Call Us🔝⇛+91-97111🔝47426 Call In girls Munirka (DELHI)
Ring central engage-whitepaper-empowering-agents
1. ORGANIZING YOUR
CONTACT CENTER FOR
OMNI-DIGITAL CUSTOMER CARE
GUIDE
EVERYHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BE AVAILABLE WHERE
YOUR CUSTOMERS NEED YOU
EMPOWERING YOUR AGENTS
TO GO OMNI-DIGITAL
2. Introduction
Hyperspecialization inherited from Fordism is what used to
make the world go round.
Easier to process, easier to train and replace people,
easier to track performance production unit by production
unit.
What is not taken into account in that organization is the
mindset of employees. In 1950-1980 it was acceptable to
work 10 to 20 years in the same job, repeating the same
task. But today, agents’ expectations have changed.
Agents are the pulse of the contact center: the quality of
customer service and customers’ satisfaction heavily
depends on their skills, motivation and ability to solve
customers’ problems. 66% of consumers agree that their
experience with a brand's customer service agents has a
major impact on their impression with the brand overall.
The customer care department is the frontline of your com-
pany.
To offer an outstanding experience and meet their
customer’s expectations, companies should consider
moving away from traditional organization models. By
giving individuals and teams more freedom to self-ma-
nage, while staying aligned to the organization’s purpose,
this model empowers agents and contributes to a better
customer experience.
Having worked a few years for telecom operators, I specialized in
Customer Service by moving to Webhelp, European BPO leader.
This experience then led me to head my own Customer Service in
Asia while I worked for Lazada (2500 FTE in 5 countries) and iflix (70
agents in 30 countries).
I then came back to France to lead the operations for a Home Care
agency then came back to my passion as Doctor Experience for
Doctolib, leading e-health service in France and Germany.
During this multiple and various experiences, I built the conviction
that, as processes will help you keep your quality to stay at a mini-
mum level, it is your people that will make the difference and help
you achieve overperformance.
White paper in partnership with Cédric Blum
3. What are the benefits of
empowering agents?
Issue #1 Solve the hiring challenge
With an average turnover rate of 30 to 45% in contact centers, hiring and retaining agents
is a major challenge.
The bathtub is leaking and it's getting more and more difficult to keep it filled. The resource
pool around contact centers are drained, the hiring efficiency is getting lower and the tenan-
cy in contact centers is either very low, below 2 years, or very high above 10.
How can we prevent people from leaving that fast and prevent having to replace them at
such a high rate?
Without taking into account the HR team hiring cost and training cost, efficiency is down at
95% permanently.
To better understand this issue, let’s take an example, based on a team of 100 people.
If we suppose that people churn around 24% per year, it means that 2 persons are leaving
the team each month.
We also consider that training time is 2 weeks and that the delay before achieving average
productivity is 3 months.
4. Customers now expect smooth and quick interactions with brands. They now use multiple
channels (messaging, email, live chat, social media) when faced with a problem, and expect
a consistent experience. 88% of them hate having to repeat themselves when interacting
through multiple channels.
For customer service departments, dramatic changes have to be made to adapt to this shift.
To meet customers’ expectations, it is not possible to keep the same process inherited
from traditional call centers. 72% of customers now expect to reach agents via channel of
choice, rather than being constrained to use the ones imposed by companies. They also
expect to interact with a conversational approach, with less formal exchanges than the ones
constrained by companies’ processes.
Adopting this approach implies some changes for customer care teams. To be able to
answer efficiently, without complicating the customer journey, they should be able to get
information from other departments. They should also be able to reach a certain level of
autonomy, to take decisions helping the customer while staying in a defined framework. As
we will explain in this white paper, adopting an alternative model for teams will allow this,
with benefits for both customer satisfaction and employee experience.
One of the reasons of the high turnover rate is that agents are restricted by several
processes and simplification, leading to boredom.
Some of the main factors explaining this lack of motivation are:
♦ Too many processes, making the agent feel too limited in his work
♦ Being constrained by time limits for each interaction, having to follow
scenarios to answer
♦ Working on repetitive tasks
♦ Having to deal with angry and disrespectful customers
♦ Working in poor working environments
♦ No possibility to express their opinion and constant necessity to ask
permissions to managers
Issue #2: Enrich agents’ work and increase their retention
Issue #3: Better meet customers’ expectations
5. The organization models of
Customer Service
2. “Team of teams” as an alternative
Why is it problematic?
The majority of digital customer interactions require a series of services and
processes, involving different departments. Many companies invest in customer-fa
cing processes to meet customers’ expectations in terms of communications chan
nels. But to provide a real seamless and reactive experience, back-end operations
should also be deeply improved. With a front to back model, agents constantly have
to ask information and permission to managers and other departments, increasing
the response time and making their job less valuable.
a. What is a “team of teams” organization?
The “Team of teams” approach is an organisational and decision making structure
developed by General McChrystal. This highlights a decentralised decision making, with
top managers having the purpose to create a common purpose. Instead of operating
top-down, power is distributed throughout the organization, giving individuals and
teams more freedom to self-manage, while staying aligned to the organization’s
purpose.
