Time 4 change? I am a Service Advocate. Customer Service passé?

Should we abandon the term “Customer Service Representative”? If you are in the profession of providing a product or service to others, and most of us are, isn’t what we do more aligned with the term “Customer Advocate”?

The general term customer service has been so over used and it really is a passive term. There is a customer and there is service. But a customer advocate suggests a commitment to advocate for the customer. It implies action. The definition of an advocate: A person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. So if we preface it with service we are now supporting and recommending the right course of action or right product, and advocating for our customer on behalf of our company.

Words mean things. Customer service has been around since the dawn of time and little has changed. Maybe customer service hasn’t changed because we have been defining it with such a generic term? Maybe great customer service is not achievable without customer advocates and we have overlooked this aspect and focused on changing organizations instead of individuals?

I know when I am representing my organization I provide a service and I advocate for great results in my interactions. I am responsible for providing a great experience not my company. My company’s reputation for service is built on each one of our customer interactions with every member of our organization. The organization is just the wrapping around the individuals that work for it.

We have been advocating for the customer forever and still there is lousy service in some sectors. Maybe a new approach is needed that focuses on empowering each of our team members to be a Service Advocate for our customers…

Want to lower the cost in the contact center? Improve the customer experience throughout the organization.

If you are not a sales based contact center and your mission is to handle customer issues involving a product or service. The best way to reduce the costs in the center is to improve how the customer interfaces with your organization at every level.

It might be a better website, a more understandable billing process, or better communication after a customer has placed an order. Every area of interface with the customer, whether that be physical or virtual, understand the areas of opportunities that could be improved. Be a customer of your own company and be honest about how many touch points are in need of improvement. Then improve them.

Don’t expect the contact center to improve a bad billing process. They can empathize with the customer but beyond making the issue visible to the owners of the billing department, they don’t control the issue and can’t reduce their cost until the process is improved.

So if you’re looking for contact center efficiencies: look beyond the contact center.

This has been a public service reminder to all executive teams that keep wondering why the contact center can’t reduce their costs.

Why Customers Become Difficult…

Have you ever wondered why customers enter into a conversation with our representatives seemingly annoyed? Your agents have answered a call and it seems as if the customer becomes unreasonable without the consideration of the agent that is trying to help the customer?

If we look at this from the customer’s perspective, they often are calling due to a breach of an implied contract. For example, our company has agreed to provide a service, and somewhere along the way we have not provided that service to the expectation of the customer. It could be a service outage, an internal problem at our organization, a mistake on a bill, or a failure in the technology or equipment we provide. The call center is an extension of the company and the customer sees us as one. Even though we often don’t control the service or technology we are seen as one company to the customer.

Customers are spending their hard earned money with us and that gives them the right to be annoyed if they don’t receive the value we have committed to for that money. They are not unreasonable to expect the service for which they paid. They could be “nice” about it but they have earned the right to be annoyed with us. I know we often take these negative encounters personally but it is simply a business discussion.

When a customer has a complaint we must approach it from the perspective of that customer and the implied contract we have with them if we expect them to continue to do business with us. We must acknowledge we have failed in their expectation in order to respect the customer’s concern. I know this seems basic to many but it must be reaffirmed often in our front line representatives. After all they are human too and the natural reaction is to be defensive and respond that it is not our (personal) fault. But it is our fault because we represent the company.

This response to difficult customers is a very basic lesson in customer service but one that every one of us as managers must reinforce every day with our supervisors. When your team puts this simple lesson into action, and more importantly understands why it is important, your customers will appreciate it with loyalty. You will be trusted in the customer’s eyes because you didn’t make any excuses. There are no excuses in customer service only solutions…

Do you have “Alternate Online Personality” syndrome?

Recently I watched in amazement the number of people in shopping areas, restaurants, and public places totally engaged with their cell phone or as they say “smart” phone. The phone may be smart but as a society are we heading in a “smart” direction?

It used to be that people learned how to handle being “social” by reading body language and assessing the situation around them and acting accordingly. For example, if you found yourself standing alone for a few minutes in a public area, you had to learn how to behave by either engaging in a conversation with a stranger or standing there confidently knowing that being alone was not a sign of being a nerd, having no friends, or all of the other thoughts that embarrass you when standing alone. It was a “Right of passage” as a teenager to learn how to handle these awkward moments in life. It was the precursor to handling business functions, parties, and weddings as we grew older.

This social lesson is no longer taking place as far as I observed since these awkward moments have been replaced with interaction between the individual and their technology device. No longer does a teenager or adult have to worry about being confronted with an awkward moment, all they have to do is look down on their technology and shazammm we are safe! We become part of the “norm” as every empty moment is filled with people looking into or typing a note into their technology gadget.

I don’t know if it will be the end of our society as we know it, but this new way of social engagement will reduce the skill it takes to be social. Being social on the social network circuit is different than being social in person. Having the ability to socialize in person will become more difficult if we “practice” the art of communication less by avoiding the opportunities through using our technology devices. Does this make sense?

I love to engage in personal settings much more than social technology platforms. I find social networks so impersonal in a personal way. Watching the behavior on Facebook and Twitter at first glance seems social but all it really is people posting their current status and others responding if they so choose. How is that social? It is definitely a form of engagement but in order to have a true social interaction you need to see the look in their eye, body language, and have the opportunity to show your true interest and empathy that only a personal engagement offers. Otherwise the interaction is prone to a syndrome I call “Alternate Online Personality” syndrome. This syndrome is prevalent in technical social interactions where people become more aggressive or rude because they do not have to look the person in the eye when they respond.

As contact center professionals we have been dealing with this for a long time over the phone. Many customer interactions are more aggressive because the person on the other end of the phone knows they don’t have to deal with the customer service representative face to face. If they did, the interaction would most likely be different. Phone and offshore customer service has given people the excuse to be less respectful and more unreasonable in their expectations of the customer service experience. If every customer interaction was face to face, customer service would be different from both the expectation and delivery.

As human beings we need to interact in person to maintain a level of civility or we could end up with a very aggressive and disconnected society which could impact the way we behave as humans in the long run. I know that millions and millions of people that would not have access to the world without technology might disagree with my concerns. But as a society develops and assesses the impacts of new technology we must consider what the overall impacts to our society are, and whether or not they are worth it.

