final fmla article ccp2011031

8/13/2019 Final Fmla Article Ccp2011031

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The ChannelFor Industrynformation

Multichannel customer cis a fact of life. Unfortunatelorganizational silos and downership of the many mthat yourcustomers

use, or wantto use. In anincreasinglyc o m p l e xcustomerinteractionenvironment, theres no timthe present to establish a corbody and processes to comhensively dene and pursuofferings. This organizatioestablish a clear strategy andthe power to govern techninvestments and their appliacross the enterprise.

Readers of this jour-nal run contact centers

of varying sizes in sup-port of different indus-tries from all cornersof the globe. Becauseof this diversity, wenaturally view successfrom a number of different angles. Through it all, though, there is oneobjective that we share: We wantcontacts handled start to nish bythe resource that gets it. Doing sois good for our bottom line, andis even better for our customer.

Despite our efforts, we will not

always be successful.Routing problems can

certainly contribute tothis when confusedcustomers press thewrong buttons. Yetonce the customer

gets to the right place,we still are not home free. Manycalls require support from, andoccasionally a transfer to, a higherskilled resource. These escalatedcalls can range anywhere from2% to 25% of traffic (and evenmore in some very specializedoperations). In

Complying with the FMLAMarch 2011

FMLA has createda great deal ofconfusion andrustration in the

workplace. Stepcarefully to avoidpotential landmines.

Y SUSAN HASH

It has been nearly two decades sincehe Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

was enacted. While organizations havemproved their understanding of theaw, managers, for the most part, are stillhallenged when it comes to properlydministering it in the contact center.Contact centers have long been

lagued by high absenteeism due to atressful work environment, low pay andnexible work schedules. Research by

MetLife found that, although call centermployees may represent only 20% to5% of a companys full-time employees,hey account for more than 60% of itsotal short-term disability claims and

family and medical leave absences.FMLA, which provides eligibleemployees with up to 12 work weeksof unpaid leave in a 12-month period,was designed to protect employees jobs when they need to take extendedmedical leaves for serious medical

conditions, including pregnancy, or tocare for family members. When FMLAleave is misused or abused, servicelevels, customer satisfaction and staffproductivity are adversely impacted.

FMLA is denitely the law that mostfrustrates employers,

pa

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The Endless Possibilitiesof the Escalation Desk

Jay Minnucci

MULTICHANNETECHNOLOGYOPTIMIZATION

IN THE PIPELINE

www.contactcenterpipeline.com

Executive ConnectionWhat World-Class ContaCenters Do DifferentlyPart 1p08

Performance MattersSeven Lessons inCustomer Servicep10

The View from the SaddleFrom Social Media toSocial Responsibility:Helping Our Veterans GetBack to Workp12

Inside ViewVegas.comp16

Management ROIFive WFM Best Practicep22

Forecast FocusThe WorkforceManagement Checkupp24

Leading ThoughtsLinking CustomerExperience Metricsto Compensationp26

Idiom InsightsThe Ball Is in Your Courp28

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Driving up customersatisfaction by 30%

makes for a good day.1

Driving down costsby $180 million makesfor a really good year. 2

Verint is helping Rogers Communications, a n

$11 billion Canadian communications and media company,

find out whats driving customer calls into the Rogers

Wireless contact center. With this insight, Rogers

can predict customer behavior patterns, identify

opportunities to improve strategy, products, and

services even transfer calls more accurately.

So customers can enjoy a better experience, and

Rogers can put up to $180 million in projected savings

to work elsewhere. Thats Intelligence In Action . TM

See case studies at www.intelligenceinaction.com .

Matt Ariker

VP, CustomerManagement & Analytics

VP, Enterprise DataWarehouse

Copyright Verint Systems Inc. 2011. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. 1 Customer satisfaction among customers waiting for handset delivery. 2. Identified cost savings for potential realization.


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4/36Contact Center Pipeline4 MAR 2011

work more than three days but is just out for any period of incapacity becauseof a chronic health condition, such as asthma,or for pregnancy or for long-term conditionsfor which treatment is not effective, such asthe terminal states of a disease. These can allconstitute a serious health condition withinthe meaning of the FMLA.

Managers need to be careful not to dis-cipline or terminate an employee whenthey are out for a serious health conditionif the employee is FMLA eligible and has notexhausted his or her 12-week FMLA entitle-ment, Fleischer says.

Failing to reinstate the employee to the sameor similar position at the end of the FMLA leave. Contact centers that have been operating ina strict cost-containment mode over the pastfew years may nd it difficult to ll staffinggaps when full-time agents are taking FMLAleave. Having a oater or extra staffing to coveragents who are out may be an added expensefor the operation, but its better than losing thecalls or terminating the employee and beingfaced with a lawsuit, says Pinn.

A home-agent program also can providean effective and exible solution to ensureadequate staffing (see Finding the Value inHome Agents,Pipeline, February 2011).

A Well-Drafted Policy Can Helpto Manage FMLA Absences

Employers are sometimes reluctant tonotify employees of whats available to thembecause theyre afraid it will increase theirFMLA usage, says Pinn. They may think thattheyre playing it safe by not sharing that infor-

mation, but theyre actually interfering withthe employees FMLA rights, he points out.According to DOL regulations that took

effect in 2009, employers are required to pro-vide employees with a general notice aboutthe FMLA, which must be visibly posted inthe workplace break room or other commonarea. The information must also be includedin employee handbooks, whether printed oravailable electronically.

Having a well-written FMLA policy thatclearly spells out what employees are entitled

to, what notice they must provide, their rightto reinstatement at the end of the leave, andwho is an eligible employee will ensure thatboth supervisors and employees understandhow and when FMLA leave takes place, saysFleischer.

In addition, an FMLA policy allows manag-ers to put in place critical provisions to helpmanage FMLA and to safeguard againstprolonged absences. The FMLA providesemployers with choices about three importantelements of their FMLA policy, Fleischer says.She recommends that managers include thefollowing provisions in their policies:

Ensure that FMLA leave runs concurrently withother paid leave. Employers can and shouldchoose to have FMLA run concurrently withother paid leave, such as sick leave, saysFleischer. Having it run concurrently will helpyou to avoid situations where employees aretaking back-to-back leave; for instance, beingout for 12 weeks on short-term disability andthen immediately taking another 12 weeksof FMLA leave.

Count FMLA leave on a rolling 12-monthperiod. The FMLA allows eligible employees upto 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period. Theregulations allow employers to choose oneof four different methods for calculating that12-month period. For instance, the 12-monthperiod can be based on:

the calendar year,

any xed 12-month period (e.g., a scalyear or one required by state law),

the 12-month period measuredforward from when an employee rsttakes FMLA leave, or

a rolling 12-month period lookingbackward from the date when anemployee takes FMLA leave.

If you choose to count FMLA leave on acalendar year basis, you could set yourself upfor lengthy absences. For example, an agentcould request to take her 12 weeks of leave

through the end of December. Then when thenew calendar year starts on January 1st, shewould be immediately eligible for another 12weeks and could be out for 24 consecutiveweeks.

The only method that is benecial toemployers is the rolling 12-month periodlooking backward, says Fleischer. When anemployee comes to you and requests to takeFMLA leave, you can look back 12 months fromthat day, count how much FMLA leave theyhave taken, and then youll know how muchthey have left or whether theyve exhaustedtheir 12-week entitlement.

If an employer fails to choose a methodin advance and let its employees know howFMLA leave will be calculated, then the optionthat provides the most benecial outcomefor the employee will be used. Therefore,

employers should make sure to set forth intheir policy that the 12-month period will becalculated on a rolling 12-month basis lookingbackward, she says.

Dene your policy on child-rearing andadoption leave. While FMLA regulations allowemployees to take FMLA intermittent leave forserious medical conditions, it is not guaran-teed for employees who request time off tocare for a newborn child or to care for a childafter the placement of a child for foster careor adoption. In those cases, the

Feature ArticleFollow Susan at

http://twitter.com/SusanHash

Complying with the FMLApage 3

page 6

Susan Hash is the Editor ofContact Center Pipeline .

[email protected]

(206) 552-8831

To be eligible for FMLA benefits, anemployee must:

work for a covered employer; have worked for the employer for a

total of 12 months; have worked at least 1,250 hours in the

previous 12-month period; and

work at a location in the UnitedStates or in any territory or possessionof the United States where at least50 employees are employed by theemployer within 75 miles.

Who Is Eligible for FMLA?


