Putting the “solution” in Resolution
by Aspect on February 28th, 2012
The following is a special guest post from Paul Stockford, President and Chief Analyst at Saddletree Research.
First call resolution (FCR) has become a big deal in the contact center industry worldwide. Many contact centers now use FCR as an operational efficiency measurement rather than more traditional metrics such as average handle time (AHT). Despite the growing popularity of FCR as a contact center key performance indicator (KPI), there are many uncertainties surrounding it, not the least of which is how to make it happen and how to measure FCR when it does.
Saddletree Research works very closely with the National Association of Call Centers (NACC), a not-for-profit industry membership organization based at The University of Southern Mississippi. In late 2011 we conducted a joint research project among 125 contact center end-user executives that explored a number of industry issues, including FCR. We discovered that 51 percent of respondents are currently tracking FCR one way or another. Some use customer surveys to try to track FCR, some use data analytics, and some use quality monitoring. Most interesting were the many comments we received from companies that are trying to implement and track FCR but are struggling with how to go about doing so.
Putting the measurement issue aside for the moment, I have long believed that the important first step in the quest for FCR is to find a way to make it happen and the most efficient way to do that is to rely on unified communications (UC). The beauty of UC is that it allows the customer service representative to access the resources necessary to resolve a call while the customer is still on the line rather than having to call the customer back, or have the customer call back, at a later time once the necessary resources have been accessed. UC enables new levels of efficiency in the customer service process, streamlining enterprise communications to the benefit of the customer and the agent’s performance metrics.
Aspect has become the de facto market leader for UC solutions in the contact center, attracting the attention of companies such as Microsoft for partnership arrangements and, as of last week, attracting the attention of Dell Services. Dell Services has partnered with Aspect to deliver a Microsoft-based UC solution to the contact center and across the enterprise. This partnership will significantly increase Aspect’s visibility and opportunity in and beyond the customer service function.
Lining up partners like Microsoft and Dell Services should also heighten the awareness of UC as a FCR solution in the contact center. The contact center industry is typically slow to embrace new concepts and solutions but the endorsement of UC and, by extension FCR, by such industry luminaries as Microsoft and Dell Services should go a long way toward accelerating the adoption of UC as a FCR enabler in the contact center.
For those contact center professionals struggling to find a solution that enables the implementation and tracking of FCR in the contact center, it’s here and it’s called UC. Unlike solutions such as customer relationship management (CRM) which underwent years of overblown hype before settling into its role as a useful enterprise solution, UC’s benefits are easy to articulate and quick to attain. Partnering with full service suppliers such as Dell Services makes Aspect a convenient one-stop shop for UC in the contact center. Beyond that, Aspect’s partnerships with industry luminaries such as Microsoft and Dell Services should remove the FUD factor for contact center buyers.
The timing for Aspect’s Dell Services partnership is ideal as it aligns with what our survey reveals to be increased interest in FCR in the contact center. The fact that UC goes hand-in-hand with FCR won’t hurt Aspect’s efforts in the least.
Guest Blogger: Mike Ginsberg on Emerging Legal and Regulatory Trends in ARM
by Aspect on February 6th, 2012
The following is a special guest post from Mike Ginsberg, CEO of Kaulkin Ginsberg. Mike spearheads the firm’s advisory business practices and leads a premier advisory team that helps industry owners and executives succeed in their growth, exit, and M&A strategies. Read more by Mike on InsideARM.
Eye on the Horizon: Key Trends Will Reshape ARM Industry in 2012
2012 ushers in many changes for the accounts receivable industry on every front. Since the start of the recession, economic, regulatory and market conditions have played a role in creating a new playing field for grantors, service providers and vendors.
Key trends reshaping the ARM industry include:
- Economic turbulence continues to impact liquidation results – Some reporters are stating that this must be a booming time for debt collectors as placement volumes increase and collectability rebounds. Not so fast. Yes, recovery rates have improved across most market segments over recent quarters as more consumers have paid down debts at increased rates. However, the collection industry is not out of the woods yet and executives should continue to operate prudently as the economy recovers.
