Our Blog Has Moved
Posted by Pete Guillot in Contact Center Consulting on January 8th, 2012
For the latest news, please visit us at http://center-first.com/blog
Before Tier 1 and Tier 2 Agents, Customers Want Better Tier 0 Agents
Posted by Pete Guillot in Call Center Cost savings, Call Center Technology, Contact Center Consulting, IVR on September 19th, 2011
If you are reading this blog you have already spent a lot of time thinking about how to improve your agent’s performance. You likely have quality monitoring, coaching, and reward systems in place to help your agents reach their potential. In the paharma call center , we spend a lot of time on our people because they are our most important asset.
Well what if I suggested that we can do even more for our agents and their performance by spending a little more time on Tier 0 agents. Tier 0 are our IVR (interactive voice response) systems and VRU (Voice Response Units). With today’s technology, we may need to be thinking more about how to get the most from our IVR and VRU so that we do more to help our Tier 1 and Tier agents and ultimately our customers.
Today’s intelligent IVR system (i.e. Angel, Plum, Voxeo) is both your customers’ and agents’ best friend. Here are to expectations you should have
- Expect customer satisfaction to go up due to increased customer self-service and shorter call handle time, if the customer needs to speak with a live agent.
- Expect costs to go down do to the same reasons as in #1.
- Expect everyone to be really happy with call center management!!!
- Listen to calls and decide what can be handled in the IVR/VRU. If it’s a number, simple question, directions, or a routine response in any way – try to handle it in the IVR/VRU
- Iterate your IVR content every 30 days, not every 30 weeks. The more you review IVR content and utilize it’s capabilities, the faster you achieve your expected results
- Get your agents involved as they will be more than happy to tell you which calls would be great to take out of their queue.
- Measure your savings in time, dollars, and customer satisfaction.
DIA Journal Call Handling Benchmark Report
Posted by Pete Guillot in Contact Center Consulting on May 18th, 2011
Congratulations to Catherine Nojiri, PharmD and Chandni Patel, PharmD of Medical Operations at Novo Nordisk for pulling together an excellent benchmarking study on call handling in pharma.
Doctors Nojiri and Patel highlighted a few interesting results that are worthy of additional consideration. As the report indicates, there are great differences in the agent qualifications for today’s pharma centers. The report finds that there are HCPs and Non-HCPs handling both consumer and HCP inquiries. There appeared some explanation for the different staffing models with higher volume centers using more Non-HCP agents.
At CenterFirst, we have developed an opinion on staffing and call routing based on our more than 15 years of experience in pharma call centers and more than 20 engagements at top 10 pharma companies.
Our opinion on agent staffing is as follows:
1. Consumer inquiries can be handled by Non-HCP agents, and calls should not be escalated to HCP agents. Callers should be referred back to their own HCP.
2. HCP inquiries for mature brands can be handled by Non-HCPs initially and escalated to an HCP agent once the call enters unapproved or off-label uses.
3. HCP inquiries for newer brands and more complex therapeutic areas should be
handled by HCP agents.
In addition, our interpretation of FDA guidance is that AE reports should be taken by HCP agents and PQC reports may be taken by non-HCP agents.
We have found that applying this staffing and call routing approach is the most cost effective and compliant staffing model for the pharma and medical device medical information contact center.
Thanks again to the doctors at Novo Nordisk for their excellent work on call handling benchmarking. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.
Article can be found in at DIAhome.org in the DIA Journal or at
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ujfdb9
Quality Monitoring Benchmarks
Posted by Pete Guillot in Call Quality Monitoring, Contact Center Consulting on March 15th, 2011
The SOCAP Annual Meeting in October 2010 was an outstanding event as usual. The events are always terrific for gathering benchmark data from across several industries.
The organization called the Customer Operations Performance Center presented the results of a benchmarking study that included 44 companies across 7 industries. Five of the companies were healthcare companies.
The study contained terrific data and thanks to SOCAP for bringing this information to the group. One of the areas included in the study was Quality Monitoring. The survey results showed that:
1. 95% of companies monitor in some way. I find this result to be higher than what I have observed in the pharma industry.
2. Companies who monitor will evaluate based on 20-25 attributes.
3. 60% of companies do not correlate Quality Monitoring scores with Customer Satisfaction scores. This seems like an easy area to improve the impact of QM, but correlating results can be difficult. One idea presented at the DIA MedCom Workshop in March 2011 suggested that even post-call IVR survey results can be correlated for a more effective coaching session on monitoring.