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page 4 Feature Article | Complying with the FMLA employee must get the employers approval. Ifyou want to ensure that employees are not usingintermittent or reduced-schedule leave to carefor a baby after its birth or placement for fostercare or adoption of a baby, then you will need toclearly spell that out in your policy.

How to Reduce FMLA Abuse

Intermittent FMLA leave can be extremelydisruptive in a call center environmentandwhen its abused, its a source of considerablefrustration for managers and the frontline agentswho have to take on the extra workload.

We see a lot of contagious FMLA usage in callcenters, especially with mental health conditionsor migraines, says Pinn. Migraines are not sup-posed to be contagious, but when employees seethat their coworkers arent working, they tend tothink, Im going to take advantage of this, too.

The bottom line is that people who abuse anypolicy are problem employeesand that gener-ally is a consequence of poor hiring, poor man-agement or poor jobs, says Michael Tracy, ownerand managing principal of OMNI EmploymentManagement Services, LLC. When those dynam-

ics are in place, FMLA happens to be aneasy law for people to abuse.

Many times, the biggest contributorto the utilization and abuse of FMLA isthe contact centers attendance policy,says Ken Cope, absence managementleader at Hewitt Associates. Because ofthe nature of the work, when employ-ees start running into situations wheretheyre late by two or three minutes,the attendance policy dictates thatthey be written up, so FMLA becomesthe vehicle for protecting those fewminutes as job-protected time.

If a center is experiencing a highamount of intermittent FMLA leave,Cope recommends that managers

review their attendance policy and process andmake sure that its in sync with the FMLA policyand how its being administered.

What are some policies that you can enforceto avoid the potential for abuse?

Require employees to provide a medical cer-tication from a health care provider to supporttheir need for FMLA leave. A word of caution: An

employees direct supervisor or manager shouldnever call the employees doctor, says Fleischer.Managers are prohibited by law from calling theemployees doctor. When the employee submitshis or her medical certication for FMLA, manag-ers can authenticate it or seek clarication, buttheyre not allowed to actually call the employeesdoctor. An HR representative or a health careprovider who works for the employer may doso, but managers may not.

Require employees to provide recerticationsevery so often (no more often than every 30 days). The burden of having to obtain recerticationsfrom their doctor, at their own expense, maybe enough to curb some of the FMLA misuse.However, the problem is that the law allowsemployees to go to their own doctors, saysPinn. And doctors typically want to support theirpatients. If FMLA abuse is suspected, the lawallows employers to request a second opinionfrom a doctor that they choose, but then a thirddoctorwho must be mutually selected by theemployer and employeewould be required toprovide the tiebreaking decision. Keep in mind,though, that its rare to get two doctors to over-turn another doctors diagnosis, says Pinn. Theemployee is still eligible for leave until you getthe third doctor to override the initial diagnosis.

Create a policy that prohibits employees fromworking a second job while on leave.We fre-quently see employees moonlighting for anotheremployer while theyre supposed to be on FMLAleave, Pinn says. The law actually allows them todo that unless you have a policy that prohibits it.

A Word of Caution aboutNo-Fault Attendance Policies

If your center uses a no-fault attendance polthat assigns points for absences and tardinesmake sure that you and your management teatrack and document each occurrence, especiaif the employee is reporting absences to a supevisor or team leader instead of HR. If a si

occurrence or a single point is given in erfor FMLA-protected leave, and the employeeterminated, you might lose the case, says Pin

If managers are involved in tracking absenthey need to knowand theyre allowed knowwhy a person is not at work that dahe says. Many managers think that they cantemployees why theyre out with medical reasobut when youre dealing with FMLA, an emplois entitled to know why a person is not there. Tcan ask medical questions, such as: Are you goto the doctor? What did the doctor say? How lodo you think youll be out? Those are questiothat determine whether that person is eligible fthat absence or not. In addition to being vigilabout documentation, make sure that you keeHR in the loop when youre tracking absence

Be Careful aboutCommunicating with Employees

The FMLA allows retaliation claimssoonly can employees sue if you dont give thetheir 12 weeks of FMLA leave, but if you give the 12 weeks and then terminate them, they cclaim that its because they took FMLA leKeep in mind that managers and supervisocan be named in FMLA lawsuits, so try to kyour emotions in check when dealing with FMleaveeven if you suspect that an employee abusing the policy.

Dont let your emotions get the better of yowhen dealing with these situations because, you do, it can be used against you later, Psays. An employee can make the allegation th

KEN COPE JERRY PINN MICHAEL TRACY

Dont let youremotions getthe better of youwhen dealing withFMLA absences.If you do, itcan be usedagainst you laterin a possibleretaliation lawsuit.

Many times,the biggestcontributor tothe utilizationand abuseof FMLA isthe contactcentersattendancepolicy.

Organizations canminimize theirexpenses relatedto FMLA abuseby hiring theright people andcreating a workenvironment thatis positive.


7/36MAR 2011www.ContactCenterPipeline .com

AON HEWITT

www.aonhewitt.com

The global human capital consulting andoutsourcing solutions provider. OffersFMLA resources for employers (reports,webcasts, background information) onits website, as well outsourcing solutionsthat include employment attorneys whosefull-time responsibility is to interpret FMLregulations, address employers complianand abuse concerns, and facilitate theprograms in the field.

HR LEARNING CENTER

www.hrlearningcenter.com

A full-service workplace employment lawtraining, human resource consulting andhuman resource training firm specializingin the areas of workplace employment lawand sexual and unlawful harassment. HRLearning Center offers onsite FMLA trainand online webinars: Top 10 FMLA/ADAMistakes Employers Make and Final FMRegulations and Amendments: Learn HowComply! (http://tinyurl.com/FMLAtrainin)

OMNI EMPLOYMENT MANAGEMENSERVICES, LLC

www.omniemployment.com A human resource consulting andoutsourcing firm that offers a sharedservices approach to HR management or

Total HRSolutions, in which each client iassigned an experienced HR consultant wfunctions as their HR director, as well as adedicated a payroll/benefits administrativprofessional who manages all help deskand administrative support associatedwith payroll, benefits administration, andrelated employee services. Also conductsprofessional development workshops andoffers HR-related content via online articland a blog.

WIMBERLY LAWSON WRIGHTDAVES & JONES, PLLC

www.wimberlylawson.com

A labor and employment law firm providirepresentation to businesses, nationally aninternationally; also offers FMLA seminaan annual Labor and Employment LawUpdate conference, and frontline supervistraining on FMLA.

Feature Article | Complying with the FMLA his manager got angry when he asked for FMLAleave and later he lost his job. It opens up potentialretaliation lawsuits.

The safest approach is to communicate withemployees in writing, says Fleischer. If you discussFMLA leave with an employee over the phone,then it will be your word vs. the employees shoulda problem arise. Always try to create a paper trail.

If you communicate with the employee in a well-written letter, there can be no question that youtold the employee that, if they fail to return bythe end of the FMLA leave, they lose their right toreinstatement, she says. The letter should alwaysbe reviewed by HR, as well as by legal counsel.

More FMLA Changesto Keep Your Eye On

In December 2010, the U.S. Department ofLabors Wage and Hour Division announced acollaboration with the American Bar Associationto launch a referral service for employees withFMLA complaints. The referral service will connectworkers with FMLA complaints with access to localattorneys to help them sue their employers for

FMLA violations, and will provide workers withinformation about the Wage and Hour Divisionsdetermination regarding violations at issue andback wages owed.

That could denitely increase the amount ofFMLA-related lawsuits, says Pinn. Often, whenan employee contacts the local DOL, the DOLwill usually call the employer to discuss whether

the complaint falls under FMLA and, if so, urgethe employer to reconsider. In some cases, theemployee will be reinstated and the problem isresolved. But if, instead, the DOL refers the personto a plaintiffs lawyer, the plantiff s lawyer has everyincentive to sue the employer if they can, becausethey can recover their attorneys fees if they win.

The DOLs Wage and Hour Division also is cur-rently conducting a survey on how employeesare using FMLA. The survey is intended to provideinsight into how families use FMLA leave, as well asinformation on regulatory changes, among otherthings, according to the Labor Department.

That could be an indication that regulatorychanges might be coming, so keep your eyes andears open, says Fleischer.

