Contact Management Issue 2 2015

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE 2 • 2015

The age of multi-channel

Re-defining the modern contact centre agent Also in this issue: ❯❯ Contact Management 4.0: An industry in transformation

❯❯ HR lessons learned from Target

Recruitment

Effective recruitment strategies during a large-scale layoff

By Sheryl Boswell

T

arget recently sent ripples through the retail world with the announcement that they will close all of their Canadian store locations.

The announcement will result in leaving thousands of employees jobless, with the realization that they’d be competing with their coworkers and other retail employees for a finite number of jobs on the market.

This isn’t the first time a large-scale layoff has occurred in the Canadian retail space, and retail is just one of the industries to be hit by mass layoffs over the last several years. While a layoff is never optimal, for human resource professionals, this can provide an opportunity to scoop up prime talent - but if not done with proper care and planning, it could result in a massive fishing expedition to hook minnows instead of the “big fish” everyone wants.

Does your organization have the right tools in place to handle a large-scale layoff?

Solid recruitment strategies help companies find the best talent In the recruitment space, the right people are needed to scout out the right talent. If employers want to ensure they find strong employees through a large-scale layoff, they must ensure they have enough recruiting staff to capitalize on the opportunity and support the potential inflow of applications. On top of that, they must have qualified recruiting staff. Good recruiters understand that they are dealing with employees whose lives have been deeply affected by a layoff. They have the skills to be compassionate yet nimble under trying circumstances, and they know where to look.

While employing the right recruitment staff is paramount to recruitment success, the right systems can transform your recruitment campaign and support your team to perform even better. If your company’s current system cannot handle a regular inflow of applications, then a large inflow will be near impossible to examine and could result in missed hiring opportunities.

Effective recruitment systems help manage large inflows There is an array of solutions available to recruiting staff, many of which streamline the process and some that even provide new and innovative ways to mine for the best talent.

• Applicant tracking systems are used by many organizations to automate the candidate management process, and can be especially beneficial in mining large inflows of applicants. If your organization does not currently have a system in place, it might be time to assess your recruiting needs and use automation to complement your recruiting process.

• Social recruiting solutions are a recent development, Issue 2 • 2015

and add another layer to the recruitment process. Social profile aggregation tools like TalentBin enable recruiters to view candidates through a fresh lens: their digital footprint. A full social scan can give recruiters access to non-active candidates, and may pick up on skills and interests not found on a resume.

• Automated job seeker email campaigns like Talent CRM can help recruiters reach out to a large number of applicants in an efficient manner through a web-based mailing systems, while offering real-time reporting to get quick, timely feedback to support outreach and recruitment strategy.

• Recruitment advertising solutions help showcase your employer brand and reach more seekers through dynamic media campaigns. For instance, are you amplifying your job postings through targeted placement on relevant sites? Job postings are only effective if they’re widely viewed, and utilizing advertising solutions can help you get there.

How to make your job posting stand out from the crowd With quality staff and effective systems in place, a clear, concise job posting will help ensure you attract the right talent. In the face of a large-scale layoff, a large number of candidates will be vetting countless postings to find the one that speaks to them. Like a good resume, effective job postings are carefully crafted and to the point. There are a number of ways to ensure your posting doesn’t get left in the dust.

• Identify skill sets that match your organizational needs, and create job descriptions that are flexible enough to cater to candidates in a number of industries. For instance, a customer-facing Target employee may be the perfect fit for a role as a bank teller, so

transferable skills like customer and client relations should be highlighted. Don’t pigeonhole your posting.

• Create an outward facing profile that will draw people in and get them excited about working for your organization. If you aren’t sure your organization’s profile is doing that, have an outsider review it. Is it somewhere they’d want to work? Does it accurately portray the company culture?

• Ensure your posting and job title are search engine optimized to account for commonly searched keywords. For instance, is the job title a commonly searched term or is there an alternate title that more adequately describes the role and may result in more views?

Finding the right cultural fit When it comes to finding the right fit for your organization, it’s a twoway street. Employers need to let prospective candidates know what their organization is all about, and prospective candidates need to ensure they are doing their research in order to find the right fit.

• Preserving your cultural identity.

Are you positioned to know what organizations share a similar vision and culture to yours?

Do you have reliable networks and interview strategies to discern the right candidates for your organization? A candidate may have all the right specs on paper, but with a feeding frenzy of applicants, it’s important to examine each eligible candidate closely to ensure cultural harmony is protected.