There are many good things about technology and social networking but there are disturbing trends that are surfacing. We know some of those trends in the contact center and have had to live with rude customers on the phone, often with minimal justification for the rudeness. The question is, do we want this to be the way we interact throughout all of society? Will rude and aggressive be the “normal” of the future? By focusing so much of our social interaction online, will we lose our ability to interact in person effectively, leading to a more disconnected society overall?

I believe we need to balance our online and in-person personalities by staying in practice. The next time you find yourself in an awkward social setting instead of reaching for your “smart” phone, reach for a word or two to share with the person next to you. Practice, practice, practice…

Special Edition with Song Writer/Musician Pete Cassani

You may have heard  Pete’s songs if you have ever watched the Discovery Channel, an NBA game, MTV Behind The Scenes, The Shield and many more shows too numerous to list. He along with his band The Peasants’ have opened for Aerosmith, a former member of The Stray Cats, and The White Stripes. He is a regular member of the Boston music circuit and his songs, including one of his singles from his latest release Big Sunny Day called “Waddlin”, can be heard on WAAF in Boston. He made a living playing in the Subways of Boston with an open guitar case even though he holds a degree from the prestigious Binghamton University in NY.

Link to our interview

I interviewed Pete about his long “career” as a musician and song writer and he burst out laughing about the use of “career”. The inconsistency of money doesn’t mean his life’s work is anything less than a career in the true sense of the word. He is a dedicated artist and has an impressive list of credits even though he wishes his bank account was bigger. But don’t we all wish our bank account was bigger? The true value of what Pete has accomplished in his life is to be true to himself.

I asked Pete about what he wanted his legacy as a song writer/musician to be and after emphatically stating “I am not planning to die anytime soon”, he wants to be remembered for “telling the truth” through his songs. He likens his style to Dylan, Neil Young, and Lennon in his honest approach to his songwriting. He is also quick to note that he is not “comparing himself as a musician to these legends”.

As we think about our lives as professionals, I have the utmost respect for people that have dedicated their life to their passion. It could be in business or it could be a career as a musician. Pete graduated from the prestigious University of Binghamton in NY with a journalism degree. But Pete chose to be true to what really drives his spirit. I asked Pete what the best part of being a musician is and he said,” there is nothing like playing live in front of an audience. You have this opportunity as a musician to take them on this journey and it is an awesome experience. There is nothing like it.”

When I think about what Pete just said right there I have to wonder, am I doing something I can say “there is nothing like it”. I do have parts of what I do that I get that feeling. I hope we all do.

I hope you listen to this interview but I really hope you support him by buying a song from this site . You can listen to hear each song but I would suggest everyone buy “Waddlin” and listen closely to the lyrics. They will make you laugh but they point out an epidemic in our society.

Pete has played on almost every original song I have recorded. If you want to hear some of his guitar work on my original songs you can just head over to my website and click on the Music tab.

I encourage you to take on life with the same passion Pete has for his craft. Thanks Pete for sharing your music and your passion with us. Join Pete’s Facebook page at and share the music with the music lovers in your life…

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$70,000 Minimum Wage

This CEO decided on a $70,000 Minimum Wage: What minimum wage could we provide to our front line that would guarantee a better return?

A recent article in the New York Times highlights a CEO/Owner of a credit card payment processing center in Seattle who is experimenting with a $70,000 minimum wage. He currently has 120 employees. He read an article about how people that make less than $70K a year are more focused on paying the bills which distracts from their performance at work. He decided he would remove the distraction by paying everyone, including himself $70,000 a year.

I have always been an advocate for paying front line employees that engage with our most important asset, our customer, more money. It never made sense to me that the people that deal with our customers, who we supposedly treasure, or at least create the treasure, are entry level and paid the lowest salaries in the company. I started to think about the scenario if we paid our call center, inside sales agents, and customer facing staff a minimum wage of $50K. Some organizations depending on the complexity of the position already make respectable salaries but what about the typical call center employee?

One of the biggest issues in a call center is attrition. We spend a lot of money and resources hiring, training, and onboarding new employees. What if we raised the wage for our specific industry to 30% higher than our competition for employees in the area? Would it reduce our attrition and improve productivity? Would employees be happier, more engaged, and appreciate the fact that they are being paid top dollar in their field? Could the company survive or possibly thrive by attracting the best talent in the industry?

Based on interviews of the CEO in the New York Times article, he is experimenting with this wage increase but I think he may have made a few mistakes. Only time will tell if this works for his company. For example, if everyone makes the same wage no matter how they perform or what they do for the company, how long before resentment sets in from employees that work harder than others?  Will $70K become the expectation and lose its luster? Will people take for granted this generous gesture in time and then expect $90K as a minimum wage. Merit systems were created because over time they were the most effective driver of performance. Maybe things have changed in the workplace market and history and experience are irrelevant in today’s market. I doubt it but I respect the CEO for trying something different.

There are a lot of questions to be answered in this experiment but I think the CEO is on the right track if this is what he believes he needs to do as an owner to grow and maintain his business. I believe people respond differently to incentives and incentives can be used effectively to drive performance, especially sales performance. If we all make the same whether I sell 100 accounts a month or 10, how do you manage that discrepancy.

The increase sounds good, and it will be for the people that just received a huge raise. But what about the person who had earned her way to $75 - $80K; How would she feel?

In the call center I think this idea as a concept would make a great experiment. What do you think?

You’re Hired! This is Why!

·         Enthusiasm

·         Eager to Please

·         Ability to Reason

·         Open to Constructive Feedback

·         Dreamer

If you give me a person that has all of these traits I will guarantee your business will be a success.

Enthusiasm is contagious and attracts customers and colleagues alike. No problem is too big or request too small to tackle.

People that are eager to please will find a way to get it done. They derive their satisfaction from other’s satisfaction with their performance.

If you can’t reason you cannot continually improve. You must have the capacity to think. I am not talking knowledge, I am talking common sense.

Successful people learn from feedback. If we don’t accept feedback we will not change.

People with dreams are goal setters that never give up. They are the ultimate optimist and know that everything takes time but you only get there if you remain determined to reach your goal. Dreamers discount negativity about ideas and are not discouraged by people that don’t share their dream.

Everything else can be trained!