- The landscape of credit card/bank card agencies is changing. – Loan origination reductions have severely impacted placement volumes, resulting in bank card/credit card collection agency vendor networks being downsized as much as 60% in 2010 and 2011 and collection law firm networks following suit over recent quarters. Top performers across most asset classes have actually seen an uptick in placement volumes as a result of contractions. As we look forward into 2012, we anticipate further placement volume reductions coupled with more compliance “asks” from credit card issuers and increased regulatory scrutiny. Strong agencies focused on performance without sacrificing compliance will benefit significantly as banks and issuers extend credit at increased rates.
- Substantial changes are looming on the regulatory and regulatory fronts – New laws and regulations will result in significant changes to workflow, technology, compliance and day-to-day operations among debt buyers and collection agencies. It is highly unlikely lawsuits against collection agencies and debt buyers will decline in 2012. We examined the trends. Establishing reasonable compliance programs, increasing the time and resources spent on collector training and using technology that is designed to prevent law violations is critical to successful navigation of the legal, legislative and regulatory environment we predict for 2012.
- Job creation, while starting to show signs of improving, remains hovering at lowest levels in 30 years. The number of layoffs is down as we head into 2012. Unemployment continues to rank as the most significant trend impacting collection efforts.
- Collection agencies are resilient – According to a recent survey conducted by InsideARM, 60% of agencies plan to increase staff levels over the next 12 months and more than 75% are projecting increased revenue a year from now in spite of economic conditions. Most agency executives are forward thinking and are positioning their agency to be the beneficiary of increased outsourcing and collectability across numerous market segments including healthcare, government, student lending, mortgages and other financial deficiencies.
For every company involved in any facet of collections and accounts receivable management, new laws and regulations—even proposed versions—will involve significant changes to workflow, technology and day-to-day operational policy. Rozanne Andersen, Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of Ontario Systems LLC and former CEO and Vice President of Government Affairs at ACA International, is a good friend of our firm and the leading authority on this front. As Rozanne has taken stock of thousands of regulations, case law decisions and recent legislation, she successfully encapsulated the most critical trends for our industry in her full report. These trends include:
- Lawsuits against collection industry companies
- State attorneys general file lawsuits and take action
- What’s happening at the Federal and state level?
- How the new CFPB will impact ARM
- A look forward at what to expect
Rozanne and I agree that it is unlikely lawsuits against collection agencies and asset purchasers will abate in 2012. Negative press, high levels of consumer complaint filings, ambiguous laws and regulations and the resolve state and federal regulators have to fill the coffers with money extracted from the industry in the form of fines and penalties does not bode well for the industry. Establishing reasonable compliance programs, increasing the time and resources spent on collector training and using technology that is designed to prevent law violations is critical to any agency or asset buyer’s successful navigation of the legal, legislative and regulatory environment we predict for 2012.
At Kaulkin Ginsberg, we have been tracking M&A market activities and macro-level trends impacting the ARM industry for 20 years. We cover these and additional market conditions in our latest Q4 report which is available without cost on insideARM. I am happy to discuss these market conditions and how they may impact your business.
How Companies Can Use Social Media in the Contact Center
by Aspect on December 1st, 2011
In my previous blogs on compliance in the contact center, I discussed the evolving regulations that companies must navigate as well as the tools they can draw on to make their lives easier. Now I’d like to talk about the potential that social media holds for reaching out to customers.
Much of the time, contact centers view social media as a force that has made customer contact more complex and increased the burden on agents. However, as companies attempt to contact customers for both collections and proactive customer service in ways that don’t violate existing regulations, social media can be a source of valuable information.
For example, if a company needs to inform a customer or a group of customers on the status of an issue, social media would be a great channel to use. This is exactly how my utility company kept me up to date when we had the power outage in the Massachusetts area in October.
Here are a few social networking channels that can actually make it far easier to reach customers while still adhering to regulations.
