THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE 2 • 2016
The
Operations Issue ❯❯ Top trends for 2016: It’s all about customer experience ❯❯ 10 tips to engage remote agents ❯❯ When should you hire an outside expert?
The Operations Issue
Top contact centre trends for 2016: It’s all about customer experience By Andrew McNair
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s businesses and brands become ever more competitive vying for attention in a cluttered marketplace, the ability to deliver a compelling, engaging and successful customer experience (CX) continues to stand out as a distinguishing factor that sets businesses apart from one another. Now in its 19th year, Dimension Data’s 2016 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report highlights that 82.5% of some 1,320 organizations polled across 81 countries now view the contact centre as the key differentiator for their business. Furthermore, the report evidences a corporate understanding that every interaction between a customer and the organization forms expectations and brand perception. A positive experience is now shown to encourage brand attachment, trust and loyalty among customers, eventually improving business performance and driving higher revenue. Improved analytics are helping to validate these benefits directly related to an improved CX and justify boardroom buy-in to its ability to also improve customer loyalty and reduce costs. At the same time, an accelerated migration of traffic to digital channels such as web chat, social media and mobile means organizations have had to transform their strategies to keep pace with customer expectations. Power has shifted in favour of consumers as digital channel choice combine with social media to alter behaviors. Technology has become an enabler, with contact centres evolving into contact hubs, creating a seamless CX. Businesses need to innovate and orchestrate their efforts in order to create a unified CX across various channels. Findings from the report show that digital technology
is completely transforming the North American contact centre industry. However, it’s not without challenges and if anything the pressures to deliver are growing. Beyond, organizations now recognizing customer experience (CX) as a key differentiator—it’s emerged as the top indicator of strategic performance in the boardroom and the demand for a seamless ‘omnichannel’ customer journeys is the top industry trend. Yet the report highlights that digital channels could be more powerful, making for more effective CXs, if shown more of a ‘human touch’, and with it, maximize the technology capability.
CX dominates the digital revolution CX is the dominating force toward a technology-based service revolution as organizations mature their contact management strategies and develop better quality migration paths toward digital channel choice. Organizations now better appreciate the intelligence provided by customer analytics. It’s helping them validate business benefits and justify investment in technology that will elevate service capabilities. By focusing on CX, organizations
are using analytics to better link the impact of CX back to revenue growth, customer loyalty and cost reduction through greater efficiency. It also leads to happy employees, as over three-quarters (77.5%) of North American contact centres acknowledge the impact of good CX delivery on employee engagement. As customer journeys span combinations of the nine different contact channels now offered by the majority of service providers, organizations are intent on connecting their systems and improving consumer experiences. Full channel integration—that is, omnichannel capability—is set to nearly triple within the next two years. Customer journey mapping tracking user patterns has emerged as a top trend alongside analytics that will reshape the industry over the next five years. But, for now, capability is lacking, and 68.4% can’t track interactions that span multiple channels, and just 13.2% of respondents can locate problem hotspots that affect CX. While ease-of-contact and a variety of touchpoints give a newfound convenience for consumers engaging with service providers, it’s also driving additional
CX is the dominating force toward a technology-based service revolution as organizations mature their contact management strategies and develop better quality migration paths toward digital channel choice. 2 | contact management
Issue 2 • 2016
The Operations Issue contacts. Interaction levels are on the rise for 73.2% of North American contact centres, and most of it’s going digital as almost every digital channel experiences volume increases. Yet the transition toward digital isn’t reaching its full potential and, for now, a missing human touch is causing the gap between service delivery and customer expectations to widen.
