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Find out how to unlock the real power of
Genesys intelligent call routing & WFM.
No hype, no industry jargon - just some practical
ways to decrease costs, improve performance &
optimise your Genesys contact centre.
Genesys Contact Centre
Optimisation
If your contact centre needs to perform better we will help you
complete the optimisation journey, whatever route you follow...
Reduce training time
& costs
Improve contact centre sales & service performance
Maximise the ROI from your contact centre
systems
Reduce the time before new
agents become fully productive
Reduce management time & costs Build
training portal
Automatically create training plans in WFM
Use skills DNA profiling
for skills based routing
Identify exact training needs
Integrate new skills database into ACD
Implement regular
online skills assessment
Use correlation analysis to identify
skills affecting performance
Screen job candidates
online
Launch training
academy
Replace paper notes with interactive web guides
Link to LMS
Use voice recognition for
call steering
Modify training to
improve ROI
A White Paper from Silver Lining Solutions
Every Genesys optimisation journey has a starting point
Right now around the world probably every
contact centre is under pressure to reduce costs
and increase performance. In a time when
competition for customers and staff has become
even more intense, every call counts, every
customer matters and every agent is a valuable
asset.
Consequently contact centres need to get more
out of their technology and people – and follow
the optimisation journey. CXO’s are asking
searching questions like;
Where’s the ROI for the technology we’ve
invested in?
With all this technology and all these
agents why aren’t our service and sales
levels improving?
They want real results, real fast. But where do you start? What do you do?
In this white paper we briefly outline some of the
ways you can approach the challenges you face
today with the knowledge that the first step on
the optimisation journey is the hardest – and the
most important.
At the heart of every optimisation strategy there
are two critical components:
Genesys intelligent call routing – the
invisible magic solution that routes the
right call to the right agent at the right
time.
The agent – the most valuable asset of
any contact centre.
Why are these two components so important?
Because there is no advantage in having a state-
of-the-art Genesys solution that routes calls to
agents who do not have right skills or knowledge
to manage them properly; and likewise there is
no advantage in investing significant amounts of
money in training to make sure agents have the
right skills, only for calls to be randomly
distributed to them with no real intelligence
behind the Genesys routing decisions.
You probably already have teams of people in
your contact centre trying to identify ways to
decrease costs and improve performance – but
are they working together in a single, joined up,
cohesive strategy? Optimisation relies on
building a strategy that supports both Genesys
intelligent call routing and the agent. Many
optimisation plans fail to deliver because the
contact centre focuses too much on one whilst
ignoring the other.
A real life example of how it can go wrong...
Here’s an example of what can happen when
different areas of the contact centre work
independently of each other in a disjointed
approach:
The training team in a contact centre has recently
invested large sums of time and money
identifying agent skill gaps so it can develop a
new agent training plan. In doing this the team
has had to indentify individual agent skill levels
across a large number of skill types (so it can
identify individual skill gaps).
This valuable skills data could also be used by
Genesys to deliver a better, more optimised call
routing plan – only it never gets anywhere near
Genesys because the Genesys skills data is
owned by another entirely separate team of
people who are not aware of this project.
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Put the intelligence back into intelligent call routing & unlock the real power of Genesys
The ultimate aim of every Genesys contact centre
is to make sure each customer call is managed by
the right agent with the right skills at the right
time – and they get it right first time. However,
the amount of intelligence any ACD has is
dependent on the quality and quantity of skills
data stored within it – yet many contact centres
still use skills data in Genesys as a basic ‘yes/no’
proficiency switch for routing calls. The agent
either has the skill or they haven’t.
This is like buying a Ferrari and never driving it above 30 miles per hour...
And it’s not just about getting the most out of
Genesys. Intelligent call routing done properly
has a significant impact on contact centre
performance. It has been proved to directly
affect:
Productivity
Call handling and hold times
First call resolution
Balanced workload
Agent morale
Costs
Despite this many contact centres still use the
same basic approach: a call arrives, Genesys
identifies the call/customer type, prioritises the
call and often routes it to the first available agent
(any agent) with the required skill marked against
them just to meet the SLA. Call placed quickly,
SLA met, so customer must be happy – right?
