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Taking on the Multi-Channel Call Center
Proven Strategies that Increase Productivity and Improve the Customer Experience
Knowlagent at a Glance
Call center agent productivity solution Headquartered in Atlanta, GAFounded in 1995300,000+ agents in 17 countries using Knowlagent SaaS
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© 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited3 © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Art SchoellerPrincipal AnalystContact centersUnified Communications
4Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Eight emerging trends for contact centers
SocialMedia
ProactiveCommunications
SpeechIVR platforms
Multi-channelIntegration
Unified Communications
SIP replaces CTI
CustomerAnalytics
Video and Mobile support
5Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Market forces drive a renewed interest in true contact center architectures
Phone Email Web Video SMS Chat
Formal center Home agents
Remote expert
Knowledgemanagement
Presence
AnalyticsBusinessIntelligence
ComponentReporting
Workforcemgt.
Quality monitoring
Perform.mgt.
eLearning
IVR
Multimedia customer interaction platform (CTI) or SIP
Expert Access
BusinessApps
Virtualization
Social Media
6Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Communication channel usage trends…today
7Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
….and tomorrow
8Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
And interactions will cross channels as well!
In Person
Web
Contact Center
Mobile
Browse Facebook page
Tweet
IVR
Sales Agent
Mobile
Service Agent
SocialBrowse
community forum
Browse
9Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Base: 304 North American and European networks and telecommunications decision-makers at companies with 50 or more contact center seats.
Source: Forrsights Networks And Telecommunications Survey, Q1 2011
Which of the following upgrades is your firm planning for your contact center(s) during the next 12 months?Multiple responses accepted
Other
Don't know
None of the above
Multimodal support such as mobile SMS and video
Contact center managed services
Multichannel integration
Add speech recognition applications to IVR
Social media support
Upgrade IVR
Upgrade to IP
Proactive outbound notification
Computer telephony integration
Support for home workers
Workforce optimization
2%
4%
8%
14%
19%
21%
25%
31%
35%
36%
39%
40%
40%
43%
Where enterprises will invest
10Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Proactive Communications becomes cost effective way to reach customers
• Outbound notification and alert systems for
– Emergency notification
– Collections
– Customer care
• Customer care represents fastest growing market segment
• Reduce incoming calls and support revenue generation activities
• Stand alone offering or blended IVR application
• Support alerts to multiple devices, phones, cell phones, SMS, email
• Allow customer to transfer to agent as needed
• Uses advance speech technology for automated interactions
11Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Mobile device and video support are becoming core requirements
• Mobile device processing power and increased bandwidth open new opportunities for self service
• Market growth due to increased use of cell phones as smart devices such as iPhone and Android to contact customer service
• Video or video clips to smartphones become increasingly popular in EMEA where video phones widely supported
• Integration to contact center means another pathway for connecting with an agent
12Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Observations
• Smaller volumes – may not require full queuing, routing, reporting structure
• Highly unstructured
• The entire industry is ‘on a journey’ exploring social media metrics
Recommendations
• Connect with departments leading social media effort – marketing for branding and demand
generation, consumer response for complaint handling, support teams managing ‘crowd
source’ communities
• Ensure that issues that are surfaced in other departments get visibility into the contact center
(entry into knowledge base)
• The need to textual analysis skills in the enterprise. Can be leveraged across knowledge
base, social media, email, chat, and speech analytics
• Possibly position social media handling as career path for senior agents
Contact center integration of social media
13Entire contents © 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Implications for agent skill development
• A new call for ‘blended’ agents?
• How to engage the home agent?
• The unstructured nature of social media
• New self service channels (mobility, proactive outbound) – what happens when a call is extended to an agent from these channels?
• With a continued tough economy where turnover is low – how to keep agents engaged and ‘fresh’?
Multi-channel Support Increases Complexity and Impacts Agent Performance
Impact of Agent Performance on Service Metrics
Source: November 2010 Knowlagent
Time Invested for ImprovementsIndustry Average Composition of Secondary Loss
Source: 2010 Contact Center Shrinkage Survey
Category 1
60%
11%
17%
12%
9%
9%
11%
16%
17%
21% Training
Coaching
Team Meetings
Projects
Paperwork
Call Research / Follow-up
17% - Email, Call Back, Knowledgebase, Etc.
Secondary Loss
Primary Loss
Wait time
Call Handle time
Category 1
60%
11%
17%
12%
Wait Time: Five Weeks of Really Bad, Boring Vacation
Wait time = Five weeks; 2 minutes at a time.
Secondary Loss (off-phone work)
Primary Loss (Absenteeism, vacations, etc.)
Wait Time
Call Handle time
24 x 2 minute breaks/ day
120 x 2 minute breaks/ week
480 x 2 minute breaks/ month
5,760 x 2 minute breaks/ year
Costs our industry $30 billion/year
Source: 2010 Contact Center Shrinkage Survey
Category 1
60%
11%
17%
12%
Wait Time: Five Weeks of Really Bad, Boring Vacation
Wait time = Five weeks; 2 minutes at a time.
Secondary Loss (off-phone work)
Primary Loss (Absenteeism, vacations, etc.)
Wait Time
Call Handle time
Source: 2010 Contact Center Shrinkage Survey
Active Wait
Shifting Shrinkage into Active Wait
Measurable productivity gains are realized by shifting 4.5 hours of training, coaching, and communications into Active Wait time each month.
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Shrinkage $8,640,000
Wait Time $3,024,000
Handle Time $17,136,000
Shrinkage $8,640,000
Wait Time $2,214,000
Handle Time $17,136,000
Active Wait Time
Labor Savings$810,000
Call Volume
Occupancy
Tomorrow
Today
Occupancy
Call Volume
Push Almost Any Activity From Shrinkage to Wait
Training/Knowledge
Performance
Communication
Back-Office
Weekly union communications
Claim or application processing
Compliance trainingFCR training
Coaching on quality
Customer SatisfactionGetting First Call Resolution Done
Using Knowlagent to deliver more training, coaching, and communications to over 45,000 agents
Increased Delivery“Delivered more training time to a site in 5 days using RightTime than was delivered over 1 month when manually scheduling time”
Improved Take Rate“71.7% take rate for RightTime vs. 59.4% take rate for pre-scheduled breaks”
Major U.S. Telecommunications Company
Key Takeaways
• Emerging trends in the multi-channel contact center increase complexity of agents’ job.
• Improving agent performance is crucial for enhancing the customer experience.
• Enterprise investment in workforce optimization and support for home workers is on the horizon.
• Wait time is abundant and when optimized, lessens the impact of incremental costs of improvement.
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