IVR selection you choose most

1 2 3Ready?


10. The Role of Business Rules 1 2 3


frequently is presented as the first option, a sophisticated business rule haslearned from your past interactions.

An example of how business rules drive contact-handling is illustrated in thefollowing graphic.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Some of the most common (and avoidable) problems in creating business rulesinclude:

• Too complex: The more complex business rules become, the harder theyare to maintain. The structure and organization of the business rulesneed to be as simple and clear as possible. Business rules must not be toocomplicated for people to update them quickly whenever changes occur.

• Too simple: At the opposite extreme, business rules that do not takeinto account all possible situations will also fail. It is important tounderstand and anticipate what customers may want or need at everystep in a process, and to develop a rule for each situation. Failure to dothis can frustrate customers (“I pressed zero to speak to an operatorbecause I couldn’t figure out how to ...”) and demoralize staff (“Does thissystem do anything?”). Overly simplistic systems can also lead to errors


Based on:¥Customer value, status, potential¥Cross- sell characteristics,

marketing campaigns¥CSR skills¥ Customer preference

ContactIdentified

HighValue

LowValue

CSRBusy?

No

Yes

AutoHandle?

Cross-sell Oppty?

Use decision supportto suggest offer

IVR orWeb

To CSRwith script

To CSRwith history

IVR orWeb

To CSRwith history

No

Yes

Yes

No

Who?

Why?

Source: Vanguard Communications Corporation, copyright 2001

Business Rules Drive Contact-Handling Flows


and rework, since customers (and staff ) may make inappropriate choicessimply because those choices are the only ones available.

• Striving for perfection: The perfect set of business rules has yet to bedeployed. Striving to be the first organization to accomplish this is a sureway to produce “analysis paralysis.” You do need to get it right –developing inappropriate or insufficient business rules is unacceptable –but it’s not necessary to tackle everything all at once. Attempting to rollout a perfect system increases the chance of failure, for it removes theopportunity to learn from early mistakes and so avoid repeating them asdevelopment continues.

• Relying on official documentation: Documented procedures are notalways the same as the processes actually practiced in the organization.There is no substitute for talking to the people who actually do the workto learn what processes really take place, and more importantly, why.Avoid the classic blunder of automating ineffective or outdated processes.

Best Practices to Strive For

The best ways to succeed in developing business rules should look familiar,since they are based in common sense and fundamental good business andproject management practices.

• Maintain customer focus: Build business rules that serve yourcustomers’ needs. Learn what those needs are and seek innovative ways tosatisfy them. Business rules should be developed with the customer’sperspective in mind. (See Identifying and Quantifying CustomerExpectations, Section 3.)

• Research, prototype, test and revise, then repeat: Use customer researchto anticipate needs and demands. Develop prototype systems to test theapplication of those conclusions. Revise the business rules based onanalysis of the test results. Repeat the process and keep building uponthe accumulated knowledge and experience.

• Include everybody affected: When defining business rules, it is better tobe too inclusive rather than exclusive in selecting project participants.Ask probing questions to uncover all the areas of the company andindividuals affected, so their input can be considered. Actively encouragethe team to take different perspectives and consider all angles. Don’tsimply assume that an area is not affected by or involved with the processyou are examining.



• Communicate frequently and thoroughly: Share information about thedeveloping business rules throughout the organization. It is not feasibleto include everyone on the project team, but a well-designedcommunication plan will invite participation from everyone in theorganization. It should build understanding and ownership by offeringexplanation and inviting comments.

Manual Business Rules

Software-based business rules get most of the attention, but it is unrealistic toexpect that every situation should be automated. Manual processes requirebusiness rules that define the actions staff should take in specific situations. Thebiggest difference, of course, is that software business rules must be precise inevery detail, while business rules for human beings can default to the judgmentand experience of your agents – which in many cases will be the best optionavailable.

Business rules for manual processes are nothing new. In fact, procedure manualsare common in most organizations. These are the business rules that have longdefined how organizations get work done. Beware of the potential disconnect,however, between formal procedures and the procedures that are actuallypracticed. Finding a dusty binder full of detailed process flows, for example,may turn out to be fool’s gold. It should not take the place of observing andlistening to staff who actually implement those processes.