The missing human touch Digital volumes handled by contact centres remain on track to exceed agent-led phone interactions by the end of 2016. As service consumers embrace digital it’s led to a further 12.5% shrinkage of phone in the split of interactions handled by contact centres. CX is now the top reason for offering self- and assisted-service channels, ahead of cost. However, just 17.5% of respondents say their digital technology will meet future needs. The problem is that organizations are frequently being unclear about who owns, oversees and manages the digital channels in their contact centres. It’s this lack of accountability and focus that impacts the design and resulting effectiveness of the digital solutions and, by consequence, how customers engage with their businesses. The report indicates that businesses tend to design new contact channels in isolation, often without any involvement from the contact centre. Research reveals that nearly half (49.0%) are excluded from, or are only partially involved in, the design phase of new technology solutions in contact centres, while 58.0% have little or no involvement in solution approvals. It’s impacting the effectiveness of the technology. In fact, one third (32.5%) of organizations said that their digital channel systems don’t meet existing business needs. Contact centres clearly need to be more involved in approving the design of digital CX solutions. Performance management disciplines perfected on the phone need to be applied across the entire CX spectrum. Measurement of cost and time per interaction is currently lacking on most digital service channels, which suggests an absence of consistency in management approach. Just four in 10 (39.0%) respondents said they track quality on digital, compared with 91.2% on phone. Some 79.4% reported that they have processes to identify sales opportunities on phone, compared with 50.7% on digital. As technology dependency levels are growing, the pressure to get it right is deepening. Digital demands are broadening, but organizations are struggling to connect disparate systems. Legacy infrastructure, placed alongside a growing stretch on resources, are the main inhibitors to success. It’s causing many organizations to look at hybrid technology models to increase the power of their digital channel systems and provide a more agile backbone for new service options.
Cloud making a powerful impact Putting it simply, traditional technology approaches can’t keep pace with innovation. Solution focus has now shifted from contact centre infrastructure to delivery models that connect customer journeys and enhance end-user experiences. For many, hosted cloud is seen as a solution that drives powerful results. In fact, moving to the cloud, in one form or another, is becoming an industry standard. Of current cloud users, 92.3% recognize its value in providing a seamless customer contact platform. Some 87.0% said this approach gives them access to new functionality in their contact centres, while 82.4% agree it has reduced costs. Issue 2 • 2016
The results are compelling and are driving rapid adoption of cloudbased models. The report shows that usage levels are set to more than double to 53.6%. Most are leaning toward a hybrid cloud solution that fuses legacy systems to the cloud. This blended model is fast becoming the ‘go-to’ enabler for many in the industry. A transformational approach toward more flexible, alternative procurement solutions is evident. Looking ahead, technology enabled service strategies, supported by analytics as the number one trend to reshape the industry in the coming five years, will drive a new personalization of services. It will help identify opportunity for
proactive automatic solutions, which when applied will transform the entire industry... and for everyone’s benefit. We’re on the cusp of a service revolution. Positive, proactive, and personal CX will soon be a reality. Andrew McNair has been with Dimension Data for 15 years and Head of Global Benchmarking since 2010. With 19 years senior customer management experience across the UK, Europe, Australia, North America and South Africa, he possesses exceptional industry insight and a wealth of strategic vision. Andrew’s role encompasses responsibilities as Head of Solutions, allowing for continued practitioner involvement on the evolution of the industry.
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The Operations Issue
10 tips
to engage remote agents By Mike Aoki
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magine being alone in your home, answering customer phone calls, emails and text messages all day. Imagine never seeing your co-workers or manager face-to-face. On top of that, imagine being monitored by technology that records your calls, your availability and even your computer keystrokes and mouse movements. Does that sound like a cold, impersonal place to work? Of course it does. Thankfully, there are ways to improve employee engagement and make remote agents feel part of the team.
1) Team managers must be proactive and well organized Managing remote agents requires you to proactively coach and engage your offsite team. Since you cannot walk up to your agent’s desk and just start talking, you have to schedule your one-on-one coaching sessions and virtual team meetings ahead of time. In addition, let your remote agents know when you are available in case they need help. This may involve allowing them to see your calendar in Outlook or using other tools to show if you are online. Ensure you respond promptly to emails, texts and phone calls. Unlike in-house agents, remote staff cannot tell if you are at your desk just by walking across the floor. You need the virtual equivalent of an “open door policy” since they cannot actually see when your door is open.
2) Leverage technology to build relationships Relationships can be built online. Technologies such as Skype, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting and WebEx make it possible to experience live, real-time visual and audio communication with your remote agents. Seeing your face and hearing your voice creates a better sense of connection than reading an email from you. So, do not settle for just a phone call or email. Leverage technology to increase your personal connection with your remote agents.
3) Get everyone talking during virtual meetings Become a great facilitator who encourages everyone to participate in meetings. Since your weekly or monthly Google Hangouts or GoToMeeting event is online, it can be challenging to get people to talk. Encourage people to ask questions and share ideas by calling upon them by name. Also, let agents ask other agents about trends and best practices. You need to promote interactivity so remote agents feel more engaged with their peers and the company.