1) Facebook. Legislation currently prohibits companies from calling customers after a certain time of night. With cell phones, it’s not possible to attach an area code to a time zone because of portability. However, say that an individual is a fan of the company’s Facebook page. That connection could enable the company to find out a person’s location and time zone at a given moment based on the most recent Facebook updates. This would enable an enterprise to proactively contact them through social media with relevant information to that end consumer.
Since this information is available to people or organizations within the consumer’s social network, the company could argue that the consumer has consented to the use of such private information. Needless to say, current regulations haven’t begun to address this channel.
2) Twitter. Similarly, imagine if a person had an active Twitter account and kept followers updated on an impending move, new job, or simply current activities. If people tweet that they’re just sitting at home watching television, a company may determine that it’s a good time to call.
3) Location-based channels. Technologies such as FourSquare that share location could also be utilized. If someone checked into a particular location, a company would know their time zone to determine if it’s acceptable to contact them on their mobile phone.
The regulations for proactive contact and collections at a federal level have yet to address the use of social media. However, all indications are that the FCC and FTC may start to regulate it. For now, Facebook or Twitter could be used as legitimate channels to notify people of suspicious activity on their credit card or a lost cell phone, as well as for routine reminders about payments and notifications of special deals.
The challenge for companies will be to strike the right balance with these channels to avoid souring relationships with customers. If individuals feel like the company is stalking them, it’s only a matter of time before these actions start to draw the attention of regulators.
It’s a matter of providing information that a consumer deems to be relevant via the right media type. Social channels may not be the right approach for some customers, who prefer a phone call or a text message. Therefore, companies should review their collections and proactive customer service strategy and determine how and at what stage social media notifications would be most effective to ensure customer loyalty and contact center productivity.
As with all regulatory matters, be sure to consult with your enterprise’s attorney for legal guidance.
Features that every contact center should have in place to aid compliance
by Aspect on November 9th, 2011
In my last blog, I noted that the regulatory landscape for contact centers is currently very dynamic. Legislation is pending to address the widespread adoption of technology among consumers, and courts are interpreting existing laws to apply requirements to cell phones and the like. In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives is currently evaluating the new Mobile Informational Call Act.
While companies wait for some of these issues to be settled, they still face the challenge of complying with existing laws—a difficult task. Depending on an enterprise’s interpretation of regulation, many contact centers are prohibited from using predictive dialers to call people on cell phones. In addition, many times, it’s not possible to tell whether a phone number is for a landline or cell phone. Both of these issues have a significant impact on the productivity of a collections contact center.
For instance, I was talking with a representative from a major U.S. financial institution, and she estimates that her company is losing $14 million a year as a result of compliance efforts. In some cases, agents are forced to use a spreadsheet to call customers manually, which can slow things down dramatically.
The wide-ranging impact of compliance
The cost of compliance can extend far beyond additional resources in the contact center:
- Lost revenue and lower profits—Since the companies can’t dial as many customers and must use more agents to reach them, the contact center isn’t able to collect as much money from delinquent accounts. This impacts the bottom line of the enterprise.
- Lower tax revenue for the government—Every dollar that can’t be collected means another dollar that can’t be taxed.
- Fewer jobs internally—$14 million could hire a lot of full-time employees, so the cost can be felt in fewer jobs and fewer staff to pursue opportunities.
The current regulatory environment isn’t loosening up or going away, so companies can’t afford to wait it out.
Critical functionality to lessen the compliance burden
Companies must adopt the functionality they need to improve contact center productivity in the short term while ensuring that any solution is flexible and extensible enough to adapt to continuing regulatory changes. Here are the tools every contact center should have in its arsenal to address these issues:
- List management. It’s critical for contact centers to be able to target the right people via the right mechanism (for example, SMS or phone call) at the right time. If a contact center can no longer dial at very high rates, managers must be able to evaluate calls lists based on business rules and determine exactly who should be dialed and at what point in time.
- Verification agents. This capability enables agents to be divided into two groups: agents that are utilized for pacing and verification agents. The pacing group identifies the party answering the phone; once the correct party is identified, the agent transfers the call to a verification agent who completes the call. If the wrong party answers, the agent terminates the call. This allows a contact center to use their less-skilled agents to handle the first part of the call and then hand off to a more highly skilled agent.
