Top 10 First Call Resolution Practices

Call Center Performance

Measuring & Improving

North America’s Leading Experts for

Measuring and Improving

Call Center Service Quality Performance

Copyrighted - No Reproduction TELUS June 8, 2005 Slide 1

Mission Statement…

To be operationally excellent at being a quality assurance solutions provider that helps call centers measure and improve their service quality, sales and first call resolution performance.





Facts About SQM Group…

● We benchmark over 200 leading North American call centers on an annual basis and we have been conducting this benchmarking study for over 9 years

● On an annual basis we conduct over 250,000 surveys with customers who have used a contact center’s call center, email, website or IVR channel services

● We also conduct over 20,000 surveys yearly with employees

● Our experience in call center service quality measuring, benchmarking, tracking and managing are unsurpassed and enable us to provide call centers with unique insights into developing and implementing world class customer service

● The majority of SQM’s tracking clients improve on customer satisfaction and operating cost





SQM Clients…

Some of the most successful organizations in North America utilize

SQM Group’s expertise to benchmark and track their call centers customer and employee satisfaction such as:

● Telcos/Cable… Rogers, Bell, FIDO, TELUS, Sprint,

SaskTel, Star Choice, AT&T, etc

● Banks… Royal, CIBC, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, TD

Bank, Wells Fargo, US Bank, ING, Citifinancial, etc

● Retail/Hospitality… Canadian Tire, Sears, Marriott Hotel,

WestJet, Staples, Officemax, Safeway, Molson, etc

● Government… Treasury Board, Citizen & Immigration,

HRDC, Provincial and Local Government

● 81 of the 100 largest call centers in Canada are SQM clients

● The average SQM call center client size is 400 work stations handling 3.6 million inbound calls

● SQM enjoys 95% customer retention





Call Center

Industry Comparison

Overall Customer Satisfaction By Industry…

Retail

76%

Government

57%

Energy/Utility

64%

Financial/Insurance

72%

Telecommunications

51%

Best Call Center

94%

Call Center Industry Average

65%

40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%


Call Center

Historical

Overall Employee Satisfaction By Industry…

Retail

Government

Energy/Utility

Financial/Insurance

Telecommunications

Best Call Center

Call Center Industry Average

20%

28%

35%

37%

34%

36%

41%

72%

30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%


Call Center

Key Performance Indicators

90%

85%

80%

75%

70%

65%

60%

55%

50%

45%

40%

85%

World Class

Customer

Satisfaction

85%

First Call

Resolution

65%

Average

Customer

Satisfaction

68%

First Call

Resolution

54%

52%

Low

Customer

Satisfaction

First Call

Resolution

Average Calls to Resolve

Inquiry is 1.2


Inquiry is 1.5


Inquiry is 2.0


Contact Channels

Comparison

Key Performance Indicators…

90%

85%

82%

85%

79%

80%

Note: Website ratings are for only the banking industry

75%

70%

68%

68%

65%

65%

60%

61%

54%

55%

50%

Website

Customer

Satisfaction

Website First

Call

Resolution

IVR

Customer

Satisfaction

IVR First Call

Resolution

Call Center

Customer

Satisfaction

Website

Average Contacts to

Resolve Inquiry is 1.2

IVR

Average Calls to


Call Center

First Call

Resolution

Call Center



Email

Customer

Satisfaction

Email First

Call

Resolution

Email




Contact Channels

Comparison

Overall Impression of Company has Changed as a

Result of Contact Method Experience…

Top Box Better Rating

43%

Website

33%

IVR

32%

Call Center

25%

Note: Website ratings are for only the banking industry

Email

20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%


Employee and Customer

Relationship Study

Conducted for

Treasury Board of Canada





Study Methodology…

 The study is based on data collected from January 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005



Customer data is based on 208,125 surveys of customers who phoned a call center in

North America

 Employee data is based on 18,652 surveys of employees who work in a call center in

North America

 212 call centers in North America have participated in SQM’s benchmarking study (14% are in the public sector; 86% are in the private sector)

 Call center sample size breakdown percentage is as follows:

 Low performing call centers are 21%

 Average performing call centers are 63%

 High performing call centers are 16%



Call center performance criteria is as follows:

 Low performing call centers are based on customer satisfaction that is 54% and below

 Average performing call centers are based on customer satisfaction that is 55% to 69%

