The Snapshotz Online Download April 2012 What’s on the menu of the April issue of ‘Download’ • Snapshotz: “Enabling a thousand flowers to bloom” • Millennial myths busted – learning’s for contact center management • “There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished [...]]]> Monthly Download

The Snapshotz Online Download April 2012
What’s on the menu of the April issue of ‘Download’
• Snapshotz: “Enabling a thousand flowers to bloom”
• Millennial myths busted – learning’s for contact center management
• “There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.” 7 more Leadership Secrets of Henry Ford
• The Language of Leadership, Influence Culture, and Influence Strategy – Words can be weapons of mass destruction or weapons of mass inspiration. Chose them with extreme care!
• Event information
Our readership and ‘pass on’s’ continues to grow with over 500 new readers last month thanks to readers who found the download useful and passed on to friends and colleagues.
Please let us know if you wish to have this newsletter sent to another email address or be sent to someone else whom you think will benefit from this mail.
Send to another email address or Please forward
Wishes for a successful Month of May 2012.
All the best from the Team @
WWW.CustomerServicesAudit.com
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Snapshotz: “Enabling a thousand flowers to bloom”
Whilst a third of the year has zoomed past, for many including ourselves it seems like we are only just gathering momentum. There are over 50 plus Snapshotz users who are currently working through the Snapshotz assessment or have just completed them over the past week.
With South Africa and the Middle East beginning to lead the charge, other locations of Snapshotz Customers include the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Snapshotz is a unique and multifaceted tool and one of the key facets is benchmarking provided by the 700 plus data points collected by the Snapshotz tool in the assessment process.
A striking feature of a majority of those completing the Snapshotz assessment for the second time around is the degree of innovation that is beginning to breed. Whilst in some cases there are dramatic changes wrought about by introduction of new technology for many it is the ability to make small but innovative changes to vastly improve the operations of the centre, staff engagement and customer engagement. This has only been possible through the ability of the Snapshotz tool that assists in identifying these and providing the structure to do so and in the words of Masaaki Imai Kaizen, enabling a ‘thousand flowers to bloom’ or change for the better!
May a thousand flowers bloom in your center! Click here if you would like to have a thousand flowers bloom in your center or have a specific query
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Millennial myths busted – learning’s for contact center management
Colin Taylor
I read an interesting article by Jennifer J Deal at strategy+business looking at three myths we hold about Millennials (Those employees born between 1980 – 2000). For the past number of years we have all heard horror stories about organizations that gave away iPads, spot bonuses, socially conscious and social responsible activities, but still had staff leave for greener pastures. Read more

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7 More Leadership Secrets of Henry Ford
Darlene Richard
“There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.” 7 more Leadership Secrets of Henry Ford
Written for Snapshotz Online Download, journey once more with Darlene as she guides us to apply these principles to life and in our contact center environments. 7 more…
Missed her last article? 7 Leadership…
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The Language of Leadership, Influence Culture, Influence
Audrey Watts
The power of words, read this article from an experienced industry stalwart…
Words can be weapons of mass destruction or weapons of mass inspiration. Chose them with extreme care! Click to read…
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Events … Snapshotz Online – CCiNZ Monthly Bites April 2012
In thoroughly educative, entertaining and interactive sessions, we traversed a range of topics (and some distances) that are crucial to operations within a contact center. Here is a sample of feed back from the events:
“Fabulous contact centre, great networking opportunity, great format”
“Its interactive, great hearing other peoples work stories”
“relaxed and informal, great mix and learnings”
“I really appreciate the effort by CCiNZ and Snapshotz to help us understand similar solutions to major issues we face”
“Great presentation from Peter and the team, great hosts”
“Learned so much from Lyn and her team, it was a really worthwhile journey!”
See Photo’s from the Genesis Energy and Lantern Insurance site visits April 26th & 27th 2012
As evident lots of benefits… so if you wish to be a part of this journey contact us.
Watch out for news of the June event coming to you shortly!
Do wish to know where you stand against key benchmarks from organisations across the industry you are in? Request a free comparison guide for your center – Please send me the comparator report.
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Developed in NZ but gaining ground around the world, Snapshotz is the cheapest tool to keep track of the entirety of the customer experience. Check out the website http://customerservicesaudit.com/ See sample reports generated as well as other links such as customers experiences Customer Experiences
Snapshotz Online has multiple applications – audit, planning, training, comparison of teams and performance, review and reporting.
If you wish to find out more contact us or our certified partners and we will be happy to discuss any questions you may have. Contact information: Email: Info@customerservicesaudit.com

