Independent Contact Center Consultants: Bridging Strategy, Technology and Operations Since 2004

Posts Categorized: Performance Management

Achieving First Contact Resolution

Many contact centers have a big goal: Increase First Contact Resolution (FCR). Leaders know it can improve efficiency, lower costs, provide a better customer experience. This post looks at tools that may help you achieve (or improve) FCR. As usual, these tools go hand-in-hand with good processes and the right contact center support and IT… Read More »

WFO Suites Promote Efficiency and Effectiveness

Workforce Optimization (WFO) technology continues to advance. Tools such as Workforce Management (WFM) and Quality Monitoring (QM) have achieved widespread deployment. A full WFO suite delivers an array of intertwined functions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the center, and optimize the hiring, training, performance, and development of the most valuable (and expensive) resource… Read More »

FULL Service WFM Coming Right Up

With frontline staffing comprising two-thirds or more of a center’s budget, it comes as no surprise that workforce management (WFM) is a mission critical discipline for contact centers. In fact, we’ve been on that soap box for years! Every center needs an effective means to forecast labor requirements, set schedules, monitor adherence, and provide reporting…. Read More »

10 Questions to Ask About Your Performance Management Tool

How would your contact center rate its Performance Management? Have you brought the right combination of people, processes, and technology together to identify and capitalize on opportunities for continuous improvement? A recent SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) Foundation paper reports that less than 30% of those surveyed have an effective Performance Management system that… Read More »

Make First Contact Resolution a Priority

As I work with contact centers across all sizes and vertical markets, I hear a consistent theme focusing on serving customers in excellence. So why aren’t more customers raving about their experiences? And why do some centers excel in service while others only talk the talk? While there are no simple answers, I can offer… Read More »

Performance Management for Self-Service

It is rare to see centers conducting quality monitoring (QM) or capturing Voice of the Customer (VoC) for self-service. Once the applications pass their respective usability and functional tests, the center simply monitors usage statistics and raises concerns when outliers are noted – e.g., excessive “opt outs” to agents. And yet the customer experience with… Read More »

Four Levels of Contact Center Performance Management

Everybody wants to provide quality customer interactions. Unless you’ve got really deep pockets and unlimited resources from which to draw, you won’t be able to achieve performance management nirvana in the blink of an eye. But if you have a road map and the patience and determination to follow it, you can steadily progress from… Read More »

Technology Optimization: Quality Monitoring

Try this analogy: Compare quality monitoring in your center to differing approaches to health management. One model awaits the presence of symptoms before bringing specialists into action to treat the disease. The other promotes health proactively for the whole body as a means to ward off problems. I’m all for the latter when it comes… Read More »

Technology Optimization: Workforce Management

When I scout for the potential to hit a technology optimization home run, Workforce Management (WFM) comes to mind immediately. Its capacity to forecast, schedule, and track the overwhelmingly largest line item cost in your center (your staff!) certainly warrants a place in the starting line-up. Perhaps it hasn’t had the best batting average over… Read More »