 High performing call centers are based on customer satisfaction that is 70% and above


Call Center

Customer & Employee Overall Satisfaction

Improvement Comparison

Low

Performing

High Performing Call Centers

Performing

Improvement % Comparison

Call Centers

Average

Call Centers

High

Call Centers

Public

Private

All

Customer

Rating

Employee

Rating

Customer

Rating

Employee

Rating

Customer

Rating

Employee

Rating

Customer

Performance

Customer

Performance

Employee

Performance

Employee

Performance

49%

54%

53%

24%

29%

29%

59%

66%

65%

30%

36%

35%

68%

76%

75%

37%

42%

41%

+39%

+41%

+42%

+15%

+15%

+15%

+54%

+45%

+41%

+23%

+17%

+17%

Customer Question…

Based on your last call to their call center, overall how satisfied are you with the call center?

Employee Question…

Based on your working experience at the call center, overall how satisfied are you working at the call center?

Note: Rating % is top box very satisfied rating

Key Finding…

High performing call center overall employee satisfaction improvement % is approximately the same as overall high performing call center customer satisfaction improvement %. Therefore,

SQM is of the strong opinion that employee satisfaction impacts customer satisfaction for both the public and private sectors.


Employee & Customer Satisfaction

Relationship Map…

Key Finding: Overall private or public call center’s employee and customer relationship is positively or negatively correlated.

No Relationship

Correlation

Higher 45%

Positive Relationship

Correlation

 Private High

 All High

35%

 Public High

 Private Average

 All Average

 Public Average



Private Low

 All Low

 Public Low

Lower 20%

Negative Relationship

Correlation

No Relationship

Correlation

45% Lower 65%

Customer Satisfaction

Higher 90%


Employee and Customer Attribute Linkage…

Public

Scheduling

Workstations

Software

Employee Attributes

LC

Contact Sub Total Points

Training

Career

Appreciation

Supervisor MGMT Style

Pay

Benefits

Rewards

Communication

Valued

Work Equally Hard

Stress

Work Pace

Call Variety

Freedom

Call Flow

Utilize Skills

Monitoring

Coaching

Handling Sub Total Points

Authority

Policies

Support

Performance Goals

Goals & Objectives

Service Commitment

Resolution Sub Total Points

Total Employee Points

11

27

22

60

21

13

28

23

26

20

131

494

21

11

17

34

17

32

20

9

11

15

13

14

17

10

14

13

13

22

303

Customer Attributes

AC HC

16

30

24

70

23

13

22

37

18

34

20

Contact Attributes

22 Greeting

30

24

Voice Menu

Wait Time

Security

76 Contact Sub Total Points

Handling Attributes

24

15

Call Length

Listening

26

40

19

35

21

Polite

Clarity

Helpful

Caring

Hold

13

15

18

17

19

21

12

16

18

23

19

22

23

15

Transfer

Understood

16

15

19

17

14 16

24

351

25

393 Handling Sub Total Points

26

Resolution Attributes

29 Decision

16

31

27

28

24

152

20

33

30

30

Summarizing

Knowledge

Call Resolution

Next Steps

26 Follow Through

168 Resolution Sub Total Points

573 637 Total Customer Points

LC

48

27

28

37

140

37

36

40

44

21

23

201

736

41

50

60

48

53

42

25

30

46

395

AC

58

31

32

47

168

455

47

59

67

55

60

49

30

36

52

46

44

49

50

26

30

245

868

High Call Centers Employee

Improvement %

29% 11%

High Call Centers Customer

Improvement %

35% 14%

HC

68

35

42

57

202

55

54

73

62

67

58

37

44

58

508

51

52

56

57

30

35

281

991

Key Finding…

High performing call center employee satisfaction attribute improvement % is approximately the same as high performing call center customer satisfaction attribute improvement %.

Legend:

HC=High Call Center

AC=Average Call Center

LC=Low Call Center

Note: Points are based on very satisfied ratings

Combined Total Points

LC

1230

32%

AC

1441

13%

HC

1628


Call Center

Source of Error for Not Achieving

First Call Resolution

Comparison

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Public

Private

All

59%

58% 58%

30%

33%

32%

11%

10% 10%

Employee

59%

58%

58%

Organization

30%

33%

32%

Customer

11%

10%

10%


Call Center

Key Performance Indicators

Comparison

Public

80%

70%

60%

50%

Custom er Overall

Satisfaction

Em ployee Overall

Satisfaction

AVG. # Calls to

Resolve

1.9

49%

59%

68%

2.2

2.0

1.8

40%

30%

20%

24%

1.5

30%

1.3

37% 1.6

1.4

1.2

Key Finding…

High performing call centers employee satisfaction increases customer satisfaction resulting in a better (lower) Avg. calls to resolve.