The comparator is drawn from data across the 400 plus centers that use Snapshotz as an audit and benchmarking tool.

In This Issue Is Your Website is a Call Center Tool? Millennial Myths & the Call Center By Colin Taylor Coming Events Call Center Wishes Can Come True…No Genie Required Trends for 2012 from Snapshotz & Customer [...]]]> Is Your Website a Call Center Tool? Millennial Myths & The Call Center, News, Views and “How to’s”

In This Issue
Is Your Website is a Call Center Tool?
Millennial Myths & the Call Center By Colin Taylor
Coming Events
Call Center Wishes Can Come True…No Genie Required
Trends for 2012 from Snapshotz & Customer Services Audit
Case Study
Testimonials

See why more than 12,000 Call Center professionals read Customer Reach every month.

Read The Newsletter Here

Halogen Software shared the following information “The cost of losing good talent is particularly acute and one of the most direct calculations that demonstrates the impact of poor talent management. • HCI research shows that at a [...]]]> The following statistics are food for thought when we consider the real costs of turnover in our organization.

Halogen Software shared the following information
“The cost of losing good talent is particularly acute and one of the most direct calculations that demonstrates the impact of poor talent management.
• HCI research shows that at a minimum the cost of losing good talent is 1.5 times the employee’s fully loaded salary.
• David Ulrich says that top performers are valued at two to four times the performance of competent employees.
• Dr. John Sullivan quantified that when a top performer does leave, it costs the organization $7,000 a day to operate without them if they are in a strategic position.
These statistics attest to the morale, corporate memory and momentum that also walk out the door when you’ve got bad turnover.”

When looking at the above figures the average call or contact center may suggest that these costs are overstated, but they costs may cause us to reconsider the $5,000 to $7,000 per employee turnover cost that many call centers employ.

I read an interesting article by Jennifer J Deal at strategy+business looking at five myths we hold about Millennials. For the past number of years we have all heard horror stories about organizations that gave away iPads, spot bonuses, socially conscious and social responsible activities, but still had staff leave for [...]]]>
By Colin Taylor

I read an interesting article by Jennifer J Deal at strategy+business looking at five myths we hold about Millennials. For the past number of years we have all heard horror stories about organizations that gave away iPads, spot bonuses, socially conscious and social responsible activities, but still had staff leave for greener pastures. This point has been used time and again to characterize the lack of loyalty that Millennials are supposed to posses, which makes hiring and retaining them difficult.

Call centers I know of have changed their mobile phone policies to allow millennials to have the phones on and with them at their desks and they are free to check facebook or twitter between calls. These same centers often speak of millennials feeling entitled to the fast track to easy street, their lack of interest in their work and difficultly managing them.

This all fits well with our stereotypes and our expectations around millennials, but it may be all wrong. The article cites research involving thousands of respondents and dashs five of the major millennial myths completely.

Conventional wisdom would have it that Millennials don’t want to be told what to do or follow direction. The research (Center for Creative Leadership) however shows that Millennials are more likely to follow direction than are Gen Xers or Baby Boomers. 41% of Millennials agreed with a statement that Employees should do what their Manager tells them, versus only 30% for each the Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. If you think about this the results really are not too surprising, Millennials know that following direction from authority figures often ends well (at least it has done so often for most of us a children). This perspective on Millennials also creates an opportunity to engage with these individuals by ensuring they understand and appreciate the organizations culture, values and expectations.

