So, on this beautiful Monday morning in New Jersey, it's time we started to think about the role of technology in a company.
Let me start out by giving a little history as to why I feel so strongly about this topic. When I was a "young pup" in the industry, just starting out, I thought technology was the be all and end all. It was so cool what you could do with it, especially on the Call Center side. OK, so that was 30 years ago in telephony, and 20 years ago in Call Center history . . . but still, at the time the functionality seemed pretty advanced.
I used to spend hours talking to engineers about how to work around functionality gaps in their feature set. I never thought outside the "technology box". I was just concerned about how to make something work the way I wanted it to work.
In the early 90’s, I ran head long into the Call Center world. It was like getting smacked in the face . . . quite simply, the epiphany was startling. No matter how incredible technology is, unless you have other factors lined up, a Call Center is not going to succeed in its objectives.
It was then that I discovered all of those seemingly insignificant points that I had not bothered to address . . . things like:
1. What is my client trying to achieve with technology deployments? What problems are they addressing? What benefits are they looking to gain?
2. How will their customers benefit from the implementation of technology? Will its utilization actually improve or inhibit the customer interaction with the firm?
3. How ready was my client to adopt technology? Did they have the requisite processes established in the background? Was support in place? Did the deployment have buy in from the key stakeholders of the organization?
4. What changes had to be made in the customer contact strategy to promote the use of the new technology? Did customer touchpoints need to be updated? Was training required? How could the use of technology be communicated internally and externally?
How did I realize that these things were important? Well, quite honestly, it was completely by accident. One of my clients called us to “fix” their Call Center programming. In the course of the engagement, we realized that changes had to be made to the programming, and the routing of calls, but there were other, much bigger problems, in the organization.
Thankfully, our Needs Assessment methodology flushed the problems out, but going in, we had no idea of their impact on this client. What we uncovered was startling. Because the client was living day-to-day, dealing with exponential growth, they had never stepped back to view the big picture – to understand why their customer interactions were less than stellar. Our findings set them on a road to recovery, and amazingly, transformed our approach to all future Call Center engagements.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to ask you to come on a journey with me. During the journey, we will examine the role of technology in an organization. More importantly, we will delve into the methodology that will help the client effectively deploy that technology, ensuring the objectives are actually met, and hopefully, exceeded.
Discovering this methodology has taken the level of my engagements far beyond what I ever dreamed of. Thanks in advance for taking the ride with me.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Communications Enabling Business Process - Buzz or Reality?
Good morning, and on this cloudy, rainy May day, I first want to thank Gary Wirth for his series on Contact Center trends. I also want to thank a reader for his comments regarding the third installment of that series.
The next series of posts that I will be writing over the next few weeks will take the Contact Center trends to the design and implementation phase. We will address whether technology enhancements make sense for your firm, and for your customers. If they do, what benefits will they bring, what problems will they solve, and how will they better position your firm to be successful in a difficult economy. Lastly, we will dive into the effective deployment of technology, and the steps that must be taken to ensure that the goals that you have defined are actually achieved.
Today, though, I just want to veer off and talk about a subject that I have heard being stressed at every vendor conference, trade show, briefing, etc. The new "buzz" technology today deals with how can you take your existing business processes and communications enable them to make them more effective, and to enhance your customer's experience.
So, here are the past buzz words that come to mind . . .
CRM
ERP
BPM
What do they all have in common? . . . OK, so there is NO prize for the answer, so here goes. IN THEIR OWN WAY, THEY HAVE ALL FAILED . . . and they have proven less than readily available to all but the largest firms with money to spend on their implementation. So, let's take a look at how we can avoid the same pitfall with CEBP, or whatever other acronym is out there for communications enabling business processes.
There are many reasons for the general failure to date of CRM, ERP, and BPM, but here are some of the major ones:
1. Goals and objectives are not clearly defined for using the technology, or for measuring its success.
2. Buy in is not firmly established from the key stakeholders of the organization.
3. Proper integration is not done to other systems/applications in the environment.
4. AND THE MAIN REASON FOR FAILURE: Businesses don't step back, take a look at their existing processes, and fix them before applying technology.
How to Avoid The Same Mistakes with Communications Enablement
So, how can we avoid the same mistakes with the latest buzz? Here are some basic measures. Again, I will build on these over the course of the next few weeks.
1. Establish a task force of individuals in the firm who can identify the major pain points in internal operations, and in customer communication.
2. Document the pain points, and prioritize the ones that you want to address first. Prioritization could be "let's attack the simplest first", or it could be "which ones will return the greatest benefit if we fix them".
3. Take each of the processes that contribute to that pain point, and document the current workflow, step by step.
4. With the appropriate stakeholders, evaluate the efficiency of that process, and determine ways to improve the process.
5. Document the new workflow, with the "fixes", including:
a. SLAs for achieving each step in the process.
b. Escalations that are necessary if the steps are not achieved within the defined SLA.
c. Reports necessary to monitor success, and to enable workflow tracking.
6. Work with business partners to review the workflows, and to determine areas where communication can be embedded to enhance the flow.
7. Make sure the workflow, with the communication elements, is documented.
8. Ensure that the organizational structure within your firm will support the process, and modify as necessary before it is implemented. This includes potentially redefining priorities for those individuals involved in the process.
9. COMMUNICATE AND TRAIN.
10. Enable a mechanism to tweak the process based on feedback, reports, or changing business needs.
Obviously, these steps are summarized, and there is much more behind them. It is not a small undertaking, and it will take some time. But think about it . . . it is kind of like a diet . . .
What is she talking about? Well, you didn't put all that weight on overnight, and it isn't going to all come off overnight either. It takes effort and time and commitment. BUT, if you never start to address it, you'll never reach your goal. IT IS THE SAME CONCEPT!