Putting Quality Monitoring to work in our centers is critically important. One senior contact center executive stated that she felt Quality Monitoring was the single most important input to continuous process improvement in her 250 person center.
Please email us at clientservices@centerfirst.net, and we would be happy to give you one of the Quality Monitoring templates we have created.
Conducting Your Own Contact Center Assessment
Posted by Pete Guillot in Contact Center Consulting on March 14th, 2011
We are often has about the best way to conduct a contact center assessment. Our process is a simple 3 step approach that is based in sound internal auditing practices. The three steps include:
Gathering Data – collect reports on operations, customer service, employee or vendor turnover; interview all levels of stakeholders from agents to executive; gather departmental and company mission and vision; collect applicable regulations and guidances; secure available benchmarks
Analyze and Compare – create a contact workflow; validate workflow with agents; compare current state with benchmarks and internal documents
Report – prepare a report and prioritize based on risk and resources required
The top five areas of opportunity that CenterFirst has found in the past 7 years of assessments include:
Top – Metrics and Monitoring
2. IVR and workflow
3. Cross-functional coordination
4. Standard Operating Procedures
5. Training plans and records
Quality Monitoring Best Practices
Posted by Bill in Contact Center Consulting on April 22nd, 2010
Quality monitoring is a staple program in most contact centers; however, there are nearly as many variations of quality monitoring programs as there are contact centers! To get started, let’s establish a common understanding of quality monitoring. Quality monitoring is a call evaluation process that appraises the qualitative aspects of call handling. It includes the tracking and analysis of data to identify individual agent and overall call center performance trends, anticipated problems, and training and coaching needs (Cleveland & Harnes, 2004). There are also a number of different quality monitoring methods that managers can employ including:
Silent monitoring- The person responsible for conducting the monitoring session listens to an agent call in real-time from another location
Call recording- The person responsible for conducting the monitoring or the contact center’s automated system records a sampling of calls. The person monitoring then randomly selects calls for evaluation of agent performance
Side-by-side monitoring- The person responsible for conducting the monitoring sits beside the agent and listens while the agent handles a call
Mystery caller- A form of unobtrusive observation in which the person monitoring acts as a customer, initiates a call and monitors the skills of the agent.
Good quality monitoring programs lead to many benefits, including:
- Providing the basis for organization wide quality improvement and innovation
- Measuring the quality of interaction and accuracy of information provided
- Measuring adherence to call-handling processes
- Identifying customer needs/expectations
- Ensuring legal and regulatory compliance to mitigate liability
In order to achieve these and other benefits, a contact center’s quality monitoring program must be well designed and managed. CenterFirst partners with Medical Affairs, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, Patient Assistance, and other pharmaceutical contact center managers to ensure that their quality monitoring programs are fair, reasonable, objective, and designed to produce the best results for individual agents and the contact center. To maximize your contact center’s results, we recommend the following guidelines be followed when designing and managing your quality monitoring program (adapted from ICMI):
- Inform agents about the purpose of monitoring, how it is conducted, and how results are used
- Use standardized evaluation forms with objective, behaviorally measurable criteria
- Involve agents in the development of the criteria
- Clearly communicate the goals, guidelines and priorities for call handling
- Provide agents with the resources and training required for call handling
- Consistently monitor employee performance
- Get a good sample for the group and for each individual.
- New hires and agents in need of additional coaching should be monitored more frequently
- Don’t forget regular monitoring for high performers too!
- Stack monitoring results against other key measures (customer satisfaction, service level)
- Fix problems at the group level, not just at the individual level
- Provide specific , behavioral and performance based feedback
Implementation of these guidelines takes a focused, disciplined effort on the part of the contact center management team; but, the benefits far outweigh the effort in terms of improved quality, agent productivity, and customer satisfaction.