Definition of Serious Health Condition

Serious health condition means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical ormental condition that involves either:

Inpatient care (i.e., an overnight stay) in a hospital, hospice, or residentialmedical-care facility, including any period of incapacity (i.e., inability towork, attend school, or perform other regular daily activities) or subsequenttreatment in connection with such inpatient care; or

Continuing treatment by a health care provider, which includes:

(1) A period of incapacity lasting more than three consecutive, full calendar days, and any subsequenttreatment or period of incapacity relating to the same condition that also includes:

treatment two or more times by or under the supervision of a health care provider (i.e., in-person visits, the first within 7 days and both within 30 days of the first day of incapacity); or

one treatment by a health care provider (i.e., an in-person visit within 7 days of the first dayof incapacity) with a continuing regimen of treatment (e.g., prescription medication, physicaltherapy); or

(2) Any period of incapacity related to pregnancy or for prenatal care. A visit to the health care

provider is not necessary for each absence; or (3) Any period of incapacity or treatment for a chronic serious health condition which continues

over an extended period of time, requires periodic visits (at least twice a year) to a health careprovider, and may involve occasional episodes of incapacity. A visit to a health care provider isnot necessary for each absence; or

(4) A period of incapacity that is permanent or long-term due to a condition for which treatmentmay not be effective. Only supervision by a health care provider is required, rather than activetreatment; or

(5) Any absences to receive multiple treatments for restorative surgery or for a condition that wouldlikely result in a period of incapacity of more than three days if not treated.

Source: Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

Where to Find FMLA Training and Resources



World class is a term that is bandied aboutand bounced around a lot in conversations aboutcontact centers, but what does it really mean? Itis often used but rarely demonstrated or clearlydescribed. Contact center professionals eagerto improve their operations dont need to hearworld class; they need tounderstand ittosee and feel it in the form of actionable bestpractices embraced by leading customer careorganizations.

All contact centers today face the same chal-lenges. Lets take a look at what world-classcenters do differently.

THEY GO BEYOND THE TRADITIONALMETRICS TO FOCUS ON THOSE THATDRIVE CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Many of the most common contact centermetrics and numbers are about the centersavailabilitynot the impact on the customerexperience. Metrics like service level, averagespeed of answer, abandon rate, et. al., are allimportant measures, but they dont have muchto do with quality or value from a customerstandpoint. Nonetheless, those metrics are theones we see at the top of most contact centersscorecard, and they are the metrics that execu-tives frequently ask about. Sadly, this quantitativefocus drives a continual evaluation of the scores,along with ways to ensure that the center getsthe right scorewith little focus on customerimpact.

While world-class centers certainly dontdisregard such availability metrics, they focus

even more on such measures as rst-contactresolution, quality, customer satisfaction andagent adherence to schedule. And they aresuccessful in communicating the importanceof such metrics to senior management.

These are the measures over which agentshave direct control, and the ones that bring thecontact center much closer to the customerand vice versa.

THEIR QUALITY PROGRAMIS BUILT AROUND THE VOICEOF THE CUSTOMER

In most contact centers, the quality moni-toring process is half-baked. That is, the centerdoes a decent job of measuring how well agentscomply with internal requirements and policiesduring customer interactions, but fall short onmeasuring a very critical componenthow thecustomer felt about the interaction.

In world-class contact centers, the customeris considered a key judge of quality. This is notto say that these centers do away with their QAteam; rather, they have the team focus on bothcomponents of quality: internal compliance andthe actual customer experience. This is doneby having QA specialists rate agents on howwell they carried out essential call requirements(greeting, accuracy of information provided,etc.) and combine that score with results frompost-contact customer surveys in which callersrate the agent on things like courtesy, empathy,professionalism and ability to resolve the issue athand. Such voice of the customer (VOC) basedquality programs mark a true shift in how contactcenters gauge performance and how much theyvalue customer insight and feedback.

By implementing a VOC-based qualitymonitoring program, contact centers are ableto uncover what truly drives positive customerexperiences and what detracts from them, andthey are able to increase agent buy-in to thequality process, which, in turn, often results inhigher quality interactions. When an agent sees

that the center cares enough about customersto incorporate their direct feedback into qual-ity monitoring scores, the agent also begins tovalue the customer more. And, certainly, agentsare more open to coaching that includes realcustomer feedback than coaching that includesonly their supervisors take on their performance.

THEY ENSURE HIGH LEVELS OFAGENT ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION

Everybody knows that happy employees

beget happy customers; however, happiness isoften not enough to build and sustain customerloyalty in todays highly competitive businesarena. World-class contact centers know thatto truly engage customers and drive business

results, the center must truly engage its agents.When truly engaged, agents do not merely

want to do a good job; rather, they feelcom- pelled to do a great one. Fully engaged agentsarent just satised with their job; they are loyal tthe organization for which they work, committedto its customers and its mission, and inspired tocontinuously improve.

To maintain high levels of engagement onthe front line, the best contact centers do thefollowing types of things:

Regularly reward and recognize agentswhen they perform well and achievekey objectives/goals.

Train and develop staff using a diverserange of methods that captivate andeducatee.g., e-learning, role-playing/simulations, on-the-job learning,mentoring, etc.

Empower agents to make key decisionsthat enhance the customer experience.

Expand agents rolesgiving themopportunities to work on intriguing off-phone projects and committees.

Nothing enhances the customer experi-ence more than interacting with an agentwho is knowledgeable, professional, efficientmotivated and happy. Thats how world classhappens.

Thats it for this month, but that is cer tainlynot the end of the discussion on what world-class centers do differently. Next month, Ill sharseveral additional practices and strategies that

separate the elite customer care organizationsfrom the rest of the pack.

What World-Class ContactCenters Do Differently How top-performing centers achieve high customerengagement while keeping costs in check.

Tips, ideas and strategies from an executive perspective.Executive ConnectionPart 1

Tim Montgomery is Founder and CEOof Cooney SolutionsGroup, a consultingand outsourcingsolutions provider.

[email protected](210) 687-2714


9/36



I wanted to screamand hang up thephone! All I wantedwas to transfer myhousehold phonenumber to my newmobile phone. Themobile phone dealermade it sound likea straightforwardprocess. But after

speaking with eight different agents from boththe landline and mobile phone companies andspending a combined six hours on the phonewith their customer service departments, I real-ized that this process was going to be anythingbut simple.

Taking a walk in your customers shoes canprovide key insights into the service you pro-vide. In this scenario, my role as the customerallowed me to experience rst-hand some ofthe bestand worstcustomer service I haveever seen. Even though I have spent 20 years inthe telecom industry, this experience certainlyreinforced some of the key principles that I teachduring my call center seminars. The following areexamples taken from my experience to illustrateseven essential lessons in customer service.

LESSON #1: THERE IS A FINE LINEBETWEEN HONESTY AND BASHINGYOUR OWN COMPANY

When I rst called my mobile phone companyto have my home number switched to my cellular

phone, I spoke with an agent named Guy. Heimmediately said, Eight out of nine times, thisprocess fails! I said that I would still like to pro-ceed, since everyone has my old home numberbut Im usually more available via cell phone. Theagent agreed to help and actually provided a lotof useful information. But, as a customer, I lostsome of my faith in the mobile phone companydue to that comment.

I encourage the agents I train to tell the truthand acknowledge the obvious. But, agents haveto be careful not to bash their own company since

that can cause customers to lose faith in the rm.

LESSON #2: AGENTS CAN BEBRAINWASHED BY CUSTOMERCOMPLAINTS

This agents negative comments regarding hisown company also highlight another commonailment in call centers: the agent brainwashingeffect. This occurs when veteran agents hear thesame customer complaints every day and believethose complaints happen more often than theyactually do.

I recently worked with a client where only 15%of their customer base called each year. But thosecalls make up 100% of what the agents hear.So their agents believed that those complaintshappened 100% of the time to 100% of thecustomer base.

It is important for call center managers tocounteract the agent brainwashing effect bysharing success stories with their agents, andalso providing a big picture perspective onthe percentage of customers who actually callcustomer service in any given year.

LESSON # 3: ALWAYS CONFIRM YOURCUSTOMERS NEEDS

The mobile phone agent told me that I had tocall my home phone provider to move the pro-cess forward. He said I should ask for a numberswap. In other words, to move my home phonenumber to my cell phone, I also had to move mycell phone number to my home phone. He alsoadded that, to do this, there would be multiple

service charges, from both phone companies.I called my home phone company. I spoke witha wonderful agent named Karen who listened tomy request and asked a simple question, Sinceyou just got your mobile phone, how manypeople have that number? I said, No one.