At the same time the team of people managing
Genesys is engaged in another project to roll out
an improved Virtual Contact Centre solution
across multiple sites. Key to this project will be
the agents’ ability to multi-skill across different
call and customer types. The team therefore
needs to know which agents in each location
could handle what type of call; but the team is
severely hampered by a lack of any detailed,
accurate agent skills data - because only basic
skill data has ever been stored in Genesys.
Finally, a third team of people has been looking
at agent sales/service performance and customer
value/behaviours, with a view to rolling out an
agent scorecard. These scorecards will pull in
data from multiple sources (Genesys, CRM,
quality monitoring etc.) and analyse the
combined results to estimate each agent’s value
to the contact centre (i.e. how much they
contribute). This will be used for a new pay deal.
However, the information about each agent’s
value is important in other ways, because it could
also be used to identify what skills affect agent
performance – and therefore; (a) what skills the
training team should focus on during the
forthcoming training, and (b) what skills the
Genesys team should build new VCC call routing
plans around. However, the team is only focused
on launching the new scorecards so this valuable
information never reaches the training team or
the Genesys team.
Three separate teams within the contact centre
all generating valuable data that could benefit
each other, but no single joined up approach that
could bring all their good work together...
So what’s the answer?
Focus on the two critical components at the
same time, namely: #1 Optimise Genesys
intelligent call routing and #2 Optimise your
agents.
#1 Optimise Genesys
2
Improve skills relevancy
Increasingly Genesys contact centres are
discovering that customers are prepared to wait
to talk to an agent who has the right skills,
knowledge and experience to help them – rather
than be connected to any available agent.
Fully optimising Genesys and ‘getting more bang
for your buck’ means implementing true
intelligent call routing across your contact
centre. However, Genesys alone can’t deliver
this because it is dependent on agent skill and
proficiency levels stored in its database being:
1. Relevant – are the skills really critical for
maintaining satisfactory sales and service
levels? If not, why are they in Genesys?
2. Accurate – are the skills purely based on
subjective feedback (e.g. a Team Leader’s
opinion of an agent’s proficiency levels)?
If so objective proficiency level testing
should be added to improve accuracy.
3. Granular – is there enough detail about
individual agent skill types and levels?
Many contact centres still only have a
handful of skill types and levels in Genesys
years after the initial implementation.
Consequently these customers are getting
only a fraction of the total potential ROI
benefits Genesys can provide.
4. Up-to-date – manually keeping agent
skills updated usually involves juggling
multiple spreadsheets with agent skill
information. Typically managers have to
update each agent skills profile
individually within Genesys; which is time
consuming, resource intensive and prone
to human error. Consequently many
contact centres end up with only a small
number of skills being proactively
managed in Genesys.
Use in depth correlation analysis to identify which skills affect agent performance more than others:
Skills with highest %
impact
Performance target to improve
Typically correlation data is taken and analysed from;
Genesys - hold times, AHT, FCR etc. CRM - sales results, customer sat scores
etc. Quality monitoring - call observation
scores etc. Skills assessment – agent test and
observational feedback scores etc.
The results should be used to create a skills DNA profile of what a ‘great’ agent looks like for each job role – i.e. the skill types and skill levels they should maintain to perform at an optimal level. These skills DNA profiles can be used to build new, highly effective intelligent call routing plans; where calls are routed to agents based on the skills DNA profile best suited for different call/customer types.
Low level skills analysis should also be carried out – the more detail, the more
accurate the results
1
3
Our 4 stage Genesys optimisation plan
Improve skills accuracy Improve skills granularity
The objective assessment and subjective feedback should be combined with other performance data from quality monitoring systems, Genesys etc. to create a central skills database which is separate from the ACD. This separate database contains extremely accurate and granular skills data for each agent and is typically managed by the training team within the Genesys contact centre.