SO WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE? The promise of technology is amazing . . . the percentage of times that firms actually realize the promise is minimal. The why is that it doesn't happen magically.
The next series of posts that I will be writing over the next few weeks will take the Contact Center trends to the design and implementation phase. We will address whether technology enhancements make sense for your firm, and for your customers. If they do, what benefits will they bring, what problems will they solve, and how will they better position your firm to be successful in a difficult economy. Lastly, we will dive into the effective deployment of technology, and the steps that must be taken to ensure that the goals that you have defined are actually achieved.
Today, though, I just want to veer off and talk about a subject that I have heard being stressed at every vendor conference, trade show, briefing, etc. The new "buzz" technology today deals with how can you take your existing business processes and communications enable them to make them more effective, and to enhance your customer's experience.
So, here are the past buzz words that come to mind . . .
CRM
ERP
BPM
What do they all have in common? . . . OK, so there is NO prize for the answer, so here goes. IN THEIR OWN WAY, THEY HAVE ALL FAILED . . . and they have proven less than readily available to all but the largest firms with money to spend on their implementation. So, let's take a look at how we can avoid the same pitfall with CEBP, or whatever other acronym is out there for communications enabling business processes.
There are many reasons for the general failure to date of CRM, ERP, and BPM, but here are some of the major ones:
1. Goals and objectives are not clearly defined for using the technology, or for measuring its success.
2. Buy in is not firmly established from the key stakeholders of the organization.
3. Proper integration is not done to other systems/applications in the environment.
4. AND THE MAIN REASON FOR FAILURE: Businesses don't step back, take a look at their existing processes, and fix them before applying technology.
How to Avoid The Same Mistakes with Communications Enablement
So, how can we avoid the same mistakes with the latest buzz? Here are some basic measures. Again, I will build on these over the course of the next few weeks.
1. Establish a task force of individuals in the firm who can identify the major pain points in internal operations, and in customer communication.
2. Document the pain points, and prioritize the ones that you want to address first. Prioritization could be "let's attack the simplest first", or it could be "which ones will return the greatest benefit if we fix them".
3. Take each of the processes that contribute to that pain point, and document the current workflow, step by step.
4. With the appropriate stakeholders, evaluate the efficiency of that process, and determine ways to improve the process.
5. Document the new workflow, with the "fixes", including:
a. SLAs for achieving each step in the process.
b. Escalations that are necessary if the steps are not achieved within the defined SLA.
c. Reports necessary to monitor success, and to enable workflow tracking.
6. Work with business partners to review the workflows, and to determine areas where communication can be embedded to enhance the flow.
7. Make sure the workflow, with the communication elements, is documented.
8. Ensure that the organizational structure within your firm will support the process, and modify as necessary before it is implemented. This includes potentially redefining priorities for those individuals involved in the process.
9. COMMUNICATE AND TRAIN.
10. Enable a mechanism to tweak the process based on feedback, reports, or changing business needs.
Obviously, these steps are summarized, and there is much more behind them. It is not a small undertaking, and it will take some time. But think about it . . . it is kind of like a diet . . .
What is she talking about? Well, you didn't put all that weight on overnight, and it isn't going to all come off overnight either. It takes effort and time and commitment. BUT, if you never start to address it, you'll never reach your goal. IT IS THE SAME CONCEPT!
SO WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE? The promise of technology is amazing . . . the percentage of times that firms actually realize the promise is minimal. The why is that it doesn't happen magically.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Trends in the Contact Center (part 3)
Welcome back to the Touchpoint Blog. In this installment, we’re going to continue discussing Trends in the Contact Center. In the first installment we discussed the drivers. The second installment covered the first three trends. To continue with the next three trends, we’re going to discuss:
All in One Solutions
Business Knowledge
Multi-Media (including Presence)
All in One Solutions
This can be defined as a single vendor with a suite of Contact Center functions within a single platform with a common management interface. In the past, many customers preferred to deploy “best of breed” solutions, meaning the highest rated individual components were connected together to create a single contact center solution. A customer may have had one brand of PBX, a second brand of Contact Center software, a third vendor for IVR, etc. This was typically done to get the best features from each of the vendor solutions. In the not too distant past, you had to sacrifice features and functionality to get a single vendor solution. Today, we are seeing All in One vendors with increased functionality across the breadth of their product line, and this has made this option more attractive.
A major driver for customers buying into these products is a reduction in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by:
-Reducing the management costs via the single management and administration interface tool.
-Providing an easy point of entry into advanced applications that would be difficult to cost justify if buying the solutions independently
Business Knowledge
Some have called this “one to one marketing”, or the ability to tailor a customer’s experience to a customer’s desire. The most common way of doing this in a contact center is to utilize a CRM package that allows a firm to make intelligent decisions about a customer interaction based on their past experiences. A simple example of this is routing callers to the same representative so that there is continuity in service. While we haven’t yet seen a large deployment in technology on the routing side, we have seen firms desire to merge the Contact Center statistics with the Business statistics so that they have a better understanding of the customer experience. This trend is moving tracking of interactions from traditional statistics (average speed of answer, average handle time, etc.) to measuring the actual customer experience that establishes a relationship between an individual call and the business outcome of that call.
Multi-Media (including Presence)
In the past, this terminology referred to the addition of email contacts, changing a “Call” Center to a “Contact” Center. Many firms accomplished this by leveraging the voice routing software, and creating separate queues for voice calls and emails. As firms search for ways to streamline and create operational efficiencies, that the trend will move more towards creating single, or “virtual”, queues that allow multi-media (voice, email, and web chat) into the Contact Center.
