Monday, May 25, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Call Center KPI
I have been talking with several of my customers in the retail sector. The main issue dominating their activities is customer retention. Everybody knows that it is more difficult to snatch a customer from the competition than to retain a good customer. This is even more critical under challenging economic times. Thus, effective inventory optimization, turning the Call Center into a revenue center to address customer needs and/or increasing the quality of customer service at the Call Center play a role in effective customer retention.
Today’s Call Centers have some of the world’s leading technologies at their fingertips. Such technologies provide Call Centers with the tools necessary to store valuable information regarding both, their clients and centers alike. Despite all the data that Call Center managers have at their fingertips, most cannot answer a very basic question: How is my Call Center performing today? Perhaps worse, many Call Center managers are unaware of the critical role that Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can and should play in the Call Center. This includes the ability to track and trend performance, identify, diagnose, and correct performance problems, and to establish performance goals and assign accountability for achieving the goals. Luckily, most of the KPIs have simple ways of being tracked such as: Amount of customers calling in, Amount of calls on hold for less than 20 seconds, etc. However, there are some KPIs that there are currently no known ways of measuring with the data that Call Centers have.
One such KPI is the First Call Resolution (FCR). FCR is the term used to describe a call (either a phone call or store visit) which has been successfully resolved the first time around. This is arguably one of the most important KPIs because it allows managers to see how effective their Call Center is working by showing how well individual agents are performing and what issues are the most difficult to solve. This means that if the customer calls back to inquire about the same issue, that previous call was not a FCR. Since this is such an important term of measurement then one may ask, “Why hasn’t this KPI been focused on more by today’s leading technologies?” The short answer is because it is very difficult to determine what defines a resolved call as a FCR and even more difficult to determine the window for a customer to have to call back in order to revert a previously considered resolved call. This window, of course, is a subjective number based on what specific Call Centers believe a reasonable amount of time for a customer to call back is. This monitoring increases the quality of the service and consequently customer retention.
While having access to all of this information is great for the company, being able to quickly glance at the information and know how you’re performing is even more important. To improve the use of our FCR solution, a visual Dashboard which allows the management of the Call Centers to monitor how efficient they are running. One quick glance at this Dashboard informs management:
· How well different regions are performing
· Who are the agents that are resolving the least amount of calls
· What are the top reasons which show the most non-FCRs
· Which clients have been affected by non FCRs the most
· Along with detailed information about the clients and
· The agents that they worked with.
A good Dashboard uses a web-based infrastructure which easily allows clients to remotely connect to a web page and view how well they are performing! All the clients have to do is open a web browser and input the web address for their company’s Dashboard and they will have all the information that they need to make quick and easy observations to assess how efficient their call center is functioning and take appropriate action.
Another activity -- to manage their businesses in these tough environments, online retailers have to cut back on their inventories. Retailers will reduce planned inventory purchases in 2008, and, those who have them, close stores, – Optimizing inventories will be a key to work with diminishing numbers of customers..
The other angle of this crisis is to increase revenue.. One way is to use call centers in a more effective way. Management has figured out that every time a call center rep interacts with the customer is an opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell products to their customer. Is it worth asking a couple of non-intrusive questions to your customer and generate additional sales?
In summary -- recessions eliminate weaker players. whoever has strong analytical engines to provide accurate information will have a strategic advantages over those shooting from the hip. the difference is survival.
Next -- How to turn your call center from a cost center into a profit center...
Today’s Call Centers have some of the world’s leading technologies at their fingertips. Such technologies provide Call Centers with the tools necessary to store valuable information regarding both, their clients and centers alike. Despite all the data that Call Center managers have at their fingertips, most cannot answer a very basic question: How is my Call Center performing today? Perhaps worse, many Call Center managers are unaware of the critical role that Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can and should play in the Call Center. This includes the ability to track and trend performance, identify, diagnose, and correct performance problems, and to establish performance goals and assign accountability for achieving the goals. Luckily, most of the KPIs have simple ways of being tracked such as: Amount of customers calling in, Amount of calls on hold for less than 20 seconds, etc. However, there are some KPIs that there are currently no known ways of measuring with the data that Call Centers have.