A mapping tool can then automatically map the skills in the central skills database across to the skills in the Genesys database - significantly reducing the time, resources and costs required to do this manually.
Ahead of VCC roll out – estimate agent training costs and reaslitic ability to handl multiple skills
Detailed individual agent skill levels mapped across
to Genesys to power intelligent call routing
Accurate agent skill data is vital. Without knowledge of who really knows what across the contact centre it is not possible to correctly identify agent proficiency levels and implement successful Genesys intelligent call routing.
Agent skills should be tested using a combination of objective online assessment and subjective observational feedback. Online assessments (tests) can be pushed to agents during downtime, or automatically scheduled in WFM. Assessments often incorporate multimedia, multiple choice and images to assess each individual agent’s skills and knowledge levels – which make up their own unique skills DNA. Observational feedback should be captured from team leaders, quality monitors etc. - and also customers using for example IVR.
2 3
4
Keep skills up-to-date
This is a key problem many Genesys contact centres fail to address. A high volume of agents and skills, coupled with the new starters and leavers coming/going every month, often results in only a handful of skills being managed within Genesys on a regular basis. This problem also means it is not uncommon for the skills structure in Genesys to remain almost unchanged years after the solution was installed – despite the fact that customers, products and probably the business as a whole will have moved on and evolved.
Don’t leave Genesys in a time vacuum – like your contact centre it must keep pace with the changing needs of your customers, products and services...
Integrated solutions like Skills Manager now allow contact centres to automatically update multiple agent skills across hundreds, even thousands of agents. This can be done by automatically importing spreadsheets using for example Skills Manager’s wizard interface, or linking skills updates to assessments; so as agent skills are verified through tests or feedback the results are automatically exported from the central skills database into Genesys via the Skills Manager GIS integration:
4
Skills Manager allows the contact centre to import Excel or similar type of application containing skills data directly into the ACD database (in this case Genesys CME) using an
intuitive wizard interface
Skill types and proficiency levels are automatically saved
against each individual agent in the ACD
database – no limit to the number of agents and skills that can be
simultaneously updated. Audit trail, data integrity
checks, roll back and other safety features are
included.
Genesys CME integration
5
What can you do with all this accurate, relevant, granular and up-to-date skills data..?
The answer is a great deal. This skills data can be
used by contact centres to maximise the ROI
benefits Genesys intelligent call routing provides
through:
Implementing optimised routing
strategies that improve Service Levels.
Ensuring the right call is routed to the
right agent at the right time – right first
time.
Matching call/customer type to the agent
with the closest skills DNA profile match –
which agent is likely to serve this
customer the best, or has the highest
chance of closing this type of sale?
Improving customer service through
better prioritisation of calls based on
customer behaviours – what type of
caller is more likely to be prepared to
wait for an agent who has a higher level
of skill and knowledge?
Give them the skills & knowledge they need to perform better...
Your contact centre is the window through which
customers view and judge your company, and any
contact centre is only as good the agents who
work in it. You can invest in the best technology in
the world, but the customer will come away with a
bad experience if the agent who manages their call
does not have the skills and knowledge required.
This makes your people the most valuable asset
you have – and one that absorbs the highest
percentage of your annual budget.
Optimising agents requires you to focus on:
1. Identifying and improving the skills that
matter most to help increase agent
performance – the higher the right skill
levels, the better the overall performance.
2. Streamlining recruitment and training
processes to improve efficiency and reduce
training time and costs – the less time your
agents are being trained in skills they don’t
need, the more satisfied they’re going to
be, the lower the cost and the more time
they’re available on the phones earning
revenue.
3. Next call avoidance – giving agents the
right skills to identify all a customer’s
requirements on first contact, by asking the
right questions at the right time.
Next are some simple, quick win ideas to
help you optimise these key areas
#2 Optimise your agents
In the UK the mobile telecoms company O2 uses the Skills Manager import wizard to import and update agent skills data overnight into Genesys CME, powering Genesys intelligent call routing across its 5,000+ agent Virtual Contact Centre.
The time and resources required to manually collate and update the skills data by not having to go into each individual agent profile in CME.