A new form of Multi-Media incorporates the use of Presence. The more common term for this technology is Instant Messaging (or IM), but it’s also known as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). With all of the acronyms used in the last sentence, I can see how this can be a confusing topic!
Even if your Contact Center is not using an official Instant Messaging product (such as Microsoft Office Communicator) I can almost guarantee you that your agents are using some version of an Instant Messaging Client (such as AIM or Yahoo Instant Messenger). The main issue with these rogue IM Clients is a lack of corporate security. In addition, using this capability outside the Contact Center reporting does not capture the full customer experience, which is clearly a goal of management.
One of the main values of SIP, or "presence”, is in locating “expert” resources that are available, and contacting them via their preferred mode or channel of communications. That means that some resources may be available to email or chat, but are not available to accept a phone call. The goal is to increase First Call Resolution.
The efficiency and productivity enhancements for implementing presence can be dramatic. It should be noted, however, that in order for this technology to be effective, it must be properly managed. Establishing the proper priorities and chains of command for expert resources will be critical. In addition, the ability to measure the total customer experience, including the use of experts in the interaction, will also be a determinant as to the success of SIP in the Contact Center.
This wraps up my guest blog (for now). Thanks for following along with me!
Diane will return next week to start talking about the proper deployment of technology. Overcoming the pitfalls in installing technology is doable, but requires dedication to a defined methodology.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Trends in the Contact Center (part 2)
Thank you for coming back to the blog. I hope that you’re finding this helpful. I want to encourage you to make this an interactive blog by submitting comments. We welcome your thoughts. Divergent points of view will make this much more useful for all participants. I actually tried to be a little provocative in the last blog, hoping for some feedback! So, without further ado, let’s talk about the first three trends that we see in the Contact Center in 2009.
Alternative Sourcing
Self Service
Virtualization
Alternative Sourcing. There are several factors that we see driving this trend. The main driver is the ability to solve business problems through technology without a major capital investment. Let’s be clear that when I say “alternative sourcing” that I mean a group of financial solutions rather than a group of technology solutions! Alternative sourcing can mean leasing. This has been a viable source for funding a project for many years.
What we’re seeing as a newer trend in alternative sourcing is the use of hosted models, or a managed model. Therefore, the second driver for alternative solutions is really the technology itself. IP Telephony is allowing equipment to reside in any location. That makes the ability to use a hosted or managed solution more possible now than ever before.
There is a big difference between hosted solutions and managed solutions. These differences can be summarized as follows:
· In a Hosted Solution, equipment is typically stored at a site other than the customer site -- usually a hardened data center. The equipment is still managed by the customer; however, the maintenance and the hardware are owned by the Host.
· Managed Solutions are like the Hosted model, except that the management of the equipment is also handled by the Host.
· Hybrid Solutions are rarely mentioned, but are probably the most often deployed method. This is where some equipment is hosted or managed, while additional equipment is deployed in the traditional way. Many times this model is effective because it’s a blend. It also enables a migration path from a traditional model to the hosted/managed model.
It should be noted that while many of the traditional vendors do offer the alternative sourcing models; there are many other players in this arena. Regardless of who you use to support the model, the technology solution employed is still the key consideration – which platform will best meet your business requirements. The means to implement this solution has economic impacts, but this is really a secondary factor. Only by looking at the business needs first and the sourcing second will you be able to realize the full potential of the solution.
Virtualization. Again, IP Telephony has made virtualization an important trend. Many firms are looking at virtualization from two perspectives.
· Employee virtualization – how can a business reduce its brick and mortar footprint while maintaining (or even increasing) revenue or satisfaction? With remote agents and remote sales workers, there are many possibilities. The technology is viable; the biggest questions become cultural, managerial and procedural. When considering this mode of operation, several factors need to be considered. Some examples are security, employee monitoring and management, office setup, and agent productivity.
· Technology virtualization – how can a business increase business continuity or reduce disaster recovery issues? DR/BC planning has always been critical, but often very expensive. The newer technology makes achievement much more affordable. You should make the effort now to determine your firms tolerance for downtime and plan for it accordingly.
Self Service is the final trend that we’re going to discuss today. Now I know that you’re thinking “this isn’t a new trend”. Well, I have to agree with you, it’s not a new trend, but it is a continuing trend. What we’re seeing here is that there is a renewed interest in the hosted model (see alternative sourcing).
Why the interest in the hosted model? The biggest reason we see is that capacity can be increased and decreased rapidly. The firm only pays for usage. This allows the firm to reduce capital expenses, reduce operational costs during slower periods, and augment staff during peak periods.
Another trend that we’re seeing in self service is the desire to bring a consistent and coordinated customer experience to the various interaction channels. That means that the IVR, Website, Blog, Chat, and all other channels should have a similar look and feel. The trick then is to make sure that you are able to effectively report across all channels so that you can more correctly measure the customer experience and the value of the channel.
In the next blog, we’ll discuss the next three trends that we see in the Contact Center in 2009 -- All in One Solutions, Business Knowledge, and Multi-Media (including Presence).
Alternative Sourcing
Self Service
Virtualization
Alternative Sourcing. There are several factors that we see driving this trend. The main driver is the ability to solve business problems through technology without a major capital investment. Let’s be clear that when I say “alternative sourcing” that I mean a group of financial solutions rather than a group of technology solutions! Alternative sourcing can mean leasing. This has been a viable source for funding a project for many years.
What we’re seeing as a newer trend in alternative sourcing is the use of hosted models, or a managed model. Therefore, the second driver for alternative solutions is really the technology itself. IP Telephony is allowing equipment to reside in any location. That makes the ability to use a hosted or managed solution more possible now than ever before.
