Nike Golf

Nike Golf: An Innovative Spin on Quality Monitoring

Located at Nike’s World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, Nike Golf designs and markets golf clubs, apparel, balls, footwear, bags and accessories worldwide. Nike Golf is dedicated to honoring and respecting the traditions and heritage of the game, and to providing committed golfers with the absolute best equipment.

With over 10,000 U.S. retail accounts consisting of pro shops, sporting goods stores and off-course golf shops, Nike Golf’s customer service department handles nearly 200,000 business-to-business calls a year. Nike Golf customer service agents answer the retail 800 line where customers call to place orders, set up returns for defective products and track orders. The customer service center consistently handles a variety of inquiries and therefore relies on Envision’s solutions to assist their efforts in delivering legendary customer service. Nike Golf implemented Envision Click2Coach® in late 2007 and since then has become a true pioneer in how they use Envision’s solutions.

Recognized as an Innovator: Agents Are the New Supervisor

Because Nike Golf is one of the most well-respected and highly rated brands in golf equipment and accessories, their distribution partners have extremely high expectations. Nike Golf hires and retains industry professionals to provide an unparalleled level and scope of service and information in order to fulfill those expectations.

This unique agent environment inspired Nike Golf to employ a unique and flexible workforce optimization solution that could actively and intuitively enhance the capabilities of the people on the phones, giving them more power to self-manage and continually improve the level of service that Nike Golf provides to its dealers.

Using Envision’s Click2Coach solution, Nike Golf empowers agents to perform their own evaluations, essentially administering the quality program. When Nike Golf was implementing the Envision solution, they planned to have agents review their own calls and complete paper copies of the evaluation forms, which would later be input by managers. To simplify the manual, paper-based process, all agents were given a login to access the Quality Monitoring solution, where they could see only their own call records and then assign and access appropriate eLearning clips from the library. This innovative method of training instituted by

Nike Golf now allows for agents to review their own calls and complete their evaluations, which are later reviewed by the managers.

As a result, Nike Golf was awarded the 2008 Envision Innovation Award for demonstrating excellence in market-leading innovation by leveraging Envision technologies to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Nike Golf earned this award by transforming how their agents provide customer service to the thousands of businesses they serve each year.

Empowered Agents = Optimal Performance

When Nike Golf rolled out the Envision system, they embraced the agent empowerment philosophy by allowing the contact center managers and lead agents to develop and create the evaluation forms. Lead agents were also trained on how to create and publish eLearning clips, resulting in a quality program that is completely dedicated to agent performance and development.

Agents listen to five calls per week and then review and evaluate one of the five, which they then send to their managers. Having agents evaluate their own calls mitigates managers’ worry that they will fall behind on evaluations, and ultimately gives agents complete control of both their training and performance. The agents meet with their managers to review four calls per month, which is the perfect balance for their contact center. The evaluations are composed of 10 questions, so they allow agents to be detailed, yet efficient with their time.

Incentives help drive agent performance, as Nike Golf awards top-performing agents with tangible items each month. Nike also implemented the “Call of the Quarter,” which generates a positive work environment and challenges the agents to continually elevate their game.

Having agents review their own calls allows them to hear how they sound and improve on their weaknesses. Before implementing Click2Coach, the Nike Golf agents were apprehensive, but were quickly won over once they realized that by utilizing Click2Coach, they were in control and solely responsible for their performance.

“Click2Coach is a terrific tool, as it is applicable every day in our contact center,” said Dustin DeGroot, Nike Golf Customer Service Team Lead. “Whether we use it for presentations to upper management, Q-School, sending mass communication to Nike Golf or everyday communications to agents, this is a pivotal tool for improving agent performance.”

Involving agents in the quality program has built a solid foundation of trust throughout the organization and ultimately has been the key to improved agent performance. Being one’s own critic has proven to be effective at Nike Golf, as the evaluations allow agents to constructively identify skill gaps and take proactive steps toward becoming a world-class contact center.

New-Hire Phone Training Time Reduced

Envision’s solutions have reduced Nike Golf’s new-hire phone training time by about half. The training covers all facets of their business; however, the primary training objective for agents is the Q-School, which consists of phone, SAP, Excel, Outlook, products, history and athlete-history training. “The ability to refer to a library for training is invaluable,” said Patrick Boggini, Nike Golf Customer Service Regional Manager. “The immediate, detail-rich information clearly eliminates confusion and expedites our training efforts substantially.”

Results

>    Improved service quality

>    Reduced new-hire phone training time by 50%

>    Fewer escalated issues

>    Improved call resolution

 

Purchase Decision Factors

>    Ease of use

>    Familiarity with consumer services

>    Price

Industry

Retail