Customer Contact Centers' Criticality during Disasters Necessitate Business Continuity Strategies

Customer contact organizations are at the heart of business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) strategies, as they are the go-to information centers in times of calamities and disasters. Due to the vital role they play in disseminating information, there are wide arrays of BC/DR-enabling methods and solutions available to handle all kinds of events.

Disasters account for more than a thousand deaths and billions of dollars of damages in the United States annually, according to sources such as the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), the National Fire Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Labor. The sources range from natural events, such as storms and fires, to workplace violence.

With the rise in mobility and advent of social media, customers expect real-time updates on delays, disruptions and changes to the products and services they purchase. However, Frost & Sullivan's survey of more than 250 IT managers in 2012 revealed that only 31 percent of the respondents claimed their organizations are prepared to handle outages and disasters.

Customer contact organizations face two challenges when devising and implementing effective BC/DR programs. The first is balancing the potential risks and losses from adversity and the investments needed for putting in place effective BC/DR solutions. The second challenge pertains to enterprises' lack of motivation to deploy these solutions due to the unpredictability of these events.

The BC/DR solutions that will find the highest uptake are those that support customers, employees, and operations and yet minimize capital investments and operational costs. Some of the methods to achieve this include selecting sites away from vulnerable areas, "multishoring," enabling employees to work from home, placing applications and data in the cloud, employing multiple backup and response tools and channels, alerting customers through proactive customer contact, and improving contact center access control.

Effective BC/DR depends on the development and maturity of cloud/hosting to supply and support applications and data. The solution's success also rides on cloud vendors' deployment of redundancy, including active-active server backup, geo-redundancy, and onsite generators.

For BC/DR to be wholly functional, wireless communication should be prevalent. While social media has proven to be a useful alerting and interaction tool, it is effective only if the recipients have Internet access. Nevertheless, even with Internet access, the bandwidth can fluctuate wildly in the aftermath of a disaster. Hence, there is a huge need for a multilayered approach, such as inbound and outbound interactive voice response (IVR) and SMS/text.

Apart from these external threats, contact centers also must prepare for employee violence, especially aggression against women. This is all the more relevant in the light of the fact that women account for more than two-thirds of customer service representatives. Furthermore, contact centers will do well to initiate military veterans into the workforce, as they have proven abilities to assess and respond to sudden and difficult situations.

More information on contact centers and customer service can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Employee Engagement Insights for U.S. Business Leaders

While the state of the U.S. economy has changed substantially since 2000, the state of the American workplace has not. Currently, 30% of the U.S. workforce is engaged in their work, and the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is roughly 2-to-1, meaning that the vast majority of U.S. workers (70%) are not reaching their full potential — a problem that has significant implications for the economy and the individual performance of American companies. Gallup’s research shows that employee engagement remains flat when left unmanaged.

This report includes an overview of the trend in U.S. employee engagement, a look at the impact of engagement on organizational and individual performance, information about how companies can accelerate employee engagement, and an examination of engagement across different segments of the U.S. population.

Key finding from the report include:

-- Engaged workers are the lifeblood of their organizations. Work units in the top 25% of Gallup’s Q12 Client Database have significantly higher productivity, profitability, and customer ratings, less turnover and absenteeism, and fewer safety incidents than those in the bottom 25%.

-- Gallup estimates that active disengagement costs the U.S. $450 billion to $550 billion per year.

-- Engagement levels among service employees — those workers who are often on the front line serving customers — are among the lowest of any occupation Gallup measured and have declined in recent years, while engagement for every other job category increased

-- More than one-third (36%) of managers and executives were engaged in 2012, up 10 percentage points from 2009. By contrast, professional workers overall saw a modest two-point increase in engagement levels from 2009 to 2012.

-- Gallup has found that managers who focus on their employees’ strengths can practically eliminate active disengagement and double the average of U.S. workers who are engaged nationwide.

-- Although certain policies such as hours worked, flextime, and vacation time do relate to employee wellbeing, engagement levels in the work environment eclipse corporate policies.