There is a big difference between hosted solutions and managed solutions. These differences can be summarized as follows:
· In a Hosted Solution, equipment is typically stored at a site other than the customer site -- usually a hardened data center. The equipment is still managed by the customer; however, the maintenance and the hardware are owned by the Host.
· Managed Solutions are like the Hosted model, except that the management of the equipment is also handled by the Host.
· Hybrid Solutions are rarely mentioned, but are probably the most often deployed method. This is where some equipment is hosted or managed, while additional equipment is deployed in the traditional way. Many times this model is effective because it’s a blend. It also enables a migration path from a traditional model to the hosted/managed model.
It should be noted that while many of the traditional vendors do offer the alternative sourcing models; there are many other players in this arena. Regardless of who you use to support the model, the technology solution employed is still the key consideration – which platform will best meet your business requirements. The means to implement this solution has economic impacts, but this is really a secondary factor. Only by looking at the business needs first and the sourcing second will you be able to realize the full potential of the solution.
Virtualization. Again, IP Telephony has made virtualization an important trend. Many firms are looking at virtualization from two perspectives.
· Employee virtualization – how can a business reduce its brick and mortar footprint while maintaining (or even increasing) revenue or satisfaction? With remote agents and remote sales workers, there are many possibilities. The technology is viable; the biggest questions become cultural, managerial and procedural. When considering this mode of operation, several factors need to be considered. Some examples are security, employee monitoring and management, office setup, and agent productivity.
· Technology virtualization – how can a business increase business continuity or reduce disaster recovery issues? DR/BC planning has always been critical, but often very expensive. The newer technology makes achievement much more affordable. You should make the effort now to determine your firms tolerance for downtime and plan for it accordingly.
Self Service is the final trend that we’re going to discuss today. Now I know that you’re thinking “this isn’t a new trend”. Well, I have to agree with you, it’s not a new trend, but it is a continuing trend. What we’re seeing here is that there is a renewed interest in the hosted model (see alternative sourcing).
Why the interest in the hosted model? The biggest reason we see is that capacity can be increased and decreased rapidly. The firm only pays for usage. This allows the firm to reduce capital expenses, reduce operational costs during slower periods, and augment staff during peak periods.
Another trend that we’re seeing in self service is the desire to bring a consistent and coordinated customer experience to the various interaction channels. That means that the IVR, Website, Blog, Chat, and all other channels should have a similar look and feel. The trick then is to make sure that you are able to effectively report across all channels so that you can more correctly measure the customer experience and the value of the channel.
In the next blog, we’ll discuss the next three trends that we see in the Contact Center in 2009 -- All in One Solutions, Business Knowledge, and Multi-Media (including Presence).
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Trends in the Contact Center (part 1)
So, Diane has turned the blog over to me (Gary Wirth) for the next few posts. As promised, I am going to address Trends in the Contact Center in 2009.
Before we talk about the actual Trends, however, it’s important for us to level-set and understand the factors we believe are driving these trends.
It’s probably simplest to break down the drivers into 4 components:
· External (or customers)
· Internal (or front-line agents)
· Management
· Outside Influences
From an external or customer perspective, there is a generational shift going on in how your customers desire to interact with you. There is an increase in younger customers who are experienced in multi-modal communications such as social networking. They are perfectly comfortable with an independent interaction such as self-service. Meanwhile, there is also an increase in older customers (many times they’re long standing customers) who desire to have a more traditional service experience.
A common issue that we see in the Contact Center is around expectations. Senior Executives will often times dictate a reduction in operational expenses. Many times the easiest way to achieve these savings is by providing automated self service to your customers. Well, self service is good in many cases, but the value must be weighed against the loss of personal contact. There are some cases where automation can bring increased revenue while providing decreased costs (one example is in the collections arena). However, I’m sure that we have all witnessed the self-service nightmares in our roles as consumers. There are even websites (http://www.gethuman.com/) that are dedicated to helping customers manipulate systems to get to a live agent. By the way, take a look at that website to see if your company is listed!
The second perspective is with internal or front-line employees. These “Generation Y” employees are demanding the same technology at work that they can purchase as consumers (ex. Skype or Video, Instant Messaging). There are also skill-set differences; many of these employees have expanded ability to instant message and web chat, but with diminished skills at formal letter writing.
Management expectations are the third driver of Contact Center trends. Many firms are still measuring customer satisfaction the same way that they did in the past. These measurements may not accurately reflect your customers’ experience. In addition, the management teams at many of these same contact centers are expecting increased customer service efficiencies and additional sales, at the same time that they are limiting spending on customer service technology. The mandate from senior management, especially in budget-tightening cycles, is to cut back on expenses, and often the Contact Center is viewed as an expense center.
Contact Center managers must do a better job of selling the value of their organization to the firm, and to senior management. They need to convert the impact of a successful customer interaction into terms that management can understand – hard dollar revenue to the firm.
Think about these two statements and decide who you would give budget to. “Our customer satisfaction index is 80%; by decreasing the Average Speed of Answer to 10 seconds, we can increase customer satisfaction to 90%”. Or, “If we add self service for password resets, we will decrease our operational costs by $1 million. We also expect that we will increase revenue by $3 million because the agents will be freed up to spend more time with customers up selling our products”.
I know this is easier to say than to actually calculate; however, my point here is that you need to do a better job explaining what customer service means in terms of revenue or cost savings to the company.
Finally, let’s discuss outside influences. The economy has to be considered the biggest issue facing contact centers. Based on the economic factors, most firms are requiring hard dollar savings and a faster ROI before making any commitments to projects. In order for Contact Center Managers to secure budget for any technology that can help them, they must translate their project outcome to revenue generation or operational efficiencies. These results can sometimes be difficult to calculate (see example above!).