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4) Ensure remote agents are involved in new training and announcements Trust is the key. Remote agents may already feel isolated. If they are left out of the loop even once, trust will erode. Build a communication plan for your remote agents, offering them extra time on video conferencing to review announcements and ask questions. You can leverage technology such as product videos, online demonstrations and webcasts to ensure every team member, whether in-house or remote, gets the same information.
5) Constantly ask for feedback and do something with it! Ask your remote agents for feedback on customer trends, processes and procedures. They are a great source of information since they communicate with customers on a daily basis. Listen to their ideas. Let them know their suggestions are being heard (this is true for onsite agents as well, but even more so for remote agents who may already feel left out).
6) Let agents communicate with each other, as well as with the manager Leverage your company’s Skype, instant messaging or similar technologies to help remote agents communicate with each other on a professional basis. This allows Agent A to ask Agent B a question regarding their customer notes. It also builds team morale as agents get to know each other.
7) Offer support after a challenging customer interaction I train people on how to handle irate calls, so I’ve seen firsthand how those calls wear down an agent’s energy level and focus. Empower your remote agents to contact you to debrief and recover after a tough
call. This builds morale since remote agents know they are not alone.
8) Offer online training and development Increase your remote agent’s skills by leveraging online training such as Orion Learning’s contact centre courses. Online training matches a remote agent’s work style so they can continue to grow their skills.
9) Have more than one inhouse point of contact Encourage remote agents to build relationships with multiple points of contact at the office. That way, if their primary point of contact is away on a vacation or a sick day, they still have people they can call for help. This may involve having a “buddy” team manager who occasionally leads or at least attends your team’s meetings. In addition, quality assurance team members need to build relationships with the remote agents they are coaching.
10) Have onsite events once or twice a year Events such as Town Hall meetings, sales rallies and customer service banquets allow remote staff to meet their in-house counterparts. This builds departmental morale. Be sure to include a team building or networking event so remote staff feel more engaged. Mike Aoki is the president of Reflective Keynotes Inc. (www.reflectivekeynotes. com ), a Canadian training company that helps contact centres improve their sales and customer retention results. A call centre expert, Mike has been interviewed by the Customer Experience Show and the Globe and Mail. He also serves on the Advisory Council of GTACC (the Greater Toronto Area Contact Centre association www.gtacc.ca) and was Master of Ceremonies for their 2012, 2013 and 2014 Annual Conferences.
Issue 2 • 2016
Outsource vs. In-house
When should you hire an outside expert? By Emily Nielsen
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f you accidentally broke the law you’d get the best lawyer that your money could buy, right? Similarly, if you had a painful toothache you’d make a quick trip to your dentist to fix it! And if your car broke down on the way to the dentist you’d get your car towed to a qualified mechanic. You see, we go to experts when we know we don’t have the experience or expertise to do a particular job well. We seek out professionals and we are willing to pull out our wallets and hand out our hard-earned cash to get it. After all, you don’t want to risk going to jail because you don’t know law, filling your own tooth would be crazy and you have no desire to study the intricate inner workings of your car to fix it. But, when it comes to our professional lives, many businesses expect their employees to do things that they are not qualified to do. It’s as if the decision criteria we use in our personal lives when we seek out an expert get tossed to the side. Why does this happen? It seems that many businesses don’t have a formal process in place to determine which of their projects requires additional help. As a result, employees are teamed together to take on projects that they have little or no experience completing, nor the time required to do them justice. Without the experience that an expert would bring flawed project plans are laid out. Unrealistic timelines are projected. Budgets are set at prices to be blown and promises of business benefits are made to be later broken. Making these mistakes when the project is of major importance can potentially ruin your team, your department, your organization and even your career! To avoid ruin, there are two vital things that you really should do. First, take the time to determine the degree of importance of your next project. Second, honestly selfevaluate and identify gaps in your methodology from all sides; people, process and technology. You can do these two things by developing a formal process based on questions and considerations that can be used on every new project to determine if you should get an expert, whether that expert is a consultant or a new hire. Issue 2 • 2016
Here is a sample of the things you should consider:
• How important is this project? If this project is transformational and its outcome will greatly impact the business, whether it succeeds or fails, consider if this is a risk you and your team are willing to accept. • Does your team have relevant experience? This is where you have to be very honest about your and your team members’ abilities. Determine how much relevant experience the team has and question whether it can deliver what’s required to pull off the important project. • Does your team have the time? If your team is qualified to do the project, consider if the team members have the time available to get fully involved without competing projects pulling them away. • Are you confident in your project plans? This one is tricky because you’ve got to have the relevant experience to accurately forecast budgets, timelines and resources. If the project is large enough, with substantial costs, long time lines and many resources, this is where things can get messy.