The Future of No Work

The current unemployment rate is 5.5% but that doesn’t tell the real story. Over ninety three million Americans are not working. The unemployment rate when this is factored in is over 10%. Could this become the norm? Can our economy survive when so many people are not productive? The feds have cut the GDP growth rate to 0% for the rest of the year which is not a comforting forecast for those of us that want to see vibrant growth to support all people that want to work. So why is this happening?

There are many political fights about what the right policies are to improve jobs and growth but what if we are in the middle of an economic transformation that we can’t see clearly just yet? What if this is not about government policies but more about the nature of work and jobs?

If we look at the fast food industry as an example we see an industry in transition. We have pressure to increase the wages of front line employees but at the same time we know people will not pay $10 for a McDonald’s hamburger. The solution business is turning to is automation. Fast food businesses are replacing workers with self-serve kiosks at an aggressive rate. I recently read an article where a company has figured out how to automate the entire cooking process at a fast food restaurant eliminating the need for everyone except a worker to keep the bins full of supplies needed to complete a Happy Meal.

The automobile industry, once the dream job of a lot of young kids, has been replaced with automation. These kids grew up seeing their mom and dad buy a house, go on vacation, have a few nice cars, and maybe even save for college on a factory wage at an auto plant. Some of those wages are still around but the number of people needed to build a car has diminished to the point that it is simply technicians keeping the automation equipment maintained. That is a different skill than the traditional factory worker. What is a kid to do today that held that dream?

The brick and mortar retail industry is being replaced with the Amazon’s of the new world. Radio Shack, K Mart, Sears, Borders, are all a skeleton of the past having been replaced or significantly reduced from their past glory. And that “history” is not that far in our rearview mirror. This transformation is happening at a break neck speed.

The exponential growth of social media platforms has reduced the need for some businesses and eliminated others. Who needs a food critic, restaurant critic, movie critic anymore to get the reviews needed to make a good decision? Reviews in general have become a social function today and we are not going back. Social media has transformed journalism, book publishing and promotion, marketing in many categories, advertising, and politics to name a few industries. The traditional PR firm may now be competing with a one man shop with extreme talent and knowledge of how to use social media,

We use Linked in now to find careers and this has put a new wrench in the recruiting industry and traditional marketing of finding new talent. Everyone has a personal website, Linked in account, Twitter feed but not many have been able to monetize it to make it a paying career. A huge amount of information, content, and articles are available on these platforms but what is the economic impact?

Much of what we are seeing has not totally played out yet and some of these changes to work have improved our economy. But if we compare that General Motors in its hay day employed 600,000 workers which is 10 times more than Facebook and Google combined, the future of the job creation machine is something we must consider moving forward.

So what are some of the things we need to consider moving forward if the future of work continues to change? How will we address the fact that there will be less entry level jobs for people to get experience in the job market? Will education have to be adjusted and changed from and agrarian economy to this new 22^nd century model?

What will we do when the pool of workers can’t support the Social Security promises to the rapidly retiring baby boomers that make up a huge part of our population? Where will the money come from to support this group?

How will we deal with the people that are not currently college bound since they seem the most vulnerable in the short term?  

I have not even addressed the fact that with a global economy the engineering and IT jobs that have been a replacement for the factory worker are being divvied up around the global market place. It has never been truer or clearer that our kids are competing in a global competition in education and we are currently losing. We need to quickly change the way we teach our kids and who is qualified today to take on that huge responsibility.

Automation is increasing our free time which is a good thing on the surface. But with all of this free time how do we pay for the things we enjoy doing? If we have idle American youth with no prospects for a productive future we have a potential powder keg on our hands.

Or is there something else we can’t see that will replace this idle time in a way that will prove economically stimulating to replace the jobs we have lost? The internet opened the frontier for millions of new economic opportunities. Is there a new internet frontier right around the corner?

Our policies and solutions need to be updated just like the latest software release to address all the bugs we will continue to find. This will take business leaders, education leaders, and statesmen to solve. It will not be solved by pitting groups against each other. It will only be fixed by working together on a common goal with less emotion and more analysis. It will more than likely come from some individual working diligently in a garage somewhere on something considered obscure today but mainstream tomorrow.

I would never discount the power of free minds following their dreams!

I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think about the future of work? Are you seeing trends in your industry that need to be considered? I would love to hear from you… 

Don't Just Hope for a Better Customer Experience; Create it Through Customized Simulations!

Have you ever walked through your contact center when call volume is slow and thought: “there is a better way for agents to be spending their down time”? You could have your supervisors engaging them in knowledge based and skill based activities. These can be successful but they are often activities that need prompting. Make learning fun and competitive!

If you think games that train would be a good use of agent down time consider this:

·         Customizable scenarios to fit your customer profile.

·         Individual and Team stats create competition to learn.

·         Reports that help you target additional skill gaps for one-on-one training.

·         Easy IT set up. No hassle project plan.

·         Results that improve agent performance because you control the scenarios that will make the biggest impact to your bottom line.

·         Learn more about how you can get a demonstration today! Contact Rich@ADeterminedLife.com

 What if your agents looked forward to training during down time? How much more effective could your agents be at selling, saving, and providing great customer experiences if they were training at every opportunity?

Quality Conversations Inc. has developed this training simulation program for the Contact Center to address key scenarios agents face when dealing with difficult customers. Agents practice retention, sales, and difficult situations by choosing the best call path for the customer. It includes coaching tips, leader boards, and creates a competitive gaming environment amongst your agents.

Customize your training simulation to fit your actual customer profiles. Once you have created the scenarios the training scale it to every agent in your organization at their desktop.

The Future of Work

The current employment rate is 5.5% but that doesn’t tell the real story. Over ninety three million Americans are not working. The unemployment rate when factored in is over 10%. Could this become the norm? Can our economy survive when so many people are not producing in our economy? The feds have cut the GDP growth rate to 0% for the rest of the year which is not a comforting forecast for those of us that want to see vibrant growth to support all people that want to work. So why is this happening?

There are many political fights about what the right policies are to improve jobs and growth but what if we are in the middle of an economic transformation that we can’t see clearly just yet? What if this is not about government policies but more about the nature of work and jobs?

If we look at the fast food industry as an example we see an industry in transition. We have pressure to increase the wages of front line employees but at the same time we know people will not pay $10 for a McDonald’s hamburger. The solution business is turning to is automation. Fast food businesses are replacing workers with self-serve kiosks at an aggressive rate. I recently read an article where a company has figured out how to automate the entire cooking process at a fast food restaurant eliminating the need for everyone except a worker to keep the bins full of supplies needed to complete a Happy Meal.