1. The existing model: Front to back
6. This type of management is done, according to its definition, by self managing, self organiza-
tion, or self directing.
The management style was able to comprehend, not only work performance, but also our
working habit. It showed us that once given the liberty to manage ourselves, it will also allow
us to challenge our competency. In the end, Team of teams can either be a gift or a curse,
depending on how a person takes advantage of it.”
Gabriel Escay
Customer Service Specialist at iflix Philippines
7. What benefits?
b. Is your company ready for this shift?
This approach has several benefits, however, it may not be adapted to all organizations.
Before implementing this strategy, it is important to consider the following key aspects and
assess the risks:
♦ Day to Day Operations: Giving too much autonomy can lead to overstress,
given that each person has a different degree of risk aversion. The more the
employee was in a routine, the more he will fear any change. That said, if you
have some dissatisfaction, it can help you support and promote the change.
♦ How employees foresee themselves: Employees could wonder about their
career trajectories. If a company is ridding itself of hierarchical layers, then what
is supposed to serve as motivation--and recognition of a job well done--in lieu
of traditional promotions and pay raises? Also, compensation cannot relate to
market value anymore (different set of roles)
♦ Difficulty to get everyone onboard: everyone in the company may not be keen
on adopting this approach. Employees sometimes prefer to be managed, and
others strive to manage.
♦ A different way to make decisions: a decentralized management means that
changes are made by the team itself, resulting in quick small changes instead of
slower bigger changes. To enable this approach, a framework must be defined
by the company (rules, budget) to make sure decisions fit the compa ny's scope.
Finally, this participative approach implies many circles and meetings, meaning
employees should be have the skills to make meetings efficient.
8. 1. Performance monitoring
The key is to stay simple so that everyone can track and understand.
Use historical data to prove correlation between “usual” KPIs and CSAT, and between CSAT and
the global business results.
The focus can be made on CSAT (or another KPI defined) that will serve as a key indicator.
Other common KPIs such as Average Handling Time (AHT) or Response Time should be looked
only if CSAT is decreasing, to better understand the cause.
An example of a dashboard:
Keys to a successful transformation
2. Objective and Key Results (OKR)
Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is a goal-setting framework that helps organizations
define goals — or objectives — and then track the outcome. The framework is designed to
help organizations establish far-reaching goals in days instead of months. OKR has been
around since the 1970s. The concept was created by Andy Grove, but popularized by John
Doerr, who was one of the earliest investors in Google. (source: CIO)
Big part of OKRs is making sure each individual knows what's expected of them at work.
OKRs are kept public in front of everyone, so people and teams move towards the same
goals and know what others are focusing on.
OKRs consist of a list of 3-5 high-level objectives. Under each objective then usually 3-5 key
measurable results are listed. Each key result has a progress indicator or score of 0-100% or
0 to 1.0 that shows its achievement.
9. An example of OKRs goal-setting (7Geese)
3. Transparency
Involve others in your decision making. Take advice from other members of your team on a
subject. Collaborative decision making can help you make better decisions for your company.
Employee alignment can mean looking at the bigger picture, understanding everyone’s roles
and can result in a better understanding from top to bottom.
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner fosters an organization built on transparency. He even takes the
time to hold bi-weekly meetings, during which he updates employees on company matters
and listens to their suggestions
Creating a safe space for your team to share critical feedback or ask hard questions is key to
building a strong, transparent culture
Set expectations and make sure that everyone is on the same page. Understanding the
values, ethics, communication standards, plans, goals etc... become easier. Keep lines of
communication open and make sure your employees are listened to as this can foster trust.
Transparency is a key aspect of team of teams and OKR. By sharing objectives and results
with all employees, they feel more motivated and valued within the company.
Transparency has to work in two ways: from managers to employees and in the other way.
Getting feedback from employees allows to fix problems in a reactive way.
10. 1. Changing the organizational structure
How to adapt
team management
a. Inverted organization chart
An inverted organization chart can put more focus on employees. For a customer service
department, this is an opportunity to get valuable insights from employees who are in touch with
customers daily.
The focus is largely on the employees rather than from the top-structure, and this means eve-
ryone contributes to improving customer service. It helps to identify your problems better and
to solve them.
Statistics from the “The Iceberg of Ignorance” suggest that only 4% of problems are known by
top management and 100% are known to front-line employees. Adopting an inverted chart is an
opportunity to reduce this gap and getting senior management to be more aware of problems.
11. b. Balancing alignment and autonomy
Autonomy is an important element for the creation of engagement within a company. To be
engaged and inspired in your work, you need the confidence from your superior. Yet, you face
the potential of non effective and an unambiguous attitude from unchecked autonomy.
For autonomy to work, accountability is key to apply the necessary responsibility to define
results. The same is applied for actions and behaviours. Monitoring the feedback from
systems towards these goals can help define what is difficult to measure and what is neces-
sary. If micromanagement is not working or is creating a demoralizing environment, then
autonomy can prosper.