Understand that the list above is not comprehensive. Its purpose is to spark ideas about the kind of considerations and questions to include in a formal process to determine if you and your team should get an expert. Depending on your project and business your
questions will vary. You must understand what is important and the threshold of risk to project failure that can be accepted by the organization. Like you already do in your personal life, you need to be honest about your abilities. Most people don’t represent themselves in court, do their own dental work and they don’t fix their cars when they break. Before you start your next project, determine its degree of importance and your team’s degree of expertise. If the project’s degree of importance is much higher than the degree of expertise, that’s when you should get expert. If you have the expertise on your team, then you should consider their availability and priorities. After all, having the expertise but not having the time to work on the project is another reason why you may want extra help from an expert. Dan S. Kennedy, an expert marketer, said “To whatever degree you can afford experience, though, buy it—because legitimate, relevant experience is almost always less expensive than experimentation.” Emily Nielsen launched Nielsen IT Consulting Inc., one of Canada’s top unified communications (UC) and contact centre consulting firms, in 1999. Carrying an impressive portfolio of 100+ projects and having managed $65 million worth of UC and call centre solutions, she regularly acts as a trusted advisor to some of Canada’s largest organizations. Emily can be reached at enielsen@nielsenitconsulting.com or by calling 519-473-5373.
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Photos by Jennifer O’Neill
The Operations Issue
GTACC’s third annual Women in Leadership event By Sarah O’Connor
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he third annual Greater Toronto Area Contact Centre (GTACC) Association’s Women in Leadership event was a sold out affair, featuring thoughtful insights and enthusiastic participation from the audience. Sangeeta Bhanatar, GTACC board chair, kicked off the morning by emphasizing that the event was not focused on positional leadership—that, despite their impressive professional credentials, the morning’s speakers had been selected not for their titles but because they are women who truly make a difference. The keynote speaker was Francine Dyksterhuis, regional president, RBC Royal Bank Southwestern Ontario, who candidly shared stories from her personal life and 30-year tenure at RBC. In addition to her demanding career and family life, Dyksterhuis is an active member of the Stratford Shakespearian Festival’s board of directors (since 2016) and the board of LIME, a global 6 | contact management
organization committed to the career advancement of professionals with disabilities (since 2012). She has also launched co-ed Lean In circles, inspired by Sheryl Sandberg’s book of the same name, in Southwestern Ontario to uncover unconscious biases and advance the careers of men and women working at RBC. Following Dyksterhuis’ keynote, GTACC board member Anu Aduvala led an engaging executive panel featuring Paula Courtney, president of the Verde Group; Susan Zabolotniuk, AVP travel claims, Berkeley Canada; Karen Murkar, chair of the School of Accounting and Finance at Seneca College; and Katharine Thompson, senior advisor, cyber security at MNP.
Thanks to the generous support of event sponsor LoyaltyOne and event partners InfiniteKM and SB Global, all proceeds were donated to charity—$3,675 to Pathways to Education, which helps youth in low-income communities graduate from high school and successfully transition into post-secondary education, and $4,650 to Room to Read, which partners with local communities throughout the developing world to establish libraries and create local language children’s literature. Nominations are now open for the GTACC Achievement Awards and winners will be announced at the annual conference on November 3, 2016. Issue 2 • 2016
The Operations Issue
Sangeeta Bhanatar, GTACC board chair, welcomes a packed audience.
Keynote speaker Francine Dyksterhuis, regional president, RBC Royal Bank Southwestern Ontario.
The executive panel included (from left to right): Susan Zabolotniuk, AVP travel claims, Berkeley Canada; Karen Murkar, chair of the School of Accounting and Finance at Seneca College; Katharine Thompson, senior advisor, cyber security at MNP; and Paula Courtney, president of the Verde Group.