- Pacing. A contact center must be able to dial the right number of calls to maintain agent productivity and reduce abandoned calls—all while complying with regulations. Having a solution with robust pacing option is key to enable this balance.
- Answering machine detection. Your most expensive asset is your agents, so you don’t want them talking to answering machines. Having a solution with a world-class algorithm for detecting answering machines is key to ensure agents are only talking to “real people.”
- Early stage collections. This functionality helps a company collect debt early in the cycle. For instance, if a customer is just a week late, it’s more effective to send an email or SMS message instead of making a phone call. This approach not only brings in more revenue earlier in the cycle but also doesn’t require an agent to contact the debtor.
Aligning technology with business strategy
Above all, many businesses should modify their strategies to pave the way for compliance. From the top down, organizations must be aware of the regulations and work to create a culture that supports compliance. This effort often starts with agent training. Businesses must educate agents on how the regulations affect them and outline clear and concise guidelines for behavior.
Once companies have tweaked their business strategies to aid in complying with regulations, they must bring their technology strategy into alignment. Many companies mistakenly believe that technology is a silver bullet to ensure compliance with the regulations. However, one of the most important lessons of recent years is that technology is only successful when it supports a clear, coherent business strategy.
What contact centers need to know to stay compliant
by Aspect on October 24th, 2011
Technology is continually evolving and making our lives as consumers much easier. However, it’s progressing far more rapidly than the government’s efforts to regulate it. Contact centers must comply with a range of regulations for how and when they can contact consumers, which creates a challenge of balancing the contact center’s productivity in collections and proactive care with regulatory compliance.
A murky regulatory environment
The widespread adoption of technology has created a gray area for compliance with many existing laws. Take cell phones, for example: companies want to be able to notify consumers when necessary—such as a lost credit card or late flight—without incurring penalties and fines. Many consumers have dropped their landline, so if an enterprise needs to contact them either to collect or to provide customer service proactively, it now needs to deal with myriad unclear regulations.
Consider the following situations:
- Cell phones. The FCC interprets the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to prohibit contacting consumers on their cell phones using dialers, absent prior express consent. However, it’s nearly impossible to determine which numbers are cell phones versus landlines. The Fair Debt and Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibits calls at inconvenient times (that is, you cannot contact someone at two in the morning). However, even if a call is placed to a known cell phone, it is impossible, given its portability, to know the location of the called party at the time of call, creating the potential for liability exposure.
- Predictive dialers. Predictive dialers can pace outbound phone calls by permitting the dialing of phone numbers, reducing wait times between calls, and minimizing the potential of unproductive calls. If companies are forced to exclude cell phones when contacting people, they will lose the use of an efficient means of contacting borrowers and customers.
- Text Messaging. The TCPA restricts the use of predictive dialers to call cell phones as well as the use of automated messaging. Text messaging coupled with an automated-dialing process could increase productivity significantly for such tasks as early-stage collections, appointment reminders, and fraud alerts.
Pending legislation and judicial interpretation
The U.S. Congress, in an effort to address some of these issues, introduced the Mobile Information Call Act of 2011 to update the TCPA to allow information calls using auto dialers. All enterprises that are affected by TCPA and FDCPA should monitor this new legislation as it goes through Congress.
In the meantime, courts are interpreting how existing laws regulating the contact center should be applied to new technologies. In June of this year, a court dismissed a suit against Wachovia alleging TCPA violations when the institution was able to provide records that proved agents didn’t use predictive dialers to call cell phones.
Reconciling three competing trends
As companies move forward, they must try to balance three factors:
- The regulatory environment and technology are evolving rapidly
- The next-generation consumer demands customer service and proactive engagement
- Enterprises are pushing their contact centers do more with less.
Companies can’t afford to be a bystander. Instead, they need to start positioning themselves now for the future.
In subsequent installments, I’ll talk about the tools and functionality companies need to ensure compliance in an evolving regulatory landscape.
A glimpse into the future of the contact center
by Aspect on July 15th, 2011
As I sat on an airplane this week traveling to team meetings, I spent some time thinking about what would the contact center look like two years from now. Imagine a time when….