The automobile industry, once the dream job of a lot of young kids, have been replaced with automation. These kids grew up seeing their mom and dad buy a house, go on vacation, have a few nice cars, and maybe even save for college on a factory wage at an auto plant. Some of those wages are still around but the number of people needed to build a car has diminished to the point that it is simply technicians keeping the automation equipment maintained. That is a different skill than the traditional factory worker. What is a kid to do today that held that dream?

The brick and mortar retail industry is being replaced with the Amazon’s of the new world. Radio Shack, K Mart, Sears, Borders, are all a skeleton of the past having been replaced or significantly reduced fron their past glory. And that “history” is not that far in our rearview mirror. This transformation is happening at a break neck speed.

The exponential growth of social media platforms has reduced the need for some businesses and eliminated others. Who needs a food critic, restaurant critic, movie critic anymore to get the reviews needed to make a good decision? Reviews in general have become a social function today and we are not going back. Social media has transformed journalism, book publishing and promotion, marketing in many categories, advertising, and politics to name a few industries. The traditional PR firm may now be competing with a one man shop with extreme talent and knowledge of how to use social media,

We use Linked in now to find careers and this has put a new wrench in the recruiting industry and traditional marketing of finding new talent. Everyone has a personal website, Linked in account, Twitter feed but not many have been able to monetize it to make it a paying career. A huge amount of information, content, and articles are available on these platforms but what is the economic impact?

Much of what we are seeing has not totally played out yet and some of these changes to work have improved our economy. But if we compare that General Motors in its hay day employed 600,000 workers which is 10 times more than Facebook and Google combined, the future of the job creation machine is something we must consider moving forward.

So what are some of the things we need to consider moving forward if the future of work continues to change? How will we address the fact that there will be entry level less jobs for people to get experience in the job market? Will education have to be adjusted and changed from and agregian economy to this new 22^nd century model?

What will we do when the pool of workers can’t support the Social Security promises to the rapidly retiring baby boomers whom make up a huge part of our population? Where will the money come from to support this group?

How will we deal with the people that are not currently college bound since they seem the most vulnerable in the short term?  

I have not even addressed the fact that with a global economy the engineering and IT jobs that have been a replacement for the factory worker are being divvied up around the global market place. It has never been truer or clearer that our kids are competing in a global competition in education and we are currently losing. We need to quickly change the way we teach our kids and who is qualified today to take on that huge responsibility.

Automation is increasing our free time which is a good thing on the surface. But with all of this free time how do we pay for the things we enjoy doing? If we have idle American youth with no prospects for a productive future we have a potential powder keg on our hands.

Our policies and solutions need to be updated just like the latest software release to address all the bugs we will continue to find. This will take business leaders, education leaders, and statesmen to solve. It will not be solved by pitting groups against each other. It will only be fixed by working together on a common goal with less emotion and more analysis.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think about the future of work? Are you seeing trends in your industry that need to be considered? I would love to hear from you… 

Can the Call Center Be Replaced by Social Media and Technology?

Before we answer the provocative question of whether or not we can operate businesses without call centers we must first answer a few basic questions to lay the ground work. Why do people call a contact center? What do others do to get a service if they don’t call a center? What services do we provide and can they be delivered in a self-service model?

Why do people call a center? The main reasons people call today are sales; a product or service is marketed to the public, and the call to action is to call a number to get more information or purchase a product. Think businesses like wireless phones, entertainment - like TV and pay-per-view  services, late night TV products (HSN). We also call centers for issues like complaints, basic information about a bill or service. Think businesses like banks, retail returns, or any company that sends out a monthly billing statement.

Many organizations have multiple Lines of Business (LOB) within the same organization that handle different aspects of their company’s operations. Let’s think about our own center’s operations and try to put ourselves out of business.

For the sake of example let’s take a major transportation company like the airlines. An edict comes out and the CEO shuts down the call center operation. What do we do as employees but more importantly how does the company change its operations?

The center takes calls of upset passengers whether that’s lost luggage, weather delays, ticket changes, and poor service. With the introduction of apps and the advance of technology I can already receive updates on delays, changes to flight schedules so no need to call a center. If I want to change a ticket I go to the web on my app or a kiosk and make a ticket change. If I am in the airport I can still talk to a human. If they lose my luggage, which has happened, a simple text with the status and confirmation of the bag and my bag is scheduled to be sent to my home. If I am unhappy I take my complaint to the social sites and I have made my point. If the company chooses to respond they do but I don’t have to call and complain to anyone.

The sales of tickets in the airlines are already delivered without the need to call anyone. Actually if you think about it why would I need a call center? I actually need a proactive/reactive response center.

Why do I need a call center to purchase anything these days. Amazon has proven that model in the consumer market. You can purchase anything online. You can return anything you don’t like-no questions asked, and the reviews are generated on social media platforms.

What if the product or service you sell is complex? Well the first question we have to ask is: why is the purchase process complex? There are hundreds of TV sets out there today and it is easy to figure out which one is the right one to buy. You decide the size, features, and price. All of the specifications are online and when you have a question you go to a social forum and ask. The social forums are generally more informational than the clerk in the store and no worry about finding one or getting one with a bad attitude. I can’t think of any product I buy anymore that I want to or need to call someone.

There are thousands of call centers handling an array of services but can they be replaced? You might say no right now, but at one time no one thought that you would be able to book your own vacation because it was too complicated. Now the travel agent industry is focused on niche markets and only a fraction of it was in its hay day.

Today kiosks are replacing counter workers at fast food restaurants around the country. No one would have thought these jobs were going away just a few years ago. So I challenge you to think about the call center and how it will go away in the future. Because it may but for sure it will be different. As I see it we have a very real dilemma on the horizon about what we are all going to be doing for work in ten years.

I have written about the larger economic impact beyond the call center and I hope you check it out. It is not a doomsday scenario. It is simply the reality we are facing in a world that is transforming work from physical to informational and eliminating the need for humans to complete transactions being replaced by technology.

It is happening you just have to look around…

Do you promote from your agent pool? If yes, consider this…

Most contact centers fill their supervisor positions from their frontline agents. Do you have a process that is effective in identifying potential supervisors? When you identify these potential prospects what is your next step? Does your organization have a formal process for developing these candidates or is it one you make up on the fly?

