Agents often manage it best.
Most companies have a renewed focus on their business plans for 2010 and are considering strategies and overall customer centric processes that might not have been a significant part of their thinking in the past.
In the world of customer service, retention is an active buzz word. The focus appears to have switched slightly from that of sell sell sell, to one of nurturing and keeping that valued customer of yesterday.
Amidst all of the latest and greatest technology and the various ways that call centers are positioning themselves for success, one fundamental element continues to reappear in the language of what a customer is looking for: The ability to have an intelligent conversation with an agent who is able to assess and resolve their issue on that first call.
While the notion of First Call Resolution (FCR) is not new, nor has it lost its importance in the world of call center metrics, what is getting more attention today is the whole notion of Employee Empowerment. In a true call center space, what this means is arming an agent with the right training and support to be able to make decisions. It seems simple enough, however in the past, agent tasks were seen as more transactional in nature, and void of the ability to truly communicate with the customer in a meaningful and productive way.
There is a common thread throughout the call center space these days, beckoning the agent to have a true “conversation” with the customer, and not worry so much about Average Handle Time (AHT). Call centers traditionally have more metrics and an abundance of measurements that will supposedly, at the end of the long mathematical equation, tell companies how the overall service delivery was and what improvements can be made.
Steering away from these metrics and empowering the agent was historically, not an option. I recently attended a Call Center Conference wherein two very large corporations spoke of the challenges of transitioning the belief that their respective call centers were not cost centers but in fact revenue generating centers. They both highlighted the adaptation of structured Employee Empowerment strategies as keys to their recent successes in this area.
Today, with the implementation of solid Employee Empowerment initiatives, many call centers have transitioned from being viewed as true cost centers, to powerful centers of service delivery with the potential to generate substantial revenue.
Effective service delivery = retention, recommendations and a willingness on behalf of the customer to purchase additional product. Therefore with an enhanced focus on just the service piece alone, call centers now have front line customer service agents who are also skilled at retention and sales if they are able to deliver effective service.
If given the proper training and support, empowered agents, for the most part, are trustworthy, effective and happier at their daily task. They make better decisions and show a more genuine interest in a customer concern when armed with the ability to make a difference without the need to escalate the issue. It bodes well for a company to demonstrate as much trust, faith and empowerment to their own employees as they do with their direct customer base.
For the most part, front line agents want to succeed in their function, and when given the ability to make decisions, take that very seriously and don’t give away the farm. For example, when a huge appliance company decided to make the policy shift to empower their front line agents, internally some feared that the company could lose millions of dollars through agents giving away free product. Of course, the total opposite occurred. Metrics showed that empowering their front line contact centre agents resulted in large savings and improved customer retention. Improved call centre experiences gave customers a whole new reason to remain loyal to the brand.
The message needs to be clear: Employee Empowerment isn’t about “giving up power” but more about “sharing power” with those who have the ability to make a difference in the organization. Agents will feel that a bigger investment is being made and that their contributions really do matter. The end result is a more motivated and skilled front line, and no doubt both the company and the customer will benefit from that!
Customer service most often is the differentiator in this highly competitive market. Companies need to re-engineer their service platform in such as a way as to consistently exceed customer expectations. No doubt adopting, training and continually supporting employee empowerment initiatives will be a key component in this planning effort.
Jennifer McLeod, VP, Business Development at VOXDATA Solutions Inc.
& member of CMA’s Contact Centre Council
