According to Ventana, the TCO/ROI category applies evaluation criteria designed to assess the value the vendor delivers with its product. Ventana Research also ranked Envision as a “Hot Vendor” in the adaptability category, which applied evaluation criteria designed to ensure the products can be configured and customized to meet the needs of a given business. So while we’re not normally prone to a lot of tooting of our own horn here, this time we’ve got the whole band playing! Want to learn more? Read this!
Quality Monitoring and Coaching Award:
Presented to an Envision customer that has applied an Envision solution for coaching and development and has integrated it into the lifecycle of their quality program to optimize agent performance and deliver legendary customer experiences.
Winner: Partners Healthcare
Envision Spirit Award:
This award is presented to an Envision customer that has demonstrated excellence in creating a high-performance culture. This customer exudes a high level of company spirit and has implemented a strategic program to build morale through motivating its contact center employees.
Winner: Delta Hotels
Envision Enterprise Value Award:
This award is presented to an Envision customer that has demonstrated excellence in proactively leveraging Envision solutions to deliver organizational value extending beyond the contact center to improve business performance.
Winner: Alaska Airlines
Envision Innovation Award: This award is presented to an Envision customer that has demonstrated excellence in market-leading innovation by leveraging Envision technologies to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
Winner: WestJet
Congratulations to all of our winners!
...]]>During the event, Envision users previewed and responded to the Envision product roadmap, exchanged best practices information and offered information about their individual business drivers and the corresponding technology needs. If you would like to request copies of the information presented during the 2010 Customer Forum, please feel free to contact us at events@envisioninc.com.
A special thanks to our keynote and customer speakers for the fantastic content they provided throughout to help make it such a valuable event for all of our attendees.
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Instead of numeric scores, we have seen call centers be very successful with a “needs improvement, meets expectations, exceeds expectations” type of scoring, particularly in the early stages of a QA implementation. This gets everyone focused on the improvements needed and the pats on the back for great work rather than on arguing whether this score should be 92 or 93.
After all, the point is to provide a vehicle for continuous improvement, not to nitpick and argue about tiny elements of performance to reach a numeric goal, especially when reaching that goal affects that agent’s pay, schedule, or promotional opportunities.
Note: This tip is provided by Maggie Klenke of The
Having the right contact:
Why do your customers call for a live help? The answer to this question happens to be very simple. When your Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is not capable enough to respond to the queries quite satisfactorily then it will be important enough for you to identify those reasons behind calls so as to reduce the total handling time quite significantly.
Some of the wonderful techniques like IVR recording, customer database, tick sheets, call coding can really help or ensure the less wastage of the time. If you can really ensure this above system, then you will be able to highlight what is likely from your company in terms of offering a range of quality call center services.
The need of Logical Skills:
It is the logical skills of the customer service representatives that can dramatically improve the call center output and reduce consumption of the total time on per service basis. In this respect, you can pair up both skills and work that are found relevant and symmetrical to one another in terms of customer services and knowledge retention. The administration should always be taking good care of the employees and not put much of burden on the employees in the process. This will help to improve the customer experience to a great extent.
Eyeing on the Recruitment Procedure:
Go for quality recruitment. Always make sure that you are conducting quality checks throughout the entire selection procedure. Be it a non-voice or a voice service, agents should always opt for rigorous procedures.
Choosing the best:
The workforce of any company happens to be your asset. Begin with picking up the gems right from the very beginning for your own customer service center. It will always be the experienced people or the quick learners who will be taking less time to learn and bring about the higher understanding of the job and their individual commitment.
Self-management:
There is no use of checking the call center employees 24/7. In fact there is no use of a strict reporting system unless the employees include the dedication towards their own commitment and work. To offer a suitable workspace while taking care of the work flow, the call center set-ups should also try to accept and maintain flexibility during the working hours.
Follow some of these above techniques and experience that this will surely help you to minimize the in-house costs. You will save your investment from draining out. Additionally, these ways will prove to be effective, fast and will never cost you. You can be sure of the methods to bring about the desirable results and efficacy at work.
Envision Workforce Management is a fully web-based solution that easily scales to support small to very large contact center environments. It’s multi-site, networked and virtual agent ready, with robust reporting capabilities the flexibility to handle even the most demanding workforce planning and management needs.
Want to learn more? Check it out!
