Archive for the ‘Business Process’

Learnings From the 2011 ACCE Conference – Guest Post by Lori Bocklund

Posted by Ruth Lochary
Jul11
rlochary

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today. This article was written by Lori Bocklund, President of Strategic Contact. The article was originally published in the July 8 edition of the National Association of Call Centers “In Queue” newsletter. Lori is a leading expert in the Contact Center field and NACC is a great resource for the industry.

If you are like me, there is never enough time or money to attend conferences to learn more about the industry. Lori’s summary of the recent ACCE conference (held in June) will give you a run-down of the biggest topics and the latest trends. I encourage you to read Lori’s article and check out NACC’s newsletter. Here’s some great learning without leaving your desk!

I just returned from the ACCE Conference in New Orleans, one of the biggest and best contact center conferences of the year. While more people seem to be finding budget to attend conferences again, perhaps some of you are wishing you could have been there to attend sessions and talk to peers and vendors (and perhaps drink a “Hurricane” or eat some Gumbo!). So here are some tidbits to share.

Heads are in the Clouds
Call it what you want – hosted solutions, Software as a Service (SaaS), Communications as a Service (CaaS), cloud solutions – but regardless, it has arrived for both buyers and sellers. At least half of the vendor exhibits featured cloud-based solutions. Some offer full blown contact center solutions with routing, reporting, IVR, CTI, and performance tools (e.g., WFM, QM). Others were peddling targeted applications such as CRM, proactive outbound contact, web chat translation services, analytics, or voice of the customer surveys. The chance to get something done quickly, with little upfront cost, really seems to resonate with companies constrained by IT resources and budget dollars. In a knowledge exchange session I facilitated on the topic, attendees testified to implementations that maxed out at three months. No one could recall a premise-based implementation of similar technology that came close to that timeframe. Concerns seem to be security, reliability, and negotiating and managing service level agreements – all topics that can be addressed with the proper due diligence in project processes.

You Can Optimize Your Desktop
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a contact center with an “ideal” desktop, but I know a lot of people who long for an improved desktop and applications. People need to capture interaction information and customer profiles (including the increasingly changing and elusive contact information – like cell phones and email addresses), and they want to make it easier for their reps to help customers. Enter today’s CRM solutions and desktop optimization applications. The former can be had for less pain through hosted applications and improved deployment approaches (configured instead of customized, with “easy” integration). The latter bring the metrics to see what is happening on the desktop, integration between applications to avoid the pain of cut and paste and notepads, and the process optimization to smooth interactions delivering shorter handle times and increased first contact resolution (which EVERYONE wants). Both deliver a desktop “portal” that truly transforms the customer and rep experience.

Performance Tools Cross Barriers and Channels
With the proliferation of analytics tools, customer satisfaction surveys, and eLearning and coaching capabilities, vendors are vying for the attention of call center leaders who want to take their staff and center performance to new heights. As centers mature, they yearn for these tools to meet the high demands corporate leaders place on them to improve customer service, cut costs, and drive revenue. Speech analytics has been the “hot” topic in the past few years, and seems to be settling in to the realities of where and how to use it – including the commitment of appropriate analyst resources to drive value from this powerful technology. And now with text analytics and cross channel analytics, companies can apply similar analysis to their email and web chat. Scorecards and dashboards were of great interest, as was desktop analytics coming from both the performance suite vendors and from those with desktop optimization solutions. The sessions the attendees flocked to (popular topic!) and vendors present (many choices for VoC) reinforce that there is no reason not to do voice of the customer surveys anymore to complement quality monitoring and other internal performance perspectives.

Still Room for Niche Vendors
While some of the big vendors anchored the event, it was also clear there is still plenty of room for niche players that help companies solve the specific challenges. Want to improve your reps’ keyboarding skills? There’s an app for that! Need to add proactive outbound contacts to your customer interaction strategy? Recover idle time to use for knowledge building with your agents? Improve your forecasting ability? You guessed it; there are apps for those too. Whether your needs are wide-ranging or targeted, whether you have a “suite” approach to technology or seek best of breed solutions, there are good options to consider.

