Ata Roadshow 2008 Contact Centre As The Voice Of The Company

The Contact Centre Becoming the Voice of

the CompanyPresented by Steve Mitchinson

Partner, TeamRed SolutionsNational Chairperson ATA

Your Partner for Herrmann Whole Brain Thinking 1

The Contact Centre Becoming the Voice of the Company

1. Why do Managers “Think What They Think”

2. Recognising Strategic Value

3. Gathering and using customer data

4. The Challenge

– Developing links between the centre and other business units

– Proving the strategic importance of the centre to the business

– Presenting a common message to Customers

5. The role of Contact Centre Leadership

6. The Need or Evolution -the Contact Centre Managers role

Your Partner for Herrmann Whole Brain Thinking

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Why do management think what they think?

• Call centres were born out of a basic need to answer customer questions.

• In 1972 Rockwell developed the first ACD for Continental Airlines, effectively launching the contact centre industry

• In the 1990‟s the endless list of possibilities for contact centres started to emerge

• From contact centre to interaction hub

• Today‟s contact centre also serves „customers‟ other than consumers, including business partners, employees, and field agents.

• Sadly, many contact centres, suffer from executive

mandates that reflect 1970‟s thinking -the focus

to reduce costs and improve efficiency is still routine


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The Evolution.....Steps Triage Containment Quality

Service

Function

Neutral

Location

Neutral

Media

Neutral

Consolidatio

n

Exploitation

Technologies PBX/Key

system

ACD Skills based

routing, IVR<

Predictive

Dialers, CTI,

Call recording

Call blending &

scripting,

integrated

front office

applications,

data mining,

multi-skilling,

quality

monitoring

Network-based

routing,

distributed

switch/CTI,

distributed

workforce,

remote agents,

advanced

management

and tools

Web enabled,

web chat, e-

mail response,

speech

recognition,

ATM switch,

video

Workflow

transaction

recording,

ERMS,

integrated

front

office/back

office,

integrated

management

Strong process

re-engineering,

change

management

and knowledge

management

emphasis,

cultural

transition

Capabilities Answer the

phone

Answer calls

efficiently,

control costs,

call queuing

Route calls to

most able

agent, once

call that’s all

focus,

improved

service

Collect and use

information

about

customers at

point of

contact,

defensive

revenue

generation

End of distance

impediments,

improved

resilience,

efficient

support for the

global business

Customer

choice of

contact and

media;

emphasis

moves to the

transaction,

not the call

Integration,

control,

efficiency,

understanding

and support

for more

complex

transactions

Pro-active

revenue

generation,

customized

optimum

response to

every contact

Phases Call Handling Call Centre Contact Centre


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Why do management think what they think?

• The contact centre has always been scrutinized for performance and ROI.

• The range & amount of data and metrics that are available-yet typically management focus on those that shed light on the cost equation.

• To many the contact centre seems a calculable formula of seats, calls and resources, all of which are the focus of reduction, streamlining, or automation

• Accountability and proof of return on investment will always affect the decisions of contact centre leadership

• The modern contact centre can play a strategic role in managing the customer, one that directly and indirectly affects lifetime value, retention rates, and advocacy.

• As centre managers progress forward, they will have to understand and embrace new ways of accounting for their contribution and value within the enterprise to change these attitudes.


5

Intense Competition & Saturating Markets

Trends revealed in Frost & Sullivan‟s latest research included:– Reducing Brand Loyalty

– Increasing price sensitivity

– Increasing customer knowledge, scepticism & power

– Diminishing barriers to (market)entry

– A drive to achieve an unparalleled customer experience

Never has there been a better time to promote the Contact Centres strategic value – provided we understand it, measure it and can manage up!


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The Most Likely Scenario

• Contact centers must increasingly fill a role as the primary channel for customer relations, including support, sales and marketing activities.

• They must be the central source of data for management and decision-making that involves the customer, serving as the entry or go-to point to and from other company touch points Further advances, particularly in Web-based channels will expand effectiveness, making them far more productive and cost-effective as technology removes the burden of routine tasks. It delivers a capacity for consistency & cost reduction

• Highly trained and empowered service reps must have at their disposal a vast, multimedia and integrated network of customer data leading to endless possibilities. Customers will no longer accept “hand-offs”

• Contact centers will be the key to competitive advantage and the revenue maximisation going forward


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A tip from Amazon.com

Spend 70% of your time building a great customer experience and 30% of your time shouting about it

Source - Jeff Bezof, CEO at Amazon.com


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http://www.glasbergen.com/images/g679.gif

The Crux of an Interaction: The Contact Centre

Smart companies want to build strong bases of loyal, profitable customers who are also advocates for the company.

In order to drive sustainable, profitable organic growth and competitive differentiation, they must better integrate and align the way they treat customers at each touch point

Achieving this is a continuum of:– Unrepentant brand marketing and well-publicized customer-focus programs are on the rise

– Competitors increasingly raise the stakes.

