Newsletters

Customer Support:   (972) 395-3225

Home

Articles, News, Announcements - click Main News Page
Previous Story       Next Story
    
The 4 Operational Reasons Contact Centers Fail

by Lawrence McKenzie, Partner, Q-Solutions Group, LLC - January 2, 2017

The 4 Operational Reasons Contact Centers Fail
 
Contact centers fail when they stray from focusing on key fundamental operational factors.  The foundation to achieving superior contact center performance is grounded in properly addressing and consistently managing these key operational elements.  In this series of articles, we will examine the top four critical operational issues confronting contact centers, as well as offer approaches to properly address these issues and optimize performance.  The four critical elements we will examine are:
 
  •          Process
  •          Agent Scheduling
  •          Agent Utilization
  •          Management
In recent years contact centers have put a great deal of resources and focus into technical and network based solutions to drive improvement.  However, without addressing the operational factors that are the foundation of customer interaction and company business principles, technology applications will reinforce business practices that are needlessly expensive and diminish customer satisfaction.  In fact, quite often technology is utilized to mask operational issues. The better solution is to address each of our operational issues directly, correcting and optimizing each discrete element.  After optimizing the business fundamentals, technical solutions can then be utilized to support the process as opposed to defining it.
We will now take a closer look at the first element:
 
Process
 
Contact centers have a myriad of processes.  Although all operational processes are important and are worthy of review and optimization, two are critical: Queue Configuration and the Call Process.
 
The Queue Configuration
 
The Queue Configuration refers to the manner in which the center routes calls, emails, and texts to specific agent groups to be addressed.  Properly determining the queue structure involves evaluating several different functional, cost, training, and customer requirement factors.
 
Functional issues determining queue configuration include the contact means (inbound call versus email), the call type (question versus sales), customer stratification, and After Call Secondary Work.   The contact means needs to be evaluated for both content and size, or contact demand.  The contact evaluation must include a contact reason and an agent capability assessment.  Whenever possible, agents need to be trained to process all contact means offered the queue to avoid splitting a singular point of contact into several entities. 
 
The call type evaluation centers around two elements: Call Reason and Specific Call Handling.  The call reason analysis includes separating unique call types into groupings in which the queues are determined.  For example, a company in the travel field would group calls originating from customers into a single queue.  These calls may have several reasons such as general information, specific itinerary queries, or billing questions.  But, because of the level of agent training and system availability it has been determined that a single queue can handle all of the call types.  Specific Call Handling queues are set up when it is determined that a subset of call types should be handled by a queue of specialized agents.  For example, in the same case of the travel company, many firms have set up a specific queue focusing on sales.  The rationale is that a specialized group that has been trained on selling techniques will increase the company’s revenue.  To determine the viability of this queue fracturing, a full cost/benefit analysis should be conducted.
 
Customer Stratification queues are fractured from the main queue in order to provide large customers with either enhanced or personalized service.  Generally, these queues are expensive to maintain and are marketing endeavors rather than operational in construct.
 
After Call Secondary queues, sometimes referred to as back office or processing groups, are groups that have been created to complete further actions required from inbound calls.  Again, a proper cost/benefit evaluation should be conducted to determine if the segregation is beneficial for both the customer and the center.
 
The Call Process
 
The Call Process is the process the agents follow from call initiation through call termination and all applicable after call work.  As with setting up functional queues, the call process should be optimized and implemented to assure proper client handling and call duration.    The Call Process consists of the following elements:
 
  •  Greeting
  •  Control
  •   Resolution
  •   Termination
  •   After Call Work
The call greeting needs to identify the customer while being warm and succinct.  Typically, companies have call greetings such as, “Thank you for calling XYZ Corporation.  How may I help you?”  When using a greeting such as this customer identity has not been established or verified, nor has the agent assumed control of the call.  A better example of a call greeting would be, “Thank you for calling XYZ Corporation. To best serve you may I please have your account number and name?”   This greeting is personal, thanking the customer, but at the same time it quickly identifies the customer, and assumes initial control of the call.
 
Call control is exercised by asking probing closed ended questions and by succinctly repeating their responses and fully explaining the agents’ actions.  By utilizing call control techniques such as this, the call is perceived as having high levels of professionalism and the customer will have confidence that their reason for calling will be properly addressed.  In addition, the call duration can be significantly decreased.
 
Call resolution, particularly first call resolution, is an essential element of a well-designed process.  First call resolution eliminates future calls for the same issue.  Although this portion of the call process is client specific, several elements are universal.  First, the primary issue needs to be correctly identified and confirmed.  Secondly, the issue needs to be resolved while the customer is on the phone, or the ownership of the future resolution should be explained and then be transferred to the appropriate agent along with informing the customer how they will be contacted when the issue is resolved.  Again, this will enhance the customer’s experience by the level of professionalism exhibited by the agent, leaving them with confidence that the problem will be resolved properly.
 
The call termination should be succinct and informational.  Many centers use poorly designed closing such as, “Thank you for calling XYZ Corporation.  Is there anything else we can do for you?”  An open-ended question on the closing will either open a superfluous conversation, or at best put the client in control of the call leading to extended call duration.
 
The After Call Work process can be handled in several ways depending upon its complexity and urgency.  After assessing the After Call Work, the process can be designed to either complete the work directly during and after the call, during discrete time periods scheduled during the day, or handed off to a separate group.
 
As with all process evaluations, the design should be constructed with the company’s core values, as well as effectiveness and efficiencies in mind.  By properly evaluating and implementing optimized processes, the core values of the company can be reinforced, while at the same time enhancing the customer experience and decreasing call duration. 
 
After optimizing the call processes, the center’s Agent Scheduling process will usually require significant adjustment. We will discuss Agent Scheduling in the following edition.
 
Lawrence McKenzie is a partner at Q-Solutions Group, LLC and has consulted in hundreds of contact centers.  Larry may be contacted at 866-960-1270 x701 or at Lawrence.McKenzie@Q-SolutionsGroup.com. For more information visit Q-SolutionsGroup.com
 
 

 __________

For additional articles on our site, please click here    

 
Return to main news page