Key Points

• Although there are hundreds of processes in a call center, most canbe grouped under five overarching operational responsibilities:

• Resource planning and management• Content provisioning• Reporting/communication• Organizational structure and design• Quality improvement

• Each of these critical processes must be tailored to support customerrelationship management initiatives.

Explanation

Establishing, maintaining and continuously improving planning andmanagement processes is an important part of successful customer relationshipmanagement implementation. Although there are hundreds of processes in acall center, most can be grouped under five overarching operationalresponsibilities, each of which must be tailored to support customerrelationship management initiatives:

• Resource planning and management

• Content provisioning

• Reporting/communication

• Organizational structure and design

• Quality improvement

Resource Planning and Management

Resource planning and management involves such key activities as forecasting,staff- and system-capacity calculations, scheduling, simulating “what-if”scenarios, redefining agent group structure to support strategic initiatives, andimproving collaboration and planning across the organization.

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1 2 311. The Planning and Management Process


The bulk of this process is workforce management. Workforce management isthe process of minimizing the labor involved in meeting a desired service level,while considering agent preferences and scheduling needs. Getting the rightpeople and supporting resources in the right place at the right times is aprerequisite to achieving customer relationship management initiatives.Without accurate resource planning, customers will not have accessibility to theservices they require and the organization will not have the means to captureand leverage information from customer interactions.

(This process is covered in detail in ICMI’s Call Center Operations ManagementStudy Guide.)

Content Provisioning

Today’s environment demands customer-focused, unified information accessacross all channels of contact and departments, and the capability to store andintegrate customer information in real-time. Consequently, contentprovisioning – the process of creating, formatting, and disseminatinginformation to support effective customer interactions – must be in sync withcustomer relationship management objectives.

Content provisioning is an involved but critical process. TARP has derived aframework of 19 key contact-handling functions. As the organization evolvesand new call center services are rolled out, each of these areas must beconsidered:


2.Collect Data

8.Calculate

Costs

3.Forecast Call

Load

4.Calculate Base

Staff

5.Calculate

Trunks (AndRelated System

Resources)

7.Organize

Schedules

9.Repeat For aHigher and

Lower Level ofService

1.Choose

Service Leveland

ResponseTime

Objectives

6.Calculate

Rostered StaffFactor

(Shrinkage)


• Screening involves separating contact types and forwarding them to theappropriate channel for handling.

• Logging involves recording certain data elements describing the natureand status of the contact on computerized or paper forms.

• Classification involves coding contacts according to predetermineddescriptive schemes.

• Response investigation involves investigating individual contacts toidentify issues defining the customer’s requirement.

• Response formulation involves using investigative findings and existingresponse rules and guidelines to formulate an appropriate and accurateresponse to the customer.

• Response production involves the mechanical production of theformulated response.

• Distribution involves routing the call center’s response to the customerand other interested parties (e.g., senior management, line analysts, etc.).

• Storage and retrieval involves storing contact files in a central locationand retrieving such files for subsequent uses such as policy analysis.

• Internal followup involves controlling the disposition of contactshandled inhouse through monitoring techniques.

• Referral followup involves controlling contacts handled by otherdepartments through monitoring techniques.

• Statistical generation involves the aggregation and tabulation of contactdata describing the contacts received and the operations of the callcenter.

• Policy analysis involves interpreting the data provided via statisticalgeneration and assessing its policy implications and ramifications.

• Input to policy involves putting policy analysis findings andrecommendations into their final format and presenting them to seniormanagement and other constituents.

• Evaluation involves periodically assessing the performance of agents andthe call center overall, from the perspective of both process and outcomeeffectiveness.

• Planning involves developing formal plans for the call center that addressthe handling of individual contacts and the identification of the root



causes of reasons for contact.

• Proactive communication involves contacting customers to educate themon how to avoid problems or to assure that the first contact is a positiveone for new customers.

• Incentives involve providing call center personnel with performanceincentives that encourage the prevention and effective handling ofcustomer contacts.

• Staff selection and training involves selecting and training personnel forcontacts handling.

• Creation of public awareness involves making customers aware of thecall center and teaching them how to access it.

Reporting/Communication

Reporting on total customer experiences has become more difficult in themultichannel environment. For example, traditional service level reports cantell a manager what percentage of calls were handled in N seconds by agentanswer groups. But what about customers who used IVR or Web-basedservices? Or who sent an email message? And what about transactions thatinclude multiple channels; e.g., the customer begins on the Web, reverts to chatand then follows with a telephone call or email message? Couple thesepossibilities with customer differentiation and measuring customer experiencesbecomes much more complex – and much more necessary.