So, Karen suggested I simply switch my homephone number to a new number, instead of try-ing to move my new cell phone number over.She could still reserve my old home number, sothe mobile phone company could take it andput it on my new cell phone. Doing this would

eliminate a service charge and move the procealong faster.

As a customer service trainer, I really appreated how Karen used one simple question to heme save time and money. Im glad she recappmy basic needs, even though I thought I knewhat I wanted.

As a result, I was happy to have accomplishthe second step in the number transfer procesI had a new home phone number and my oldhome phone number was on reserve, ready tbe transferred to my cell phone.

LESSON #4: YOUR AGENTS HELPDESK CAN ONLY HELP IF THEY AREASKED THE CORRECT QUESTIONS

Imagine my surprise when I picked up tphone in my house and found that it had reverteto my old home number! I was livid. I called home phone provider again and spoke witan agent named Susan. She could not explawhy my home phone had reverted back to itold number or how it could be xed. She keputting me on hold, saying that she had to caher help desk to get instructions. After spendinmore than 45 minutes on the phone with hershe proudly announced that I should just call mobile phone company and have them port thnumber onto my new cell phone.

I told her that agents at both the home andmobile phone companies warned me againsdoing this. They told me that my home phonservice would be cancelled completely if I not get my home phone number switched rst

I emphasized that I wanted to keep my homphone service, as well as have a cell phone. Sagain said her help desk told her this was thcorrect procedure. But after speaking with habout the process, I realized she had asked hhelp desk the wrong questions and, thereforehad gotten the wrong answers.

Im glad I caught her mistake, since I wouhave lost my home phone service and wouhave been forced to pay reconnection chargeto get it hooked up again.

Performance Matters

SEVEN LESSONS IN CUSTOMER SERVI

View Available CCP Training Resources at:http://tinyurl.com/CCPTraining

Taking a walk in your customers shoes can reveal critical insights intoprocess disconnects and service failures.

Mike AokiReflective Keynotes


11/36

LESSON #5: THANK YOURCUSTOMERS FOR THEIR LOYALTY

During my conversation with Susan, I repeat-edly emphasized that I wanted to keep my homephone service and my home Internet service,which is also provided by my home phone com-pany. But this agent never acknowledged me asa customer. She never used a loyalty statement,such as, Im glad you want to stay with us for your

home and Internet service. Since many peopleare now cancelling their landline service andusing their cell phones exclusively, I was surprisedshe didnt thank me for remaining a loyal homephone user. As a customer, I want to feel appreci-ated and valued. Instead, this agent acted like Iwas an interruption to her day.

I asked Susan to connect me with the mobilephone companys customer service department,so we could work together to solve this problem.Instead, she transferred me to the mobile phonecompanys sales department, where I could buy anew cell phone. When I mentioned I had boughta phone from their company last week, and justwanted to get a number switch done, that sales-person transferred me to their customer servicedepartment.

LESSON #6: GO THE EXTRA MILEI then spoke with an agent named Alex. He

said he could not change anything from theirend. As long as the home phone number was stillactive, porting it to my cell phone would result inthe immediate cancellation of my home phoneservice. But he was willing to stay on the line withme while he conference called me through to myhome phone service provider. Once connected,Alex spoke directly with the home phone agent,to have the problem corrected.

Alex went the extra mile to help me. I reallyappreciated that and was very impressed by themobile companys service. Having your agents goabove and beyond a customers expectations isa great way to build client loyalty and referrals.

LESSON #7: DONT GIVE CUSTOMERSEXCUSES

I thought everything was ne. My old homenumber had been safely switched to my cellphone and I was able to use my new home phonenumber to make and receive calls.

But, there was one more problem: Callers toldme they couldnt leave a voice message on mynew home line. So I called my home phone pro-vider and spoke with an agent named Maria. Shesaid my voicemail was reset due to the numberchange. Without investigating further, she addedthat it would be working by 5 p.m. that day.

But, several days later, it still wasnt working.

So I made my eighth customer service call th

week to get my home voicemail xed. I spowith another agent, Dave, who said that voicemail never had been set up properly in thrst place. He reset my voicemail and withinminutes, it was working ne.

In other words, Maria could have xed it dearlier, if she had bothered to investigate tproblem rather than give excuses. Marias actimay have shortened her call and allowed her hit her average handle time requirements, but also forced me to call back and waste anothagents time to solve this issue. Thats the oppoof rst call, nal call resolution.

Finally, after speaking with eight agents anspending six hours on the phone, I had my homand mobile phones set up properly. As a cutomer, I hated this whole process. But as a traiIm glad it happened because it highlighted klessons on what to do and what to avoid wheproviding customer service.

Mike Aoki is President of the callcenter training company ReflectiveKeynotes Inc.




There is no better place to put the desirable traits thatreturning veterans retain than in the contact center industry.

For the last two issues of this magazine,Ive harped on about Web 2.0, social mediaand social networking. As much as I likethat stuff, its time to shift gears and talkabout an issue that is the polar oppositeof a discussion regarding the latest trendysoftware. In this issue, Im going to harpon about the contact center industrysopportunity, and responsibility, to helpour veterans get back to work.

While the statistics change with eachmonth that the Iraq and Afghanistanconicts continue, the Bureau of LaborStatistics (BLS) estimates that there arecurrently 2.8 million veterans with aservice-related disability in the UnitedStates. As far as the veterans of Gulf Wargo, 21% have a service-related disabilityand, as of the end of 2009, 20.5% of allGulf War veterans were unemployed. Imsure that number has increased since then.

Veterans to Work (www.veterans2work.org) is a 501 (c)(3)not-for-prot organiza-tion that works to nd jobs for veteransand service-disabled veterans with a par-ticular emphasis on nding those jobs inthe contact center industry. Many if notmost of our returning veterans retain thediscipline, dedication, professionalism,teamwork, ability to perform under pres-sure, and desire to serve that they acquiredduring their military service. I believe there

is no better place to put these desirabletraits to work than in the contact centerindustry.

Why the contact center industry?Many of our returning veterans are com-ing home with devastating injuries that,frankly, they probably wouldnt havesurvived in previous wars. But, survivethey did and they now need a way tobe, and feel like, productive members

of society. Some of them may no longerbe mobile, but they still possess the skillsand attributes listed above, which can beapplied to customer service in a home-agent scenario. Technology is no longera barrier to having agents work at home,and in the case of the veteran workforce,I dont think remote management shouldbe an issue with these motivated, profes-sional individuals.

If there is an issue with bringing veter-ans, disabled or not, to the contact centerindustry it is probably the industrys owncollective psyche. Lets face it friends,the contact center is not now, nor hasit ever been, an industry given to think-ing outside the box. Most members ofthis ultra-conservative industry will doanything to avoid being different fromthe rest of the pack. I offer as evidence myrecent experience responding to postingsabout agent job availabilities on LinkedIn.In every instance that Ive seen a postingregarding hiring and job opportunities,Ive posted a comment suggesting thatthe hiring manager, who is usually theone posting the job opportunities, contactVeterans to Work and consider lling openpositions with returning and unemployedveterans. The net result so far has been astunning silence. No response to my com-ment, no contact with Veterans to Work.

I hope to take advantage of my bullypulpit with this magazine to encouragethe contact center industry to tap into themany benets of putting veterans to work.For those of you with ties to the companypurse strings, there are nancial benetsto hiring unemployed veterans, disabledor otherwise. The Work Opportunity TaxCredit (WOTC) provides tax creditsnotdeductionsof $2,400 to $4,800 per

employee for many veterans, so thereare nancial as well as social benets tohiring veterans. And nding veterans foryour contact center workforce is as easyas contacting Veterans to Work.

Veterans to Work (V2W) was foundedby contact center industry and Vietnamveteran John Reynolds. John summedup V2W in the following way: V2W isAmericans doing what Americans do best.We work hard to do well for ourselves,then we help others. V2W has more than2,000 customer service-qualied veter-ans ready to go, set up in a home-basedoffice or otherwise prepared to go to work.Ninety-seven percent of these workershave a high school diploma and most havehad additional specialty training. Twenty-eight percent have a bachelors degreeor higher. If these veterans dont t youremployee prole, V2W has an additional112,000 veteran resumes on le.