Organizations will need to think hard about their needs, but also the workplace personality they hope to protect or grow.

• Selling your organization.

As mentioned above, when it comes to portraying culture, the Continued on page CM 7

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Contact Management

The age of multi-channel Re-defining the modern

Figure 1: Consumer adoption of communication channels has noticeable changed in three years

contact center agent

By Guillaume Seynhaeve

T

oday’s modern consumers are a far-cry from what they used to be ten years ago – or even as early as last year. Tech Savvy, connected, and informed, they are the offspring of a technologically driven world – a fact the retail industry is very much aware of and eager to adapt to although more by necessity than by choice.

The modern consumer will use three or more communication channels (phone, email, text, chat, social media, in person, etc.) to interact with a business today.

And while the importance and focus on the customer experience has not changed, its delivery and complexity has. In fact, one has but to consider the changes the retail industry has undergone in recent decades to acknowledge the impact modern technology and the digital world have had on it. Case in point, the amount of opened U.S. retail space has decreased from 300 million square feet in 2010 to 43.8 million in 2013 as multichannel-based purchasing continues to chip away at the age-old brick-and-mortar model. Not convinced? Consider the following breakdown of consumer adoption of the latest communication channels (Figure 1 – Forrester Research Inc.).

But despite the clear public adoption of multiple channels to communicate with businesses, challenges regarding the successful administration of each either individually or together are evident as well (Figure 2 – Forrester Research Inc.).

Figure 2: Real-time customer service channels have highest satisfaction ratings

The new 3D customer journey If we consider Henry Ford’s famous quote, “You can have any color, as long as its in black”, there certainly existed a time when companies set the standard and consumers were the willing recipients of whatever businesses disseminated. However, today the environment has drastically reversed, with customers clearly dictating 4 | contact management

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Contact Management what, where, and when without much care or consideration as to the how. Most importantly, by virtue of the latest advancements in multichannel communications, the customer journey has fundamentally changed and become three-dimensional in nature. Customers increasingly rely on multiple avenues to interact with an organization while expecting a seamless experience regardless of the chosen channel. As a result, and in the specific case of retail or any customer facing industry, the customer journey is no longer a linear one, but rather a potentially disconnected experience unless the customer service provider is able to connect the dots and maintain a smooth transition between each interaction. And yet, only 22% of companies have a framework for analyzing multichannel customer journeys with many acknowledging “complexity” as the primary culprit. Unfortunately, customers are unwilling to forgo their needs and expectations to allow businesses time to catch-up with the latest communication trends and preferences, giving root to the aptly named $1.6 Trillion “Switching Economy”. Case in point, fifty-three percent of US consumers switched providers in 2014 due to poor customer service.

Figure 3: Online shoppers are spending more when they use multiple channels

The need for multichannel agents As the emphasis on the customer experience continues to drive business initiatives and strategy, contact centers are increasingly becoming the face of most any industry with retail being no exception. Of course, as consumers alternate between traditional and digital shopping channels, the challenge lies in the unification of each to maintain a complete view of the customer without which a seamless customer experience becomes next to impossible.

For example, if a customer journey begins online but finishes over the phone, how can an organization easily and effectively manage the customer journey without breaking the experience?

The answer, naturally, lies in the proper use of both technology and people (notably agents). However, it fundamentally implies the need to place the contact center at the epicenter of an organization in order to provide each agent access to the relevant information needed to perform. If modern consumer expectations dictate the need for any and all agents to be capable of addressing any and all needs, it suggests agents must be capable of working not only across channels but departments as well – they need to be multifaceted. Yet many businesses continue to maintain segmented and department-specific organizational structures that are quickly becoming illsuited for today’s nimble consumer. More importantly, despite the growing adoption of software and technology to help meet consumer demand, many organizations restrict each platform and its associated data to the specific department it is intended to serve – CRM software is for Sales, service management solutions are for Support, accounting software is for billing, and so on. As a result, today’s average agent is generally left without insight into the entire Voice of the Customer (VOC) or access to the various solutions which would facilitate their ability to seamlessly address a customer need. Yet, for those organizations able to bridge the gaps, the rewards have the potential to be significant (see Figure 3 - PwC).

