March 2009 Archives

To get a full view of your customers to utilize your CRM systems so you can retain and obtain more value for them, especially in this challenging and highly competitive economy you need realtime access to complete quality data on your customers.

Yet for too many organizations this may not be happening. And the reasons lie in both too-complex processing and in the sometimes inaccurate customer information that these systems have to work with i.e. "garbage in..."

One of the biggest barriers to getting value from CRM initiatives is this need for improved customer data management, according to William Band, Vice President and Principal Analyst with Forrester Research.

One set of solutions, data warehousing, he says fails to deliver the real-time access, and end users compensate by deploying myriad purpose-built data marts. Mega data warehouses often fail in the eyes of business users because they become too complex and take to long to build. They often become 'boil the ocean' type projects.

"These limitations, along with poor data integration between CRM and enterprise resource planning systems, result in fragmented views of customers," Band points out.

Business intelligence (BI) applications offer the promise to be the focal point to customer intelligence across multiple data sources, says Band. But BI efforts often highlight poor customer data quality. When users try to apply powerful analytics tools they find the source data is lacking, and not properly managed, leaving users scrambling to fight a losing battle to keep customer data clean and updated.

Band recommends that companies look at customer data handling up front, before putting in CRM applications, and resolve any matters that have arisen. This can save time and aggravation, and help you get the results you are seeking.

"Don't wait to address customer data issues until the latter stages of your deployment; it might be too late to resolve problems at that point," says Band.

Contact centers seemed to have weathered the downturn better than most sectors thanks to the need for firms to retain and attract scarce customers and their wallets with quality service, the unfortunately growing demand for collections, and in a slowdown in and in some cases a reversal of outsourced nearshoring and offshoring.

These are also excellent times for contact centers to expand. Retail closures and layoffs have created plenty of available customer-service-skilled people and modern, well-situated buildings. The financial services industry meltdown has led to similar opportunities, including vacant, well-wired, move-in ready contact centers. Home based work has finally emerged as a viable cost-effective and arguably more productive and greener alternative to traditional, and expensive employer-subsidized facilities.

Unfortunately if reports are accurate, contact center turnover continues to be higher than one might have expected in these difficult times. Even in communities where larger and better-paid employers have been cutting back, contact centers aggressively recruit for staff. In at least one city where there are several contact centers some of them have resorted to placing portable billboards near the entrances of their competition to lure agents and supervisors.

And where communities are prosperous, contact centers seem to lose out. One firm is closing its contact center in a small Midwestern city because it could not find enough workers to fill open positions even after several months of trying.

At the same time the bar has been raised on contact center employees. Customers who cannot find the products/services they want or solutions for their issues via the self-service demand, and rightly so, truly intelligent agents to help them: individuals who can communicate on their feet both verbally and in writing at the customers' level. It is no longer enough to have a pleasant voice in today's contact centers. Yet when positions require more skills it shrinks the applicant pools.

To fix these issues a contact center makeover may be needed. A good hard look at why those that are experiencing staffing issues cannot attract and retain the quality people they or more accurately their customers need, and take steps to address the problem areas.

The first place to examine is supervision and management. Staffing experts and experienced managers agree that the top reason why employees voluntarily leave their employers is because they work underneath terrible supervisors. Individuals who zero in and blow up out of proportion minor matters rather than focus on the key issues and who coach by berating staff as opposed to employing constructive criticism and showing better ways of accomplishing tasks.

The chief culprit is the age-old mistake of management, which is to promote the best line workers without any examination of whether they have the aptitude and skills to lead and supervise colleagues. Managers who themselves should not be in those roles. Then again stupidity breeds, well...

Yes, other service jobs like in retail and hospitality have the same bad supervision and turnover issues. Yet their environments make the idiocy a little more tolerable. Clerks and waiters can walk away and focus on customers whereas agents are haunted, even terrorized every second by their supervisors, over multiple channels, and with nowhere to run. Bullying managers have to keep their traps shut when they are facing the public.