Myths also surround Millennial loyalty or perceived lack there of, but the research shows that Millennials have a similar level of loyalty and commitment as Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. It is a fact that younger workers tend to change jobs more frequently, even the Baby Boomers were guilty of this. This ‘young age = job hopping’ was even true when jobs were often perceived to be for life.

Similarly Millennials are just as motivated as their Gen X and Baby Boomer predecessors were by work. As with job hopping above the lower you are in the hierarchy regardless of your generation the less motivated you will be.

There is no link between your generation and you motivation by perks and high pay. Everyone loves perks and who wouldn’t want high pay, but neither of these attributes is unique to Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers display the same behavior and there is no evidence in the research to show these perks improve loyalty regardless of age.

So what does this mean to you in managing your call center? Well first of all I think you can lose the generational labels. Increasingly Millennials look just the same as you and I, only younger. Second forget trying to attract them with the perceived hot-buttons around perks, toys and special treatment. Nothing the research shows that these tactics work. the ability to take direct is one area where Millennials perform better than Gen X or Baby Boomer workers and this provides you with a great opportunity to share what your company is about and to show them how they make a difference. Be specific with how they will be judged and assessed and what you expect of them. Transparency is also valued by workers of every generation and Millennials are no different. So be open, transparent and specific about what they are to do and what you expect them to achieve and you can be well on your way to a successful working relationship.

Recent research by Forrester has shown that 72% of customers prefer to visit your web site and serve themselves when they have a customer service issue. This is a large percentage and is disconnected from the perceptions of most organizations related to the activity in their contact center. This figure clearly points [...]]]> By: Colin Taylor

Recent research by Forrester has shown that 72% of customers prefer to visit your web site and serve themselves when they have a customer service issue. This is a large percentage and is disconnected from the perceptions of most organizations related to the activity in their contact center. This figure clearly points to the importance of ensuring that your website is friendly and easy to navigate. This point is further underscored by a study conducted by the Customer Council in 2009 which found the 40% of your customers who phone your contact center will be on you website at the time of the call.
Now I know that at this minute you are a little concerned and are mentally reviewing your website in your head…is it easy to use? Can a customer find the FAQ’s? Will the FAQ’s actually answer customer questions? Well let me raise the heat just a little more. In answer to this question posed by Forrester Research in 2009 “I will stop my online purchase if I do not immediately find an answer to my question” a frighteningly large percentage, 57% of all respondents answered: Yes!
So what does all this mean to the call center operator? Of course it is this last statistic that drives the use of proactive chat to reach out to a customer on the website who may be struggling to find an answer, before they abandon the shopping cart. But these three statistics when viewed together paints an unmistakeably integrated view of the call center and the website. In fact your website maybe the best and most efficient call center tool you have. Your customers want to use your website: almost 3/4 will attempt to ‘self serve’ their problem before they call you. 40% will still be on the website when they do call you. We also know that customers can be fickle, with more than half ending planned purchase transactions for want of an easy to find answer. Logic would suggest that if we could make sure our website is customer friendly for support, technical and purchase transactions we can not only sell more products and services, but can also resolve more issues faster and at a lower cost. The most efficient way to service a customer inquiry is to provide the information the customers seek and avoid a live call center interaction. And what could be even more important this is increasingly how customers want to interact with organizations.
But how can we achieve this? First we need to ask some questions. We have already identified some of the questions we need to ask earlier in this article;
* Is the website customer friendly?
* Is the website easy to navigate?
* Can a customer easily find our FAQ’s or Knowledgebase?
* Are the FAQ’s meaningful, helpful (not just easy to post) and useful?
* Do the FAQ’s actually answer the query completely?
* What other support options can the customer access while on the web? This could include chat, web-forms etc.
We need to ensure that we have the right information available and that it is easy to find. For most organizations this will require linking the knowledgebase or the FAQ,s to the website. The queries and searches that customer may employ can use different terms than we might internally, so you need to ensure you Knowledgebase is labelled and written in plain language, without acronyms or slang that the customer is unlikely to understand or comprehend. You will also need to review the knowledge base usage history within your center and link related or follow on knowledge points. Giving a customer half an answer is of little use to and may actually frustrate the caller. Make sure that you employ pictures and or videos if the solution is complicated or can easily be misunderstood. The objective in optimizing your website for customer success is not just about orders, but also about answering customer questions which will impact on their satisfaction and likelihood to purchase.
The use of chat can be a huge benefit to customers and call center agents alike. It allows the customer to interact while not requiring them to place a call. With chat you can push pages or with consent take over their screen to show them the answers they are seeking. It should be noted that in technical environments, call centers often receive more chat requests than calls. Proactive chat has been proven to improve sales – with organizations reporting a 3 – 5 % increase in web sales directly attributable to proactive chat and answering the question that if left unresolved would have resulted in an abandoned order.
Web-forms are a standard element on almost every website, where you need to complete a form to request information, open a ticket or ask for support. By its nature web-forms are not real time transactions. They are more like email, in fact they are emails with web-forms being sent to an email address or queue. So why not just offer an email link for customer use? A web-form allows you to categorize topics or the nature of the inquiry. Customer can come up with lots of subject lines and content, but you can significantly simplify the processing if there are a finite number of web-form topics and ideally the subject lines can control the routing to ensure that responses can be prioritized and/or distributed to the subject matter experts best equipped to handle the inquiry.
In addition to being able to stream subjects and topics into pre-defined categories, web-forms can require customer information. This includes name and contact details, but can also include customer or account number, if the form is related to a purchase or an existing ticket. This can add context and detail that can help the call center answer inquiry.
So as you look at your call or contact center and complete your budgets and strategic planning, don’t lose site of the role the company website can play in supporting customers, eliminating problems and calls into the center.