Understanding the anatomy of a total customer experience – and tracking andmanaging it accordingly – is essential to effective customer relationshipmanagement. The solution, though not easy, involves measuring experiencesacross all channels, drilling into data from multiple systems, interpreting reportsas they relate to each other and synthesizing this information into knowledgethat can help the organization improve products, services and customerrelationships. It also involves providing first-hand call center experiences toother departments.

The following seven steps outline an effective approach for analyzing and/orchoosing reports for upper-level management and other departments.

1. Determine objectives

2. Determine which reports support objectives

3. Determine format for ease-of-use



4. Provide further explanation as necessary

5. Determine where additional insight is required

6. Couple reports with education

7. Arrange a forum for discussing/acting on the information

Organizational Structure and Design

The building blocks of call center structure start at the agent group level; e.g.,how agents will be grouped, based on products and services, customerrequirements and segmentation, existing skill sets, experience levels, languagesand so forth. (See Organization Design Considerations, Section 5.)

Quality Improvement

The proliferation of different media demands that call centers learn whatexpectations customers attach to each channel, and then develop theappropriate quality processes to meet or exceed these expectations. This can bea daunting task, especially when taking into account the interrelated systems,functions and elements that exist in today’s call center, but it is essential toeffective customer relationship management. (See Isolating Root Causes ofDissatisfaction, Section 4.)

(For a complete discussion of quality improvement tools, see ICMI’s CallCenter Operations Management Study Guide.)

This item was developed by TARP and ICMI. Contents copyrighted to TARP and/or ICMI,Inc., 2002.



Key Points

• Organizations are required to focus their hiring and training effortson making sure they have the right people with the right skills tobring customer relationship management efforts to life.

• Customized hiring tactics that support customer relationshipmanagement initiatives:

• Require new skill sets • Create comprehensive job profiles, including clear requirements

and competencies• Professionalize the agent role (with commensurate pay)• Use approporiate evaluation tools

• Characteristics of training programs that support customerrelationship management initiatives:

• Promote multimedia training• Reflect organizational priorities and strategies• Emphasize ongoing, continual training• Encourage empowerment and decision-making skills rather than

rote memorization

Explanation

Modifying the call center’s existing hiring and training initiatives to supportcustomer relationship management objectives is an essential element of anorganization’s comprehensive strategy. Customer relationship managementinitiatives result in increasingly complex transactions, implementation ofsophisticated technology tools, new channels of communication and newobjectives centered on managing customer relationships. Organizations arerequired to focus their hiring and training efforts on making sure they have theright people with the right skills to bring customer relationship managementefforts to life.

In addition to modifying the organization’s hiring practices to reflect morespecialized skills, the new breed of agent and manager will require ongoingtraining and development to keep up with increased customer expectations and

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12. Aligning Hiring and Training Initiatives


changes to existing workload patterns. While some organizations hire onlyemployees who possess 100 percent of the skills and abilities required for theposition, limitations in education and customized applications often mean theorganization will have to invest in advancing the skills and knowledge of theiremployees.

Hiring

Customized hiring tactics that support customer relationship managementinitiatives:

• Require new skill sets: Traditional requirements and screening tools maynot yield candidates who are a good match for the evolving call center.Organizations will need agents, for example, who are adaptable tochange, who are able to quickly learn new technology, who have moresophisticated communication skills to handle written and verbalcommunication, who have mature judgment and decision-makingcapabilities, who can multitask and who can sell.

• Create comprehensive job profiles, including clear requirements andcompetencies: As organizations introduce new objectives andmeasurements, it’s imperative they communicate to employees andmanagers clear requirements and expectations for evolving, increasinglysophisticated positions.

• Professionalize the agent role (with commensurate pay): Many callcenters have begun to pursue agents with superior writing skills, withcollege degrees, with specialized certifications and work experience.These agents often can command positions with higher social status andpay than traditional call center positions. Call centers will be required toincreasingly professionalize the agent position (offer greater recognition,respect and autonomy) and offer competitive pay rates.

