The 4 Operational Reasons Contact Centers Fail
Reason #4: Center Management
This series of articles addresses the four primary operational reasons why contact centers fail: Process, Agent Scheduling, Agent Utilization, and Center Management. Unless centers consistently exhibit a mastery of these basic factors, excellence in performance will be unobtainable.
Contact Center Management
Contact Center Management is both a business process and an art form. The business elements of center management include managing the center processes, scheduling system, and agent utilization, as discussed in our previous articles. In addition, managing to the center metrics (call duration, calls per hour, agent adherence, etc.) is a vital tool in the “science” of managing. The art component of management includes skills such as interpreting the metrics, utilizing QA, queue management, and most importantly individual agent interaction.
It cannot be emphasized enough that without proper and consistent management techniques, even the best processes and agent scheduling will eventually degrade significantly. In other words, if not effectively managed at both the queue and agent level, an optimized schedule becomes nothing more than an ineffective and useless software tool.
Contact center management is unique in the business arena. A constant balancing act matching variable call arrivals to agent schedules, service levels to cost factors, agent performance to morale, adherence to micro-management; all occurring in a large workforce environment with minute to minute time sensitivity. Clearly both the critical nature and the complexity of these interrelated management variables lend this topic to lengthy discussion. For now, we will limit our
overview to the following:
- Metrics Management
- Workforce Management
- QA Management
- Supervisory Management
Metrics Management
Metrics management in the contact center is vital to ensuring service levels, agent productivity, and group/individual performance levels. Some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are: Service Level, Abandonment Rate (ABD), Call Volume, Average Talk Time (ATT), After Call Work Time (ACW), Calls per Signed on Hour, Schedule Adherence, % Productivity, and Cost per Answered Call. Each of these indicators must have a realistic goal based upon optimized processes and scheduling, be managed to the goal attainment, while also being mindful as to how the individual metric is affected by associated factors.
For example, a contact center has a goal of 5% ABD rate but has experienced an extended period of 9% ABD rate. A knee-jerk reaction to this issue is generally to add staff to answer more calls thus decreasing the abandonment rate. However, to fully understand why the center is significantly exceeding the ABD goal and to prudently correct the situation, further analysis is required.
If a true sustained increase in volume has occurred, then additional staff may be required. However, prior to increasing staff it is important to assess whether the increase in volume is a true increase as opposed to callers abandoning and recalling. If ATT or ACW has increased due to a change in process, increased staff may be required. However, if the call duration has increased without an associated process change or a change in the call reason mix, then agent management is generally the problem. If calls per sign on hour, % productivity, or schedule adherence have decreased during the same time as the increased ABD rate, agent management is the most likely causative issue. If the ABD is within acceptable limits at times, but exceeding the goal at other times, then along with the factors previously discussed, the scheduling system requires investigation and the call delivery system should be evaluated for glitches in call truncation and routing issues.
Each of the major metrics listed above, if outside of their corresponding goals, will need to undergo similar rigor to determine the actual cause of the poor performance. Again, adding staff is often not only the incorrect and most costly solution, it may very well mask the underlying operational issues leading to poor service levels and excessive costs.
Workforce Management
The Workforce Management group (WFM), or the staff members responsible for agent scheduling and remote status monitoring, have an important function within the management matrix. Their role is twofold. First, they control and manage the agent scheduling system. They are responsible for identifying trends in the workplace (volume changes, performance variances, shrinkage issues, etc.) making center management aware of any changes affecting center performance and offering scheduling solutions and corrective action. On a daily basis WFM adjusts the agent schedule as best possible to cover absenteeism and any other situation affecting staffing shortfalls. Secondly, they monitor agent status; identifying any agent outside of the schedule parameters.
When WFM identifies agents that are not performing within scheduling parameters (not following the schedule, excessive ATT or ACW, etc.) the most effective process is to communicate the situation to the agents’ supervisor so that he/she may perform any corrective action with the agent. We recommend that WFM not have direct involvement with agents as that erodes the perceived authority of the supervisors and emphasizes the Orwellian nature of contact centers.
QA Management
An efficiently managed contact center with poor call quality is a recipe for failure. The Quality Assurance management team is responsible for monitoring agent calls both remotely and side by side. This provides the checks and balances required to ensure that both company protocol and call process are being properly followed.
It is important to note that as with WFM, QA feedback to the agent should be delivered by the supervisor.
Supervisory Management
Without a doubt, supervisory management has the greatest effect of any contact center management element. Supervisors have a direct influence on the agent’s performance, call quality, agent morale, and attrition. Given that the agents have direct customer contact and that over 70% of center costs are agent related, the process and manner with which the supervisors manage the agent population will determine the long-term success of the center. Typically, a 15% reduction in operating costs can be realized from implementing a program focusing on improving supervisory management.
Supervisory management is where the science of management meets the art of management. As previously noted, the science of management is the combination of utilizing the agent schedule, the available center metrics, the QA information, and the real-time information provided by WFM to evaluate agent performance and identify opportunities for improvement. The art of management is how the information is utilized by the supervisor to create a positive, motivated agent environment while correcting any issues and capturing opportunities for improvement.
Contact centers that use metrics as punitive measures foster resentment at the agent level and experience high attrition and poor customer satisfaction. Conversely, when the metrics are utilized as training opportunities and motivation for agent growth, attrition tends to be far more manageable and customer interactions are improved.
Only when supervisory and management personnel are well trained to implement a corrective yet positive approach to agent management, can they achieve a successful combination of the art and science of agent management.
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For more information about effective call center management or any of the topics discussed above, please feel free to contact us at
Q-SolutionsGroup.comLawrence McKenzie is a partner at Q-Solutions Group, LLC and has consulted and implemented solutions in hundreds of contact centers worldwide. Mr. McKenzie may be contacted at 866-960-1270 x701 or at
Lawrence.McKenzie@Q-SolutionsGroup.com
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