- A company anticipated your needs with a product you had purchased before you even knew what those needs were. And then proactively told you about how to address it through either video, email, SMS, IM, etc.
- A company knew your presence―for instance, are you on your mobile phone, landline, on facebook―and then used that information to determine how to contact you.
- You had access to everything you needed to know about your purchased product/service, from any device, at any time. And you could access this information quickly and efficiently.
- You wouldn’t need to talk to an agent when obtaining service. In fact, it’s more efficient to not use an agent.
- An IVR was “natural” so you don’t need to talk in “segments” but rather can talk to an IVR like you would talk to an agent. And that IVR had intelligent access to content within the enterprise and gave you the right information to service your issue.
- Customer service was actually a pleasant experience.
Here’s the reality check: we don’t have to wait for a couple of years for these developments. They are happening right now. In fact, I believe Consumer 2.0 is not a next-generation consumer; they are the current consumer. This is what the Consumer 2.0 requires today. It’s what I expect when I purchase a product or service. It’s what my teenagers expect. And believe it or not, it’s what my parents expect when they purchase a product or service.
That presents companies with a daunting challenge. The moment I cannot troubleshoot issues with a product, my customer satisfaction declines. The moment I have an issue and the company I purchased it from did not anticipate the problem and tell me, my customer satisfaction declines.
Enterprises cannot wait to build their strategy around the next-generation consumer. They’re here today, and you need to have a strategy to support them in the short term. Otherwise, your competitors will take them away. The reality is, within the next two years, we’ll be talking Consumer 3.0 and their needs.
The angry Little Monsters
by Aspect on May 31st, 2011
What does the next-generation consumer and Lady Gaga have to do with each other? Well…ask Amazon. Last week, Amazon offered a deep discount on the latest Lady Gaga album in an effort to entice consumers (“Little Monsters” in Lady Gaga terms) away from iTunes and over to Amazon. The Little Monsters were thrilled and went to the Amazon site to download the album. Apparently, the download took over 6 hours! That’s unacceptable in this day and age.
So what did the Little Monsters do? They went to the music review boards and complained. No, not about Lady Gaga. But about Amazon! Amazon, which has spent years building brand loyalty, had one instance that caused thousands of people to take to the message boards to complain.
What started out as a great opportunity for providing the next-generation consumer with something they want―a discount Lady Gaga album, an opportunity for top-notch customer service through a solid user interface, and speed for the download process―turned into a public relations nightmare for Amazon.
We’ve talked about the next-generation consumer: you have one and only one chance to satisfy them to obtain/maintain their loyalty. This truth was on full display this week with the Amazon situation. It is about much more than when a customer calls the enterprise to voice a question/issue/complaint. Its every part of the product/service offered. If it’s not what consumers want or if their expectations are not met, they may not give you a second chance, and they will probably hit the blogs to tell everyone about it.
Every part of the customer experience needs to meet the expectations of the consumer: from delivery (in this case, download) to product quality to customer service. You have one chance to be rock solid in each and every facet of product/service quality. If you fall down on one part of the experience, the next-generation consumer will hold you accountable and complain to the world.
Remember, each interaction is an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with the consumer―even (or especially) if that consumer is a “Little Monster.”
You can’t deliver great service without knowing what your customers want
by Aspect on May 17th, 2011
Are outdated customer segmentation strategies getting in the way of delivering the best service to your most valuable customers? As important, how is “best service” defined? The answers to these questions vary quite a bit depending on the consumer, and they’re changing constantly. As a typical Consumer 2.0, I have a vastly different definition of a positive customer experience than that of my 70-year-old father or my 16-year-old daughter. So the challenge for companies (much like the O’Jays used to sing) is how to give the people what they want.
Let’s take an example: we all have Internet service providers, and we’ve probably all experienced a problem with them. Yesterday, my Internet service went down. I immediately let out a large sigh at the thought of having to contact the enterprise and deal with the agent…either by voice or by chat.