The proactive identification and path for new leadership is critical to delivering consistent results in the call center so if you struggle with keeping up with building leaders here are a few things to consider…

If you are like a lot of contact centers turnover is a big issue. It is not a surprise that people come and go in call centers so why is it that we are always reacting to turnover rather than taking it on proactively? We get busy, real busy in the call center. Whether you are inbound customer service, help desk, or a sales center, the calls and the issues the calls create keep us in a defensive posture rather than a proactive posture. The time we have to spend on developing talent in our centers is often pushed to the side due to these circumstances. This is an easy way to fall behind when you find yourself in need of a new supervisor.

Highly effective organizations follow a couple of basic principles. The first is they have a career path plan. Centers that have a career path tend to keep their most talented agents. Most agents want to be promoted and if there is a plan that is documented and communicated, these talented agents will tend to stay as long as the path is clear, the selection process fair, and the leadership team is working with them developing their skills.

The most effective career path plans have steps in the process that allow leadership to evaluate the talent at each level of the process. The first step of the process is a written test to evaluate the skills of the agent that will be needed to be effective at the supervisor level. Do they understand the values of the organization, can they write effectively, understand the product and service details and can communicate why this is important. Does the agent possess analytical skills, numbers proficiency, and strategy? Do they have urgency?

The most successful programs have a level between the supervisor and the agent sometimes called the Team Lead or Subject Matter Expert that allows the leadership to evaluate the agent’s ability to interact with other agents. This process determines if the candidate has the personal skills needed, finesse, coaching, and ability to operate under stress. This part of the process has no particular timeline and agents should not be rushed through this process before they have been evaluated thoroughly.

The final step in the process is to certify that the candidate has the skills to run a team on their own. With the help of the training department you can come up with the key skills critical in your organization but some fundamental areas are, running huddles, coaching skills, and managing to a schedule. This process should be overseen by the Operations Manager and he/she should observe and sign off on the certification.

Depending on the size of your organization you may have multiple candidates in mentorship at any given time. You may have as many mentors as you have supervisor teams. But the important thing is that you have an organized process that will help you evaluate your next supervisor.

The supervisor role in the contact center is critical and every operation manager knows that they excel or struggle based on their level of supervisor talent. If they are critical to the role it only makes sense to spend time developing a plan but more importantly developing your people…

Are Your Supervisors Skilled at Coaching?

When you look at the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots performance last year, what are some of the things that stand out? Was it Tom Brady’s performance? Was it the defensive unit for NE that allowed them to get to the final game? The secret weapon for NE or any top performing unit is the simple fact that…

Coaching matters! Bill Belichick is arguably one of the most controversial figures in the NFL but no one denies he is an effective coach. Would the same team of players being coached by me for example, produce the same results? I like to think maybe but the point is that the coach and coaching can make the difference on any team. It doesn’t have to be a sports team; it can be your team.

What makes people effective coaches?

Dedication: Great coaches dedicate their time and energy learning and refining, and learning and refining, and learning again. This doesn’t mean they change their coaching techniques, it simply means they evaluate the circumstances, communicate the game plan, and demonstrate the behavior they believe will achieve the best results. The great coach knows that they are the example so they must be at the top of their game at all times.

Communication: Great coaches communicate the why to their teams. Players, employees often need to hear the “why this behavior change will help you” in order to get buy in on the idea. Great coaches understand that not every player responds the same way to their message so they customize the way they deliver the message to each individual.

Validation: Great coaches validate that the message they are trying to get across is getting through. They don’t just simply say “did you get that Brady” they say, “Brady tell me/show me what I just said.” Validation ensures you are on the same page with your team.

Drills: Tom Brady is arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time but does Tom Brady get to sit out practice drills? Never. Practice drills are the role play for the big game. Practice drills give the coach an understanding of whether or not the behavior you want to change or encourage is getting across. You drill until the team or individual is executing the behavior to a level that will improve performance.

Follow up: Even when you have communicated, validated, and role played, the great coach observes and follows up on the behavior. If the individual is executing flawlessly we recognize the behavior, and if they are not we do a quick check with them to find out why they are not and fix it.

The people on our front lines need constant coaching. If you have agents that are not being coached at least once a week you can never expect to get to the Super Bowl. We need to make sure our supervisors are the Bill Belichick of the center and know how to execute an effective coaching session with their teams.

The skill to be a great coach can be trained and there are proven methods that produce significantly improved results. I do this for a living and train supervisors to become effective coaches. If you spend the time training up your supervisors to coach effectively you may reach the “Super Bowl” in your industry. Good Luck!

What Will Be Your Lifetime Achievement Award?

I have the honor of being a friend and colleague of this year’s **“Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award” winner, John Custy. Have you ever thought about your legacy or how other people perceive you? I had the chance to speak to John today to catch up and congratulate him on his rewards. That’s right; he also won the “IT Industry Legend” award from Cherwell Software…

“It’s a fact that we will all leave a legacy; here’s how I described it in my first book: “we will all leave a lasting legacy for the loved ones in your life. (Hopefully not the “Uncle Lou is walking around with his pants on backwards again,” type of legacy, but a legacy you can be proud of.)

John Custy will leave a powerful industry changing legacy. There is no doubt that his dedication and propensity to pay it forward has already made a huge impact on a very important industry. We talked today about the award but more importantly we talked about what it means to have an impact on this world. Our conversation reminded me of how much I miss having intellectual discussions about industry, strategy, and relationships. I know he is a friend because we hadn’t talked in many years and when we connected it was like we talked yesterday.

John and I collaborated for many years when I was Executive Director of Membership at HDI and John was one of our close advisors that we counted on to give us honest, relevant, and valuable feedback, whenever we were making big decisions for the organization. John was involved when we needed advice and direction for training material, certification standards, conference programs, Membership deliverables; he helped us position our organization as ITIL was introduced, and even when we launched a new association called ITIM (Information Technology Infrastructure Management). If it was important to the association, John was asked to be part of the conversation.