So, now that we’ve reviewed the Contact Center Drivers or Influences, we are ready to start discussing trends. In the next blog, we’ll examine the first three major trends we see in the Contact Center in 2009 -- Alternative Sourcing, Self Service, and Virtualization.
Before we talk about the actual Trends, however, it’s important for us to level-set and understand the factors we believe are driving these trends.
It’s probably simplest to break down the drivers into 4 components:
· External (or customers)
· Internal (or front-line agents)
· Management
· Outside Influences
From an external or customer perspective, there is a generational shift going on in how your customers desire to interact with you. There is an increase in younger customers who are experienced in multi-modal communications such as social networking. They are perfectly comfortable with an independent interaction such as self-service. Meanwhile, there is also an increase in older customers (many times they’re long standing customers) who desire to have a more traditional service experience.
A common issue that we see in the Contact Center is around expectations. Senior Executives will often times dictate a reduction in operational expenses. Many times the easiest way to achieve these savings is by providing automated self service to your customers. Well, self service is good in many cases, but the value must be weighed against the loss of personal contact. There are some cases where automation can bring increased revenue while providing decreased costs (one example is in the collections arena). However, I’m sure that we have all witnessed the self-service nightmares in our roles as consumers. There are even websites (http://www.gethuman.com/) that are dedicated to helping customers manipulate systems to get to a live agent. By the way, take a look at that website to see if your company is listed!
The second perspective is with internal or front-line employees. These “Generation Y” employees are demanding the same technology at work that they can purchase as consumers (ex. Skype or Video, Instant Messaging). There are also skill-set differences; many of these employees have expanded ability to instant message and web chat, but with diminished skills at formal letter writing.
Management expectations are the third driver of Contact Center trends. Many firms are still measuring customer satisfaction the same way that they did in the past. These measurements may not accurately reflect your customers’ experience. In addition, the management teams at many of these same contact centers are expecting increased customer service efficiencies and additional sales, at the same time that they are limiting spending on customer service technology. The mandate from senior management, especially in budget-tightening cycles, is to cut back on expenses, and often the Contact Center is viewed as an expense center.
Contact Center managers must do a better job of selling the value of their organization to the firm, and to senior management. They need to convert the impact of a successful customer interaction into terms that management can understand – hard dollar revenue to the firm.
Think about these two statements and decide who you would give budget to. “Our customer satisfaction index is 80%; by decreasing the Average Speed of Answer to 10 seconds, we can increase customer satisfaction to 90%”. Or, “If we add self service for password resets, we will decrease our operational costs by $1 million. We also expect that we will increase revenue by $3 million because the agents will be freed up to spend more time with customers up selling our products”.
I know this is easier to say than to actually calculate; however, my point here is that you need to do a better job explaining what customer service means in terms of revenue or cost savings to the company.
Finally, let’s discuss outside influences. The economy has to be considered the biggest issue facing contact centers. Based on the economic factors, most firms are requiring hard dollar savings and a faster ROI before making any commitments to projects. In order for Contact Center Managers to secure budget for any technology that can help them, they must translate their project outcome to revenue generation or operational efficiencies. These results can sometimes be difficult to calculate (see example above!).
So, now that we’ve reviewed the Contact Center Drivers or Influences, we are ready to start discussing trends. In the next blog, we’ll examine the first three major trends we see in the Contact Center in 2009 -- Alternative Sourcing, Self Service, and Virtualization.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The Importance of Customer Touchpoints
Good morning everyone. I hope that you are enjoying your weekend.
I want to thank Gary Wirth for putting together the Blog policies. This morning, I want to address one of the topics we wanted to discuss . . . the importance of customer touchpoints.
We previously defined a "touchpoint" as anything that touches your customers. We also indicated that there are "external" touchpoints (the web, email, messages in queue, etc.) and "internal" touchpoints (materials used by the internal staff during the interaction with the customer). Now let's explore why these are important by using a precise example.
Let's say that a customer calls your company. She is launching this interaction during her lunch hour, and has a defined period of time to complete it. NEVER thinking it would be a problem, she calls the 800 number, and is greeted by a very long menu. And so it begins.
1. She is not told how many choices there are in the menu, or that she could potentially enter her choice at any time during the menu.
2. She is driving, and cannot easily press buttons, and there is no option to "speak" her desired option.
3. She listens to the entire menu, and still doesn't have a clue, based on how the options are offered, what to choose.
4. There is no option to speak to a "live agent".
5. She tries pressing "0" to reach an operator, but that starts the menu all over again.
6. On the second go around, she now presses anything that might get her to someone she can talk to.
7. When she reaches that person, the agent says he can't help the caller, and must transfer the call.
8. The agent performs a "cold" transfer, and dumps the call into the next "queue".
9. The caller, while waiting in queue for 10 minutes, hears a system message saying "your call is important to us" every 20 seconds. The caller is thinking the entire time, "if my call is that important to you, why haven't you answered it yet".
10. Now, the caller, after 10 minutes FINALLY hears that the interaction she wants to perform can be done via the website.
11. In desperation, she abandons the disastrous phone route, and brings up the website.
12. The website comes up, and she desperately searches for somewhere on the site to perform the desired action.
13. After searching for 5 minutes, she finally finds the right link to click.
14. When she clicks on the link, the page comes up with a message indicating that it is "under construction".
Exasperated, she shuts down her computer, screams to herself, and heads back to work.
I wish I could say that this was an unusual customer experience, but it is not. What do you think the caller's impression of this company is? The willingness of this person to try to contact this company again is going to be dependent upon a number of factors, including choice.