Issue 2 • 2016
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The Operations Issue
Turn your customer service agents into advisors Grow revenues and increase customer retention by dispelling these three contact centre myths By Cynthia Hill
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oor call interactions can kill a customer relationship. A recent Accenture Strategy study found that found that over half of U.S. consumers had switched service providers in the past year due to poor service (banks, retailers and cable and satellite television providers were said to be the worst offenders). The estimated cost of customers switching due to poor service? $1.6 trillion. And this same report said that 83% of U.S. consumers preferred dealing with human beings over digital channels to solve customer service issues. That puts two things into perspective: One, there is a big cost associated with getting things wrong when it comes to customer call resolution. And two, there’s a lot of opportunity for customer acquisition if you are known for getting things right. That’s why it’s important to create a consensus among front line staff that their mission should be to maximize the value of every contact. For inbound call centres in particular, these calls should be recognized as an opportunity where the customer is putting the company in a position to help. Customers are calling in to the organization for an answer but what they really want is a solution. Finding that solution is what forms the basis of a good customer experience. And a good understanding of service can turn your agents into advisors, as long as you kill a few persistent myths. Here are three that many companies regularly live by.
Myth #1: You can’t provide good customer service if you are selling In our call centre coaching and development work, easily 70% of the agents we train believe that it is not good customer service to push a product or service if that wasn’t what the customer was calling about. That kind of thinking comes from a good place but great customer experience is about determining what the customer needs and presenting that solution, which could be information or the purchase of a product or service they didn’t know about. It sounds obvious but it’s a difficult concept to sell to service agents. You have to develop the concept in a workshop by asking small training groups to describe their best customer experiences. Almost every time we conduct this exercise, agents will talk about their own situations as customers where they personally received insight into something they didn’t know about. Agents need to buy into the idea that they must anticipate a customer’s needs and educate them about the 8 | contact management
offerings. If that leads to a purchasing decision, that’s a win for all parties.
Myth #2: Customers just want you to answer their questions When we interviewed the customer service agents of a loyalty program as part of a call centre assessment project, we learned that many felt that spending an hour on the phone with the same person answering questions and providing lots of options was great customer service. But too much information convolutes the customer’s thought process. When agents do this, customers tend to just call back and book something with another agent or they don’t call back at all (89% of Canadians say their number one frustration is not being able to have their problem solved based on their first interaction)! An agent’s job is to guide the customer through the options. If your call centre is seeing a lot of this type of behavior, it usually means your agents are confused about your organization’s stated goals and how their job connects to it. This is where your organization must do a better job of communicating the goals. Where we’ve seen the most success is when companies outline goals in terms of key areas and then show their agents how a successful call has an impact on these objectives.
Myth #3: Customers are just looking for the best price If your agents think it’s all about price, it means they don’t have a clear understanding of who your customer is and, therefore, what he or she really needs. At one call centre we worked with in the travel industry, 80% of the agents believed the customers they were speaking with were retired and on fixed incomes. But the company’s research studies indicated that most of its
customers were in fact working professionals who made over $150,000 a year. This revelation completely changed the agents’ notion that these customers just wanted the lowest price. Building a robust understanding of the customer profile and needs is a critical first step to any contact centre’s performance improvement program. Once your agents understand and appreciate who your customers are, they will start to see the value in the variety of services and offerings that can be provided. More than understanding the customers, agents should have a clear idea of how they fit into the customer experience equation. Breaking these myths allows agents to deepen their understanding not only of their role but of their ability to connect with the customer. That better understanding can resonate with customers who will come to see their call not as a necessary annoyance but a better way to find the service they need. That’s when they will see the agent as a trusted advisor. And that ultimately puts the organization in a better position to sell additional products and services. Top performing customer contact operations we have worked with have seen revenue improvements of 20 to 30%. As we move to a customer experience model of doing business— where the relationship is measured by the individual’s experience during all points of contact against their expectations—how your contact centre manages these expectations will ultimately be the defining element in its ability to generate revenues. Cynthia Hill is a consultant with Toronto-based TMG International. She has over 25 years of call centre management experience and specializes in multi-industry call centre assessments.
Issue 2 • 2016