• Use appropriate evaluation tools: Evaluation tools must reflect thecomplexity of the tasks and actions required by employees in theforward-thinking call center. Examples of how the hiring practice can bemodified to include a more comprehensive set of evaluation toolsinclude:

• Utilize multiple screening tools and interview processes

• Test for writing skills using email, text chat, etc.

• Create realistic simulations of common task scenarios



• Conduct face-to-face and Web-based role plays

Training

The role of training and development in the organization is integral to the roleof the call center in fulfilling customer relationship management objectives.Rather than depending on offering the cheapest and/or best products as theircompetitive advantage, organizations are depending on their employees’ skillsand knowledge as a key differentiator. Training and education programs are avital component in ensuring that employees have the knowledge and skills tooffer the best customer experience.

An effective trainer who supports customer relationship management initiativeswill be:

• A cheerleader and a champion: The trainer should be able to explainand demonstrate the powerful impact of the agent on the customerexperience, show commitment to customer relationship managementinitiatives and create consistency in the message throughout the callcenter.

• A facilitator and empowerer: A departure from the schoolteachermodel, the trainer will be required to facilitate learning and empoweremployees to continuously learn and take risks in the learning process.

• Comfortable with new technologies: The constantly changing face ofthe agent desktop and sophisticated, complex technology tools requiretrainers to internalize new technologies and effectively create trainingmodules that will ensure participants are quickly brought up to speed.

• Focused on agent skills, plus: The expanded skills required of agents tosupport customer relationship management objectives – excellent writingskills, flexibility, ability to learn new skills, judgment and decision-making competencies – must be demonstrated and taught by thetraining team.

Training programs that support customer relationship management initiativeshave the following characteristics. They:

• Promote multimedia training: The more sophisticated, professionalworker employed in the customer relationship-focused call center willdemand fast-paced, engaging training to keep his or her attention.Multimedia training can help fulfill this need and provide flexibility inhow training is delivered; e.g., in the classroom, on the agent’s desktop,



in small groups or to the entire organization.

• Reflect organizational priorities and customer relationship managementstrategies: In an integrated, customer-focused company, the trainingdepartment must design training programs that incorporate customerrelationship management vision, strategy and objectives andcommunicate to employees their essential role in contributing to thesuccess of these goals.

• Emphasize ongoing, continual training: Just-in-time training, self-studymodules, one-on-one sessions and other creative solutions are required toensure employees possess the constantly evolving skills required tosupport customer relationship management initiatives.

• Encourage empowerment and decision-making skills rather than rotememorization: In addition to learning standard policy and procedures,training participants should be encouraged to determine the best courseof action in unique customer situations and to implement creativesolutions. (See Empowering People to Build Customer Relationships, thissection.)

(For comprehensive information on call center hiring and training practices, seeICMI’s Call Center People Management Study Guide.)



Key Points

• With customer relationship management, gone are the days of thereactive call center whose primary concern is simply having enough“butts in seats” to handle the workload. Instead, managers have tobetter understand customer expectations and behavior, and providethe appropriate “brains in seats” – agents who can take all that theyknow about the customer and build profitable relationships based onthat information.

• For a successful empowerment program, managers need to:• Encourage autonomy• Openly share information• Provide open policies, procedures and systems• Provide focused training and coaching• Obtain employee buy-in• Trust employees to make decisions• Give recognition for good work

• In turn, agents must:• Take initiative and make decisions within the context of

specified guidelines• Bring solutions to – rather than merely identify – problems• Recognize when additional expertise is needed• Foster a spirit of cooperation and collaboration

Explanation

Treating different customers differently often requires a dramatic shift in thetraditional call center management mindset. The move from serving customersto managing relationships and enhancing revenue may seem subtle, but itbrings with it a change in the management/employee relationship.

With customer relationship management, gone are the days of the reactive callcenter whose primary concern is simply having enough “butts in seats” tohandle the workload. Instead, managers have to better understand customerexpectations and behavior, and provide the appropriate “brains in seats” –

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13. Empowering People to Build Customer Relationships

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agents who can take all that they know about the customer and build profitablerelationships based on that information. Managers and agents need tocontinually focus on such key questions as “What is our relationship with thiscustomer?” “When did they last call?” “Why did they call?” and “Who did theytalk to?”

