Today's Call Center Quick Tip comes from Dale Raduenz, quality assurance analyst for Great Lakes Educational Loan Services:

Today's Call Center Quick Tip comes from Jamie Torgerson, a general manager in the contact center at Costco Wholesale:

Silver balloon awards

On Monday of each week, each supervisor picks one person on their team that has gone above and beyond in the previous week. It could be catching them on a quality monitor, doing something great for their co-worker, over-exceeding their stats on any particular day, or coming up with a fantastic resolution to a specific member issue. This person is given a bouquet of silver balloons attached to a candy bar (usually a $100,000 Grand bar, a Pay Day, or a Starburst).

How are you rewarding your contact center agents for a job well done? I'd love to hear about it!

Post tags: Jamie Torgerson, Costco, agent effectiveness, agent motivation, contact center, call center, motivating agents

flickr photo courtesy of ChrisAC.

I am constantly on the look-out for unique ways to motivate employees, and this morning I came across a great story from the Successful Blog. In her article "Change the World: It's Millionaire Day," Liz Strauss writes about the ritual that she and her team shared: enjoying a decadent piece of Belgian chocolate from a local store. She writes:

This delicacy was made both in milk chocolate and dark chocolate versions, each filled with praline. One piece was 1.25 x .5 x .5 in size and was shaped like a US Dollar sign — $ . That was the hit! A single chocolate dollar sign sold at an exchange rate equivalent to that of the Australian dollar at the time.

I would buy those chocolate dollar signs, and we’d have an emergerency team meeting. An official announcement would state that we had once again become millionaires in the chocolate lottery. Then we’d spend 30 minutes or so eating one luxury chocolate a piece.

It was a ritual. It was a game. It was the best time and a way of saying what needed saying.

And our moods and minds changed. We stood taller, smiled more, and were more generous toward each other We also laughed. We were millionaires for the day. One piece of chocolate made that difference.

It wasn't a raise or bonus, it was a simple piece of chocolate. But that "emergency team meeting" with a great piece of chocolate boosted the morale of her staff and peers. The team came together to share a simple luxury, and left with a great feeling and even better energy. What small thing can you do to motivate your team? How can you show your front-line staff that you appreciate their hard work without "breaking the bank?" How can you make others feel like they are "millionaires for the day?" Here are a few links to other posts about agent motivation to keep you inspired:

• Motivating Agents
• Agent Motivation: Tips and Strategies
• Quick Ideas: Make It Fun!
• Cultivating Employee Morale and Motivation

Post tags: Liz Strauss, Successful Blog, chocolate, agent effectiveness, agent motivation, contact center, call center, motivating agents

flickr photo courtesy of EuroMagic.

Call Center Quick Tip: Be Honest

It is hard to deliver the news of an area where a representative may need to work. Even if they get defensive at first, they will end up appreciating your honesty in the end. Many people who may lack a skill or may not have fully developed a skill may not even realize it unless you deal with it directly.

Another idea for coaching reps comes from Tom Vander Well: Listen first. Before you deliver feedback in a call coaching session, try asking the reps what they believe went well and what they could improve upon in their calls. Read more here.

Post tags: contact center agent, call coach, coaching, call center best practices, contact center, QA, quality assessment

Becky Carroll at Customers Rock! recently posted about her experience with a Disney World behind-the-scenes tour. She describes how she inquired about attending a tour that was already booked up and the interactions that she had with the Disney "Cast Members." After waiting patiently to see if there were any cancellations, Becky was informed that since she was such a courteous customer, and had waited so patiently, the Cast Members were going to make an exception for her and run the tour with 21 people instead of the standard 20. In addition, she was amazed to learn that they were also going to give her a complimentary ticket on the tour--including lunch!

That kind of employee empowerment led to great conversations within Becky's blog, and I'm sure elsewhere, all because of her great customer experience. Imagine if your agents were empowered to "WOW" the customer in the same way... you would have a long list of happy customers and evangelists for your company. It doesn't have to be the "big" things, so what can you do to help your agents "WOW" customers today?