1. If the customer can deal with another firm to fulfill her requirements, she is going to look for options, and the firm has lost what could have been a potential sale, and a new customer.
2. If the customer must deal with this firm, she will do so unhappily. Her perception of this firm has been formulated by her experience in this attempted interaction . . . and it is NOT positive.
There are whole websites dedicated to failures in effectively dealing with customers. Companies need to understand how important the customer interaction is in formulating your customer's view of your firm. We have looked at only one representative interaction, and I think you can see the point.
I have written a white paper that delves more into this topic. You can find the white paper on our website (http://www.align.com/). Look for it in the lower right hand side of the home page. It is called "Put yourself in your customer's shoes", and it can be found in the "WHITE PAPERS" section.
Looking Ahead to the Next Post
My colleague, Gary Wirth, will be writing the next couple of blog posts, dealing with trends that we see in the Contact Center in 2009. Enjoy, and I'll be back!
Have a wonderful EASTER. Diane
I want to thank Gary Wirth for putting together the Blog policies. This morning, I want to address one of the topics we wanted to discuss . . . the importance of customer touchpoints.
We previously defined a "touchpoint" as anything that touches your customers. We also indicated that there are "external" touchpoints (the web, email, messages in queue, etc.) and "internal" touchpoints (materials used by the internal staff during the interaction with the customer). Now let's explore why these are important by using a precise example.
Let's say that a customer calls your company. She is launching this interaction during her lunch hour, and has a defined period of time to complete it. NEVER thinking it would be a problem, she calls the 800 number, and is greeted by a very long menu. And so it begins.
1. She is not told how many choices there are in the menu, or that she could potentially enter her choice at any time during the menu.
2. She is driving, and cannot easily press buttons, and there is no option to "speak" her desired option.
3. She listens to the entire menu, and still doesn't have a clue, based on how the options are offered, what to choose.
4. There is no option to speak to a "live agent".
5. She tries pressing "0" to reach an operator, but that starts the menu all over again.
6. On the second go around, she now presses anything that might get her to someone she can talk to.
7. When she reaches that person, the agent says he can't help the caller, and must transfer the call.
8. The agent performs a "cold" transfer, and dumps the call into the next "queue".
9. The caller, while waiting in queue for 10 minutes, hears a system message saying "your call is important to us" every 20 seconds. The caller is thinking the entire time, "if my call is that important to you, why haven't you answered it yet".
10. Now, the caller, after 10 minutes FINALLY hears that the interaction she wants to perform can be done via the website.
11. In desperation, she abandons the disastrous phone route, and brings up the website.
12. The website comes up, and she desperately searches for somewhere on the site to perform the desired action.
13. After searching for 5 minutes, she finally finds the right link to click.
14. When she clicks on the link, the page comes up with a message indicating that it is "under construction".
Exasperated, she shuts down her computer, screams to herself, and heads back to work.
I wish I could say that this was an unusual customer experience, but it is not. What do you think the caller's impression of this company is? The willingness of this person to try to contact this company again is going to be dependent upon a number of factors, including choice.
1. If the customer can deal with another firm to fulfill her requirements, she is going to look for options, and the firm has lost what could have been a potential sale, and a new customer.
2. If the customer must deal with this firm, she will do so unhappily. Her perception of this firm has been formulated by her experience in this attempted interaction . . . and it is NOT positive.
There are whole websites dedicated to failures in effectively dealing with customers. Companies need to understand how important the customer interaction is in formulating your customer's view of your firm. We have looked at only one representative interaction, and I think you can see the point.
I have written a white paper that delves more into this topic. You can find the white paper on our website (http://www.align.com/). Look for it in the lower right hand side of the home page. It is called "Put yourself in your customer's shoes", and it can be found in the "WHITE PAPERS" section.
Looking Ahead to the Next Post
My colleague, Gary Wirth, will be writing the next couple of blog posts, dealing with trends that we see in the Contact Center in 2009. Enjoy, and I'll be back!
Have a wonderful EASTER. Diane
Monday, April 6, 2009
Customer Touchpoint Blog Policies
Diane asked me to be a “guest blogger” today. I work for Diane in the Align Contact Center practice as a Senior Project Manager. Prior to Align, I worked as a VP of Customer Service at a medium-sized contact center and as an Account Manager for a large telecom equipment manufacturer selling Contact Center solutions.
Today’s topic will be the policies that we will adhere to on this blog. Recently I heard a High School student use Wikipedia as a reference source. I politely advised him that Wikipedia shouldn’t be considered a source. Well, I think I have the same healthy skepticism for most of what I read on blogs. So, I think it’s important to understand the perspective and ground rules that we will follow on the Customer Touchpoint blog.
Since Align is an independent consultant in the Contact Center and IP Telephony space, many times we are privileged with non-disclosure briefings on products and features for the major vendors. Similarly, we almost always have non-disclosure agreements with our clients. Because of this, our blog will not compromise anything that is considered proprietary to either vendors or clients.
We will focus on areas that we consider relevant to today’s contact center. These will include business, technology, process, and general contact center management related topics.
Since this will be an ongoing, online dialogue, we will make sure that the posts remain unchanged once published. That means that we will not delete posts once they are put into the blog. If there is a need to clarify or change something in a previous post, we will add a new post or comment rather than deleting the post.
Our style of writing will be informal while providing substance. Our goal is to create an interactive forum where followers can leave feedback and comments, even suggesting future topics of discussion.
Here is a summary of the Customer Touchpoint Blog policy:
o The Blog will be managed by Diane Halliwell, Align Contact Center Director; she will invite Guest Bloggers where they can add relevant information.
o We will not publish any information that is proprietary or obtained under non-disclosure agreements.
o We will focus on relevant business related topics in the contact center arena.
o Any vendor information published will be vendor agnostic.
o A link will be provided to any online references and original source materials.
o Posts will be maintained and archived; any changes to a posting will be noted but not deleted.
o Online Feedback and Comments are encouraged.
o Readers can invite others to read the blog.