In the interest of full disclosure, I amalso a veteran of the armed forces, so thisissue is personally important to me. If youare a veteran, you know what I mean, butwhether you are a veteran or not, I hopeyou will consider looking at the veteranworkforce before you make your next hire.Not only is it good business, its the rightthing to do. For more information on V2Wvisit www.veterans2work.org or call John

Reynolds at 415-925-1515.

The View from the Saddle

From Social Media to Social Responsibility:Helping Our Veterans Get Back to Work

Tap into the many benefits of putting this highly skilledtalent pool to work.

Paul Stockford is Chief Analystat SaddletreeResearch, whichspecializes incontact centers &customer service.



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most centers, it is a small minorityof traffic, so it is easy to overlook the importanceof them. Yet what happens during that escalationcan have a great impact on your enterprise.

A Lack of VisibilityWe see contact centers handle these escalated

calls a number of different ways. Most ask thatagents contact a team lead or a supervisor forguidance. This is most commonly done in aninformal manner, with no specic procedure forthe contact (IM, phone, walk-up, etc.), no trackingof these cases, and no reporting of volume orcontent of escalations. This informal network ofspecialists will generally produce an adequateanswer to the query, but little else.

Do not confuse this approach with an escala-tion desk. An escalation desk is a more formal-ized structure to handle these cases, and at aminimum will include the following:

Specic instructions on how to contactthe deskthis is usually done by callinga queue where service levels and currentconditions are tracked.

Specialized training for staff manning thequeue on how to nd answers quickly.

A schedule for manning the escalationdesk throughout the day.

Documentation of all calls to the queuewho called, what was the reason, whatwas the outcome, etc.

Reports that are run weekly or monthlyshowing call volumes, service levels, callreasons, etc.

When rst presented with this idea, it is easy tosee the effort without visualizing the opportunity.More training is needed, set up work must bedone regarding queues and reports, schedulesmust be produced, and perhaps the most over-whelming concern of all is that agents mustchange behaviors. With all the other priorities

that cross our desks, it is easy to understand whymany would follow the if it aint broke, dont xit axiom.

Seeing the PossibilitiesBefore invoking that axiom, though, ask your-

self: If it was broke, would you know? The truthis, contact centers without formalized escalationdesks have little to no insight regarding thesecalls. They are not in a queue, so you dont knowhow long the calls take to get answered. Theyare not routinely monitored, so quality and con-sistency are unknown. Content is not tracked, sothe amount of duplication cannot be quantied.It could be that the informal escalation processreally is broke, but no one knows it.

Dig a little deeper, and you begin to see thatthe opportunity for improvement is dramatic. Inbuilding your case for it, you can count on thefollowing benets:

Process improvement: The documentationcoming from the escalation desk is thevery best source for improving knowledgemanagement content and ongoingtraining programs.

Higher customer satisfaction: Escalationsmay represent a small percentage of calls,but they represent a high percentageof moment of truth calls. It is duringthese longer, complex and sometimesemotional calls that customers make theirdecisions regarding loyalty.

Efficiency: Agents waiting at a supervisorsdesk, or calling around to a bunch ofdifferent numbers to nd someoneavailable, is simply a waste of time andmoney. A properly managed queuegets the answer much more quickly andeconomically.

Training and coaching support: Reviewingescalation calls by agent and by type

provides you with the best input possibleto develop training and coachingprograms that are truly targeted to theneeds of each individual.

Career growth: Manning the escalation

desk for a few hours a day is a great wayto evaluate someone who shows interestand promise for higher level assignment

That is a far-reaching list of benets whis hard to duplicate with other opportunitieWithout an escalation desk, you are missing oon most (if not all) of the potential.

Getting StartedIf you dont yet have an escalation desk, gett

one in place might sound like a daunting task. Ooft-cited obstacle is the lack of a system designfor this, but that concern does not hold up scrutiny. A real simple and effective tool cancrafted with just a moderate amount of Exexpertise (see the sidebar at the top of page 1for an example).

Minimal reliance on IT is one key ingredto getting your escalation desk moving quickAnother is understanding that this is one initiatwhere you can and should stage the implementtion. Start with just a few teamsenough require no more than two people on the desduring the core hours of the day. As a pilot, threquires less change management than a fu

scale rollout. It also gives you an opportunitywork out the kinks before moving forward.If you are like most centers that have tried

youll be hooked once you start looking at initial reports (the sidebar at the bottom of pag15 illustrates what this might look like). Escaladesk reports naturally exclude the simple abasic transactions and provide data on the contacts that have the most impact. Armed with infmation on these cream of the crop opportunitiyour coaching, training and process improvemprojects will hit the mark like never before.

page 1

Agility Factor

The Endless Possibilities

of the Escalation DeskA formalized escalation desk offers insights to dramatically improveagent skills and FCR. By Jay Minnucci, Service Agility



Jay Minnucci is Founder and Presidentof the independent consulting firmService Agility .


Acme CompanyEscalation Call Summary

March-11 #Escalated

calls

Escalatedcall %

Servicelevel

Abandonedrate

Transfer calls Guidance calls # of opportunitiesTotal callsanswered # % # % Coaching Training

Processimp.

187,605 9,312 4.96% 93% 0.72% 1,622 17.42% 7,690 82.58% 2,312 533 2,65

Acme CompanyEscalation Calls

3/7/2011 Agent Type Cause Resolution CoachingOpportunity

TrainingOpportunity

Process Imp.Opportunity # Account

2 2345678-9 Jim S. Transfer Request fromcustomer.

Customer tookissue withprice increaseand wanted tovoice concerns.Provided optionsto customerand forwardedconcerns toMarketing.

No No No

3 3456789-0 Erik Z. Guidance Erik was unableto provide thecustomer with aclear explanationof the benefitsof the newservice programbeing touted byMarketing.

Focused onthe automatedaspect of thenew service sincethis particularcustomer is verytech savvy.

No Yeswe needto considerproviding agentswith a process forcomparing currentservices with newopportunities.

A comparativetool would helpisolate benefitson a customer-bycustomer basis.

4 4567890-1 Linda H. Conference Problem findinginformation onwebsite. Lindamisunderstood thepage the customerwas on.

After determiningthe starting point,we were able topoint out wherethe right link was.Customer satisfied.

Yesimprovelistening skills. Didnot address withLinda.

No Considerimplementingdesk sharetechnology soagent can seecustomers screen

5 5678901-2 Susan H. Guidance Susan wantedverification thatthe info she wasproviding wasaccurate.

Gave Susanvalidation and shereturned to thecustomer.

YesSusan waslooking at theright knowledgemanagementscreen, but stillneeded assurance.

No No

A well-designed CRM system might help, but it is not a necessity. An escalation deskcan run effectively with something as simple as an excel spreadsheet. Below is anexample of how one might look.

Escalation reports focus entirely on the more complex contacts that you receive and, therefore, offer insight that youcannot get elsewhere. Here is one example of how you might want to report on the calls that touch the escalation desk:

Help! I Dont Have a CRM Systemfor Reporting on Escalated Call Activity!

What Kind of Reporting Can I Provide?



Inside View

Download more Inside View articles at:http://tinyurl.com/CCP-InsideView

Vegas.comA contact center with a culture asunique as the city it promotes.By Susan Hash, Contact Center Pipeline

In an industry known for high attrition, contactcenters with single-digit turnover rates are rare. Thats why, when we heard that Vegas.comscontact center enjoys a remarkable zero percentturnover rate, we had to take a look inside theunconventinoal culture of this high-performingcenter.

With more than 2.5 million unique visitors eachmonth, Vegas.com is the largest city destinationtravel website in the world. It offers extensive,constantly updated information and a full range

of travel products including hotel rooms, air-hotelpackages, show tickets, tours and golf. The com-panys contact center operates 24/7, 365 days ayear, handling sales and support contacts viaphone, web chat, email and SMS for more than70 different Las Vegas hospitality and entertain-ment brands.

Vegas.coms contact center is staffed by 100full-time agents who are motivated, dedicatedand enthusiastic about the company, as well asthe city in which they live and work. Obviously,working at a travel destination rm for a fascinat-

ing and sexy city like Las Vegas has its appeal,but what is it that drives staff longevity year afteryear?