John has spent many years training IT Support Professionals but that is only a small part of the greater footprint he’s made in the IT Service Industry. When we reflect about the changes the industry has seen over the past decade, John’s fingerprints can be found. When I asked John how he felt about the award his answer was very revealing. He talked about the people he respected and looked up to over the years. People like Ron Muns, Malcolm Fry and others he said were his mentors and collaborators as he was making his way through his career. He humbly told me what an honor it was to be placed in the same category as the people he looked up to for so long. He said, “Rich I think we perceive ourselves differently than others see us. I still see myself in the mirror as if I am locked in time when I was thirty five. I didn’t think of myself in this category and it is overwhelming to think others respect me enough to be honored with this award.”

I assured John that this award was given to a man that always answered the call, gave his time, energy, and knowledge to help the industry leading association HDI remain on the cutting edge of IT Service Management practices. I reminded him of the guidance he shared and the value our executive team put on his input, and how by helping HDI remain relevant, he helped change the course of the IT Support industry.

John in his humble way said he thought it was strange that he really felt that many people who have never heard of him might wonder why he deserved this award. Again I had to remind him that even though he was not someone that had “celebrity” status, he was the guy who rolled up the sleeves and got it done. If you know John you understand what I’m saying. If you have never met John I will tell you he is a guy you want at every important discussion about IT Service Management. And being a friend, he is also a guy you want at the dinner table enjoying conversation. (And an added bonus he has excellent taste in food and wine, knowing the best restaurants around the globe!)

So if this is the first time you have heard about John Custy, it doesn’t surprise me. But I will suggest that you get to know him. If you are in the IT Service Industry you need to know him.

I want to wish my friend John, again, congratulations! You have made an impact on more lives than you know but not as many as you will. You, my friend earned that award!    

 ** The Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award is in honor of the founder of HDI (Help Desk Institute), Ron Muns. Ron is the consummate entrepreneur. He is currently creating a new organization called Certification Game Inc.  

This is How It Went When I Met Jay Leno

As the Executive Director of Membership at HDI, I had the opportunity to meet many great people both national celebrity and industry celebrity. Industry celebrity you ask? See my article below on the HDI Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award Winner; John Custy below. Now let me tell you about my meeting with Jay Leno. It begins…

It begins in the Green Room behind the enormous stage between an audience of about 3000 IT Service and Support attendees, and the backstage room where I met Jay. I was with the Executive Director of Sales and we were the last of the executive team to have the opportunity to meet Jay before he was to hit the stage. The rest of the team had met him and by the time we entered the Green Room Jay was about 10 minutes until go time!

If you have ever had the awesome opportunity to speak in front of audiences, no matter what the size, one thing you can appreciate is that many speakers including me have a pre-performance ritual. It is a ritual that allows you to focus your mind, run through your opening, practice your opening, paint the picture of your success on stage, take deep breaths, and then BAM! You hit the stage pumped.

Jay Leno is an industry legend in the field of stand-up comedy, and of course late night television. At the time I met him he was doing the Tonight Show and from time to time he would come to Vegas and do conferences and events “on the side.” He was paid handsomely for the conference but he was absolutely worth every penny!

His celebrity and success might make one think that his pre-show ritual would be unnecessary due to his vast experience in front of audiences. What I learned when I met Jay was that that assumption would be wrong. As we entered the Green Room he was pacing the floor talking to himself. He stopped pacing and turned to us as if he was not expecting any more “guests” and he could prepare for his show. I thought the first words he was going to say to us was “I really don’t have time, please leave!” But to my surprise he walked over to us, smiled and we introduced ourselves. He was kind and cordial.

The first thing you notice about Jay is his chin. His chin has always been a feature used to paint a characture of the man. I will tell you his chin is absolutely the longest chin I have ever seen! He is also much shorter than what he projects on the TV screen as well. Think Tom Cruise.

The Executive Director of Sales was from Boston as is Jay, and she actually knew one of Jay’s girlfriends from his past. She broke the ice by talking about the girl and Jay was surprised and pleased to talk briefly about a past friend. He conversed and then turned to me and asked me where I was from and what I did. We talked for a minute or so and he signed a couple of autographs. At this point you could see him starting to fidget when his associate said “Jay 5 minutes.”

This is where I realized a secret that successful people use to be successful. He turned after saying goodbye and without waiting for us to leave began pacing as he was when we entered the room. He picked up a piece of paper and starting speaking out loud with no awareness we had not left yet. I was mesmerized by the intensity of his focus and just watched as long as I could until his associate approached. I knew what was about to happen so I turned and left.

That brief meeting with Jay showed me what dedication, determination, pride in work, and success looks like. Jay could have been riding a wave of fame and just coasted through his show but that is not what happened. Even after all of the success he has had, he was determined to give the audience of 3000 IT people the show of their lives. And he did! He had a pre-show ritual that I was able to observe just briefly but the lesson has lasted, and I think about it whenever I get the opportunity to speak.

Jay was cordial, humble, friendly, and kind to everyone he met. He was a true inspiration to what living a determined life looks like. I am so glad to have met him and I still dream of being as successful as him. If that ever does happen I will remember and emulate what he taught me in that brief interaction that day!

Stay Determined! It is never too late if you are always driving forward toward your goals…

The Way We Review Movies = How We Review Our Customer Experience

There was a day when organizations could go out, create a brand, product, or service and introduce it to the market place through traditional media sources like TV, radio, print, advertising, and e-mail marketing, relying on no one but themselves. Those days are gone. It was a dog eat dog world in the business arena where rivalries were as intense as a Friday night High School football game in Texas!

The difference today is the customer is more engaged with business through social media and has become savvier in how they consume both media and the products and services offered by that media. Look at the process of new movie reviews. At one time the movie critic wielded extensive power in determining a movies success. If the movie critic panned a movie, it more than likely died a quick death. Today millions of movie goers don’t wait for the critics review; they go on web sites like Fandango and see what the people that have gone to the movie are saying. The website organizes the critiques in an easy to search format and there are often hundreds and thousands of reviews to sift through to determine if you should attend the movie. The power of the people increases and the tradition one man critique reduced to just another voice of the consumer.

A similar process is happening with many consumer services and products where the traditional power of the marketing and PR agencies has been reduced to reacting to the market more than driving it. Don’t get me wrong, the marketing and PR responsibilities are to develop the message and deliver it to the mediums but once it hits the marketplace it becomes the “property” of the social sphere of influence. Products and services that don’t meet the needs of the market are quickly defined and sent to the ash heap or for the organizations that understand the new role of social media are more likely refining and reworking their products and services (quickly) based on the reaction from the consumer market. It has become collaboration between the organization and their market place.