The irony is that, as the call center evolves and embraces the power of customerrelationship management, it is in essence reverting back to the nearly lost art ofone-to-one customer service that used to take place in neighborhood businesses.Delivering such highly personalized service today necessitates further changes totraditional call center management practices.

For example, managers may need to reevaluate traditional performancemeasurement tactics. Once agents have been given the mandate to forge andmanage relationships, managers need to give them the support and flexibility todo so. Overemphasizing talk time objectives and number of calls handled maydeter agents from spending the necessary time needed to fully satisfy and createloyalty among high-profile customers. Instead, managers should use monitoringand coaching to provide agents with feedback to improve their ability to meetthe call center’s objectives. (See Supporting Call Center Objectives, Section 5.)Call center managers should strive to manage agents less and empower them tomake decisions on the fly to enhance the power of customer relationshipmanagement.

Management and Agent Actions to Support Empowerment

True empowerment results in a change in the relationship between managementand agents. Ultimately, the manager’s job shifts from providing agents with theinformation to communicate to customers to providing them with the decision-making and customer satisfaction skills to decide what information should begiven to customers.

For a successful empowerment program, managers need to:

• Encourage autonomy

• Openly share information

• Provide open policies, procedures and systems

• Provide focused training and coaching

• Obtain employee buy-in

• Trust employees to make decisions



• Give recognition for good work

In turn, agents must:

• Take initiative and make decisions within the context of specifiedguidelines

• Offer solutions to – rather than merely identify – problems

• Recognize when additional expertise is needed

• Foster a spirit of cooperation and collaboration

The Impact on Agents

With customer relationship management strategies calling for such a shift in thetraditional call center mindset, the impact on call center agents can besignificant. Agents are discouraged from merely “sticking to company line” andare encouraged to think outside the box and personalize customer experiences.There will be new tools and more information to be managed. Training willbecome more important as agents acquire not only product knowledge andcustomer service skills, but also decision-making and negotiation skills. Thechange in culture can be difficult for agents to adjust to, so managers shouldkeep agents involved throughout the transition to a more empoweredenvironment.

As customer relationship management practices evolve in the call center andagents become indispensable knowledge workers, managers may need toreconsider their compensation schemes for frontline staff. Many agents withsolid customer service, sales and technical skills, and who can effectively analyzeand write strong responses to customer email, will likely command higher pay.Organizations that don’t pay agents what they are worth – with regard torevenue generation and customer retention – will lose agents to organizationsthat have a stronger human resources investment in customer relationshipmanagement.

(For more information on empowerment, see ICMI’s Call Center PeopleManagement Study Guide.)



Key Points

• A call center environment that is focused on effectively leveragingeach customer interaction requires individual and team objectivesthat are centered on the right goals. The nature of overlappingresponsibilities in the integrated organization and the emphasis ondifficult to quantify relationship-building skills can leave individualsand teams in the dark about the relationship between what they doand what the call center is trying to achieve.

• In the customer relationship-oriented environment, there are anumber of considerations to take into account before creating newor refining existing objectives:

• The essential interdependence in teams, work groups,departments can create conflict

• The right functional technology tools will facilitate the abilityto track key performance objectives

• Each call center employee and team should be held topredefined performance objectives

Explanation

A call center environment that is focused on effectively leveraging eachcustomer interaction requires individual and team objectives that are centeredon the right goals. The nature of overlapping responsibilities in the integratedorganization and the emphasis on difficult to quantify relationship-buildingskills can leave individuals and teams in the dark about the relationshipbetween what they do and what the call center is trying to achieve.

The criteria by which an organization judges a quality contact may change inthe customer-focused, multichannel environment. A combination of newobjectives (e.g., customer satisfaction data gathered using automated systems)and reprioritized traditional objectives (e.g., providing the customer withaccurate information) will measure overall individual, team and call centerperformance. You should remember that some objectives are counter-productive, such as talk time quotas and number of contacts handled quotas.(See Supporting Call Center Objectives, Section 5.)

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1 2 314. Individual and Team Performance Objectives


Individual Performance Objectives

An increased emphasis on more sophisticated interactions and improvedperformance measurement and reporting capabilities has changed the wayindividual performance objectives are viewed. Managers will rely less on static,inflexible measurements – such as whether the agent followed the three-stepopening or asked the scripted qualifying questions – and turn to more dynamicmeasurements that are intended to measure the customer experience, e.g.,customer satisfaction measurements, the ability to respond uniquely to thecustomer’s individualized needs, persistence, empathy, appropriate upselling andcross-selling The organization may look at the ultimate result of the call: Didthe customer have to call back or followup? Was the agent able to achieve aone-call resolution? Was the customer satisfied? Was data captured fordownstream purposes?