Social Media Hype Continues and Takes a Reality Check
We heard and talked about “tweets” and “followers,” social media strategies and the role of marketing and the contact center in responding to these important interactions. From keynotes to sessions to vendor booths, social media hype flowed. But at the same time, the table and hallway conversations were flavored with some healthy skepticism on the fit of social media for various companies and their customers. Perhaps we’ve reached a point in the maturing of these new interactions where people will take a careful look at the role they play today and tomorrow. In a time where companies must make careful choices about priorities for their precious investment of time, money, and resources, the reality check is a healthy thing.

Lori Bocklund, President – Strategic Contact
lori@strategiccontact.com

Ear to the Ground, Part 2 at Contact Center Conference 2011

Posted by Ruth Lochary
Mar24
rlochary

The Contact Center 2011 conference continued on Wednesday. Many more great speakers presented. Here are a few of the highlights I picked up from the day.

Change thought for the day: “Home agents – if you’re not doing it, do it. If you are doing it, it’s time to expand it. All of the excuses to not do it are gone.”

Customer service thought for the day: How many of you encourage customers to call your center? Don’t we generally look for ways to direct people to our IVR, website…some form of self-service? We want to avoid the more expensive phone call, right? Zappos puts their 800 number on every page of their website because they WANT you to call them. They say that every phone call is 3-5 minutes of uninterrupted time with their customer. How’s that for a paradigm shift for you?

How do you turn talent into successful performance? That is a challenge for the leader of any organization. I know we all certainly deal with it in our contact centers. According to Garrison Wynn, our staff members need to know they’ve been genuinely listened to and heard. That connection – taking the time to genuinely listen, forms the foundation of your influence as a leader. The act of listening to your staff builds trust for you. That trust then enables you to lead your group through change and other challenges. Don’t you think that sometimes we look for a fancier or more difficult solution? It’s not any more complicated that this – listen to your people. By the way here is one quote I especially liked from Mr. Wynn’s talk: “If you criticize other’s ideas too much, they’ll never use your ideas, no matter how good they are.”

If you’d like to see more of what’s happening at the conference, go to www.contactcenter2011.com/live.

It’s Time for CIOs to Act as a Profit Center… not a Cost Center.

Posted by Chris Dellen
Nov5
cdellen

Today, CIOs have a very challenging position of balancing the strategy of the company, the operational impact of technology investments, and the cost of implementing it. Basically… helping the CEO and COO achieve their vision in a cost-effective way that will be acceptable to the CFO.

However, there is a tremendous opportunity for CIOs to make a direct impact on revenue generation. I was inspired by a quote from GM’s CIO, “What I’ve challenged my team with is… forget about Windows 7, forget about virtualization and VoIP phones. I don’t want to hear about that stuff. Go do that! That’s cost of entry. What are we doing to sell cars?”

What does that mean?

For GM’s CIO the conversation has shifted. It’s not about the technology enabling platforms (Windows 7, virtualization, and VoIP phones), they are already doing that, it’s about how those technology investments can be leveraged to generate revenue for the company. What is GM doing? Developing simple things like mobile applications that speed up their leasing process (enabling GM to make more money… faster. Which is powered by their virtualized environments and their VoIP call centers).

What about you?

What is IT doing to move your products/services? How are YOU moving the business forward? That is the real question that CIOs need to answer for their company and for themselves.

Process Automation and Overcoming the Fudge Factor

Posted by Chris Dellen
Oct6
cdellen

Why the fudge factor is eating process automation projects from the inside out.

In the last decade, the Business Process Improvement craze has overwhelmingly become an important directive from the C-Suite. Understandably so, the companies who are able to execute a successful business process improvement project have earned remarkable results… (Toyotay, GE, and Dell are some of the best-known examples of companies who successfully overcame the fudge factor). Can you?

So, what is this fudge factor? I’ll give you one guess… it’s a people thing.
Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing Principles, process optimization projects, Communications Based Process Automation, process modeling, SIPOC charts, Affinity Diagrams, Design of Experiments, and the beat goes on and on and on… However, none of them, by themselves, can overcome the fudge factor.

Fudge = the control that individuals have over their part of the process. People really hate giving up their fudge. Why:


Emotional fulfillment from the work that is going to be automated

Conflicting company goals from management

Lack of feeling important in the change process

Lack of integrating their ideas in the automation project

Lack of company vision

Lack of incentive for the change (I’m not just talking about money… recognition goes a long way)

Control of their process (in their minds) = job security

Change is Hell – it really is. (Especially for certain types of people)

And… these concerns, such as job security, have been validated by stupid (couldn’t think of a better word), short-sited companies. Companies who have mercilessly hacked off the jobs of the people who helped them automate the process in the first place. Yep, Stupid.

