Today, your customers seem to have it better than ever.  Through social media, online search engines, DVRs, Smartphones, and apps the customer can have nearly everything they want, when they want it – and how they want it. The world is at their fingertips.

But if customers have all this power, what does that means for our frontline reps? Suddenly, they are dropped into a world that is not only increasingly complex (as products and services become more intricate) but also has well-informed customers that are demanding more.  Customers want things faster, they want the rep to know them, and to do more of the work for them to boot.

Pretty hard for a frontline employee who only a few years ago was probably focused on efficient resolution of pretty simply issues, right?

Well, the strain on the rep is starting to show.  81% of service organizations have not seen their frontline performance improve in the past few years.  Over 25% of reps say they are currently highly disengaged in their jobs – putting forth less effort and more likely to leave their job.

So, what’s the answer?  How can the service organization get the next boost in rep performance?   Well, we’ve identified a previously undiscovered, but extremely powerful skill set that will deliver a 11% increase in rep performance.  (Hint: it’s probably not what you think it is!) Read More »

Difficult economic times have prompted many organizations to reevaluate their existing business processes—everything from how the CEO is compensated down to the food served at the company cafeteria. Even when it comes to screening and hiring potential employees, companies have realized the need to increase efficiencies and are looking at new methods to find the ‘best fit’ candidates for their organization.

The problem is that finding those ‘best fits’ isn’t always easy to do in an interview, and with more applicants and fewer positions, companies are increasingly faced with tougher decisions between what appear to be equally qualified candidates. As a result, many organizations are turning to new ‘pre-hire tests’ to check for personality, cognitive abilities, and other competencies in an effort to gain an edge in hiring. Read More »

It’s no secret that today’s workplace environment is very different than it was even a year ago—many staff are working in roles that are beneath their qualifications, many wages still have not recovered to previous levels, and many staff continue to defer retirement.

In fact the changes are so significant and long-lasting that companies that once saw these trends as temporary are now embracing these changes as permanent.  And of course service and support organizations have not been immune to these changes.

Among the most major changes is the new influx of younger generations into the workplace.  With them come different expectations, motivations, preferences, and styles, leaving many organizations at a loss for how to effectively manage and motivate these staff.

But given the economic climate, older demographics also have changed their perceptions and expectations of the workplace environment, creating a complex management situation for many organizations.

In fact, organizations today are not just coping with managing the demands of individual demographics, but how the demographics interact with each other, too.  Suddenly retention, engagement, and team dynamics are quite complex, calling into question tried and true engagement and management strategies.

Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

January 1 didn’t just mark the start of a new year—it also represented the start of the era of the “Golden Boomers,” or Baby Boomers who will turn 65 this year, the age typically standard for retirement. Comprised of 79 million people, the Baby Boomer generation will be making an enormous impact on the job market as they retire en masse. And employers know it; 64% of respondents to CPI’s 2010 Mature Workforce Survey say retiring workers would have a significant impact on their organization.

So, who should you hire to fill the gaps left by retirees? It may sound like a trick answer, but it’s not: the retirees themselves. Retired workers are still seeking employment, presenting a pool of untapped talent. Contact centers in particular can benefit from hiring older workers—not only do they have extensive professional experience, but retirees are better at coping with the emotional stress and burnout that lead to reduced productivity and increased absenteeism.

The challenge is that most companies don’t know where to begin sourcing within the unique retiree labor pool. Older workers require different methods of recruitment, and organizations need to tailor efforts to match their interests and value propositions.

Here are a couple of key questions to consider when getting started, and our take on answering them: Read More »

As autumn is well underway, companies are making their holiday season arrangements before winter arrives. These plans are often quite visible as small retail outlets pop up in airports, malls, parking lots, and elsewhere. 

The statistics are impressive: Toys “R” Us to open 600 Express locations to provide more convenient locations to potential customers. Borders is doing the same, opening 25 Borders Express outlets in smaller markets.

More eye-catching is the number of staff required for the holiday season. Toys “R” Us announced plans to take on 45,000 temporary employees, and Best Buy, also expanding, will bring on 29,000 seasonal staffers.