A second troublespot is lack of staff empowerment and flexibility. Most contact center agents want to help those they are communicating with--doing so gives them tremendous satisfaction--but they get frustrated when they are tied down by bureaucratic red tape and procedures.

In today's world employees want and expect workplaces that work with instead of against their lives. That means enabling them to change and trade shifts, and giving them flexible hours, accommodating child and eldercare, and allowing them to work from home.

A third blotch is no community identity. In-house contact centers almost always rank higher than teleservices firms with potential hires because they have names and corporate images that they can wear as badges. Yet in all too few cases do teleservices companies have similar positive identities that their staff can be proud of. Not enough of them make themselves parts of their host communities such as by participating in charity or school fundraising, supporting local amateur sports teams, and in joining events such as holiday festivities.

Like being a homeowner in a subdivision it isn't enough to pay your taxes and mind your own business. You have to string your lights and take part in whatever else is taking place on your street if you are asked.

Lastly in thankfully fewer and fewer cases, some contact centers, especially the smaller operations still are situated in buildings that look like they have been condemned, or should be, and that is from the outward appearances: Diety knows what's behind the walls or under the floors or above the ceilings. There have been reports of instances that the sites have looked so bad that prospective clients have looked at the sales reps, said 'You gotta be kidding', and walked away.

Little wonder that elected officials have been able to punch through do not call and other industry-restrictive legislation in the past; deaf to the complaints of job loss fears. There have been politicians who fairly recently who have blasted contact centers because they create low-paid high-turnover jobs. If you act and look undesirable and you are not visible, and that you don't give others a reason to truly care about you, you get treated accordingly.

There is no reason why contact centers cannot become employers of choice, whether the workplaces are bricks-and-mortar sites or employees' homes. The solution lies, like in the hiring candidate agents, in facing the mirrors, getting their acts together, become interested in and taking part in what's around them, and in putting their best feet forward.

Remember the last time you played Monopoly (TM) when a big player in the game who owned Boardwalk and Park Place went bankrupt, and how you and your friends couldn't wait to buy these nice assets for dimes on the dollars?

That's what may be in the process of occurring to Nortel right now. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that the communications firm, which is under creditor protection, has attracted several possible purchasers of its high-value enterprise and wireless equipment businesses.

According to The Canadian Press, the WSJ's website named Avaya and Siemens Enterprise Communications as potential purchasers of Nortel's enterprise product line according to well-placed sources. Cisco looked at the unit as well but is not expected to bid. Nortel is also is in talks to sell its wireless voice equipment division to firms such as Nokia Siemens Networks. Nokia Siemens Networks, which long has sought to expand its presence in the U.S.

The dilemma faced by Nortel, which is under creditor protection, is that by selling its most valuable units, which posted $6.7 billion in sales last year, is what it has left worth continuing in business for?

``'What we are finding is that there may be a lot more value by selling rather than emerging,'' said an unnamed source quoted by the paper. ``'The company was surprised by the amount of interest and the number of calls.''

``Selling the wireless gear business, which generates most of the company's cash, would complicate any plans to emerge from the bankruptcy process as a stand-alone company.'''

Appropriately enough the WSJ story comes on the heels of Nortel's latest financial results, released last week. The firm reported a $2.1 billion net loss in the fourth quarter 2008 (4Q 08) compared $3.4 billion in 3Q 08. This improvement lies in the shadow of a net loss of $5.78 billion for 2008 compared to that of $957 million for 2007.

4Q 08 revenues were up to $2.72 billion from $2.32 billion in 3Q 08, but down 15 percent from $3.2 billion in 4Q 07. Full year 2008 revenues of $10.42 billion represent a 5 percent decrease compared to that in 2007. A portion of that revenue growth came from contract completion and with this realization of previously deferred revenues rather than from sales.

Nortel's orders paint a similar picture. They were $2.64 billion for 4Q 08, up from $2.02 billion in 3Q 08 but down from $3.24 billion for 4Q 07. It cited lower orders for wireless and enterprise equipment for the drop between 2007 and 2008.