From the policies listed here, I hope that you can see that this blog is intended to maintain a high standard of discipline in discussing relevant contact center trends. I look forward to engaging in some online discussions and watching the blog grow.
Today’s topic will be the policies that we will adhere to on this blog. Recently I heard a High School student use Wikipedia as a reference source. I politely advised him that Wikipedia shouldn’t be considered a source. Well, I think I have the same healthy skepticism for most of what I read on blogs. So, I think it’s important to understand the perspective and ground rules that we will follow on the Customer Touchpoint blog.
Since Align is an independent consultant in the Contact Center and IP Telephony space, many times we are privileged with non-disclosure briefings on products and features for the major vendors. Similarly, we almost always have non-disclosure agreements with our clients. Because of this, our blog will not compromise anything that is considered proprietary to either vendors or clients.
We will focus on areas that we consider relevant to today’s contact center. These will include business, technology, process, and general contact center management related topics.
Since this will be an ongoing, online dialogue, we will make sure that the posts remain unchanged once published. That means that we will not delete posts once they are put into the blog. If there is a need to clarify or change something in a previous post, we will add a new post or comment rather than deleting the post.
Our style of writing will be informal while providing substance. Our goal is to create an interactive forum where followers can leave feedback and comments, even suggesting future topics of discussion.
Here is a summary of the Customer Touchpoint Blog policy:
o The Blog will be managed by Diane Halliwell, Align Contact Center Director; she will invite Guest Bloggers where they can add relevant information.
o We will not publish any information that is proprietary or obtained under non-disclosure agreements.
o We will focus on relevant business related topics in the contact center arena.
o Any vendor information published will be vendor agnostic.
o A link will be provided to any online references and original source materials.
o Posts will be maintained and archived; any changes to a posting will be noted but not deleted.
o Online Feedback and Comments are encouraged.
o Readers can invite others to read the blog.
From the policies listed here, I hope that you can see that this blog is intended to maintain a high standard of discipline in discussing relevant contact center trends. I look forward to engaging in some online discussions and watching the blog grow.
Friday, March 27, 2009
So, What is a Customer Touchpoint?
OK, so I said I was going to write this yesterday (3/26). Sorry about that, you know how the day sometimes gets away from you. But, here I am today, and let's get started.
So, I said I was going to handle 3 topics on my blog today.
Topic 1 - What is a customer touchpoint?
The high level definitition is anything that touches your customer.
Touchpoints can be broken down into two categories - external and internal.
External touchpoints can be anything from Directory Assistance, your company website, marketing collateral, letters or invoices that are mailed to customers, your IVR, your queue announcements and music played to a caller while waiting to speak to your agents, newsletters sent out by your firm, and the like. In an insurance firm, this can include Provider Directories, Explanation of Benefits, etc. In effect, anything that your customers hear or see while interacting with your firm.
Internal touchpoints are tools used by your staff to help them interact with your customers. This can include agent cheat sheets, training materials, outbound campaign scripts, etc.
In my next blog, I'll discuss why touchpoints are important, and I will post a white paper that I have written on this topic.
Topic 2 - Purpose of the Customer TouchPoints Blog
Many of the clients who call us do so because their customers are experiencing issues in contacting the firm and getting their questions/issues resolved effectively. They believe in most cases that technology is the culprit -- that it has let them down, and that it must be replaced. Often, technology is only a part of the problem, and clearly not the only culprit. It our view, technology is merely an enabler -- it is not the endgame.
In the coming weeks, we want to explore this concept.
So, the main purposes of this blog are to demonstrate:
1. The role that touchpoints play in the success of a Contact Center.
2. The misconceptions about technology.
3. How technology can best be applied to enable your business to be successful.
We welcome your feedback, your insight, and your different points of view as we discuss these topics.
As an audience: If you work in the Contact Center space (consulting, managing, answering calls, responding to customer interactions), if you are a key stakeholder in a firm that interacts heavily with customers, if you are considering the implementation of new technology, and aren't quite sure how to do it, or WHY you are doing it, or if you have already implemented technology and things are not quite right in your customer interactions, you should join us in pursuing the topics that will be presented in this blog. As you can see, we are inviting quite a wide range of individuals to be part of this discussion!
Topic 3 - Future Blog Posts
I am exicted to say that in the Contact Center space, the topics are limitless. But, let's narrow down some topics that we will be discussing in the near term:
1. Setting the policies of the blog. This will be written by a senior member of my staff (Gary Wirth) over the next week.
2. The importance of Customer Touchpoints. A white paper will be posted on this topic.
3. Discussing trends that we see in the Contact Center. This will probably be a multi-post topic. Gary will be writing this one as well.
4. Effective deployments of Contact Center technology. Again, this will more than likely be a multi-post topic.
Summary of Today's Discussion
We are excited, and we hope you are too. Remember, your feedback is extremely important to us, and we hope that you will feel free to share your thoughts, your opinions, and your challenges.
Have a great day!
Diane
So, I said I was going to handle 3 topics on my blog today.
Topic 1 - What is a customer touchpoint?
The high level definitition is anything that touches your customer.
Touchpoints can be broken down into two categories - external and internal.
External touchpoints can be anything from Directory Assistance, your company website, marketing collateral, letters or invoices that are mailed to customers, your IVR, your queue announcements and music played to a caller while waiting to speak to your agents, newsletters sent out by your firm, and the like. In an insurance firm, this can include Provider Directories, Explanation of Benefits, etc. In effect, anything that your customers hear or see while interacting with your firm.
