Empower Your Agents for Brilliant Performance
1 May, 2007
By: Bob FurnissSara loves her customers and her daily interactions helping people. But she also loves to talk to unhappy customers. She knows she can now solve their problems without asking for permission from her supervisor. It wasn’t always this way. Before the changes at the call center, she struggled. She always seemed to know what it would take to make the customer happy, but the call center was managed “inside a box” of rules and policies. Agents received training on the details of the system, but could not access some of the information managers had on their systems. Agents were trained on soft-skills, but not on the nuances of negotiation and the company had a list of specific limitations for meeting a customer’s needs. If the agent wanted to step outside those limitations, he or she had to get supervisor approval. Since supervisors were often busy, it was just easier to tell the customer the “policy will not allow us to do that,” even when it made sense to do something different. In meetings Sara would hear the word empowerment and wonder if the management team really knew the meaning.
That all changed several months ago when Sara’s company embarked on a new direction for customer service. At the time, she remembers thinking, “Here we go again – another program without the power.” But this time was different; the plan included the key elements – a change in the culture of permission, a higher level of training and consistent coaching to help her learn from her success.
By learning negotiation skills, Sara is now able to move the customer through the decision process. In the past, the limitations were so tight she never felt she could step out of the norm to take care of customers. Now she knows if she does have a problem, her supervisor no longer gives her decisions, but coaches her to find the answer herself. The best part is how the culture has changed not only to talk about empowerment, but to actually rely on agents to make good decisions.
Sure, there are some bad decisions made, but overall, the satisfaction rate has gone through the roof. The best part is Sara now feels she is part of the company, and instead of talking about what she is “allowed to do,” she uses words like “we can” and “we will.” She is more loyal than ever as an employee and she does everything she can to create loyal co-workers.
Parables are written to teach lessons and show the best case results. While implementing an effective empowerment program in your center will not change the world, if done right, it will improve service. So what does empowerment mean? Webster defines it as “giving official authority.” In the context of the call center, it usually deals with how much power an agent has to take care of customers. So what are the key elements of empowerment in the call center?
Setting Boundaries
In some cases there is a tendency to tell people they are empowered to “do whatever it takes to take care of the customer.” But this statement actually can confuse agents. “Do whatever it takes” may mean sending out a free $5,000 replacement part.” Wait!” you say, “I didn’t mean that!” So the agent is confused because that is what the customer wanted – that is what it took to make him happy.
What is really needed is a clear but liberal set of boundaries that allow the agent to negotiate. Often the last thing a customer wants is a refund or credit. What is really waned is someone to listen to the problem and solve the issue. So boundaries are a good thing. Often the best solution is to move the limitations down one level. If the credit amount is $200 for agents and $800 for supervisors, move down the empowerment. Allow agents to make the $800 decision. If a return requires a supervisor approval – change the policy to allow your agents to make the decision. This frees up supervisor time and puts the decision in the hands of the direct customer contact. To make this successful, you will need to first train agents.
John Bannerman, customer service center manager for the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), recently shifted his organization to a “service centric” culture with an empowered frontline staff. “It’s critical that employees feel safe when learning a new process or job requirement. We recognized that by empowering our frontline we could improve the customer experience by resolving most issues the first time and through the first contact. What we learned is that by creating a safe environment, we have also improved the employee experience. Employees want to grow and learn more skills. By developing a culture where it’s okay to learn, employees are more open to coaching. I recently had an employee come to me requesting that we listen to a specific call together because he felt like he struggled a bit, and knows he could have done better. So now we have staff that self-identifies their own coaching opportunities and are willing to bring them to management for feedback. That is the impact empowerment has had on our organization.” said Bannerman in a recent interview.
Training for Success
Training in a call center typically includes product, system and service skills. If we measure empowerment on the employee’s ability to make good decisions, then we need to add decision making and negotiation skills to the mix.
Six key steps to teach your agents:
1. Prepare for the negotiation – Review actual examples of customer negotiations. Calibrate and define success.
2. Set the tone for negotiation – Find a common ground by telling the customer you are there to help solve the problem. As much as possible, move to their side.
3. Explore the underlying issues – What is the customer really unhappy about? Is the problem with the product or a lack of service by the company?
4. Develop a customized solution – Take a moment to think about how you want to present the solution to the customer. Tell him or her what you can do instead of what you cannot do.
5. Recap the solution – Confirm that the customer feels the solution is a win for him or her as well as reasonable for the company. If you feel the customer is still unhappy, start over to see if there are other issues you may be able to solve.
6. Learn from the process – Calibrate your success with those around you. Ask your manager to listen to the call and make recommendations for improvement.
Coaching for Success
Ford Motor Credit understands the need to meet customer expectations and knows that empowerment is a necessity for success.
When the company first launched its new quality assurance program, it was like many call centers that observe calls to confirm compliance to a set standard of service. However, as a first step in the empowerment process, the company analyzed trends in its customer satisfaction reports to confirm what customers expect. The company also talked directly with dealerships and with agents (called Service Engineers) to gain their perspective. As its business evolved, customers became more sophisticated in their needs and expectations and Ford realized it needed to streamline the quality process.
“We knew we needed to empower our Service Engineers with a process that was flexible and streamlined.” said Kimberly Palczynski, quality assurance manager.” We begin to focus on telling our agents to ‘just do what is right’ for the customer. The Service Engineers were skeptical at first and concerned that they would score lower on the quality forms if they did not follow specific processes and policies.”
To truly change the service culture, the quality group scheduled calibration sessions in groups of six, until they met with the entire team of 200 engineers. They reviewed random calls and discussed the empowerment process together, point by point. “We continue to encourage our Service Engineers to do what is right through monthly coaching sessions with Group Leaders and/or Quality Assurance, weekly peer review sessions with Service Engineers reviewing their own calls and weekly calibration sessions with Group Leaders, Quality Assurance and our Operations Managers,” Palczynski noted.
Ford has seen its call center customer satisfactions scores increase to 96 percent as the company has implemented the new quality program which focuses on empowering the agent.
By implementing three key elements – boundaries, training and coaching – most companies can begin the process to improve empowerment in their center. With the right plan, agents will begin to feel like Sara does in the parable that opened this article. Customer satisfaction will increase, but more important, your employees will feel they make a difference and add value to the company.