Key individual objectives that support customer relationship managementinitiatives include:

• Adherence measurements: Adherence to schedule, or signed-on time, isa measurement of how much time an individual is available to handlecalls vs. the time he or she was scheduled to handle calls. Adherence toschedule is an important measurement because it directly impacts howquickly contacts are handled.

• Qualitative measurements: In most call centers, qualitative criteria,which focus on knowledge of products and services, customer service andrelationship-building skills, continue to become more refined andspecific. An important part of meeting strategic customer relationshipmanagement objectives is to ensure that agents take the necessary time tohandle each contact appropriately – e.g., to thoroughly address thecustomer’s question or problem, capture needed and useful information,cross-sell and upsell as appropriate, and look for opportunities to buildcustomer satisfaction and loyalty.

These objectives should be reflected in quality criteria. Quality involvesdoing things right – not rushing calls, but also not spending excess timeon calls over and above what is necessary to satisfy callers and handlethem completely and correctly. If qualitative measurements are refinedenough to ensure that agents are spending the appropriate amount oftime handling calls, then adherence and qualitative measurements make apowerful pair. In fact, measuring contacts handled becomes unnecessaryand quotas on average handling time are also unnecessary and potentiallycounterproductive.



If implemented well, qualitative and adherence measurements can cultivatebetter quality, higher productivity and the environment necessary to fulfill theorganization’s customer relationship management objectives.

Team Performance Objectives

In many forward-thinking call centers, less importance is placed on individualperformance objectives, as agents are encouraged to perform within the contextof their team and rewarded for contributing to team, call center andorganizational goals. Team achievements are often measured against similarobjectives as individuals (e.g., contact quality, first-call resolution, low rate oferrors and rework, customer satisfaction). The same objectives, measuredcollectively, show the organization’s emphasis on teamwork and on theimportance of everyone in the organization consistently meeting objectives.(See Cross-Functional Teams and Accountabilities, this section.)

Considerations When Setting Objectives

In the customer relationship-oriented environment, there are a number ofconsiderations to take into account before creating new or refining existingobjectives:

• The essential interdependence among teams, work groups anddepartments can create conflict: The increasing importance on datasharing across all business units and the spotlight on all business units’affects on customer satisfaction and loyalty require an unprecedentedlevel of interdependence in many organizations. This scenario may sparkcompetitiveness for resources and recognition if teamwork andcohesiveness are not achieved and if team objectives are not carefullycreated and measured.

• The right functional technology tools will facilitate the ability to trackkey performance objectives: Monitoring technology tools that record,store and analyze voice and data interactions, automated customersatisfaction measurement tools, more sophisticated tracking andreporting of all call center statistics make tracking key performanceobjectives easier than ever. Managers should proceed with caution,however, to ensure they aren’t measuring and reporting for its own sakebut using the tools and data to focus on clearly defined performanceobjectives.

• Each call center employee – agents, supervisors, managers/directors,workforce planners, quality specialists, IT – and team should be held



to predefined performance objectives: In an environment in whichcustomer satisfaction is at the heart of the organization’s vision, everyemployee should held to performance objectives that affect thecustomer’s experience; e.g., schedule accuracy for workforce planners,Web site functionality and down time for IT, call quality scores forsupervisors, team performance for managers.

(For a complete discussion on performance objectives, see ICMI’s Call CenterPeople Management Study Guide.)



Key Points

• Cross-functional teams foster the critical organizationalcommunication and cooperation essential for the success of customerrelationship management initiatives.

• As the hub of customer communications, the call center is thecentral point for gathering customer information and disseminatingthat information throughout the organization to cross-functionalgroups, e.g., marketing, sales, finance, IT, fulfillment, where theycan use the information to align processes with customerexpectations.