Senior Director of Contact Center OperationsRobert Cate and his management team play a keyrole in creating a workplace culture that fostersstaff loyalty. It may be Cates leadership philoso-phy of blending ethereal human managementprinciples with the real world of technology thatis the secret ingredient which, as he puts it, turnsDoing Customer Contact into Doing Customer

Contact Right. He believes that, if you hire theright people, then you can trust your staff to dothe right thing for the company and your custom-ers. And Vegas.com agents live up to the faiththat management puts in them on a daily basis.Unlike the typical call center environment, agentsare given an enormous amount of autonomy indetermining when and where they work. Sinceimplementing a home-agent program four yearsago, the contact centers performance has soared.And while interactions and revenue have tripledin that time, the center hasnt had to hire a single

agent. Were doing the work of about 180 agewith just under 100, Cate says.

Home Agents, Flex Scheduling:A Winning Combination

Running a 24/7 contact center that support70 different brandseach of which is runing its own promotions on different days antimeswould be a scheduling nightmare fomost managers. How can you cover high-volumperiods that take place throughout the weewithout messing up your agents lives? Cate reized early on that creating a ex schedule mowhere agents had several start times a day wounever y in a brick-and-mortar operation. Agewould be wildly inconvenienced by it and thewould resent it, he says.

The need for pinpoint scheduling, as wela desire to improve agent satisfaction promptCate to explore the home-agent model. thought that if I could develop a program thathe agents could get behind and be vested inthen everything else would come later, he sayIt sounds clich, but happier agents make mproductive agents, and more productive agentmake more money, and so on.

The pilot program launched in 2006 with home agents. With the performance gains thawe saw from those 20 people, we decided thait would be operationally irresponsible notextend this to everybody in our organizatioCate says. The program was expanded to abo50% of staff the following year, and then, in 20the center began operating with a full-sca

Left: Senior Director of ContactCenter Operations Rob Cate

ROB CATE

Sinceimplementinga full-scalehome-agentprogram four years ago, thecontact centersperformancehas soared.



home agent workforce.Heres how the program works: In addition to

the standard equipment that exists in the centersbrick-and-mortar site, all agents are also issuedlaptops and provided with high-speed Internetaccess in their homes. While some centers requireremote agents to provide their own equipment,Vegas.com decided to absorb the cost (about $2kper laptop) to ensure that the computers havethe proper security controls in place and are PCIcompliant. The center doesnt have to pay for theagents Internet access since Vegas.coms parentcompany, the Greenspun Family of Companies,also owns a local cable company.

Agents are responsible for scheduling theirown shifts. Each week, the center posts a forecast,and agents pick the blocks of time that they wantto work. Some choose to work a traditional eight-hour shift; others prefer to pick an hour or twospread out through the day. The center uses a

performance stack ranking system to determinewhich agents choose rst. Seniority doesnt fac-tor much into the decision since the majority ofthe staff has worked for the company since thebeginning.

Many managers would be skeptical aboutwhether a system where agents schedulethemselves would really workand Cate is oftenquestioned about its practicality. The agentsschedule themselves much more aggressivelythan anything that I could have come up becausethey know their unique needstheir schedules

for their kids, concerts, appointments, etc. Also,because were a commissioned-based sales force,the agents have skin in the game. They want tobe here when the phones are ringing.

Invest inthe Supporting Technology

Vegas.coms success is largely built upon itspeople and culture, but technology adds anotherkey piece to the puzzle. Cate acknowledges thatthe companys willingness to invest in a systemthat supports the home-agent environment wasa huge factor in its success.

The centers IP-based call center suite(Customer Interaction Center from InteractiveIntelligence) helps to ensure a high level of staff-ing exibility. For instance, when call volumestarts to spike, it noties those agents who arenot logged in via SMS so that they can jump onthe phones for a few minutes to clear the queue.

In 2005, we threw out our old system andbought a brand-new system that was notbeholden to old TDM switches or legacy applica-tions. Moving forward it was 100% IP, 100% newtechnology and a server-based environment. Nota lot of managers have that opportunity, becausetheir companies have so much invested in the oldsystems, he says. I have a system that allows meto do literally anything that Ive ever wanted to do,and an organization that is courageous enoughto allow me to do thatand those two togetherare pretty powerful.

A Call Center EnvironmentThats Fun and Exciting

Although agents can work conveniently frothe comfort of their own homes, they actualenjoy coming into the center, and most makepoint of being there for a few hours every daWhy? Quite simply, the center is where the actis.

Visiting celebrities and Vegas entertainers mfrequent trips to Vegas.coms offices to spend tiwith contact center staff and share highlighabout their showsand sometimes even jumon the phones to talk with callers. Almost evday here, something unique is happening, saCate. You never know whos going to be heSo for people just to stay at home and not ba part of the culture is not practical. Its part their training.

Thats right: Hanging out with visiting celeties is considered part of the staffs educatiOur training is a little bit different, Cate adm The center does provide online training on systupdates and the typical call center modules, buall of the agents have been with the compansince the system was rolled out, so there are rea

no knowledge gaps when it comes to contaccenter processes or using the tools. Instead, muof the staffs training focuses on the products ththey support.

A lot of the training that we do involves goto see a show, staying in a hotel or eating at a rtaurant. We have a concept here that says live brand. Our brand is Vegas, so by going to a cor spending some time in a casino, were actuastrengthening the culture of our company, Casays, adding that its a tough job.

Vegascom

ogo&phoo2011VEGAScom

A

ghseseved

Running a 24 contact cente

with a neefor pinpoinscheduling

Left: VEGAS.comemployees in front of Las

Vegas headquarters.



A likely response is: Weve tried, and it doesntwork. Even customer interaction through theweb is out of our control. Or perhaps: Its notworth the trouble; were heads-down handlingthe voice contacts and email in our center andthats enough. Its most of the companys volumeanyway.I hear you. But as new channels gaintraction or take off, the center has a high stakein initiating the collaboration that is critical toensuring that your company takes care of yourcustomers . Nobody knows them better than youdo. So bring that knowledge of the customerexperience to your leadership and say its timefor a common vision of how we interact.

All Channels Are in PlayBefore we dive into questions of strategy and

governance, its fair to ask: What do we mean bymultichannel customer contact? For that matter,whats a channel? Unfortunately, its not a one-size-ts-all term, but recognizing that can be astart to ensuring effective collaboration with yourcolleagues. A channel can be:

a marketing channelmeaning theway in which we deliver a message to acustomer or prospect

a communication channel for customerinteractionse.g., voice calls, email, chat

a sales and/or delivery channele.g., a

branch or storefront, the web, the contactcenter and the associated fulllmentmechanisms

Which of these channels need to draw thcontact centers attention? Theyall do, in somform or fashion. Customers dont care about tinternal workings of your organization or means through which you establish ownershifor the various mechanisms through which theinteract. They simply want a consistent, hiquality experience no matter which door thenter. That means:

Know who they are, what they prefer, threlationship with your corporation andinteraction history

Speak with one corporate voice (unifobrand messaging, product/serviceinformation, customer-specic data)

Understand the spectrum of services witwhich they might interact (and how tonavigate through the corporate maze toaccess them)

Provide effective and consistent userinterfaces across self-service and assisteservice options

Establish performance levels that arein line with the choice of mediaforexample, immediate response for real-time contact; reasonable delay for the res

Make their transition from one channel(or department) to another as seamless apossible

In short, they want you to present a unitfront to the outside world. Its a deceptively simrequest that is not so simple to achieve. Disparorganizational units march to their own drubeats with different agendas. Its challengito agree on funding and prioritization, yet absolutely crucial to make that happenbothfor the sake of the customer experience and f

Tech Line

page 1

Pursue Strategy and Governance toEnsure Multichannel Technology Optimization

Figure 1: Multichannel strategy considers many factors

By Lori Bocklund, Strategic Contact



making effective use of our increasingly scarcecorporate resources.

Set the Stage with StrategyA key step in creating that unied front is to

create a comprehensive multichannel strategy.As you take stock of the current environmentfor customer interaction, current ownershipand organizational responsibilities are a pieceof the puzzle that will emerge. That insight willpoint you at the crossfunctional team that needsto come together to pull off this daunting task:nding a way to bring all these channels into acohesive strategy to support the customer needsand expectations while also delivering value toyour company.

Start with a discovery process that takes inven-tory of the ways customers currently interact forvarious contact types, as well as the technologyin place to enable these interactions. Gather thecritical business drivers that the strategy mustconsider, along with the elements of corporatestrategy and operational goals that will inuencechannel priorities. This information helps to cre-ate a common understanding of the startingpoint and begins to lay the groundwork for theopportunities that lie ahead. As Figure 1 shows, amultichannel strategy must consider self-service,assisted service and proactive serviceall criticalelements of a comprehensive view.

