- Quality monitoring - Analytics - Performance metrics - eLearning - Workforce management - Scorecards - Outbound dialing"In addition to technology adoption, firms will need to look at other areas to best optimize the contact center workforce," states Alan W. Hubbard, senior vice president of the Customer Service & Support practice. "These areas are process, organization and knowledge, with the most obvious being organization agent training and coaching." Aberdeen's report on workforce optimization indicates that 76% and 70% of Best-in-Class companies and Industry Average companies respectively have this in place. Only about half (49%) of Laggard firms have agent training and coaching in place. "Even with the right technologies," says Hubbard, "if an agent is unable to effectively utilize the features and functions at hand, it's like they aren't there at all; thus defeating the purpose of their implementation." Aberdeen's report has a great case study about a top contact center in the retail catalog industry. The case mentions the importance of training to reach ROI. The report summarizes by stating that Best-in-Class firms look for integration that will allow them to capture the agent / customer interaction and provide feedback into the improvement process. It further states that Best-in-Class must follow through with the following in order to attain this goal:
-- Track call center performance across all channels
-- Provide outbound proactive customer service
-- Implement a workforce optimization suite
The report outlines the results Best-in-Class organizations have seen
across several key contact center metrics and compares these results to
those of Industry Average and Laggard companies. This research report is
underwritten in part by Aspect Software, Inc, Black Box Corporation, and
CRMXchange. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4578.
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
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© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company 260 Franklin Street Boston, Massachusetts 02110-3112 Telephone: (617) 723-7890 Fax: (617) 723-7897 www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact: Alan W. Hubbard Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5301 alan.hubbard@aberdeen.com