-- Despite not always having a manager nearby to monitor their productivity, remote workers actually log more hours at their primary job than do their on-site counterparts.

-- Only 22% of U.S. employees are engaged and thriving. When employees are engaged and thriving in their overall lives, they are more likely to maintain strong work performance — even during difficult times.

-- Only 41% of employees felt that they know what their company stands for and what makes its brand different from its competitors’ brands.

More information on customer service and support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Finding Capable Employees Is Greatest Management Hurdle for Small Businesses

When it comes to running a successful business, finding a highly skilled team of employees is crucial. But it isn't always easy. In a recent survey by RobertHalf, six in 10 (60 percent) small business owners said the biggest challenge in hiring or managing staff is finding skilled professionals for the job. About one in five (19 percent) cited maintaining employee morale and productivity as the chief concern.

 

The survey was developed by Robert Half, the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on interviews with more than 300 small business owners and managers from a stratified random sample of companies with less than 100 employees in the United States.

 

Small business owners and managers were asked, "Which one of the following is your company's greatest challenge when it comes to hiring and managing staff?" Their responses:

 

Finding skilled workers - 60%

 

Maintaining employee morale and productivity - 19%

 

Managing difficult employees - 8%

 

Retaining staff - 7%

 

Something else - 6%

 

 

Human Resources Kit For Dummies®, 3rd Edition (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) by Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half, can help small business owners enhance their recruiting efforts and position themselves as employers of choice. Following are four tips from the book:

 

Make your company stand out. Small businesses offer advantages that larger companies cannot match. Emphasize the potential for new hires to wear multiple hats and advance quickly. Also, highlight the benefits of working with a small, close-knit group, which may be less common at bigger corporations.

 

Have an accurate job description. The description of your open position should be specific and identify the must-haves for the job. If a description is too broad or doesn't adequately convey the position's requirements, you run the risk of receiving an overabundance of resumes from unqualified candidates. It's better to have five applicants who definitely deserve an interview than 100 who don't.

 

Network. Participate in local professional association or community groups to build your personal network. Also, ask your existing employees to provide referrals. Employees tend to recommend strong candidates, since they don't want to tarnish their reputation by recommending professionals who are unequipped for the job.

 

Work with recruiters. Professional staffing firms can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to find a qualified applicant. Look for ones that specialize in the field for which you are hiring. For example, if you are hiring an accountant, work with a firm that specializes in filling accounting and finance roles.

 

More information on customer service and support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Tipping The Scales With Training

Companies that invest in their employees' professional development have an edge when recruiting IT professionals, new research from Robert Half Technology suggests. Sixty-eight percent of IT workers surveyed said the ability to acquire new skills is very important when evaluating a job opportunity.

Additionally, 64 percent of respondents said they are very concerned about keeping their skills current in the next three to five years. However, in a separate Robert Half Technology survey, 44 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) said their companies do not have training and development programs for IT professionals.

The IT worker survey was developed and conducted by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology (IT) professionals on a project and full-time basis. The responses are from more than 7,500 IT workers to a web survey. The CIO survey was developed by Robert Half Technology and conducted by an independent research firm. The survey is based on more than 2,300 telephone interviews with CIOs from a random sample of U.S. companies in 23 major metro areas with 100 or more employees.

IT workers were asked, "When evaluating a job opportunity, how important is the ability to gain new skills in that role?" Their responses:  

Very important - 68%
Somewhat important - 30%
Not important - 2%

IT workers were also asked, "How concerned are you about keeping your skills current in the next three to five years?" Their responses:

Very concerned - 64%
Somewhat concerned - 29%
Not concerned - 7%

CIOs were asked, "Does your organization have a training and development program for IT professionals?" Their responses:

Yes - 55%
No - 44%
Don't know - 1%

More information on customer service and support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Survey Highlights Opportunities for Service Organizations to Better Engage Employees

NICE Systems announced that a benchmark study on trends and best practices in frontline performance management indicates that a majority of companies do not use collaboration and gamification to improve employee engagement. Only 12 percent of companies actively solicit ideas from frontline employees, and less than one third set daily or weekly performance goals.

