What Little I Know…

As efficiency is now the name of the game in the newspaper world, I have seen many publishers take steps to do more for less dollars, or scale back and do less with less expenditure.  No department or facet of a publishers business has been left untouched and that includes the call centre.

To improve profit margins around contact centres, publishers have started to outsource, in-source, and or use ‘at home agents’ (third party or in-house).  All of these methods of gaining efficiency are fine, but the customer and customer satisfaction should never be forgotten as you move down either of  these paths.  Just the other day I called my ISP to upgrade my Internet service package.  When the service rep on the other end picked up, the call sounded hallow and it had a weird echo to it  - the kind you get when there is no furniture in a large space.  Based on the call quality, I immediately asked the rep if he was working at home, and he said “yes”.  I continued on with my call, assuming that my ISP would have done all of the necessary training with this ‘at home’ rep, and as a result, my service should not be impacted.   As the call progressed and I started to ask questions such as; “What packages exist that are better than the one I am currently on?”; “What is the additional cost to me for upgrading?”; “What steps do I need to follow if I need to upgrade?”.   The rep quickly became flustered with my steady stream of questioning and couldn’t find the information he needed to answer appropriately.  The rep instead said things like “I don’t usually take these calls” and “Um… yeah… what you said sounds about right”.  What people fail to realize about most ‘at home’ third party services is that the ‘at home’ reps represent multiple brands and the rep gets to choose which brand they want to represent and at what time.  Anyone who has managed traffic flow, let alone a call centre recognizes that this structure, or lack there of, could lead to mayhem.  A state of mayhem and confusion can be avoided however, but you need to ask the right questions upfront and make the right stipulations.

The must do steps when working with a third party ‘at home’ vendor:

Give them your desired agent profile: if you are at the point of outsourcing your calls, it must mean that you have done them internally at some point.  Think about the agent profile that worked for you.  Think about that agents work experience and background.  Think about their aptitude levels and document all of these things.  This then becomes the agent profile you want your vendor to hire on.

Ask to interview a sampling of reps: after your vendor selects reps for  your campaign, ask to interview some of them to ensure the fit is there. Again, this your brand we’re talking about and you want to ensure that both you and your vendor have interpreted your agent profile, the same way.

Create staffing models based on call volume: either yourself or your proposed vendor should run your call volumes through a workforce management tool.  This will tell  you how many reps you need to have on staff at every measurable interval.

Create thorough SLA’s: create measurable service level agreements that will hold your vendor to task.  Your SLA’s should be based on at least these things: service level, average speed of answer, abandon percentage, average talk time, average handle time, and call quality scores.  If your vendor scores highly on all of these things, that would mean they are executing in the service areas of your business accordingly.  Of course, if your business has an element of sales involved, you will want to include a sales goal for your vendor and occupancy goals if you are not paying on a performance basis.

Ask how the reps are outfitted: because the reps are working from home, you want to ensure their equipment will allow them to represent you in the most professional light possible.  What kind of  headsets are they using?  What are the PC requirements? What is done to minimize surrounding noise and disturbances?

Ghost Call!: you yourself need to call in and use the service as a customer.  Ensure that what you’ve asked for is actually happening.  And hey – there is nothing sneaky about Ghost Calls, it’s just extra insurance that your brand is being represented accordingly at the other end.