References and Additional Resources
Call Center Sample Monitoring Forms (ICMI, Call Center Press, 2001)
Call Monitoring Trends (From Call Center Management Review, ICMI, 2005)
Maximizing the Value of Quality Monitoring (From Call Center Management Review, ICMI, 2003)
Call Center Management on Fast Forward (Cleveland, 2006)
Call Center People Management Handbook and Study Guide (Cleveland & Harne, Chapter 6, 2004)
The Change Agent: The Key to Successful Contact Center Implementation
Posted by Ann in Contact Center Consulting on April 20th, 2010
What is the difference between a contact center implementation that is truly embraced and one that never gets off the ground or is only accepted because of executive mandate? In our experience, it’s the leadership in the middle, the “change agent” who makes the difference. Companies typically spend significant effort getting the vision for the contact center right, and employees are usually open to the vision at the start, taking a wait and see attitude. But it’s the success of the change agent, the leader who is tasked with implementation of the vision who usually makes or breaks the success of the program.
Choosing the right change agent for contact center implementation, whether from inside or outside your company, is essential. We have seen five characteristics that make for a successful change agent:
- Broadly Respected: The change agent must be respected both at the executive level and at the individual employee level so that he/she is viewed as a trusted colleague to all those involved.
- Strong Leader: While the vision may be well thought out at a macro level, it’s the individual who faces the consequences. A strong leader as a change agent is critical to manage the obstacles that surface during implementation.
- Strong Project Manager: The essence of contact center implementation is a complex project filled with interconnected work streams. Strong project management skills are a must to manage implementation and to maintain timing and budget.
- Proven Communication Skills: The change agent must demonstrate an ease in engaging others in a variety of settings. He/she needs to communicate openly and often across multiple departments, levels, and communication channels.
- Self Awareness: The change agent must be able to set aside individual goals and know when he/she needs help from his/her peers or from his/her executive sponsor.
Selection of the right change agent will often determine the success or failure of a contact center project.
Do you Want to Meet your Goals? Make the Time to Coach your Agents
Posted by Bill in Contact Center Consulting on January 25th, 2010
Rosinski writes, “Coaching is the art of facilitating the unleashing of people’s potential to reach meaningful, important objectives” (2003). Holman and Miller define coaching as,” A deliberate process using focused conversations to create an environment for individual growth, purposeful action, and sustained improvement” (2008). In these definitions we find both the “what” and “why” of coaching.
• What is coaching? The creation of an environment that promotes individual growth and unleashes people’s potential
• Why Coach? To help your contact center agents and your organization reach and sustain important goals
Bottom line, coaching is a behaviorally specific, and highly results oriented activity. Spending time coaching contributes to a more skilled, more productive, more customer oriented, and more fulfilled staff.
How do you feel about your own coaching? Answering the questions below may provide you with an idea of where you stand as a coach today. If you are feeling courageous, I recommend you meet with your employees to answer questions four and five.
1. What important goals is your team responsible for achieving?
2. How do your agents contribute toward the achievement of those goals?
3. How happy are you with the results of your coaching sessions?
4. How happy are your agents with your coaching sessions?
5. How would agents working for you three or more months describe your contribution to their skills, knowledge, or achievement of goals? Significant? Marginal? No contribution? I know more than my manager?
I will be posting a series of articles over the coming months that address specific areas of coaching and tips on how to bring out the best in your people. I would love to learn about your coaching experiences. Please share any stories you think readers can learn from or feel free to post any questions or suggestions to help us all grow in this important area.
Pharma Contact Center Sales
Posted by Pete in Contact Center Consulting, Pharma Contact Center Sales on January 15th, 2010
Reach and frequency on key targets are still the key determinants of sales success in the pharma industry. Whether it is account sales or retail, covering the targeted customer base with the appropriately skilled sales representatives and resources is the best prescription. Many pharma companies have begun to test the contact center as a way to increase sales frequency and reach. The targets for pharma contact center sales teams have most often been either uncovered account or territories. This is a natural first step in the evolution of this sales format, but pharma need not stop with uncovered accounts or territories.
CenterFirst has worked with outbound sales teams and developed a model that represents the evolution of the outbound sales process within the pharma industry. The model shows how pharma can move from lower to higher levels of commitment and success.
Four levels of commitment are proposed…Level 1 – No pharma contact center sales, Level 2 – Informal and Adjunct, Level 3 – Formal and Complementary, Level 4 – Formal and Integrated. Each level of sales commitment has a corresponding level of commitment in people, process, and technology.
There are a couple of key learnings from our experience.
- It is best to move up along the curve through each level instead of jumping from Level 1 to Level 4. Skipping levels often result in misaligned investment and expectations.
- Don’t leave out any of the key components relating to people, proces, and technology. There are similarities in field sales and pharma contact center sales, but there are also differences to be appreciated and rewarded.