Driving Success in Your Contact Center – Creating a Culture of Leaders
1 Jan, 2007
By: Bob FurnissWhile technology is the vehicle by which contact centers are managed, it is the people who define success. Companies ask their agents to communicate with their best customers, but want them to not only answer questions, but to also delight them. In an organization where 70 percent to 75 percent of costs are wrapped up in people resources, there is a clear need to create an environment where they feel valued and recognized. The definition of success should be more than just answering customers’ questions; it needs to create an interaction that engages the customer and creates an ongoing loyal relationship.
Dimension Data’s recent Contact Center Benchmarking Report showed a shift in the top strategic priorities for contact centers. The report indicates that customer satisfaction and process improvements are "in" and cutting budgets and headcount are ''out." If this trend is true, the real question becomes, "how do we accomplish the goal?" If satisfaction is driven by interactions, then people really are the key. So, how do we create a culture where agents seek to take responsibility for pleasing customers?
FedEx is a company that redefined quality in America. When a customer drops off a package in a FedEx box, they leave with the expectation that the package will be delivered 100 percent of the time. And FedEx actually delivers on the promise most of the time — they measure success in the hundredths of a percentage point. So, how did they create a company with a culture for quality every time? It started with the baseline of caring for the employee first. Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, said it this way: "Take care of your people; they in turn will deliver the impeccable service demanded by customers, who will reward us with the profitability necessary to secure our future."
What does "take care of your people" mean in the contact center? Here are six ways to build relationships with your frontline employees.
1. Cast a vision and communicate it at every level: What is your vision? What is your mission as a contact center? Is it more than something that is in a frame on a wall in the center? Have you tied your mission to your objectives? Do your objectives focus on the customer or on internal expectations or metrics? Try this – walk through your center tomorrow and ask your agents to tell you the two most important things that you are responsible for in your center. Let’s hope that one of the answers has something to do with taking care of the customer. You may be surprised at the results.
2. Understand what makes your agents happy: Implement an employee satisfaction program. Create a detailed process to seek feedback from your employees. As a first step, create an employee survey to help understand what is working and what needs to be improved. Allow them to provide feedback on basic issues like morale, benefits and recognition. Also include a section that seeks their opinion on different levels of management. Include questions about communication and how it can be improved. Once you receive the information, work with the frontline managers to design plans for improvement for issues they have the ability to change. Do the same at every level in the organization and hold them responsible for change. Provide feedback and follow-up to the employees on a specific schedule (three months, six months, annually).
3. Begin to communicate at a new level: Effective communication is the key to a successful center. Since centers often promote from within, new managers sometimes lack the basic skill of communication. There is a well-established, patented communication program that is called WEAVE, which is a simple yet effective way to interact with other managers and frontline agents. Here’s how it works:
W – Welcome on a personal note – you probably know this as a basic human need, but we sometimes forget to make it a priority when we move into the business environment (more on this later).
E – Explain your intentions – move to the business that you need to address. Communicate both the "what" and the "why." If they understand why there is a change or why a new policy was implemented they will have the ability to make good decisions when talking with the customer.
A – Acknowledge their response. Model active listening by acknowledging what they say and tie the business needs back to their responses.
V – Verify that all needs have been met. Ensure that the agent understands how to implement what you have discussed. This is often the part of the equation that goes unfinished. If you were talking with a customer you might ask, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" That is the basis for the verification – Do you understand? Do you need anything else? Are we on the same page?
E – Exit on the personal. If you started the conversation on a personal level, end it the same way. By actively listening to the agents’ side of the conversation, you should have a way to tie back to something that they have said.
4. Coach for a change in behavior: Coach for the purpose of improving behavior, not to finish one more monitoring session. In some centers across America, coaching of agents has moved from true coaching to just completing monitoring forms and meeting quality numbers. The next time you have a coaching opportunity, ask the agent for his or her feedback first --- this may actually change your feedback. Also calibrate as a last step and ensure that they understand the expectation and plan to move toward action or a change in behavior.
5. PROOF your team meetings: Perhaps the most important 30 minutes each week in any contact center is the 30 minutes that the supervisors spend in team meetings. It should be a time of interaction and recognition. Without a plan, supervisors sometimes struggle to create an environment where employees are free to communicate their problems and receive answers to their needs. Have your supervisors use the PROOF method to manage your team meetings:
Policies – discuss changes and new procedures.
Recognition – recognize achievement – both as a group and individually (quality scores, commendation letters, improvement is any area, etc.).
Operations – discuss metrics and how they relate to the company, to the group and to the agents.
Outlook – discuss what is planned for the next month and how it relates to the agents (special programs, special schedules, etc.).
Feedback – ask for their feedback on items discussed and on anything else they want to discuss. If you don’t know the answer, tell them that you will find out and get back with them. Make sure you follow-up.
6. Lead with your heart: Recent research shows that 65 percent of people who leave a job don’t leave the company but leave their manager. Employees want to feel valued and build relationships with their leaders. People will often stay with a tough job if the relationship with their manager is strong. Yet many frontline managers have not mastered the skill of building relationships with their team. Try this test at your next manager meeting. Ask your supervisors and managers to answer these questions:
• List each member of your team – first and last name.
• List the names of their spouses, significant others and children if they have them.
• List the most significant event in their professional lives in the past six months.
• List their passion in life – hobbies, focus, sports teams, etc.
They may be surprised at what they don’t know. This basic information can be the first step in developing a relationship.
Implementation of these ideas can draw your center in the direction of creating a culture where people feel valued and part of something important. We all know the success of FedEx over the past 20 years. I believe it all began with Mr. Smith’s basic concept of "taking care of people first."