This is a good thing, disruptive but good. It is good because there is a direct line from the consumer to the company and more importantly to the executive teams that make the decisions to allocate resources. There is little opportunity for companies to “polish” the product up with marketing “spin” and glossy flyers. The consumer market demands the changes or it punishes the organization by ignoring the product or service being offered.

The New Business Model is Collaboration

This collaboration in many service organizations has also forced partnerships amongst former competitors to establish better market position for both. Companies have been forced to focus on their strengths and drop products or services that challenge the core mission of the organization. This is seen extensively in the consulting services industry where technology providers are working closely with each other where a consumer demands a type of software but wants it to work on their legacy systems. Or a consumer has a strong relationship with a particular hardware vendor but wants the software from a “competitor” to work on their system. Do the organizations work together for the good of the customer or retain a competitive posture with each other? We are seeing collaboration winning over competition because the consumer is driving the market.

 Contact with the consumer and customer base has always been critical but today it is a matter of survival. The competitive edge has become the way we interact, and the experience the customer receives from the organization. We need to have people, processes, and technology in place to monitor the feedback about our organizations, but more importantly we need a commitment from the executive team to respond to our customers to improve the product, services, and experience for our customers.

Social media is not the end all in the organization’s strategy, but it has given the consumer and customer a seat at the table in every board room in the nation. We need to listen to them. After all; isn’t that who we are serving anyway?

In this new business model customer engagement is the key differentiator and as contact center professionals we need to take a seat right next to our customers in the board room advocating for them based on the feedback we receive. The contact center has never been more critical to an organizations success. We should leverage that to improve the revenue, profitability, and reputation of our organizations…

 

Your Agent is Your Brand; The Experience They Provide is Your Reputation

A Purdue University Study found 85% of respondents “formulate their opinion of the company and its brand by the contact center and the agent”.  It seems like common sense to those of us that have spent a career in customer service but does your executive team understand the ramifications of this survey finding?

If you are running a contact center, think of the responsibility you have regarding the success of your company. It is a statistic that every executive at your company should have emblazed in their memory. If you have an executive team that doesn’t believe investing in the people, processes, and technology of your contact center, share this with them and see if it changes their mind?

Can your company afford to ignore or continue the current strategy you have for the contact center? The idea that the contact center is a “cost” center rather than a revenue center is debunked by this one piece of data. To make the point, how much is your company spending on their branding initiatives in the Marketing budget? If your company is spending money to increase brand loyalty and awareness, the best bang for the buck would be putting some of it right into the contact center. In order to support a branding effort, the company better be able to back up that campaign with agents and management in the contact center that understand the important role they play in the value of the brand.

Is the cost of operating a best in class contact center worth the cost? If 85% of your brand reputation is based on a positive experience with your contact center; you bet!

Famous People and What They Taught Me…

I have worked with William Baldwin, met Alec Baldwin, golfed with Curtis Strange, was bag boy and handler for Dennis Miller, had a very interesting conversation with Jay Leno, played on the same stage as the back-up bass player for Aerosmith, met Bob Mayo of “Bob Mayo on the Keyboards” fame (Frampton Comes Alive for all of you young wiper snappers), am related to Mike Doyle most recently starred in the Clint Eastwood film, Jersey Boys, had my cowboy boots signed by the Doobie Brothers, and I have come to this conclusion…

We are all just human beings trying to make our way in the world following our dream. I have written many books. My first book: My Life: Ignored! Life is Too Short to Ignore Yours! It includes a chapter of all of the famous people I have met in my life and what they taught me. We often put other people on a pedestal; it is time to put you on that pedestal!

It is never too late to start living in a way that gets you closer to the life and legacy you want to leave behind. As Nike used to say: Just Do It! You will not regret it!

I have written a book: The Teenager’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness! A Parent’s Gift… It is my effort to give my children some of the advice that I believe will serve them well. In this book I try to give my kids and all teenagers a leg up. The sooner they learn certain realities the quicker they will be successful in life.

If you have teenagers I would recommend it. But it is my book after all so I hope I would! You can find it on Amazon here…

Are you enthusiastic?

In sales and customer service - two attributes that make people successful are: being genuine and enthusiastic. If you are genuinely enthusiastic the rest of the sales and customer service skills can be trained. If you are around sales/customer service people often you begin to develop an antenna for these types of individuals…

I love talking with genuinely enthusiastic people and that is all I would hire if I had my choice. But what we often find is there never seems to be an overabundance of enthusiasm in the workplace. Why is that? I have a couple of theories.

I believe we have a gap is in leadership. Too often companies don’t put enough value on creating an energetic environment for the employees. We focus on numbers, performance, and competence as the driving factors for promotion, and those are critical attributes to have. But when you are in the environment of a call center, sales environment, and manage high stress customer service organizations with aggressive retention goals, enthusiastic leaders are an edge to your organization.

Enthusiastic leaders are contagious and the enthusiasm translates into a better environment for agents and improved performance for the organization. The best way to train enthusiasm is to have a leader that lives it every day, even in the most stressful circumstances.

Example: A front line leader at an organization I have had the pleasure to work with encompasses genuine enthusiasm for his job and life. His team lead in all performance metrics in 2014 and has maintained that edge so far in 2015. Evaluating his skill set I concluded the only difference he brought to the table that differentiated his abilities against his peers was enthusiasm. He was contagious! And after listening to his team meetings I wanted to get on the phone and start selling for him!

You may think this is anecdotal and it is - but I challenge you to raise your antenna for enthusiastic people in your daily life. When you come across them take a moment and find out a little more about them. Engage them with a question or two. One of the things I believe you will learn is that they excel at what they do. Guaranteed!

Have a great day everyone!

Spot Light Introduction

Do you know someone that has a great story to tell? I am looking for stories of people determined to create a positive legacy. This may be speaking directly to you? If you have started your own company, written a book, recorded an original composition, play an instrument at the local nursing home in your area, are an artist of some kind, I would love to promote your story. If you read further you will see what I mean… My first story is about the President of Robert C Davis & Associates, Bob Davis. In the spirit of full disclosure, he hires me for work at his client sites.