...]]>1. Designing a sales strategy and identifying realistic goals
2. Hiring the right people
3. Matching sales aptitudes to caller needs
4. Creating a service-to-sales mindset
5. Training for customer-focused sales
6. Coaching for sales behaviors
7. Developing actionable key performance indicators
8. Integrating sales behaviors into the QA process
9. Providing meaningful sales incentives
10. Creating supporting tools and structures
It’s an “employer’s market” in many countries today. Unemployment rates are high, which provides companies with a larger pool of available talent… and makes current employees less likely to leave. But economic prosperity is cyclical, and job growth follows economic growth. Is your center positioned to prevent unwanted staff turnover when that happens?
We recently spoke with several call center and HR directors to learn the best practices they have put in place to engage and retain quality agents. While they differ in the details, they all use highly regarded practices that help boost rep retention. Our thanks to Steve Miano and Lynn Robertson of ING, Dan DeBoer of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, and Lynn O’Neill of New York Life for letting us share their strategies and tactics.
Preventing Turnover at the Hiring Line
Because improved retention starts with hiring the right people for the job, these centers have been improving their recruiting, assessment, and onboarding processes.
First, they have developed profiles of the skills, abilities and characteristics needed to succeed as a rep.
Second, they take time to carefully evaluate recruits to determine who meets their standards. They use effective
· Phone interviews
· Pre-hire assessment tests
· In-person interviews with multiple supervisors
· Realistic job “previews,” including site tours
Taken together, these tactics exemplify best practices in hiring. The centers do not rely solely on face-to-face interviews: they gather multiple sources of information about the candidates’ qualifications. This increases hiring managers’ understanding of each applicant’s job potential, and the applicants gain a better understanding of job demands and the call center’s unique work environment.
Realistic Job Previews
We know from research that providing an accurate preview of the job — both the good and the bad — improves retention. Ideally, individuals either are hired with realistic expectations or they walk away from jobs that don’t appeal to them. This reduces the number of new hires who walk out the door complaining, “I didn’t know the job would be like this!”
Call centers can take extra steps to reduce job preview misunderstandings. One interviewee described a process in which hiring managers carefully explain the job, how reps can succeed, and the nature of the work environment. Afterwards, applicants are asked to sign off on what was covered. New hires are later surveyed about the job presentation to make sure the preview “sticks” and to uncover any inaccuracies or shortcomings.
Career Pathing
The centers we spoke with have made the rep’s job a career and/or a stepping stone into the company. They offer increasing levels of responsibility, nonphone work, and higher pay for agents as they grow in the job and gain deeper understanding of the company’s products. The centers lay out roadmaps for success and ensure their reps know what they must learn or do to advance in the center, or to transfer to another part of the company. The reps who choose to follow the roadmap are rewarded for demonstrating their commitment: They have good reasons to stay with these centers!
“Benefits,” Rewards, and Recognition
These centers offer benefits that are worth broadcasting: advanced call center skills training, desirable health insurance coverage, flexible scheduling, product training, rewards and recognition programs, 401(k) contribution matching, quarterly bonuses for high customer satisfaction scores… These beneficial programs are carefully designed, implemented, and communicated to support the centers’ efforts to recruit and retain quality staff.
Their rewards and recognition programs remind reps that individual contributions make a difference. One center pulls its team together more than a dozen times a year for
· An annual kickoff dinner to set the stage for the year ahead
· Monthly recognition meetings
· An annual reward dinner for high performers
Training and Development
High-quality trainers and training programs are integral to these centers’ efforts. Reps must understand the company’s products and how to support them before they answer any customer questions. They must immediately impress callers as knowledgeable and helpful advisors. Not surprisingly, reps who are prepared to answer customer questions are more pleased with the job and are more likely to stay.
Going Virtual
Do you have a superstar agent who is moving out of your locale? Are your applicants and staff increasingly asking for at-home work options? Are you looking to reduce physical plant costs? You are not alone. These companies have already implemented at-home work arrangements. This option has helped them recruit and retain top-tier reps they would otherwise lose to competitors.
Get Satisfaction
Years of empirical research has shown that agent retention is strongly tied to job satisfaction. These call centers make it a priority to embrace this relationship. They engage their applicants and employees through clear and frequent communication. They carefully explain the job opportunity and how to advance in the center and into other areas of the company. They foster professional growth and improved productivity through training and development. They reward reps with appropriate recognition and compensation. They have forged results-oriented teams that unite reps and managers to collectively meet business objectives. In short, they have implemented practices that demonstrate their respect for employees — and remind the reps of the important role they play.
Join Jona Berta of Southwest Airlines, and Connie Smith, industry consultant for Envision as they present a complimentary webinar titled, "How Southwest Airlines Achieves Peak Agent Performance - The Successful Quality Program Makeover".
This empowering Web session is now available online. To view this free webinar, please click here.