21st-Century Performance Management (Conclusion): Employee Satisfaction and Service Quality
By Gregory J. Robb
As any citizen knows, the early 21st-Century has (so far) been authored by the marriage of human and technology. Call center technology is no exception, and this is especially true of Call Recording. The public has never before connected with call center agents so easily, and never have customer service representatives (CSRs) had to navigate multiple tasks so quickly. Contact center agents conduct business on an ever-expanding range of wireless platforms. Global economic makes that demand on call center productivity.
The final installment in our series, “21st-Century Performance Management,” focuses on the relationship between employee satisfaction and call center service quality at the Fujitsu Group. The bottom line is: the fluidly-changing roles of call center customer service representatives (CSRs) have spawned a more satisfied and productive CSR workforce.
The Pro-Activity of Sense and Respond
Sense and Respond is Fujitsu’s way of replacing the “make-and-sell” industrial production complex with a holistic system which: reduces the number of unnecessary client calls; identifies why call center customers transact; sense when customers “pull” service and respond on-demand; and, design future products and services according to front-line business intelligence (BI) gleaned from the contacts between CSRs and clients (Parry & Marr, 2004, p. 29).
Although Sense and Respond is capable of altering organizational behaviour within months (a point acknowledged by many businesses), ” very few are able to move fast enough because of their ingrained systems and processes (29).” Yet, Sense and Respond is powered and propelled by people: customers, staff and management.
The Role of Speech Analytics
Speech Analytics is a powerful tool in the Sense and Respond model of customer-centric call center service. In essence, Speech Analytics has replaced the time-intensive, inefficient days of combing over Call Recordings. In the digital era, SA is the means of mining and defining the sensitive customer utterances and behaviors which enhance call center productivity and profit. Parameters are programmable, and the machine takes on the data cloud of CSR-customer conversations. Users can build call profiles and performance assessments of customer service representatives. Speech Analytics has evolved into a thorough and productive method of discovering the composite “voice of the customer” which fuels a call center’s ability to sense and respond to its clientele.
Double-Ended Benefits
When supplied with IT help desk services, Fujitsu realized several positive benefits (p. 26):
• (up to) 60% reduction of incoming demand
• 64% reduction in service operating costs
• 45% improvement in adviser productivity
• 70% reduction in end-to-end cycle time
• 30% increase in employee satisfaction
The Voice of the Employees (p. 26)
“I discovered a new way of thinking for myself and about the role I perform and that using relevant data can assist in changing people’s attitudes.”
“I now have the courage to stand up and present data and facts to show reality and to be committed to providing opportunities for others.”