The prospect of the slow back and forth with the agent did not make me want to contact the enterprise. I prefer to self serve and troubleshoot the problem myself. I ended up going online to the ISP’s Web page, and their chat service enabled me to self-serve without ever talking/chatting with an agent. It was perfect for me, the consummate multitasker.
Now if my father had been sent to a chat-based self-service portal, it would have driven him crazy. He would have ended up calling the enterprise, been extremely frustrated, and would not have ended up with a positive customer experience. My daughter, on the other hand, would have skipped the ISP’s Web page altogether and used Facebook or another social tool to solve the problem.
Companies must not only evaluate their customer segmentation strategies to pinpoint their relative “value” but also account for customer preferences. The days are over when you could serve all similar customers with the same service method. To ensure loyalty, customer preferences must be taken into account along with value as key input factors for your rules engine to drive customer service.
Are you ready for Customer 2.0? Find out more at the Aspect and Microsoft Online Symposium, “Customer Contact in a Consumer 2.0 World,” this Thursday, May 19.
Are your customer-avoidance strategies driving away profits?
by Aspect on May 3rd, 2011
I ran across an insightful article from Nathan McNeill focusing on the fact that you want customers to contact your contact center! What is ironic about the statement is that many enterprises are equating customer avoidance with customer service. Here are some of his key points:
- As bad as it may seem to have to solve problems all day, it’s much, much worse to not solve them, even though the support center will rarely or never see the consequences of such “call avoidance” except in decreased support costs and mediocre customer satisfaction scores (if one measures such things).
- A new mind-set is needed, one that actually attracts customer problems rather than repels them or deflects them. People should want to contact the support center when something goes wrong, even if the “something” that goes wrong is not associated with the “something” that the support center is normally responsible for.
In the age of consumer 2.0, if customers do not bring their issues to your contact center, they are using other sources, such as social media outlets, to solve their problems. So it’s more than wanting the customer to initiate the interaction with the contact center. It’s also a matter of helping the consumer in the channels where they are looking for service. It’s using the resources of the contact center to not only “wait” for the consumer to contact you but also going to where the consumer is troubleshooting their issues.
It’s critical to be able to provide service in all environments. Why? “Over time, customers will bring money to the same place they bring their problems,” notes McNeill. However, it’s not just about them coming to the contact center. It’s critical that the consumer experience is as close to perfect in their eyes as possible.
With the multitasking nature of today’s consumers, an enterprise has only one chance to solve their problems. This means knowing when a customer prefers self-service versus talking to an agent or when to use proactive contact versus waiting for that inbound phone call. Providing a world-class customer experience―both when the customer contacts you and when you need to find them―is paramount to retaining customer loyalty.
Next time your contact centers talk about contact avoidance strategies, be sure that they understand what it means in terms of customer retention. If the goal is to improve service (for example, proactive contact), then they’re on the right track. If it’s simply a way to cut costs, make sure the decision makers understand the long-term revenue implications of cutting customer service.
Are you ready for the next-generation consumer?
How companies should integrate social media into customer contact
by Aspect on February 25th, 2011
David Mastronardi with the social business design firm Dachis Group wrote an interesting blog on how Facebook and Twitter are operating as shadow customer support. He cites a recent experience where he was able to get his flight rebooked during a weather delay by using Twitter instead of calling customer service. This was due to the fact that different departments within the company handled social media and customer service. In fact, the social media team was in the Communication department, not customer service. Now, he was lucky in that the person who handled Twitter questions was able to somehow change his reservation on the fly.
What does this mean to enterprises? A few takeaways.
- Consumers will increasingly use social media as a way to obtain service. In fact, it’s happening already. Social tools are the first place many people, including myself, go to for service.
- By having a non-customer service organization handle service inquiries from consumers, companies run the risk of not giving consumers the service they need. Although in David’s example things turned out great, the company is rolling the dice in terms of support.
- Ultimately, the number of consumers who turn to social channels may become as prominent as those who call your contact center. …Read more >
Improving the way companies communicate internally and externally with their customers is an important objective for all organizations. This blog is focused on levaraging the collective knowledge withing Aspect.