The real goal of a process automation project (especially in an office environment) should be to get rid of the repetitive, ridiculous, mind-numbing tasks that slow people down and free up time for them to truly add the value that they are capable of adding.

So, how do you overcome the fudge factor?

Automate the right things. I’m talking about the mind-numbing, repetitive stuff that holds people back. If you try to automate the wrong stuff, welcome to death by meeting.

Over communicate. When you think you have communicated the vision and goal enough, you are about 5% of the way there. Marketers say that a message has to be heard at least 6 times for it to make an impact. When you are attempting to automate a process, 60 times is more like it. (I’m not kidding)

Educate them on the why. People can accomplish the unthinkable if they understand why it’s important and what impact they will be making.

Include them in every step of the process. Truly listen to what they have to say. They are the resident expert of that process after all.

Make sure that they receive the proper recognition for the contribution.

Be sure that they know that their job is secure.



Prepare yourself, it’s going to be tough… really tough. However, with the extensive globalization and consolidation that’s taking place in the marketplace and the competition getting smarter by the minute, you have to continually up your game. Automating core business processes could be your key to survival in this new economy.

Can you overcome the fudge factor?

Where are you on the Technology Continuum? Are you a 1, 2, or 3?

Posted by Chris Dellen
Aug23
cdellen

How do you know whether to buy the most expensive cutting edge technology… or, less expensive, slightly outdated technology? Do you have answer for your organization?

I just received a call from a friend in need of a significant technology upgrade for his business. Like a majority of people in his situation, he has made several calls and seen several vendor presentations… However, he has missed one critically important step… he doesn’t know where he should fall on the technology continuum or why? Translated, he doesn’t know if he needs to make technology a serious priority (priority = amount of money invested) at his organization or if there are other areas where money would be better spent.

If you are responsible for making technology investments for your firm, you must have a complete understanding on where your true priority is. There are three things that you need to think about to determine the level of priority that is placed on technology at your companty…


There are three things that can help you determine if you are a 1, 2, or 3 on the technology continuum.

- Your Customer’s Expectations

- Your Competitive Advantage

- Your Competition

Customer’s Expectations: Delivering on your customer’s expectations is critical to your long-term success or failure… Can you define what your customer’s expectations are in 15 words or less? Are you prioritizing your technology investments around your customer’s expectations?

If you are a small bakery, your customers might expect your bread to be deliciously amazing every time they take a bite. To deliver on that expectation you will make a level 3 investment in your cooking technology and ingredients before you will in a highly sophisticated Customer Relationship Management solution. If you sale disgusting bread, no CRM system in the world is going to save you…

On the other hand, if you are a hospital, your customer’s expectation is to get well soon… A critical piece of that equation is the communication infrastructure that makes it possible for nurses, doctors, and technicians to collaborate and communicate and solve patient problems. Meeting those customer expectations could require a technology investment that needs level 3 commitment.

I’m going to ask… Are you matching your customer’s expectations to your area of technology priority?

Your Competitive Advantage: The level of technology investments that you make should directly align with your competitive advantage.

If your competitive advantage is being the lowest cost provider in your field, then making a level 3 investment in technology that does not help you maintain your low cost market leadership will undermine your competitive advantage.

You might ask, well Walmart has a technology infrastructure that rivals most governments AND they also boast the lowest price? What’s going on? For Walmart, the key is investing in technologies that lower the cost to bring merchandise to market. That involves having one of the most sophisticated distribution technology infrastructures on the planet. At Walmart, anything that doesn’t lower the cost to their customer’s gets a level 1 investment.

So, at your business, it’s critically important to align technology investments with your competitive advantage.

Your Competition: If you have already aligned technology investments with your customer’s expectations and your competitive advantage, you are ahead of most. The key is keeping your eye on the technology horizon for disruptive technologies that could either:

1) Transform your customer’s experience (even if your customers don’t know what that is yet)

2) Overturn your industry.

To be ready, you have to continuously innovative and seek out technology innovations that solve your customers problems AND align with your competitive advantage.

So, are you a 1,2, or 3?