Figure 2 shows the key steps to building a mul-tichannel strategy. Ideally, a crossfunctional teamconducts these steps together. The process movesthrough discovery to requirements to vision, and

then dives deeper into how to bring that visionto reality. Ultimately, the team maps contact

types and applications to the various media,conducts gap analysis, and prioritizes initiativesto dene a plan and timeline. An outgrowth ofthat effort is the planning for impactson theinternal people, processes and technology, as wellas the customer. In a perfect world, your teampitches that cohesive multichannel strategy toa crossfunctional steering committee that hasongoing strategic responsibility.

Multichannel GovernanceControls the Action

An exquisite crossfunctional, cross-channelstrategy is of little use without a means toestablish and sustain dialog, decision makingand collaboration. Its far too easy for the collec-tive to turn to their respective turfs and conductbusiness as usual. Lets face it: Collaboration canfeel like giving up control, power, resources andautonomy. And its hard to gain agreement onpriorities and the myriad decisions on people,processes and technologies when the number ofeligible voters increases. Its easier to simply runones own shop, full speed ahead. But a modestuptick in organizational coordination is the priceof admission to serve the customer in excellenceand be good stewards of corporate assets.

A multichannel steering committee assumesthe mantle of responsibility for making intelligentinvestments in people, processes and technolo-gies. They also oversee optimization of the qual-ity and consistency of the customer experience

across all channels while ensuring appropriastandards of operational efficiency. See Figure

This committee can getand keepeveryone on the same page, working toward common goals. Theyll dene what is worth doby linking proposed initiatives to strategic goand identifying clear business benets. Theprioritize resourcesboth people and moneyand provide managerial oversight over approvprojects. Theyll surface interdependencies acrchannels and departments to ensure that threquisite connective tissue gets put in place end-to-end service delivery. And theyll holdresponsible parties accountable for results anmitigate risks to the project and the corporati

As with the multichannel strategy, a govnance structure doesnt just happen in responsto good intentions. It demands focused attentioto these critical success factors:

Visible endorsement and support bysenior management to champion thestrategy, build coalitions to support it, ancreate the desire for change

Representation from all stakeholderswith customer-facing responsibilities to establish a broad base of support,leverage distinct perspectives, institutepeer review for major initiatives, andeffectively promote the initiatives acrossthe organization

Understanding of and allegiance tocommon goals and vision to pursue

page 20

Collaboration across departments is critical to provide acustomer experience and effective use of resou

Figure 2: Multichannel Strategy Planning Process



a comprehensive strategy that deliversappropriate value to the corporation andthe customer

Documented policies and procedures that govern project submission,evaluation, rating/ranking, approval,monitoring and post-implementationassessment to ensure pursuit of the rightprojects in the right way and instill trustand condence in the process

Oversight of investments and resourceallocations across all customer contactchannels to set priorities that yield thegreatest benet to the corporation as awhole and leverage common tools andprocesses

Performance management to measuretangible contributions to businessgoalslike improvements in customersatisfaction, rst-contact resolution andretentionwhile balancing business andcustomer requirements

A formal change management process to overcome resistance to change anddramatically increase the likelihood thatprojects will succeed (on time, on budget)and realize the expected benets

Cross-Channel ToolsEnable the Strategy

The multichannel strategy and associated gov-erning body must carefully consider the enablingtechnologies that support the customer-facinginteractions. These technologies start with threefoundational elements that are crucial for estab-lishing a framework against which all servicedelivery mechanisms and the associated businessprocesses hang.

The organizationscustomer relationshipmanagement (CRM) system captures customerproles, preferences and interaction history. Itneeds to be accessible across all channels to lendcontext to the here-and-now communicationand provide the personal touch that customershave come to expect. With the social world of

Facebook, Twitter and more, CRM has never bmore important.

Traditional channel reports capture results selected key performance indicators (KPIs)contact volumes, service levels, rst-contact relution, customer satisfaction. Theyre importelements of a multichannel metrics strategy. now its time to dig a little deeper to understan

what is really happening across channels awithin each channel.Cross-channel analytics traccustomers paths through complex interactionto pinpoint bottlenecks that prevent customerfrom completing self-service tasks successfuand/or drive repeat contacts. It maps results specic experiences that inuence customsatisfaction and identies at-risk customers fproactive engagement. It generates the hardata that supports business cases for channenhancements, process improvements and training initiatives.

Finally, aknowledge management or wiki system provides a store of information for providconsistent responses to customer queries anissues, whether through self- or assisted serviIts the tool that equips the company to speawith one voice regarding the product/serviofferings and customer-affecting policies aprocedures.

While those three tools lay the foundatiomany other technologies may come into plaOur next Tech Line article will address a spectof options to consider in planning.

Everyone Gets What They NeedA carefully constructed strategy, an effecti

governing body and the right foundationtools make it possible to optimize the customexperience while delivering on the organizatiobusiness objectives. Customers have the meansinteract with the company using their preferrechannel and enjoy consistent content and service quality. Finely tuned self-service offerincrease customer success rates, lower servcosts and boost customer satisfaction. And clcollaboration across departments improves ento-end service efficiency and reduces errors, fa

hand-offs and customer frustration. It really iwin-win and an excellent argument to countany fears that may surface as you pursue crofunctional multichannel success.

Tech Line | Pursue Strategy and Governance to Ensure Multichannel Technology Optimization

page 19

Lori Bocklund is Founder andPresident of Strategic Contact .

[email protected]

(503) 579-8560

Figure 3: Multichannel governance requires ongoing crossfunctional engagement

Evidence of Our Multichannel World

The overwhelming majority of respondents to our2010 Multichannel Customer Contact survey (http://tinyurl.com/2010MultichannelSurvey) support (or have plans to support ) voice, email, fax, voicemail,IVR and web self-service. More than half support (or have plans to support ) proactive outbound alerts, socialmedia and web chat with nearly half giving the nod to mobile applications. Theyre at least waist-deep, andoften neck-deep, in the multichannel world. Most companies get there a channel at a time with responsibilityfor channel management spread across many departments. Its time to bring some cohesion to that world.


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Littered with such odd terms as Erlang C, rostered staff factor and trunk load, its no wonder that

workforce management (WFM) can be so perplexing for contact center professionals. The trouble

is, there is no way to succeed and create lasting customer advocacy without mastering this highly

challenging aspect of contact center management.

Management ROI

Five WFM Best PracticesEffective techniques for getting jiggy with your staffing.

Greg LevinGreg Levin LLC

Follow Greg at http://twitter.com/Greg_Levin

They have a dedicated, well-trained WFM specialist/ team in place.

With WFM being so complex, and so crucialto the contact centers success/survival, most

top contact centers have invested in a dedicated WFM guru or,even better, an entire team of WFM nerds to focus on all the data,calculations and praying required to staff the center effectivelyday in and day out.

Yes, having such a dedicated specialist/team in place costsmoney, but not as much money as severely under- or over-staffingthe contact center on a routine basisthe result of having alreadybusy frontline managers and supervisors unfamiliar with WFMintricacies attempt to handle forecasting and scheduling duties.

If you dont already have skilled WFM nerds on staff and youarent one yourself, hire some from outside or try to lure somefrom a neighboring contact center by hanging a giant poster ofDanish mathematician and queuing theory inventor A.K. Erlangoutside your building.

They forecast down to the 30-minute interval level. One of the reasons so many contact centers suck or ar

merely mediocre is that they forecast only at the dailand weekly level. In other words, they look at historic

data and make predictions based on the call volume (and expected AHand after-call work) that is typically received over the course of a dayweek. The problem with this approach is that these centers reports mashow that the center is meeting its service level objective over the courof each day, but what its not showing is how many callers fell throughcracks during spikes in call volume that occurred at certain hours, or hoverstaffed the center might have been during sporadic lulls in volume

By forecasting at the half-hour levelor at least the hourly level (snot ideal)contact centers are able to better match staff to the inherendynamic workload it must contend with every day. When a center seethat it has achieved its service level (and abandonment) objectives aftforecasting down to 30-minute intervals, they can be condent that the vamajority of callers reached an agent within an acceptable timeframeathat the center wasnt wasting resourcesthroughout the day.

