Cloning the Best Contact Center Agents
1 Jan, 2008
By: Linda Driscoll-DobelAn exclusive Contact Professional interview with Ashu Roy, chairman and CEO, eGain Communications Corporation
Contact Professional (CP): What does eGain offer the industry and what is its history?
Ashu Roy (AR): eGain is a leading provider of customer service and contact center software for in-house or on-demand SaaS deployment. In 1998, the firm launched the industry’s first 100 percent Web-based customer e-mail management solution and has consistently pursued the simple, powerful vision of earning customers’ trust with innovative software products and superb service. Today, we provide software for eService that offers the industry a broad and deep suite of applications.
CP: What do you think is one of the most important issues for improving business differentiation in the contact center?
AR: Contact center agents are at the forefront of customer interactions and the more knowledgeable and helpful they are, the more they become brand ambassadors and value creators. Therefore, optimizing agent experience and performance is critical. We believe that cloning the best agents is a powerful approach that can help in this area.
Agent cloning is the process of identifying the “best agent DNA” in a contact center and cloning it across the agent pool. It is no secret that customer interactions have become the new battleground for competitive advantage. Recent McKinsey research suggests that business performance varies the most in interaction-intensive industry sectors. That said, customer interaction volumes are increasing across all industries, creating a compelling opportunity for business differentiation.
CP: You offer a product based on agent cloning. How does it work?
AR: Agents are grouped into four performance pools, based on attitude and aptitude. Attitude is more important than aptitude for the agent role, since the latter can be more easily instilled.
In this framework, the “models” have high aptitude and attitude. They should be refined and rewarded. However, managers need to keep a watchful eye on “mavericks” who may violate evolving best practices. “Makeovers,” on the other hand, have high attitude but low aptitude and are ideal candidates for cloning after the “models.” The “misfits” have high aptitude but low attitude and should be reassigned to non-agent roles. Finally, the “mistakes” score the lowest in aptitude and attitude. They are a brand risk and should be let go.