Post tags: Becky Carroll, customer service, customer satisfaction, customer experience, call center

I've just stumbled across another great example of a company that "gets it:" MGM Grand Las Vegas. Bob Nelson writes in his article "Motivation Matters: Employees Are the Brand" about MGM Grand's employee philosophy and corporate culture. He writes, "In the highly competitive Las Vegas market, [MGM Grand's] philosophy is that employees are what brings the customer back. In other words, the employees are the brand." Nelson goes on to outline practices that helped MGM Grand earn the distinction of being one of the United States' "Best Places to Work" including:

• Continually training and communicating the company's core values and service standards
• Connecting with employees during a pre-shift team meeting
• Recognizing employees through various internal programs
• Promotion from within
• Extensive (and award winning!) internal education/university program

I've written extensively in the past about the Employee/Customer Value Asset Chain, and I believe strongly in the connection between employee experiences and customer experiences. MGM Grand is another shining example of best practices in employee retention and relations. The results speak for themselves:

"Besides the awards that have established MGM Grand as an employer of choice in a competitive hiring market, employee satisfaction has steadily climbed. Turnover has dropped to 11.4 percent, which is extremely low for the Vegas market. The average length of service is an amazing five years, 165 days."

How are you engaging your employees today? What are things that you can do within your contact center or broader organization to improce employee satisfaction, customer experiences and ultimately your company's bottom line?

Post tags: Bob Nelson, MGM Grand, employee satisfaction, customer service, customer satisfaction, call center

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of emphasis on "going green." One of the ways that we can "go green" in contact centers is to go paperless. Have you considered embracing new technologies for your reps, from day one, so that you can provide training materials and other documentation online instead of printing loads of paper? What about streamlining processes using technology so that materials, including those with sensitive information, do not need to be printed in order to process the requests?

How is your contact center embracing the move to preserve resources?

Post tags: contact center trends, call center trends

flickr photo courtesy of cackhanded

My colleagues and I spend a fair amount of time monitoring the call center marketplace, reading industry publications and blogs and networking with contact center staff. I thought that I would take a moment to share a few of the articles that have caught our attention this week:

Becky Carroll at Customers Rock! wrote recently about customer learnings in the hot tub. Becky points out that you can learn a lot from listening to your customers, and that her recent experience at a Disney property showed her that she could gather a lot of customer intelligence in the hot tub -- comparing notes with other Disney guests and getting the inside scoop on events around the property. How are you engaging your customers to collect valuable feedback on the customer experience? Within the contact center, there are tons of pieces of information coming in from your customers and prospects; is that information being trapped in your call recording system, or do you have a way to share the "voice of the customer" with the broader enterprise?

Drew McLellan at the Marketing Minute asks if "Good is Good Enough?" Drew states that making incremental changes to your product is not enough to differentiate you from your competitors. He goes on to say:

If we can't sell based on our product and we don't want to sell on price, what's left? Your brand. The buying experience. That's the only place left for differentiation. You need to look for and recognize your exceptional difference.  And, you need to make every contact with you be a memorable experience.

Within the contact center, each employee has the ability to impact the customer experience. Providing exceptional service, or "wow!" calls, can differentiate your company from the competition. Are your employees empowered and equipped to provide exceptional customer experiences?

Another way to differentiate yourself from a competitor is to understand their customer experience. Kim Taylor-Wilson writes about the "Gateway to Successful Client Relationships" on CustomerServiceManager.com, stating that you should become a "true customer" of your competitors. Become a secret shopper of sorts, going to their sites, signing up for newsletters, and spending some money to become an actual customer. Once you have done this, step back and evaluate your experiences honestly: how does it differ from your company's approach? What would you do differently? Meikah at CustServ takes it one step further, "don’t fall into just improving on what your competitor is doing; rather be more creative and innovative!" How can you take your customers' experiences to the next level?