As I read the piece I was struck by a number of things: first, that he seemed to be channeling Jerry Maguire that great 1990′s movie most famous for the line “Show [...]]]> By: Colin Taylor
I read with interest Greg Smith’s op-ed piece in the NY Times where he publicly resigned from Goldman Sachs.

As I read the piece I was struck by a number of things: first, that he seemed to be channeling Jerry Maguire that great 1990′s movie most famous for the line “Show Me The Money”. In the movie a sports agent has an epiphany that business isn’t just about making money, but that it could actually be about helping and looking after your clients. There is a great quote speaking about the title character as “a little piece of integrity in this world that is so full of greed and a lack of honorability”. Well Mr Smith certainly seems to be playing this role. The second thing that struck me was that maybe he “doth protest to much”. No where in the piece does he offer to return any of the likely millions of dollars he made at Goldman Sachs, nor does he take any responsibility for his own actions, or inaction, such as correcting a junior analyst perspectives. My guess is that it is easier to blame the boogeyman or CEO for all of the things that went or could go wrong. Of course ultimately if things do go wrong and the company clients lose confidence in the organization then the blame will reside squarely on Lloyd C. Blankfein’s desk. But that hasn’t happened yet.

Smith seems to have grown to realize that Goldman Sachs is out to make money and that sometimes what is best for the company is not always what is best for the client. This is a reality in any business and ultimately the market will decide how well any company walks this fine line. For my part I don’t think this is ambiguous in any way, Customers Must Come First. This fact appears to have been slow to dawn on our Mr Smith, as he states “Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail”. Now I have heard people, clients included called much worse than “muppets”, and yet it is “muppets”, and making money that appear to be the evidence cited by Mr Smith when not interspersing his resume throughout the piece: his job activities, who he advised, his proudest moments, his education and his table tennis prowess.

I believe Mr Smith when he says the loss of culture is dangerous. Any of us who have run a business know that culture is a fragile life form that must be nurtured, properly feed and watered and even pruned occasionally. But I also know that building positive culture is the job of every executive in any organization. The role of the executive in combating negative culture is to, in the words of Shakespeare “To take arms against a sea of troubles and by apposing end them”

At least that my take on it.