The firm is still hoping to pull itself up without breaking apart but that prospect appears to be less likely. The Globe and Mail reports that debtor-in-possession financing -- the lifeblood of most bankruptcy restructurings -- has all but disappeared this year.

"'Banks aren't exactly lining up to finance a purchase of Nortel assets,'" a banking source told the newspaper.

TMCnet has been tracking this story. Watch our space for more developments.

Research firm Datamonitor recently came out with an intriguing report about Sri Lanka as a potential business process outsourcing (BPO)/offshore contact center hub.

Intriguing in that there may be a strong case for that island nation to become a BPO center despite its small (relative to neighboring India) population of 20 million.  Intriguing is that it has been the media lately on account of an ongoing civil war: which is not exactly the kind of development that assures potential investors and clients.

Datamonitor points out that Sri Lanka shares many of the attributes that has made India such an attractive location for BPO including an affordable and a plentiful pool of educated and English-speaking workers, high literacy levels, and a legal system that is based on a Western model.

The country through its IT trade organization Slasscom is wisely is focusing, however, on a few key strengths, such as accounting and finance (approximately 50,000 Sri Lankans qualify as accountants each year) rather than trying to be 'all things to all firms' that India's huge population can afford that nation to be.

Yet only farther down does the paper touch upon Sri Lanka's 20+ year old civil war, one like many such conflicts based on longstanding and deep-rooted issues between dominant and minority populations...after a discussion about costly telecom, doubts about cities outside its capital to support BPO/IT, and competition from other nations.

This is the wrong focus. Civil conflicts are top of media and top of mind. Because these are issues that must be addressed head on and up front in this post-9-11-01 world.

Here's what the CIA World Factbook says:

"Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists erupted into war in 1983. Tens of thousands have died in the ethnic conflict that continues to fester. After two decades of fighting, the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formalized a cease-fire in February 2002 with Norway brokering peace negotiations. Violence between the LTTE and government forces intensified in 2006 and the government regained control of the Eastern Province in 2007. In January 2008, the government officially withdrew from the ceasefire, and by late January 2009, the LTTE remained in control of a small and shrinking area of Mullaitivu district in the North....

"The 25-year civil conflict between LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka has been a serious impediment to economic activities. By mid February 2009, the LTTE remained in control of small and shrinking area in the North. The conflict continues to cast a shadow over the economy."

Yes, companies set up shop and do business with firms located in many dangerous and conflict-ridden parts of the world. That can include our own back yards. As was remarked to me when I was writing about Northern Ireland as a contact center location 11-12 years ago "you're safer in Belfast than in Boston".

There is, however, a difference between civil wars and criminal activity. Terrorism is a tactic to conduct warfare, including civil warfare. The state is the target, and to destroy or neutralize it or to force it to change policies or redress grievances terror is aimed at the institutions, infrastructure, the economy, and the support of its population through generating fear. The latter can also include tourists, and executives sent there to support operations.

In contrast, criminals don't care about politics. They want what others have and they do what it takes to get it.

I used to live in the UK during Northern Ireland's 'Troubles' including during bombing campaigns. I used to also live in Boston and have visited the city many times before and since, travelling throughout the city on its transit system and on foot. There is no comparison in the on-the-spot fear between being checked out on an MBTA subway train and the shuddering terror of having to evacuate a train station in Manchester, England.

And while firms often take such risks--with civil conflicts and with high criminality--on manufacturing, resource extraction, and trade the rewards are usually there to match. Can the same justifications to put staff and assets in danger be made for comparatively low-value BPO, which the Datamonitor report admitted can be and is done in other parts of the world?

I wish to see an end to the conflict in Sri Lanka. For the Datamonitor report is correct in that the country has strong potential, just like Northern Ireland has. There are firms such as WNS and RR Donnelley there. And yes it will take a long time for Sri Lanka's war to cease even when there is a settlement, as there will be factions that will try to undermine it, as demonstrated by a recent bombing in Northern Ireland.