The best known example is Spotify. Their core organizational unit is an autonomous squad of
no more than eight people. Each squad is accountable for a discrete aspect of the product,
which it owns cradle to grave. Squads have the authority to decide what to build, how to build
it, and with whom to work to make the product interoperable. Spotify discover best-practice
methods over time and becomes standard only when a certain amount of squads adopt it.
c. How to start?
Depending on the situation, it can be more or less complex to move to this type of manage-
ment:
Starting from scratch: This is easier in this case, as management could be totally surrendered
to the team. With a high level of transparency, clear OKR (objective and key results) and clear
benefits from achieving the goal, the team should be able to manage itself.
High level of communication should happen. “The Boss” is not here to tell what's wrong and
what needs to be done, but in the first phase, is here to show what KPI is red and ask what's
going on and how it could be improved. High transparency and real-time data analytics
shoulprovide trends early enough to avoid catastrophes and give enough time to the team to
“self-correct” without having “the boss” to intervene.
Starting from an existing team: Changing an existing organisation is more complex: 39% of
change management projects failed due to employee resistance to change. To succeed,
companies have to go through a lot of communication. Job description could be split into
multiple roles, then roles should be attributed to the people with the most relevant skills
In this process some job descriptions could look like they became obsolete. If this happens,
managers should plan it and find a place for everyone to fit in the new organization.
12. 2. Key criteria for hiring
a. Digital skills and knowledge
To accompany their digital transformation, companies need to rely on team members who are
used to digital. Skills for managing written interactions are not the same as the ones for
phone. Some of the key factors influencing this include:
♦ Having good grammar skills, no spelling mistakes
♦ Feeling at ease to type, not taking too long
♦ Knowing the specificities by channel (example of shorter message on Twitter
than by email)
♦ Adapting written answers to the company’s tone
♦ Multitasking: ability to manage multiple interactions at the same time, to look for
an information while processing an interaction
♦ Understanding the customer’s context through its written messages (emojis,
signs of frustration, signs that he needs more explanation)
♦ Hiring “digital natives” or people familiar with digital in their daily lives will ease
the process, as they will come with knowledge about it.
b. Social skills
Social skills are essential for communticating efficiently with customers. Agents should have
a customer service approach in mind and the willingness to solve their problems. This also
answers a real expectation from customers: 95% of them want to deal with friendly and
knowledgeable agents.
When customer service agents are empowered, social skills become even more important.
You need to make sure they will fit this management approach, and fit in the company culture.
As there are more group decisions involved, agents should have good interpersonal skills to
exchange ideas with their colleagues.
13. 3. Adapt the employee’s benefits
a. Salary:
Adopting this approach brings a change in the salaries system. Instead of job descriptions,
employees have roles, representing a function of work. In that case, implementing a salary
system is more complex.
The salary is usually based on the number of roles filled and their complexity.
You could also set a limit of 20-40% in production work at least, as employees (especially in
contact center) will almost all continue to take some calls.
b. Rewards and gamification
Rewarding employees can have a positive mood and atmosphere in the company. In the
Omni-Digital World of customer care, achievements are generated by points gained from
working outside of your comfort zone. Point and achievements lead to rewards and those
should not be necessarily in monetary form. Think about the benefits you can build around
your employees such as tools and equipment, car park spaces, etc…
Gamification can be used to motivate employees, to engage with them, reward them, and
optimize your workflow. Young professionals may be attracted to this environment in the
workplace also.
This gamification approach can be based on individual KPIs such as First Contact Resolution
Rate, Customer Satisfaction or Average Response Time. An engagement platform can provide
you with a view of these KPIs for each agent, making it easy to make rankings and give
rewards.
However, there are risks to introducing too much gamification. Excessive use can cause
employees to feel fatigued and stressed. Proper implementation of this culture in the
workplace can avoid poor execution and the knock on effect of not meeting objectives.
A study by Anade revealed that 72% of people believed that gamification has improved their
work or inspires them to work harder.
Badges earned are linked to compensation to some extent, but can also be non-monetary
(yoga lessons, reserved parking spot, etc…)
14. Conclusion
Omni-Digital organisation is key for a company’s transformation with a number of benefits.
By empowering agents with an Omni-Digital Strategy and motivating agents with their work
can lead to greater retention. After all, your agents are the ones who will resolve customers’
issues, and therefore are the heart of your contact center
Power is distributed throughout the organization when a “team of teams” approach is adop-
ted. Remember that autonomy and accountability are the main drivers of handing power to
your agents.
Address these questions before you consider organisational integration: What is your
employee churn rate? Do you have many silos? Are you ready for the change and what is the
estimated timeline?
Adapting this structure has had a great effect for companies such as Zappos and Harley
Davidson. For online retailer Zappos, the transition to this model came after deciding to get rid
of manager roles and job titles in favor of "distributed-authority." While it hasn’t been defined
for rewards basis just yet, the company is still figuring out how compensation will work and is
currently experiments with a badge-based app, assigning skills and more to badges that have
monetary value.
It can have a positive impact at your company if you want your employees to be engaged and
inspired at work. It will be a team effort and shouldn’t interfere with the customer journey.