As customer service knows well, this seasonal expansion is often invisible to consumers when it happens behind the walls of the contact center. Customers may notice more retail staff in the stores, but may not know the company also hires more contact center staff to keep up with increase in contact volume.  And, with holiday call volumes spiking as much as 10x normal volume, many more frontline staff are required to provide high levels of service for customers who have very urgent needs for the holiday season.  

But, a fast ramp up in staff size presents a tall order for the service organization: How do we quickly recruit and train seasonal staff to meet customer demands without a gap in service? Read More »

My favorite American football team, the Washington Redskins, is preparing to kick-off the 2010 season with a new coach, Mike Shanahan.  Mr. Shanahan was hired earlier this year to replace Jim Zorn, who was fired last year after coaching for only two seasons.  Mr. Zorn’s successful career as a player (he was a quarterback in the National Football League and threw for over 20,000 yards during his career), however, was not a very good predictor of his success as a coach: in two seasons as head coach the Redskins were an abysmal 12-20, including an embarrassing 4-12 last year.

How could a former player, someone who seemingly knows the game so well, fail miserably as a coach?  Well, like brokerage statements say: Past performance is not an indication of future success. Read More »

An article about remote reps caught my eye recently.  According to the article, remote reps amount to 7% of the total call center worker population in 2009, and the group is expected to grow by as much as 19% per year.  CCC’s data from its benchmarking database is strong as well, with about 13% of the companies surveyed using remote reps.

No doubt about it…and in case you’re still wondering…remote reps are here to stay.  Stories of “failed” programs are rare, and most companies have very positive experiences.  Commonly cited outcomes (when compared to brick and mortar operations) include:

• Better customer survey scores
• Higher productivity
• Lower turnover
• Environmentally friendly (This is a new one…we’ve recently heard some organizations publicize remote programs as a “green” initiative to cut the company’s carbon footprint—because fewer people are driving to work.)

CCC members, learn more about our remote rep research.

These benefits are great, but almost all of them are highly dependent on the reps you choose to staff the program.  If you hire the wrong type of rep, you’re investing time and resources into people likely to leave the job or, worse yet, stick around and be entirely unproductive.  When hiring remote reps, here are some things to consider: Read More »

At CCC we recently completed our annual performance reviews, and it’s gotten me thinking about talent.  More specifically, our high-potential talent and how to keep them around.  Sure, some folks tell me career options are limited in the service world – and there’s ‘healthy’ attrition of individuals who aren’t good fits.  But our top frontline staff, the ones who can just get it done – don’t we want to do everything in our power to keep them?

And the news from one of our sister programs, the Corporate Leadership Council (CLC), isn’t good.  In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, their study of over 20,000 ‘emerging star’ employees found some startling facts:

• 1 in 3 high-potential employees are disengaged from their job – and are far less productive as a result
• 1 in 4 intends to leave their current company within the next year
• 1 in 5 see a misalignment between what the company wants and their own personal aspirations

Sound scary?  Well, it definitely got my attention.  And it got me thinking about what we can do to swing these statistics back in our favor. Read More »

It’s college graduation time, and that means the inspirational commencement speeches will start to circulate in the press—providing tips on everything from wearing sunscreen to pursuing your passions.  Most college grads will, I’m sure, feel confident their four years of studies have prepared them well for whatever life offers them.  

On the flip side, what about the folks who shunned the classroom for a  “real world” education?  Turns out that some of them have been pretty successful too.

Time Magazine recently published a list of the Top 10 College Dropouts, pointing out that several wildly successful individuals never got their diplomas.  Some names on the list are predictable: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, to name two.  A few others were news to me: Tom Hanks left school to become a theater intern, and Harrison Ford abandoned his philosophy studies to try acting.

Certainly the reputations of these people makes one at least momentarily pause to reconsider the time and expense of higher education as a necessary component of success.  What is it about experiential, non-classroom learning that drives similar outcomes? Read More »

Big revenues and the CEO’s upcoming book release are winning Zappos loads of public press. Zappos doesn’t approach customer service like most organizations. In fact, the company makes it publically clear they have a culture that qualifies as more than just little bit quirky.

One of Zappos’s core principles is to promote employee and customer happiness. Of note on the employee side: Zappos values happy employees so much that at the end of new-hire training, trainees are offered $2,000+ to quit. Read More »