10%

0%

Low Performing

Call Centers

Average Performing

Call Centers

High Performing

Call Centers

1.0

Note: Rating % is top box very satisfied rating


Call Center

Avg. Calls to Resolve

Gap Comparison

Public

Low

Performing Performing

Call Centers Call Centers Call Centers

Avg. Call to

Resolve

Gap Avg. Call to Resolve

Avg. Call to

Resolve

Gap

1.9

-0.4

1.5

1.3

-0.2

Private 1.8

-0.3

1.5

1.2

-0.3

All 1.7

-0.1

1.6

1.2

-0.4

Key Finding…

High performing call centers Avg. Call to Resolve is substantially better (lower) than average and low performing call centers resulting in lower operating costs.


Business Case Why to

Improve Employee Satisfaction …

Employee

Satisfaction

Impact

1 % improvement in Employee

Satisfaction Equals

2% improvement in

Customer Satisfaction

Customer

Satisfaction

Impact

1% improvement in Customer

Satisfaction Equals

1% improvement in

First Call Resolution (FCR)

First Call

Resolution

Impact

5% improvement in

FCR Equals

.1 improvement in

Avg. Call to Resolve

Key Finding…

Based on a 2.5% improvement in

Employee Satisfaction, an average call center can improve Avg. Call to Resolve by .1 and can potentially save $1.7 Million

Avg. Call to Resolve

Impact

Queue

Call Center

Average

Current Performance

Avg

Call

Resolve

Volume

Cost

Per Call

Cost

1.5

Avg

Call

Resolve

Improvement Performance

Volume

Cost

Per Call

Cost

Potential

Savings

3,800,975 $6.52

$24,782,357 1.4

3,534,907 $6.52

$23,047,594 $1,734,763

1.3

1.2

1.1

3,268,839 $6.52

$21,312,830 $3,469,527

3,002,770 $6.52

$19,578,060 $5,204,297

2,736,702 $6.52

$17,843,297 $6,939,060


Top 10 First Call Resolution

Practices






Practices…

Management

 In Your Heart & Mind

 Senior Management Involvement

 Senior Management Line of Sight

 Stable Management Team at all Levels



Practices…

Awareness

 Business Case Shared

 No Job Loses

 Weekly Meetings Sharing Results



Practices…

Goals & Accountability

 At all Levels

 Call Types, Segments & Locations

 Key Vendors

 FCR & Average Calls Needed for

Call Resolution



Practices…

Resolution Outcome

 Focus on Outcome versus Journey

 Take Ownership

 Apologies & Recovers

 Best Available Solution

 Customer Acceptance of Resolution

 Recognizing Customer Dissatisfaction



Practices…

2 Plus Calls

 Reason for 2 Plus Calls

 Source of Errors

 Customer Feedback



Practices…

Measurement

 Measure Weekly

 Measure FCR, Average Calls Needed for

Resolution & Service Quality Attributes

 Customer is the Judge

 FCR/CSR Integrity

 For the QA program separate business and customer measures

 Call Monitoring/FCR Calibration



Practices…

Coaching

 Upfront CSR Training

 Train the Supervisors

 Benchmark Comparison

 FCR Performance

 Targeted Opportunities



Practices…

Hiring & Turnover

 Hire for Customers versus Organization

 FCR Profile

 Stable Workforce



Practices…

Call Flow

 Service Standards (Journey)

 Service Standards (Outcome)

 Escalation Process

 Call Flow Practices

 Hold & Transfer can be Good

 CSR Desk Top Applications



Practices…

Recognition & Incentives

 Best Performers

 Most Improved Performers

 Monthly Recognition

 Financial Incentives

 Quarterly Financial Payout

 At Least 50% Financial Payout


Top 10 First Call Resolution Practices

Call Center Performance

Facts About SQM Group…

SQM Clients…

Call Center

Call Center

Call Center

Contact Channels

Contact Channels

Study Methodology…

Call Center

Call Center

Call Center