Bob Davis has written a book called “The Quality Conversation”. I have read it and it contains a lot of great ideas for people that manage call centers and sales and service organizations. It also contains great advice on the best ways to engage people to create a mutually beneficial conversation. These “Quality Conversations” are based on a sincere interest to help the customer find the best solution, and communicate in a personal way with each and every individual we connect with.

Here is an example from Chapter 4: “Living and Working with Enthusiasm”

‘Professor William James, the respected Harvard psychologist and philosopher, wrote, “Action seems to follow feeling, but action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not”. In other words, if you act enthusiastically, you will be enthusiastic! This is great advice.” 

I like to tell the agents I train, if you wake up and say this is going to be a great day! It will be. If you wake up and say this day is going to be horrible, it will! Imagine the increase in performance that people can achieve just by being enthusiastic. Sales and customer service is improved when customers feel like the people they are dealing with love what they do. What better way to “show” that than to be enthusiastic? Simple but powerful, and imagine what can happen if we as leaders reinforce what Bob is suggesting every day! Bob not only discusses the “soft” benefits but discusses techniques that have produced real ROI at organizations resulting in millions in “hard” dollars.

Bob and I have been working together in some capacity for a few years now, and it has been an absolute pleasure! Bob lives by what he believes and has delivered in this book. I have had the opportunity to see him in a number of capacities. I have observed his training skills, sales skills, and people skills up close and personal. He is as authentic as the day is long. When you are working with Bob his genuine interest in helping people shines through and people respond accordingly.

In the book which is a very easy read, well written, and broken into 14 chapters, you will find dozens of nuggets you and your teams will find valuable in your everyday interactions. A few of the chapters are: Your Attitude; Taking a Genuine Interest; Living and Working with Enthusiasm; Goal Setting; and The Power of Self Confidence. The nuggets in this book will provide value in both your professional and personal life. Whether you are in sales, retention, or customer service in a contact center, or manage people in this capacity, the lessons are valuable. Even if you are not in a call center you will find plenty of great advice to use in your daily pursuit of making a positive difference in your life and organization.  

If you would like to find out more about Bob and having a “Quality Conversation”, you can go to www.robertcdavis.net and contact him directly. I will guarantee you if you contact him he will return your call or e-mail in a flash. Bob understands that if people reach out to you, it is important to get back to them and respect the fact that they have taken their valuable time to do so. As I said, he practices every lesson he teaches!

I get to talk to Bob often and I always learn something I can apply in my personal interactions with others. You will too. I hope you will send Bob a note and let him know that you read this and congratulate him on his book. I would appreciate that as well. Thank you!

Do You Have the Business “Cure” for Healthcare?

This audience has so many sharp business minds. I have been looking at the “business” model for healthcare, and it seems that it is out of sync with what most of us have to work with every day.

I have been married to a nurse for 24 years and she has been a nurse for nearly 30 years (amazing that she is still just 29!). I have had the opportunity to watch this industry evolve and recently become the center of the political universe. I want to be clear and state this is NOT about politics. I wanted to see if I asked all of you really smart business minded leaders - could we come up with a “cure” for the healthcare industry?

I hope you will share your thoughts in the survey I have attached at the end of the article. Remember I am looking for business solutions not political solutions.  

The first thing I think about is a clear vision for what great healthcare looks like. This may be difficult to get agreement on but if you were the CEO in charge of a healthcare organization, and could make the changes necessary, what would your vision for healthcare be?

Vision: To deliver the best healthcare solutions, to the most people, in the most efficient, and profitable manner. Every patient would receive the most comprehensive care to achieve a successful outcome.

This is where I think many of us get caught up in the current paradigm: Health insurance = healthcare. It doesn’t. Health insurance is a method of paying for healthcare, reducing the risk of being bankrupted by expensive medical procedures, but it is not healthcare. So put the insurance to the side and think like a business that delivers healthcare.

The Product: Our product is providing health services which means we need: doctors, nurses, facilities, equipment, and the necessary policies, pricing, and delivery models needed to serve the market. Do we focus on one type of healthcare like pediatrics, geriatrics, oncology, or a combination of services?

The Market: Our market is sick people. It is sick people in a specific geographic area, unless we decide some sort of virtual model which would include the sick people we can serve virtually.

Delivery: Do we deliver these services via house call, hospitals, neighborhood clinics, virtually, or all of the above.

Pricing: Do we price our products aggressively and target the most patients? Do we focus specifically on high income customers and price our services higher as to make better margins?

I started this exercise to demonstrate how I believe most business oriented people might approach the industry if we utilized a basic business model.

Could the current system benefit from a proven business approach?

If we approached healthcare in this manner do you believe we would see better healthcare? In the current system what has happened are a number of things that have prevented simple business models to take hold. The first is the limitation of MD training in this country. The system of training our future docs limits the number of docs that can be trained, therefore making their services more expensive. Would increasing the number of doctors improve the system?

The Price: The current system is heavily influenced by price charts created by government agencies. The office of Medicare lists the price they will pay for specific services. So if a patient has Medicare, doctors can only charge that patient x$ for the service even if that service costs more or less to produce. Would it be better to price our services according to market conditions? Would that raise or lower prices?

The Market: The current practice relies almost exclusively on the health insurance provider. They set their limitations of payment based on Medicare and prices of premiums, deductibles etc… If you were the CEO would you accept this insurance or price your services so that more people could access them even without insurance?

Delivery: Currently hospitals costs are excessively high due to many factors. Are there ways to reduce the costs of running a hospital? Why is an aspirin in a hospital $20 per pill and more? The price includes the additional costs hospitals can’t charge due to regulation. What could we do to reduce these costs?

Conclusion: I have just sprinkled a few ideas for you to consider in your solution for the problems in healthcare. I know this is a very complex issue. Are there simple solutions? Can we make small changes that will make a big difference quickly? I am interested in hearing from you. Do you see ways to apply business practices to the current healthcare system to improve services and bring down costs?

Can we do healthcare more effectively through a market based business model or is the government better suited for delivering quality services at lower costs? Is there a combination that works best?

I believe there is a business solution here. I also know that there are self-interested parties that may be protecting their “markets” as well. But what if magically we had the power for a short time to create a better model without injecting politics? Could we succeed?

I believe this audience and most business people if given the mission to fix the system would be able to do it with proven business practices. The caveat is that we would have to keep politicians a million miles away from the process. But I want to hear from you: Is there a business “cure” for our healthcare system or am I just wearing rose colored glasses? Take the survey…