• Cross-functional teams can orient groups toward a common set ofcustomer relationship initiatives by:

• Sharing information and tools• Highlighting the role of the call center• Addressing barriers to achieving customer satisfaction• Aligning departmental objectives with customer relationship

management objectives

Explanation

Creating an organizationwide focus on achieving a common set of customerrelationship management goals requires increased interdependency betweendepartments and teams. The complexity of interdependency creates the needfor a formalized team structure – the cross-functional team – to facilitateeffective communication and cooperation among teams.

As the hub of customer communications, the call center is the central point forgathering customer information and disseminating that informationthroughout the organization to cross-functional groups (e.g., marketing, sales,finance, IT, fulfillment) where they can use the information to align processeswith customer expectations. While each of these business and work groupscontinue to operate as independent units, cross-functional teams can orientgroups toward a common set of customer relationship initiatives by:

• Sharing information and tools: Sharing tools, customer data, product

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15. Cross-Functional Teams and Accountabilities 1 2 3


development information, marketing data, common business practicesand innovative ideas are essential to easing navigation in the complexwaters of customer relationship management. Cross-functional teamsassist organizations in eliminating duplicate efforts, leveraging technologyand ensuring that the right information is factored into critical businessdecisions across the organization.

For example, a cosmetics retailer may create a cross-functional teamwhose purpose is to meet once a month to brainstorm on new productideas. This team may consist of product development and marketing (forexpertise and market trends), call center agents and managers (toanticipate customer reaction and acceptance based on customerinteraction experience), and finance (for the financial impact of decisionsand a historical look at financially successful vs. unsuccessful products).

• Highlighting the role of the call center: The customer-centric businesspractices integral to customer relationship management initiatives placeunprecedented focus on the call center as the central point of customercontact. Cross-functional team members from the call center canhighlight the importance of channeling information into the call centerwhich affects operations (e.g., marketing promotions, productavailability, technology upgrades, billing issues) and, therefore, thecustomer experience. In addition, call center champions can educateteam members on the critical role of the call center in achievingcustomer satisfaction and in amassing the data required for strategiccustomer relationship management analysis.

• Addressing barriers to achieving customer satisfaction: While the callcenter is often held responsible for customer satisfaction, many factorsoutside of the call center’s span of control affect the customer experience.Cross-functional teams are uniquely positioned to delve deeply intoissues across the organization that affect customer satisfaction and putquick-fixes in place when problems are discovered.

For example, if the call center’s customer satisfaction data shows a highlevel of dissatisfaction with the organization’s shipping procedures,existing lines of communication and a history of cooperation with thedistribution department can expedite a resolution to the problem.

• Aligning departmental objectives with customer relationshipmanagement objectives: Cross-functional associations reinforce theorganizationwide commitment to customer relationship managementprinciples by ensuring that they are at the forefront of each individual



business objective. No longer effective operating in a vacuum,independent departments will find that their customer relationshipmanagement objectives dovetail and are dependent on those of otherdepartments as they move toward the same overarching customersatisfaction objectives.

(For more information on teams, see ICMI’s Call Center People ManagementStudy Guide.)




Exercises

Customer Relationship Management Technologies

1. Match the following terms with their definitions on the right. You will useeach definition only once.

______Automatic number identification (ANI)

______Call tracking and logging systems

______Customer-focused reporting tools

______Customized recording

______Dialed number identification service (DNIS)

______Priority queuing applications

______Screen pops

______Skills-based routing tools

______Web-based routing tools


a. Identifies customers based on the tele-phone number from which they are calling.

b. Allows supervisors and managers to pro-gram exactly what type of customer calls theywant the system to record.

c. Match a customer’s specific needs with anagent that has the particular skills to handlethe contact.

d. Deliver customer information to theagent’s desktop at the same time the call isbeing routed.

e. Recognize individual online customers and“push” specific Web pages or documents totheir desktop.

f. Programming that “bumps” higher-valuecustomers up in the queue to ensure thatthey receive the most efficient service.

g. Provide “cradle-to-grave” reporting on allcustomer activity that takes place throughany access channel.

h. Indicates what number the caller dialed.

i. Collect such information as the types ofcontacts received, customer history, call cod-ing, etc.


Desktop Tools and Workflow

2. Select the most appropriate answer to the question.

Which of the following desktop applications are able to trigger appropriatescreens and workflows based on the individual customer, his or her relationshipwith the organization and the nature of the transaction?

a. Automated fulfillment applications

b. Business rules based desktop applications

c. Email and Web contact management applications

d. Screen pops

3. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word to complete each sentence.