The multichannel approach The age of multichannel is already here. But while many industries have already accepted the importance of offering customers their communication preferences of Issue 2 • 2015

choice, the fact remains many have yet to realize the full potential a wellrun multichannel platform can offer.

In short, if 2014 firmly established the importance of adopting a multichannel communication platform, 2015 and beyond will tackle the difficult task of how to leverage and monetize the benefits. But where does one begin?

Create a unified communication strategy: Per a recent survey by Call Center IQ, Executive Report on the Future of the Contact Center, many businesses still struggle with determining the most appropriate department to which to assign their contact center with 47% falling under Customer Service, 26% under Operations, 12% under C-Level business units, 10% under Marketing, and the remaining 5% under IT. As such, it should come as little surprise if agents are unable to assume the multi-departmental role consumers expect across the various channels they select. However, with a unified communication strategy an organization can begin to approach customer service in the same 3-dimensional fashion its clients.

Integrate your business: Of course, a unified communication strategy is of very little use if client-facing representatives lack access to the data and information needed to address client needs. In fact, 40% of customers expect representatives to already know about prior attempts to resolve an issue before an interaction begins.

As a result, the success of any multichannel platform is contingent on the unification of the numerous data-points and applications a company is subject to and uses (CRM, WFM, WFO, Ticketing, Billing, etc.) to allow agents a complete 360-degree view of the customer(s) in question.

Without it, a business has the platform but lacks the information to make effective use of it.

Train your team to be successful: The success of any strategy will always be subject to the individuals executing it. And assuming a business has an integrated multichannel strategy, the remaining piece of the puzzle lies in the training and consistent oversight of the reps (both sales and support) representing the brand on a daily basis. So while consumers may demand businesses offer multichannel, the true key to success is doing so is with reps who speak, live, and understand it.

The growth and expansion of the various communication channels beyond traditional telephony have altered the balance of power in favor of those who are able to address them all uniformly. Of course, whether in retail or any other customer servicerelated industry, the winners will be those who accept the challenge and willingly adapt their people and platforms to the multichannel we live in now. No doubt easier said than done but certainly very feasible.

Guillaume Seynhaeve is the Director of Marketing and Business Development at 3CLogic www.3clogic.com contact management | 5

Contact Management

An industry in transformation - contact management 4.0 Multichannel management and the rise of the omni-channel agent

By Andrew McNair

C

ontact centers have evolved irreversibly over the last decade. As evidence of this, the results from Dimension Data’s 2015 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report confirm a continued, dramatic change. Multichannel contact – in the form of email, web chat, social media and self-service – continues to expand prolifically as preferred engagement methods.

This change strikes at the heart of traditional contact center models. It means that more and more contact center customers around the world no longer choose a phone call as the primary way to communicate. In fact, should the evolution continue at its current pace, the research from Dimension Data shows that digital interaction activity will overtake voice-based contact within two years. Why? The reason is that new generations of tech-savvy consumers use the phone only as a last resort for queries that are not solved through other communication mechanisms.

The industry has reached a tipping point. As contact centers are reinvented over the next two years, customers in Canada can anticipate common access to six different digital options in addition to the telephone. Smart device apps capabilities will grow to 48 percent (versus 54 percent globally); web chat will almost double to 67 percent (versus 70 percent globally), and social media presence is already at 33 percent.

Skill requirements are growing along with the broadening scope of service coverage. Agent support of phone and assistedservice digital channels has become far more complex and critical.

Digital revolution The digital revolution is real, and represents the most radical change in the contact center business in the last 30 years. It has profound implications for the way in which organizations source new skills, manage resources across multiple channels and how they deploy technology to deliver and manage connected customer experiences.

The telephone will remain, but as part of a much broader mix of options. It will be used more as an escalation channel, as contact centers evolve from being telephone-centric stereotypes into customer resolution centers. Agents will increasingly face transactions unresolved by digital and, if anything, their roles will become even more important and require greater skill.

Connected journeys While digital is fast becoming a preference, the reality is that consumers want outcomes. A continuous and effortless transition between channels will be a crucial competitive differentiator in the age of the consumer. In fact, it’s this frictionless switching between channels that defines the omnichannel experience.

Multichannel challenge Customers require that contact centers broaden their scope of services, and with the introduction of digital, move out of their traditional comfort zones.