One such KPI is the First Call Resolution (FCR). FCR is the term used to describe a call (either a phone call or store visit) which has been successfully resolved the first time around. This is arguably one of the most important KPIs because it allows managers to see how effective their Call Center is working by showing how well individual agents are performing and what issues are the most difficult to solve. This means that if the customer calls back to inquire about the same issue, that previous call was not a FCR. Since this is such an important term of measurement then one may ask, “Why hasn’t this KPI been focused on more by today’s leading technologies?” The short answer is because it is very difficult to determine what defines a resolved call as a FCR and even more difficult to determine the window for a customer to have to call back in order to revert a previously considered resolved call. This window, of course, is a subjective number based on what specific Call Centers believe a reasonable amount of time for a customer to call back is. This monitoring increases the quality of the service and consequently customer retention.
While having access to all of this information is great for the company, being able to quickly glance at the information and know how you’re performing is even more important. To improve the use of our FCR solution, a visual Dashboard which allows the management of the Call Centers to monitor how efficient they are running. One quick glance at this Dashboard informs management:
· How well different regions are performing
· Who are the agents that are resolving the least amount of calls
· What are the top reasons which show the most non-FCRs
· Which clients have been affected by non FCRs the most
· Along with detailed information about the clients and
· The agents that they worked with.
A good Dashboard uses a web-based infrastructure which easily allows clients to remotely connect to a web page and view how well they are performing! All the clients have to do is open a web browser and input the web address for their company’s Dashboard and they will have all the information that they need to make quick and easy observations to assess how efficient their call center is functioning and take appropriate action.
Another activity -- to manage their businesses in these tough environments, online retailers have to cut back on their inventories. Retailers will reduce planned inventory purchases in 2008, and, those who have them, close stores, – Optimizing inventories will be a key to work with diminishing numbers of customers..
The other angle of this crisis is to increase revenue.. One way is to use call centers in a more effective way. Management has figured out that every time a call center rep interacts with the customer is an opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell products to their customer. Is it worth asking a couple of non-intrusive questions to your customer and generate additional sales?
In summary -- recessions eliminate weaker players. whoever has strong analytical engines to provide accurate information will have a strategic advantages over those shooting from the hip. the difference is survival.
Next -- How to turn your call center from a cost center into a profit center...
Healthcare Analytics for Washington DC
Executives in Washington, DC are very interested in finding out more on how to go about developing healthcare reporting systems. A few questions they may ask. What is their healthcare enterprise’s level of analytical maturity? Analysis is an evolution of delivering key decision-making information throughout the enterprise, rather than as a single initiative. And the analytical maturity of an enterprise determines how it can leverage analysis and close the analytical gap.
An analytical framework has been defined by pretty much everybody that works in IT. Most people agree that the four key levels are: infrastructure, functionality, organization and business. These levels can be translated into an information evolution model for analytical applications.
What is the importance of this? Very simply, those that try to define and implement a complete enterprise analytical solution in one step may end up taking far too long to finish building it. Long enough so that they end up looking for another job. Most likely, the analytical solution delivered will not meet needs because, if it takes too long, requirements will usually change enough after an initiative is initiated to render it useless. I believe that enterprises need to assess the overall maturity of their analytical initiative and aim to add value incrementally, rather than use an all-at-once approach. There is not a cookie cutter approach because results and challenges differ, depending on the level of analytical maturity.
An assessment of needs for healthcare analysis should include: choosing an analytical software architecture for analysis and reporting, a hardware platform to host the software framework, a data integration approach and, of course, storage.
Results are usually measured in terms of more-effective use of IT investments, reduced total cost of ownership and improved operational efficiency. Challenges, outside of the political arena, primarily occur with infrastructure and functionality. Results are also usually associated with having one version of analysis-derived truth, which improves the management of multiple departments.