– Customers‟ expectations continue to rise based on their experiences elsewhere

Given the vast number of experiences companies have to manage, the key challenge is to create desirable experiences consistently, at the right time in a seamless real-life operational model.


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The equation is P2T = A3People, Process, Technology

delivered

Anywhere, Anytime, to AnyoneHow effectively your enterprise is able to:

• Attract, leverage and develop its‟ people

• Improve its processes to exceed customer expectations -not yours

• Implement the right technology

• Deliver your products and services anywhere, anytime to anyone may well determine the ultimate success of the business

• How well are you doing?

• How well are you promoting it?

• How well would you like to be doing?


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The Challenge Starts Here

The ranks of contact centre management are heavily weighted to operational excellence

To truly become the voice of the company this needs a quantum shift to strategic excellence

CC‟s create a pool of future talent and typically deliver vastly improved career paths for a multitude of roles across the organisation

CC‟s typically do not adequately prepare CC Managers for the strategic role of today, let alone the future

Only we can change that......


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Some interesting numbers....

• Recent research by across 250 contact centres revealed :

• 150 “traditional” KPM‟s

• 55 Customer satisfaction measures

• 50 Employee satisfaction/engagement measures

But how many:

• Do Senior Management understand

• Actually measure or drive strategic value???

Copyright 2008 12

Essentials for Contact Centre Optimisation & Respect

1. Define a customer strategy that goes beyond merely delivering functions and good service at low cost.

2. Justify and put in place infrastructure that uses technology and/or outsourcing in a judicious way

3. Ensure the best possible execution by agents in all interactions by investing time & money in knowledge management, coaching an in-house performance management systems

Based on research by Mckinsey Group those that choose this approach typically deliver revenue growth in excess of 30%, and cost reduction in the order of 20%


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Recognising Strategic Value

Centre Managers must know and successfully promote:

• The contributions their center is making to other business units

• How the centre is, or could be, favorably impacting revenues, marketing initiatives, product innovations and other primary business objectives

Customers to the Rescue! • Contact Centre managers have a valuable corroborator in their

cases for improving the contact centre: the customer.

• Capturing and expressing the „voice of the customer' can be a critical tool in framing operational decisions and building cases for change in the contact centre and the strategic role it can play

• Lots talk about it, but how many do it effectively?


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The CCM‟s challengeIn many organizations, the contact centre is still seen as a bureau or vendor

to sales and marketing.

In others, they are the peer that delivers the “service”.

In a select few, as “the centre of the universe”

In every case, the contact centre must be seen as a willing participant in cross-functional collaboration with marketing, sales, fulfilment, accounts, self-service, e-channels, and other departments to fully realize the benefits of all CRM and customer focused initiatives.

They must be able to demonstrate that they are equipped

to deliver (the promised) competitively superior customer

experiences via their contact centres using a realistic,

achievable operational models and performance measures


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Challenges for Contact Centre Leadership

Contact centre leadership has historically been adept at:

• calculating costs and margins

• being able to track a myriad of tight knit metrics

• accounting for costs right down to headsets and carpeting square footage.

The more challenging (and critical) aspects of the contact centrevalue proposition that are emerging are:

• Truly understanding the upside benefits of customer advocacy and itsresulting effects on loyalty and new revenue

• Developing a strong knowledge of contemporary and innovative strategiesin other operational areas in order to identify the opportunities forintegration with the contact centre.

• Being able to sell that position such that the contact centre truly is recognised as a strategic business unit and...

the “voice of the company”


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Challenges for Contact Centre Leadership

The more challenging aspects of the contact centre value proposition that have emerged are: (cont‟d)

• Promoting the contact centre as being far more than the default mouthpiece and ear for the company

• Reinforcing the need to integrate across business units and functions.

The imperatives of contact centre leadership must be to :

• Drive the further integration of the contact centre with other key business functions

• Demonstrate that poor integration between the contact centre and the rest of the organisation results in countless missed opportunities to drive up revenue and productivity

• Highlight the benefits of improved operational performance and contribution through strong linkages to between back-office and front office.


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The CCM‟s challengeAt a tactical level, it involves negotiating jurisdictions, authority levels and

SLA‟s, leading cross-functional teams and formal problem solving processes

At an operational level it involves offering the contact centre as a controlled test bed for new initiatives, proving the benefits of customer focused programs and making the case for enterprise-wide adoption

At a strategic level, it involves implementing in your contact centres into the advocacy-building, higher-order emotive attributes that brand messaging often promises, such as being innovative, responsible, reliable, caring, attentive, considerate, or empathetic


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Thank You


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Ata Roadshow 2008 Contact Centre As The Voice Of The Company

Technology

contact centre

business units

contact centres

contact centre

recognising

ccms challenge

strategic

customer