It’s no longer enough to provide isolated channels; consumers want an omnichannel experience – one that allows them to use 6 | contact management

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Contact Management different media methods to complete what may be a single inquiry. Additionally, to maintain customer services satisfaction, these interactions need to be frictionless.

Today, the industry appears to be underprepared to deliver against a new set of digital requirements.

In the short term, we’re also seeing agent roles becoming much more complex as a result of the broader skill set needed to handle multiple channels. This is compounded by the immaturity of these new solutions, absence of basic analytics, single-view information and lack of integration with enterprise systems.

Just 57 percent of global contact center agents are now limited to voice-only telephone support. While it still stands at 69 percent in Canada, it’s predicted to drop further. Onefifth of Canadian contact center agents (35 percent globally) already handle a combination of both voice and non-voice channels. Another 9 percent of the workforce is dedicated to managing digital interactions only.

The expanding scope of the contact center – along with customer engagement teams that manage complexity, high value interactions or process failure – has led to the requirement for employees to be more competent. Leading organizations’ approach to employee attraction and retention range from redesigning the work environment to changing the culture.

Resources and skills levels are being stretched like never before, and in new ways.

Contact centers need to align to recruitment plans, training content and competency profiling with this change. Management structures will most likely also need to be revamped to ensure more direct accountability, management and development of the various digital platforms. New and specialist resources may be needed, rather than redeploying traditional contact center employees, because not all skills will be easily transferrable.

In some instances, the benefits of specialization will remain a priority. While skill blending is increasing, some operations will always prefer to dedicate agents to one contact channel.

Ease of resolution matters For service-based contact centers, ease of resolution is ranked the top factor affecting customer satisfaction.

Customers say channel choice is good, but they mainly want their issues resolved. They expect telephone and assisted-service agents to have all the tools to help, should self-service channels fail.

As an increasing number of straightforward transactional customer contacts are migrated to self-service channels, it will become increasingly challenging to ensure that front-line agents are able to maintain performance levels in first contact resolution.

To add to the complexity, many customers will have tried self-help channels before contacting the center, so their perception of ease of resolution will already be impacted.

It’s imperative to give agents the tools they need to resolve queries on first contact.

Contact centers need front-line staff to do more, because it’s the right thing to do from the customer’s perspective. In order to accomplish this, contact centers need to apply the right tools and methodologies that are common in traditional telephone channels, across the full spectrum of engagement methods now being handled. At present, they’re falling short.

When companies empower and then trust their agents to deal with a broader range of contact types, it opens up the possibility for more interesting roles to be created. The caveat is that these roles shouldn’t become so complex that they drive employees away.

Continued from page CM 3

Andrew McNair has been with Dimension Data for 14 years and Head of Global Benchmarking since 2010. With 18 years’ senior customer management experience across the UK, Europe, Australia, North America, and South Africa, he possesses exceptional industry insight and a wealth of strategic vision. Andrew’s role encompasses responsibilities as Head of Solutions, allowing for continued practitioner involvement on the evolution of the industry.

Sheryl Boswell is a marketing and corporate communications leader engaged in strategic planning and execution to influence growth in both B2B- and B2C-driven markets. As Director of Marketing for Monster Canada, Sheryl leads the national marketing strategies for both employer and seeker audiences.

Prior to Monster, Sheryl held a number of marketing and communications roles at ADP Canada.

organization’s profile is a good place to start. An organization that wants to attract fun-loving, creative people will likely do so by creating a witty, outside-thebox profile, while a conservative organization’s profile will convey a serious tone. Think about what you want to reveal.

• Perfecting the interview process.

Consider your interviewing process and what it says about the organization and its corporate culture. Think about the personality traits that would fit best within the organization, and whether candidates are coming from an organization that shares the same values.

With several companies vying for top talent, it’s important to remain nimble – particularly during a largescale layoff. Proactively assessing your recruiting systems and maintaining the right staff will enable your organization to capitalize on an important opportunity to seek out top talent. With over 17,000 former Target employees looking for work, does your organization have the resources to seek out top talent?

The customer experience: the journey from good to great During this interactive discussion on business outcomes derived from improving the customer experience, we’ll show you why the key to overall success is providing choices that match customers’ expectations.

Direct Marketing invites you to a Free Breakfast Briefing July 9, 2015 • 7:30-10am

Twenty Toronto Street Conference Centre, 20 Toronto Street, Toronto

Issue 2 • 2015

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