ROI SAVING
Real life example
6
Rapid training needs analysis
Interactive knowledge guides
Top performer profiling
Use correlation analysis to analyse multiple performance data sources and identify the ideal skills DNA profile of your top performers – what does good look like?
Find out what skills and knowledge are helping some people perform better than others.
Analyse the results to build more focused and effective training plans.
Rapidly conduct objective group TNA across multiple agents, skill sets, teams, business units etc.
Use the results to deliver more focused and effective training plans – right person, right training, right time.
Automatically build tailored training plans for each agent in Genesys or other WFM taking into account service level impact etc.
Provide agents with quick reference, interactive guides which they can use during calls or as and when required.
Create knowledge refreshers – these can also be linked to job roles and individual training plans.
Provides a full audit trail of who viewed what, when – this can be used to determine training ROI, individual training needs and where future training should be focused.
Show agents the skill gaps they have for their current role and the new roles they are interested in – ‘this is where you are now and this is where you need to be to do this role’.
Link to LMS eLearning content to promote self-learning – ‘how close are your skills to those of our top performers?’
Career development portal
7
WFM integration
Streamline recruitment
Use online testing to stream new starters to reduce the drop-out rate and the time before new starters become fully productive.
Implement fast track schemes for higher skilled new starters and search for the skills identified as having the biggest impact on performance.
Launch new innovative recruitment campaigns. – ‘take this quick test to find out how much you could earn working for our contact centre’.
Training portal
Manage all training resources and training scheduling through a web based portal – allows progress to be tracked against a central training roadmap.
Automatically schedule agent training in Genesys or other WFM and centrally manage all training resources – including trainers and training rooms.
Run ‘What If’ scenarios to assess the potential impact of training on agent performance & contact centre service levels before scheduling training in WFM.
In the UK a leading mobile telecoms company uses the Skills Manager online assessment tools to pinpoint individual agent training needs before training is delivered and test candidates before interview during the recruitment process.
This mobile telecoms company has saved over £500,000 through a reduction in training time and recruitment costs.
ROI SAVING
Real life example
Make sure you plan the route before you begin the journey...
The optimisation journey starts and ends with your agents. It is critical to understand their skills and ability
to multi-skill ahead of building training plans, optimising Genesys and implementing intelligent call routing
across your contact centre. A growing number of companies are using tools like Skills Manager to identify
the potential impact on agents and their Genesys platform before rolling out a new intelligent call routing
strategy in terms of:
Training and multi-skilling – what new skills will agents need and how long will it take to train them?
Time and money – how long and how much to prepare our agents for Genesys VCC implementation?
Location dependency – can true Genesys VCC really be achieved across all sites for all contact types?
ACD design – what level of complexity could be built into the new Genesys VCC routing design?
Finally, start the Genesys optimisation journey now – because your competitors are probably already on their way.
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About Skills Manager for Genesys
Used by leading companies like Jupiter Asset Management, Orange and O2, Skills Manager from Silver Lining
Solutions is the skills management solution for Genesys contact centres. The solution allows companies to
use a combination of online tests, self assessment and observational feedback to assess the level of agent
skills across their contact centre.
Agent skill levels are stored in a central skills database - this is used to:
Identify individual and organisational wide skill gaps.
Automatically build personalised agent training plans in Learning Management and Workforce
Management systems (including Genesys WFM).
Prove each agent has the skills required for their role within the contact centre.
Skills Manager can also be integrated into ACD platforms - such as Genesys CIM - providing Dynamic Skills
Based Routing across the contact centre. Dynamic Skills Based Routing allows agent skills data (such as skill
levels and skill types) to be automatically updated as agent skills are verified by Skills Manager.
This significantly reduces the cost, time and resources needed to manually update agent skills information -
and when combined with IVR and speech recognition allows companies to implement true intelligent call
routing across their Genesys contact centre.
Contact:
Tel: +44 (0)845 130 4222 Web: www.silverlining.uk.net Email: s.wright@silverlining.uk.net 9
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