If you were starting a Contact Center today, what would you focus on?

Great input above, but I am emphatically in agreement with Mr. Filwood. All of us know about the cornerstones of contact centers; People, Process, & Technology. Its' an equation wired into our DNA for those of us that grew up professionally in the early days of "call centers/telemarketing". Since those early days, there have been many advances in the contact center space. I find that because the "technology" and "process" aspects (i.e. Six Sigma, process engineering) are "sexier" to most, the focus on contact centers often puts the people component equal-to or below the other two cornerstones. My opinion: BIG mistake.

I believe the people component is by far the most important/deserves the most focus of the three cornerstones. If I was building any type of contact center today, internally or externally, no question that I would focus 70% of my energy on hiring, developing the right people AND creating the right culture. I strongly believe in creating a positive work environment where people want to come to work every day. Attrition, absenteeism, and turnover is one of the biggest detractors to contact center success. With the right culture, you get an energy that drives improved process, selection/buy-in of technologies that are needed (vs just look cool), and most importantly provides you a differentiating, competitive advantage.

Any contact center will have people, process, technology...its' how you put the ingredients together that create success or failure. Think about that next time you have a great and/or not so great "experience" with a contact center. What was most important to you?

-Brad Lindemann

Hi Jim,

That’s exactly the point that Brad & I are trying to emphasize. It is the Human Resource Technologies and Process that you deploy that are the ‘most critical’ for long-term Call Center operational success.

So which Human Resource Technologies and Process yield the best results?

In a Study on “The Comparative Validities of a Variety of Predictors of Hourly Wage Jobs in Reducing Turnover in New Hires” the following Results were uncovered:

Interview -- 14% Predictive Ability
Reference Checking -- 26% Predictive Ability
Job Preview -- 44% Predictive Ability
Skills Testing -- 53% Predictive Ability
Personality/Job-Fit Assessment -- 80% Predictive Ability

Interviews are a subjective and potentially biased process. This Study demonstrated that regardless of an Interviewer’s Skill – or a Candidate’s ability to present well – an Offer of Employment based on a strong interview alone only had a 14% chance of predicting the long-term effectiveness of a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position.

Adding Reference Checking to the Interview Process only increased the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position to 26%. And we all know that it’s getting harder to perform meaningful & insightful Reference Checks.

Job Previews - via software-based call simulators - or through having the Candidate just spend some time on the Production Floor shadowing Agents/Supervisors - only increases the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position to 44%.

Skills Tests such as Typing Tests, Audio Transcription Tests, Windows Literacy Tests, etc. only increase the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position to 53%. That’s just a bit better than flipping a coin!

With an 80% Predictive Ability, Personality/Job-Fit Assessments are best at forecasting future success of a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent Position. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments Weed Out Job Candidates who will Burn Out Fast – or Quit - because they aren't suited for the work - and Identifies the People with the Personality/Job-Fit, Soft Skills, Motivation, and Work Ethic to be Top Call Center Agents. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments allow you to Select New Call Center Agents who will fit your Employment Needs Better and Stay on the Job Longer - leading to an Agent Workgroup that has More Experience and is More Productive.

Top performing Contact Centers drive their Revenue & Performance through superior hiring tactics. We help employers gain better insight & more accurate predictions as to which applicants from a pool of Candidates would perform up to, or beyond their established standards. You can find out about a Free Trial of SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software at http://www.telesoftsystems.ca/64201.html

At the risk of overlap with what other folks have said: people & culture would be the #1 focus for me.

Zappos has structure and tech in place, but their #1 advantages are dedicated people (they offer them money to leave during training, weeding out the less-committed ones) with high passion (they're tested beyond just the interview, such as how nice they are to the Zappos bus driver) and a focus on customer /happiness/, not just ending the call (metrics are not based on # of calls or time on phone: http://ar.gy/oI0). Get those things in place and you have an advantage. Then you can focus on technology and processes, because you know you'll have a team and culture that will kick butt at implementing them.

Ben,

If I were to start a Contact Center today, I'd focus on the following:

STRUCTURE:
Tiered Service Delivery Model:
Tier 1: Customer Self Service (with access to an intutive Knowledge Base), ability to submit new requests, and ability to inquire on status of open requests.
Tier 2: Support Generalists
Tier 3+: Subject Matter Experts

The advantage of the Tiered Service Delivery Model is efficiency (lower cost of service delivery,while driving first-contact resolution/customer Satisfaction)combined with customer satisfaction results.

TECHNOLOGIES:
Customer Self Service Portal
Knowledge Base with Recommendation Engine
Case Management solution integrated to Self Service, KnowledgeBase and Telephony System
Management Reporting based on meaningful metrics (that measure Customer Satisfaction, and Cost of Service Delivery)

(Here's a bonus item:)
TRAINING: Agents should be trained to focus on the customer experience, and the outcome of the call; not the number of calls handled, and the stats that mean very little to the customer. And of course, the training will go a lot farther, if you've made the right hire in the first place. For details on that topic, refer to David Filwood's response to your question!

If I were to start a center, it would be designed to be the hub - the central position - for the company's customer management efforts, keeping the principles of "The Service Profit Chain" as the intellectual template.
In a customer-focused, customer-based company, all the functionality, metrics, hiring practices, et. al. of the customer management center would follow therefrom.

I'd look first at what it was trying to achieve. There's no point in diving into the planning without a goal.

David, Ben,

I agree with both of you in that the people in the contact center will have a greater impact on the success of the center, than would technology or process/structure.

But with all due respect, the question specifically asked about technology and structure:

"...What kinds of technologies would you consider, how would you structure your center?..."

Hence, the technology and process-focused responses.