They factor into schedules all relevant non-phone work and events that impact agent availability/customer accessibility. A very key element of scheduling is factoring in all the non-phone work and activities that take agents offline or away from

phone and, thus unable to handle calls. Some such work and events are highly predictable, such as scheduled breaks and trainothers are less predictable but not impossible to foresee and factor in, such as agents conducting research offline, making neces

outbound calls or taking a few unscheduled moments from the phone to stick pins in customer voodoo dolls.Smart contact centers know that, while the volume forecast may call for 40 agents to handle it, all 40 scheduled agents wont be online all the

due to the factors described above. It will be more like having only 27 or 28 agents taking calls a lot of the time, thus additional staff will need scheduled. Centers that merely calculate base staff requirements without considering the shrinkage effect will often nd themselves understaagents overwhelmed and customers overheated.

How Top Contact Centers Master WFM

Workforce management is all about deciphering historical data, foreseeing the future, making educational guessesand getting jiggy with staffing to ensure that the contact center has the right number of bodies in place with the rightbrain makeup to effectively handle a persistent mad attack of customers.

What do nearly all of the leading contact centers have in common when it comes to WFM? I have come across 10common best practicesbut I am only going to share five of them with you herethat way you might feel compelled to

purchase my ebook, Full Contact: Contact Center Practices and Strategies that Make an Impact . Im crafty like that.


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They forecast and schedule for ALL contact channels the center handles. Too many contact centers do a good or at least passable job of forecasting/scheduling for phone contacts, but neglect to do the sa

for the other channels they handle, namely email and chat. There is a name for these centers, but Im trying to limit the amount of procontained in this article.

Smart contact center professionals realize that, while e-contact volume may not be as heavy as call volume, customers who receiveinefficient service online can cause just as many problems for the company as unhappy callers caneven more, in many cases. After all, an customer who is slighted or ignored is just a few mouse clicks away from creating a virtual public relations and brand nightmare for an organizAngry rants on popular social media sites like Twitter or Facebook can turn an ignored email or a poorly handled chat session into an attack ocompany that goes viral, and infects many other existing and would-be customers.

Brand damage aside, failure to effectively forecast/schedule for email and chat can cause expensiveincreases in operational costs. For example, customers who become impatient with long delays inemail responses are quite likely to contact the center via phone to check the status of their queryand/or rip the contact center a new orice out of frustration. So now the center is handling repeatcontacts via multiple channels and coping with increased toll-free costs and decreased agent avail-ability due to long customer rants. Not a fun situation for anybody involved, unless your center hasmade it a habit of hiring masochists, which isnt a bad idea if you are looking to reduce turnover.

Workforce management is all about decipheringhistorical datforeseeing thefuture, makingeducational guesses and gettin

jiggy with staffing to ensure that the contact center hright number of bodies in place with the right brain ma

effectively handle apersistent mad attack of custom

Full Contact: Contact Center Practices and Strategies that Make an Impact , by Greg Levin,is available at: www.contactcenterpipeline.com/p-39-full-contact.aspx

www.contactcenterpipeline.com

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They track forecast accuracy against an established goal and continually work to improve the variance. Forecast accuracy is a critical performance metricarguably the most important metric with regard to workforce management. T

is no better way to determine how many members of your WFM team should be red than by measuring forecasting accuracy agaan established goal.

By constantly tracking the percent variance between the number of calls (or chats) expected to arrive during a given period and the number ofcontacts that actually arrive, the contact center can develop solid data on which to base schedules and, most importantly, continuously improve centers ability to handle contacts efficiently and cost-effectively.

While many centers historically have failed to track forecast accuracy, recent research indicates that this is changing. In a 2010 study conducICMI, 83.4% of respondents reported measuring forecast accuracy against an established goal, compared to just 55.9% of centers doing so in 2

Many top contact centers provide alluring incentives for WFM team members, rewarding them for consistently meeting/exceeding the cenforecast accuracy objective. For example, in one large nancial services center in Tampa, for every day that a WFM specialist nails the target, is allowed to throw pieces of their leftover lunch at the specialist as they are leaving to go home.

Greg Levin is Principal and Founderof OFF CENTER, and is author of theebook, Full Contact: Contact CenterPractices and Strategies that Make anImpact.




Forecast Focus

Training dates for 2011 now available at:http://tinyurl.com/CCPTraining

Routine examswill help keep yourworkforce manage-ment results stableand predictable.Forecasting, schedul-ing and staffing maybe perceived as amysterious process,but its actually a per-fect example of what

goes in, must come out.When you put your methods and practices

to a series of tests and they pass, the results willbe strong and have high condence levels. Ifany of these tests fail, you will have insight onwhat needs attention. This is important, especiallywhen forecast results are wrong, because youdont want to waste time being tangled up withindecision about whether your forecast was bador if there is a real anomaly in the call volumes.When the proper due diligence takes place intesting and the methods are trusted, decision-making becomes simpler and quicker when evensubtle changes in call volumes occur (and theysurely will occur).

WFM assessments can be conducted in houseor by an independent consultant. If you hire anoutside consultant to perform your assessment,they will be able to apply concentrated levels offull-time focus and can typically complete theinterviews, observation and testing within four

business days, with another two to three days towrite up the results. They will need access to yourWFM personnel for some Q&A, and also will needaccess to your schedules, forecasts, reports anda few of your agents. With todays collaborationtools, these assessments can be easily completedremotely and no longer require a disruptive on-site visit, which helps with the cost.

You can also perform a self-exam. Rather thantaking seven days away for a strictly regimentedassessment, I recommend that you use a six-month cycle, repeating the assessment twice

a year. I also recommend breaking each WFMdiscipline into ve separate categories and rotat-ing them within each six-month period. This willhelp to keep the review burden to a minimumwith a loose and exible schedule. Lets take a lookat what youll want to review in a WFM checkup.

Get Organized! The rst thing to tackle in preparation is the

basic decisions for each discipline: the who, when,how much, and why approach you want to take.For your rst assessment, make it as easy as pos-sible and keep limits to how extensive you allowthe exam to reach. Then, when you repeat theself-exam, you can be more inclusive and branchoff into deeper participant levels.

Why is it happening, and what needs to beincluded? The WFM processes, methodologiesand results should be a direct reection of yourcompanys mission statement and goals. Duringthe rst week, take steps to get reacquaintedwith these goals because this will shape thekind of results that you will be looking for. Forexample, if your company mission is to be thelowest-cost provider in the industry, and thecompany demonstrates this by not hiring whenthe center is understaffed, then spending hoursdetermining how to meet a 90% service levelgoal will be a waste of your time. But this wouldbe a good time to study your customer patiencelevels with abandonment rates and bring that inline with your scheduling tolerances, especially

in lower-volume time periods. Its also a greattime to optimize exible scheduling options. Eachcenter will have unique goals, and your job is tomake sure that the WFM behaviors are acting inaccordance with them. Every discipline should bea direct, clear reection of the companys mission,and this should be evident in the self-exam byspending time on the things that matter, not justthe low-hanging fruit.

How much is the easiest decision to makein the rst self-exam: very little. The rst timearound, you will be establishing guidelines, creat-

ing documentation and setting up the baselinfor future reviews. Dont be afraid to stop supercial, cursory review while you takesteps to build the exam process, checklists aresults. Setting everything up takes a lot of timbut, fortunately, it only has to be done once anthen you can reuse the format going forward.

Who needs to be involved? A representative the key players on both the sending and receiing ends. Do not attempt to include 100%your entire population for the rst assessmenInstead, select a few agents to participate in thscheduling section, one or two forecasters, aan executive-type who receives WFM repand who will be communicative and participain a helpful manner with your rst review. Onyou decide whom to include, be sure to sharthat information with them, utilizing their avable scheduled time when possible so that youprogress is not unnecessarily held up by othe

When does it happen? As you go through thassessment, you will learn that some areas whave greater pain points and will require motime than those that are running smoothly. Butthe meantime, the following is a sample scheduto help get you started.

I. FORECASTING METHODS GOAL The forecast has high condence levels,

methodology is stable, and the results are prdictable.

What to look for: Reforecasting occurs f

quently enough. The trend, growth, exceptiomodel and distribution is accurate. The forecvariation is within proper range for the volumRaw ACD data is normalized and documentFuture external factors are considered, and this a communication link with marketing, salesother business units that could impact forecaresults.

II. SCHEDULING PRACTICES GOALSchedules suit the lifestyles of the agents a

do a good job serving the customers. Proper

How to keep your WFM results healthy and catch potentialdisorders before serious symptoms appear.

The Workforce Management Checkup

Tiffany LaReauHuman Numbers

final fmla article ccp2011031

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