Internal touchpoints are tools used by your staff to help them interact with your customers. This can include agent cheat sheets, training materials, outbound campaign scripts, etc.
In my next blog, I'll discuss why touchpoints are important, and I will post a white paper that I have written on this topic.
Topic 2 - Purpose of the Customer TouchPoints Blog
Many of the clients who call us do so because their customers are experiencing issues in contacting the firm and getting their questions/issues resolved effectively. They believe in most cases that technology is the culprit -- that it has let them down, and that it must be replaced. Often, technology is only a part of the problem, and clearly not the only culprit. It our view, technology is merely an enabler -- it is not the endgame.
In the coming weeks, we want to explore this concept.
So, the main purposes of this blog are to demonstrate:
1. The role that touchpoints play in the success of a Contact Center.
2. The misconceptions about technology.
3. How technology can best be applied to enable your business to be successful.
We welcome your feedback, your insight, and your different points of view as we discuss these topics.
As an audience: If you work in the Contact Center space (consulting, managing, answering calls, responding to customer interactions), if you are a key stakeholder in a firm that interacts heavily with customers, if you are considering the implementation of new technology, and aren't quite sure how to do it, or WHY you are doing it, or if you have already implemented technology and things are not quite right in your customer interactions, you should join us in pursuing the topics that will be presented in this blog. As you can see, we are inviting quite a wide range of individuals to be part of this discussion!
Topic 3 - Future Blog Posts
I am exicted to say that in the Contact Center space, the topics are limitless. But, let's narrow down some topics that we will be discussing in the near term:
1. Setting the policies of the blog. This will be written by a senior member of my staff (Gary Wirth) over the next week.
2. The importance of Customer Touchpoints. A white paper will be posted on this topic.
3. Discussing trends that we see in the Contact Center. This will probably be a multi-post topic. Gary will be writing this one as well.
4. Effective deployments of Contact Center technology. Again, this will more than likely be a multi-post topic.
Summary of Today's Discussion
We are excited, and we hope you are too. Remember, your feedback is extremely important to us, and we hope that you will feel free to share your thoughts, your opinions, and your challenges.
Have a great day!
Diane
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Welcome from Diane Halliwell
I would personally like to welcome you to the Align Customer TouchPoint blog.
Let me give you a little background on who I am.
I have been consulting in the voice arena for almost 30 years, first as a traffic engineer, and then as an evaluator of alternative telephony solutions.
Almost 20 years ago, I entered the Contact Center space, and have never left. I started out on the very technical end of the spectrum, evaluating alternative solution platforms for my clients. After the evaluation phase, our clients typically engage us to then design, implement, and provide end user documentation for the solutions we recommend.
While engaging in my work as a technical resource, I discovered one of the most important lessons in working in the Contact Center space. Technology alone will never get my clients where they need to be. Rather, it is a delicate balance of the right technology and the requisite processes, workflows, and communication within the organization that will ultimately bring success. Part of that delicate balance is having consistent and effective customer touchpoints.
This philosophy is what drives my consulting practice, and I bring this perspective to each and every engagement.
To complete my "biography", I sit on the Consultant Professional Advisory Councils of Avaya and Siemens, feeding back to the senior management of these firms the consultant view of the effectiveness of their organizations and the strength of their products. In addition, we provide to these firms the viewpoint of the end user customer -- helping them understand what they need to do to be effective in being a vendor partner to our clients.
I also am a long-standing member of the Consultant Liaison programs of Cisco, Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, NEC, and Nortel.
I lead the Contact Center practice at Align, and am extremely proud to have four of the most talented professionals in the world working on my staff.
I look forward to discussing with you pertinent topics regarding the Contact Center space, and in my next blog entry tomorrow morning, I'll describe the following:
1. Definition of a customer touchpoint.
2. Purpose of the Customer TouchPoints blog, and the audience we hope to touch
3. Future topics that we will be addressing in the short term
Stay tuned, and again, welcome.
Let me give you a little background on who I am.
I have been consulting in the voice arena for almost 30 years, first as a traffic engineer, and then as an evaluator of alternative telephony solutions.
Almost 20 years ago, I entered the Contact Center space, and have never left. I started out on the very technical end of the spectrum, evaluating alternative solution platforms for my clients. After the evaluation phase, our clients typically engage us to then design, implement, and provide end user documentation for the solutions we recommend.
While engaging in my work as a technical resource, I discovered one of the most important lessons in working in the Contact Center space. Technology alone will never get my clients where they need to be. Rather, it is a delicate balance of the right technology and the requisite processes, workflows, and communication within the organization that will ultimately bring success. Part of that delicate balance is having consistent and effective customer touchpoints.
This philosophy is what drives my consulting practice, and I bring this perspective to each and every engagement.
To complete my "biography", I sit on the Consultant Professional Advisory Councils of Avaya and Siemens, feeding back to the senior management of these firms the consultant view of the effectiveness of their organizations and the strength of their products. In addition, we provide to these firms the viewpoint of the end user customer -- helping them understand what they need to do to be effective in being a vendor partner to our clients.
I also am a long-standing member of the Consultant Liaison programs of Cisco, Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, NEC, and Nortel.
I lead the Contact Center practice at Align, and am extremely proud to have four of the most talented professionals in the world working on my staff.
I look forward to discussing with you pertinent topics regarding the Contact Center space, and in my next blog entry tomorrow morning, I'll describe the following:
1. Definition of a customer touchpoint.
2. Purpose of the Customer TouchPoints blog, and the audience we hope to touch
3. Future topics that we will be addressing in the short term
Stay tuned, and again, welcome.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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