In a _________________ client world, much of the software resides on the PCon the agent’s desktop.

In a _________________ client world, the software resides on a server that isaccessed by the agents’ desktop computers equipped with a browser and/orminimal software.

Data Warehousing and Data Mining


Which of the following statements are true?

I. Report generators will lose effectiveness when data definitions do not agreefrom one database to another.

II. Data mining examines information in a database using any of a number ofdifferent mathematical models and seeks to identify patterns hidden there.

III. Data warehousing is often used to create the hypotheses, rather than justtesting a hypothesis defined by analysts.

a. I only

b. II and III only

c. I and III only

d. I and II only



Fulfilling Promises to Customers


A company whose brand suggests “ease” and “easy-to-do-business with” wouldmost likely want to staff its center with:

a. agents who are trained to navigate multiple complex issues

b. highly-specialized agents

A financial services firm that presents the image of “authority on all yourfinancial strategies” would most likely want to staff its center with:

a. agents who are trained to navigate multiple complex issues

b. highly-specialized agents

Managing Customer Complaints

6. True or false

______Research has found that when customers experience problems that arenot resolved to their satisfaction, loyalty drops by 15 to 30 percentagepoints.

______Customers with complaints that have been efficiently and satisfactorilyresolved are more likely to repurchase than those who have neverexperienced a problem with the organization.

The Role of Business Rules

7. True or false

______When developing business rules, it is important to rely on officialdocumentation.

______When defining business rules, it is better to have a small project teamso that the rules can be developed more efficiently..

Planning and Management Processes

8. Briefly answer the following question.

Why is accurate resource planning a prerequisite to achieving customerrelationship management initiatives?



Empowering People to Build Customer Relationships

9. Briefly answer the following questions.

a. Why are talk time objectives and number of calls handled objectivesoften counter-productive to empowering agents to build relationships?

b. True empowerment results in a change in the relationship betweenmanagement and agents. Ultimately, the manager’s job shifts fromproviding agents with the information to communicate to customers toproviding them with what?

Individual and Team Performance Objectives

10. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words to complete the sentence.

Key individual objectives that support customer relationship management

initiatives include _________________ measurements and_________________ measurements.

Answers to these exercises are in Section 10.

Note: These exercises are intended to help you retain the material learned.While not the exact questions as on the CIAC Certification assessment, thematerial in this study guide fully addresses the content on which you will beassessed. For a formal practice test, please contact the CIAC directly by visitingwww.ciac-cert.org.



Supporting Technologies and ProcessesReference Bibliography

Related Articles from Call Center Management Review(See Section 9)

Technologies Enabling Customer Relationship Management

Multi-Channel Routing with Customer Interaction Management Technology

Customer Information Systems: Taking Sales and Service to a New Level

Identify CRM Interfaces to Ensure Smooth Process and Service LevelAlignment

Demand Chain Management Align CIM/CRM Strategies

The Elements of Effective Web Self-Service

Are Agents Delivering on the Promise Your Company Makes to Customers?

Understand the Employee-Customer Satisfaction Link for Positive Impact

For Further Study

Books/Studies

Bocklund, Lori and Dave Bengtson. Call Center Technology Demystified: TheNo-Nonsense Guide to Bridging Customer Contact Technology, Operations andStrategy. Call Center Press, 2002.

Cleveland, Brad and Julia Mayben. Call Center Management on Fast Forward:Succeeding in Today’s Dynamic Inbound Environment. Call Center Press, 1999.

Articles

Calhoon, Bruce. “Understanding and Implementing Desktop ProductivityTools.” Call Center Management Review Special Technology Issue, December1999.

D’Ausilio, Rosanne. “The Impact of Conflict Management Training onCustomer Service Delivery.” Call Center Management Review, November 1997.



“Using Complaints for Quality, Service, and Marketing Decisions.” TARPWhite Paper, www.tarp.com, May 2001.

Seminars

Results-Oriented Monitoring and Coaching for Improved Call Center Performancepublic seminar, presented by Incoming Calls Management Institute.

Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Incoming Call Center Managementpublic seminar, presented by Incoming Calls Management Institute.

Understanding and Applying Today’s Call Center Technologies public seminar,presented by Vanguard Communications Corporation and sponsored byIncoming Calls Management Institute.


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