There are reports of the Sri Lankan government's recent military successes. Yet as this article from the Financial Times points out, "Most analysts argue it needs to do this by following up its military success with measures that would bolster the position of minority Tamils in Sri Lankan society, which is dominated by ethnic Sinhalese, comprising 74 per cent of the population, and ease the ethnic tensions that gave rise to LTTE."

For a country or region to be truly successful in drawing easily transferable BPO/IT business there must be a commitment to stability including creating and maintaining a functional society. BPO/IT investments can firm that up by creating employment--which has been stressed in Northern Ireland to create work for large jobless pools --but the civil foundation must be there for these structures (like contact centers) to hold up over time. And that means taking steps including compromises with the sides involved to resolve the issues that had led to or exacerbated to the point of violence the civil conflicts in the first place.

One of the more sensible new mantras in the contact center field is call avoidance: namely taking steps to prevent calls from customers from occurring. Call avoidance saves money and bolsters revenue by reducing contact handling costs and by improving customer satisfaction and retention by tackling their issues head on before they become problems.

Outbound messaging and notification, which will be covered in the April issue of Customer Interaction Solutions is one technique.

Another, and much more effective, is discovering and preventing the problems and issues that prompted the calls in the first place.

In the spirit of aiding the already beleaguered airline industry and its roster of many fine people still working for it, including in contact centers, here is a great opportunity to practice call avoidance: flush into the 'blue ice' chamber consideration of charging customers to use in-flight toilets that was raised last week by Irish deep-discount carrier Ryanair. Yes, according to Reuters the airline's CEO may be making this stuff up to get PR: but the world is littered with dumb ideas that have taken hold because of someone's musings.

I am taking this pre-emptive move because if this idea takes hold, airlines, desperate for coin and cost savings, would bolt the devices to the washroom doors faster than a 737 taking off from that aircraft-carrier-disguised-as-an-airport known as LaGuardia. The irate calls, e-mails, and faxes that would, well...flow...are the teleservices firms and IVR/speech rec firms such as Microsoft subsidiary Tellme and other outfits likeWest Interactive ready?

After all, look at what happened with food, baggage, and other features once known as amenities--charging for which many people too had thought was stupid--and which take in cash, no doubt like the infamous ' plus sales and handling' on direct marketed items going back to the 'bottom' line. There are probably at this writing engineers working on CAD/CAMs with lightweight, difficult to tamper (or rip off) payment card-accepting devices for the toilets. The profits that can be made on transcon and intercom flights, and to family destinations like Orlando...to make the revenues (ahem) flow to less popular locales maybe the carriers can cut the price of beer...

There are other and customer-friendlier moves the airlines can make to cut costs. Among them:

* Partnering rather than fighting Amtrak (and VIA Rail in Canada) and the bus companies to provide single-ticket short-haul ground spokes instead of connecting flights. There are a few North American airports with rail access or decent proximity to rail lines, like Philly (the only one with a train station inside), Newark, BWI, O'Hare, Providence, San Diego, Sea-Tac, Montreal (Pierre Elliott Trudeau/Dorval) and Toronto (Pearson). The move would cut costs, and ticket prices with the dividends of reducing flight delays and harmful emissions. Short-haul takeoffs and landings chew up runway capacity and spew much more pollutants per passenger-mile than medium to long-haul flights

* Move airline customer service and reservations to a great source of low-cost/high productivity, and extremely knowledgeable potential at-home agents: retired flight attendants, pilots, and customer service personnel

* Devise a lightweight, ergonomically sound non-reclining seat. The recliners on board aircraft create more customer discomfort i.e. breaking the kneecaps and getting too up-close-and-personal with the customers behind than they are worth in supposedly adding comfort. And they are a maintenance headache

On the other hand, installing pay toilets on airplanes maybe just the kickstart the bus companies need to scoop up customers: Amtrak is already popular and the Obama Administration plans to pour more money into it. Such a move by the carriers would also make it a great time to buy shares in firms like Cisco and Logitech. One more reason not to fly and to conference and meet-by-video instead...