Is adequate planning enough to ascertain success? Not really. Watch for challenges that occur at the business level, such as: shifting business processes and obscure methodologies to leverage new analytical capabilities. Realize that there may be new changing business goals or objectives, based on insight gained. However, plan the plan and execute your plan.
An analytical framework has been defined by pretty much everybody that works in IT. Most people agree that the four key levels are: infrastructure, functionality, organization and business. These levels can be translated into an information evolution model for analytical applications.
What is the importance of this? Very simply, those that try to define and implement a complete enterprise analytical solution in one step may end up taking far too long to finish building it. Long enough so that they end up looking for another job. Most likely, the analytical solution delivered will not meet needs because, if it takes too long, requirements will usually change enough after an initiative is initiated to render it useless. I believe that enterprises need to assess the overall maturity of their analytical initiative and aim to add value incrementally, rather than use an all-at-once approach. There is not a cookie cutter approach because results and challenges differ, depending on the level of analytical maturity.
An assessment of needs for healthcare analysis should include: choosing an analytical software architecture for analysis and reporting, a hardware platform to host the software framework, a data integration approach and, of course, storage.
Results are usually measured in terms of more-effective use of IT investments, reduced total cost of ownership and improved operational efficiency. Challenges, outside of the political arena, primarily occur with infrastructure and functionality. Results are also usually associated with having one version of analysis-derived truth, which improves the management of multiple departments.
Is adequate planning enough to ascertain success? Not really. Watch for challenges that occur at the business level, such as: shifting business processes and obscure methodologies to leverage new analytical capabilities. Realize that there may be new changing business goals or objectives, based on insight gained. However, plan the plan and execute your plan.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Video Analytics
I participated in a demo of a BVI application. BVI has developed an exciting way to capture valuable video data, and provide retailers with the ability to make strategic decisions based on video actionable information. The BVI data analysis platform is complemented by a unique set of video tools that enable detailed customer behavior analysis. The BVI platform is unique in that it can integrate with other technologies already deployed in retail environments, such as, POS, RFID, CCTV, and staffing applications to provide a solution that automatically collects, analyzes and visualizes dynamic data that retailers can act on immediately. One can merge existing video data as well as improve data collection with new cameras.
The BVI application provides information on traffic patterns, dwell times and point-of-purchase activity. For instance, one can count the number of people walking in and out of a property. Also the direction patrons take when they walk in. count patrons lingering ina particular spot for, say, more than 10 minutes.
This video business intelligence is useful for retailers to take immediate action to improve guest service, develop new merchandising opportunities, improve loss prevention efficiencies and create sales improvement. All these activities will have an extremely positive impact on the bottom line.
One can also:
The BVI application provides information on traffic patterns, dwell times and point-of-purchase activity. For instance, one can count the number of people walking in and out of a property. Also the direction patrons take when they walk in. count patrons lingering ina particular spot for, say, more than 10 minutes.
This video business intelligence is useful for retailers to take immediate action to improve guest service, develop new merchandising opportunities, improve loss prevention efficiencies and create sales improvement. All these activities will have an extremely positive impact on the bottom line.
One can also:
- Create customer maps in each store to optimize merchandising
- measure and understand promotion effectiveness at the shelf level.
- make much smarter staffing and store layout decisions
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
12MAY2009 -- Tuesday
Greetings! I guess i have waited very long to create this blog. Finally, i was reading on mobile marketing and figured out that blogging is probably the best tool to help your organizations.
I will try to be entertaining as well as educational. I am looking forward to two demos tomorrow: (1) on HubSpot (improving your website design) and QCS Meeting and (2) BVI Networks on using video cameras for effective marketing decisions.
I will let you know my impressions. Al
I will try to be entertaining as well as educational. I am looking forward to two demos tomorrow: (1) on HubSpot (improving your website design) and QCS Meeting and (2) BVI Networks on using video cameras for effective marketing decisions.
I will let you know my impressions. Al
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