 

Organizations that use gamification from the initial, onboarding stage drive better business outcomes such as performance, engagement, and retention, according to the Aberdeen Group. While technologies such as gamification can be applied to focus the frontline every day, the NICE survey found that companies continue to motivate performance through traditional contests, and two in three companies run those contests less than once per month.

 

According to the NICE study:

 

-- Eighty-eight percent of companies run contests and competitions to motivate employees

 

-- Contest kick-offs and results are most frequently communicated through email (86 percent) and verbally (49 percent)

 

-- The most common rewards used in contests and competitions are trophies (78 percent) and financial incentives (57 percent)

 

-- Gaming mechanics are used infrequently, with only 31 percent of companies exploring some form of digital rewards.

 

More information on contact centers, service and support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

More Than One-Third of CIOs Plan to Hire New IT Graduates; Lack of Interpersonal Skills Greatest Obstacle to Success

School may be out, but IT hiring is in session for more than one in three firms. Thirty-five percent of chief information officers (CIOs) interviewed said they plan to hire new IT graduates in 2013, according to a recent poll by Robert Half Technology. 

But not all CIOs polled give new graduates high marks when it comes to being ready for their first job. More than one in four respondents (26 percent) said entry-level professionals aren't prepared to contribute right away. Among these executives, more than half (55 percent) said the reason is a lack of skills in areas such as communication and leadership.    

The national survey was developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology professionals on a project and full-time basis, and conducted by an independent research firm. The survey is based on more than 2,300 telephone interviews with CIOs from a random sample of U.S. companies in 23 major metro areas with 100 or more employees.

CIOs were asked, "Does your organization plan to hire any new IT graduates this year?" Their responses:

Yes.....................................................................         35%

No.......................................................................         63%

Don't know..........................................................         2%

CIOs also were asked, "In general, how prepared do you think new IT graduates are to start contributing as soon as they start a new job?" Their responses:

Prepared.........................................................  69%

Unprepared..................................................     26%

Don't know.....................................................  5%

CIOs who didn't think IT graduates were prepared to contribute right away were asked, "Which single skill or attribute do you feel new graduates most lack?" Their responses:

Personal skills (i.e., communication, leadership skills)..... 55%

Technical skills.....................................................................29%

Business skills (i.e., job-related experience, teamwork).......17%

Other.........................................................................................1%

More information on IT, service and support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com.

Survey Highlights the Growth of Web Self-Service

While phone-based interactive voice response (IVR) systems are still the largest channel for customer interactions, self-service via the Web and mobile channels are quickly gaining ground, according to the findings of a new survey conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, the parent company of CRM magazine, in partnership with IntelliResponse.

In fact, 31 percent of all customer interactions today are conducted via the Web, and an additional 9 percent are conducted via the mobile Web or mobile applications. Only 46 percent of all interactions are conducted via IVRs.

Close to half (48 percent) of the 520 CRM managers and professionals who responded to the survey said they have Web or mobile-based self-service capabilities. Seventy-nine percent claim to have had Web self-service capabilities for a number of years now, and six out of 10 are also moving into mobile.

The highest concentration of Web self-service capabilities right now is in the finance/insurance (52 percent) and government/education/nonprofit (50 percent) sectors. Customers are largely using these channels to research products and services or for routine inquiries, including order status and account balances.

While interest in Web and mobile is running high, most of these capabilities are limited to customer portals with FAQs, contact information, or the use of site search or a knowledgebase in a customer service environment.

The benefits of self-service are tangible. About half (45 percent) of executives with Web or mobile self-service capabilities report measurable reductions in phone inquiries and 39 percent report less email traffic. 47 percent have also seen increased sales through their customer self-service channels, and 54 percent also report increased Web traffic since launching online self-service on the Web or mobile.

More information on customer service and support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com