Post tags: Becky Carroll, Drew McLellan, Kim Taylor-Wilson, Meikah, customer service, customer satisfaction, customer experience, call center

Earlier this week, Doug at Service Untitled talked about putting away cell phones in the workplace. His assertion was that cell phones can create a distraction for employees, and ultimately effect customer service--especially for customer-facing employees.  Joe Jordan commented on the post stating that "companies need to structure their processes and policies to focus on the customer first."

What are your policies on cell phone usage in the work place?  Are your policies different for customer-facing employees? In the contact center?

One of my favorite things about my position as Envision's chief evangelist is that I am afforded the opportunity to get out to a variety of companies to discuss call center best practices. As a "customer-intimate" company, we pride ourselves on not just selling a product to our customers, but taking the time to educate them on best practices and industry trends. In fact, over the next few weeks, I will be delivering training sessions to one of our customer's contact center management teams, and I am excited to exchange ideas and learn more about their day-to-day challenges.

Our free Webinar program is another great way that we educate the contact center community, and I have had the priviledge of participating in multiple Web events with our customers this year. In the event that you missed some of these events in 2007, I thought that I would take a moment to provide you with a few of the links to some of this year's Web events:

Envision and Free & Clear Present: A Strategic Guide to Developing a Home-Based Agent Program, presented by Andrew Roberts, Free & Clear. 

ShopNBC's Servicing Strategy: Better Coaching Means Better Service, presented by Mary Gooding, ShopNBC.  

Is it Time for an Evaluation Form Makeover? Presented by Dale Raduenz, Great Lakes Educational Loan Services.

 

Employee/Customer Asset Value Chain: How satisfying your employees can optimize customer satisfaction and drive business growth, presented by Brian Freer, Capital District Physicians' Health Plan.

Do you have a great story to tell like these call center leaders? I would be interested in hearing about your successes and challenges as well!

Post tags: contact center Web event, contact center, Andrew Roberts, Free & Clear, Mary Gooding, ShopNBC, Dale Raduenz, Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Brian Freer, Capital District Physicians' Health Plan, call center, contact centre

I was cruising through the world of customer service blogs today when I stumbled upon Steven Grant's article "Critical Priorities for Extraordinary Service Quality " on Customer Service Manager.com. (Hat tip to Meikah.) The article accurately points out that there are many tiny things that contribute to an extraordinary customer experience, but that there are five key areas that can "make or break" experiences:

• Hire people who care
• Invest in the Value Chain
• Automation
• Training & re-training
• Leadership involvement

It is difficult to find "the perfect employee," but it is true that employees who are passionate about serving your customers cost the same as other reps, but are also more likely to go the extra mile. I've spoken at length in this blog about the Employee/Customer Value Asset Chain, and I am a strong believer in this theory. Happy employees contribute to customer experiences and are our most valuable asset. If you set your employees up for success, you will be teeing up your company for even greater success.

Grant cites automation as a key driver to raising the bar on performance and exceeding customer expectations. In the contact center, CSRs are often tasked with accessing mutiple systems at one time, which can create barriers to providing expedient customer service. What have you done to remove these barriers for your employees?

Training is also a great place to invest in your employees so that they will be equipped to provide optimal customer experiences. As Grant points out, the training cannot end with new employee orientation, nor can it simply be "on the job." Rather, regular communication with employees will make them feel more valued as well as more successful in their positions. Earlier this year, I cited a Gallup study that showed that coaching and training produced lower employee turnover rates, greater profitability and higher customer loyalty. Imagine what regular training and coaching could do in your company? Are you training and re-training your reps today? Have you seen positive results from the training?

Finally, Grant points out that investing in supervisors and other leadership members is critical. Having the right infrastructure and support system in place for frontline representatives will better insure success across the organization. Don't forget to take time to train the trainers!

Post tags: Steven Grant, Customer Service Manager, Employee/Customer Value Asset Chain, call center agent