Harry Fozzard
Top Mistakes Offshore Providers (BPOs) Make - Part 1
Recently a friend of mine and I started thinking about how BPO's could be better. We brainstormed how programs fail and ways we can improve our collective work output. A big part of this thinking is influenced by our scale — we sit at the small end of the industry (50-300 seats). Headcount matters in terms of BPO management best practices.
Working from the tendency of management best practices to shift beyond the 300 heatcount number (a nod to Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point), we're certainly looking at operations that fall below this amount. So in a world of big, scary dinosaurs — what are the rules of engagement for the little guy?
Mistake 1: Let the client manage you.
The Remedy: Be resolute, do the right thing and deliver long-term quality.
It never ceases to amaze me how often a customer outsources only to metastasize into managing their team just like they do back "home." When a customer says "that's not the way we do it in Jersey City, Duluth, or Jacksonville;" get ready.
At the sub-thousand seat level, chances are you're taking on work offshore-ed for the first time. That means that your customer is accustomed to knowledge workers that function differently than they do offshore. For one thing, home-shore workers have access to cultural and contextual information that offshore workers do not. It's what we refer to as common sense. Generally new customers find the amount of mapping and learning required is quite cumbersome.
Even good project managers can crumble under this pressure — especially in the Philippines where social hierarchy is infused into the DNA. That's where some management intervention and resolve helps in the long-run. Sometimes, giving the client what they want isn't what they need. Well managed deployments make the difference.
Mistake 2: Rush deployment.
The Remedy: Treat deployments like a NASA launch.
When deployments fail, programs fail. Agents aren't ready, key performance indicators aren't correctly identified and/or improperly mapped to incentives, managers don't understand the process, important steps get skipped. Generally failed deployments are a nightmare for all concerned.
Good deployments start with transparent and clear commercial relationships. When customers understand that offshore arbitrage happens with planning and attention to detail, they generally support a more considered approach.
Ensure process & reporting procedures are well understood and documented. Set expectations for a gradual ramp with week-over-week improvement (even on program expansion). Hire managers early and get them involved to the greatest extent possible (including a trip to the client's office for some first-hand observation).
Mistake 3: Cheap out on learning.
The Remedy: Learning is a strategic investment. Daily coaching is a game changer.
I used to think hiring experienced agents was a great way to stick some other center with the tab for foundation training. Two fallacies here: the first is that other centers do foundation training at all (see Mistake 2), the other that Foundation Training has much value when delivered.
Since small centers are often trying to get their campaign to market, they occasionally skip Foundation. Large players generally deliver this early learning to aclimate new employees with varying success. Trainers have varied backgrounds and the standard Foundation curriculum doesn't effectively prepare your team for the challenges of knowledge work.
Get in front of the team, teach things like email etiquette, create a platform for problem solving. Make the learning experience more than abbreviated vocational training or expanded script memorization. Talk to your guys often and see how they are grappling with program challenges. Use these issues combined with quality analytics and performance deficiencies to develop job aids and pre-shift learning modules.
About the engraving — Saint Louis Leaves for the Crusades (from www.istockphoto.com)
Against the recommendations of his wife, mother (who basically ran France at the time) and senior advisors, Louis IX of France decided to head down to teach the Egyptians a lesson via crusade. All the preparations for the Crusade didn't make Louis a very good combat leader (or particularly smart). He was defeated and captured and contracted dysentery. He bankrupted France with the fiasco and lost an army of 15,000 including a good chunk of French nobility.
Basically, a broken man, he was given sainthood as a consolation prize (and to offset the power of Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor).
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by Harry Fozzard
Dumaguete Trip - Father & Son Excursion
Harry & George took the weekend to check out the Visayas in Dumaguete. Sleepy, provicial and utterly charming.
Oddly chock-full of crusty old expats living out their days on the cheap and drinkign themselves into oblivion. Thanks to their good efforts, the beer is always cold and the food is surprisingly good. A return visit in April or May to hit Siguijor and Twin Lakes.
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by Harry Fozzard
How to Maintain Traditional Customer Service in the Social Media Age
Reposting from Mashable
You’ve been monitoring your Facebook wall and Twitter pages, responding to customer inquiries. But what are the next steps you should take to stay abreast of the latest trends in social service?
The emergence of social media communities requires you to track a new set of customer service metrics. Fortunately, you’ll have a better understanding of who your customers are and their service expectations. In some cases, it might even mean the end of traditional service level agreements (SLAs).
Service Level Agreements — How Will They Change?
SLAs are becoming more complex to manage because of the public, viral nature of social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Some consumers decide to “cut the line,” gravitating to these channels because they think they will get the fastest response.
So, are SLAs still relevant? Is it acceptable to let customers “cut the line?” Should you always prioritize Twitter service requests over requests placed through traditional service channels? What should be the response time on each channel — be it web, email, phone or social media?
The fact is that SLAs still have a purpose, but because of the very public nature of social media channels, companies need to know where their customers are and understand expected response time on each of those channels. It’s a delicate balance: Companies must understand that some channels require faster more personal responses, but traditional service channels still demand attention.
We have a few recommendations on how to handle impact of social channels on service requests and traditional SLAs.
- Know inside and out who your customers are, what channels they gravitate to when it comes to customer service, and the expectation for response time on those channels. For example, if the majority of your customers frequent Facebook and Twitter for customer support, invest more in personal, timely responses from both your customer service and marketing teams. When a consumer asks a question on Facebook, he does not want to receive an automated response, fast as it may be. Consumers expect both personal and fast replies on Facebook. If you find that many of your customers seek help on your social media channels, host knowledge bases on those networks. It is a good way for consumers to find answers to commonly asked questions, and it frees up the time your customer service team would otherwise spend personally answering the same questions over and over again.
- Evaluate how urgent the inquiry really is, and see if you’re able to answer quickly and personally with some initial suggestions to solve his or her problem. If the answer requires further involvement, that’s ok. Tell the consumer his inquiry has been received and that it is being further evaluated by the customer service team. This will not only show that you’re responsive, but it will also give you more time to escalate the issue and route it to the correct representative in a more reasonable timeframe. Customers will understand that every service question cannot be answered instantly.
- Social media service instantly reflects on your brand and directly impacts your company’s marketing efforts. If you are slow to provide an initial response, or you don’t provide any response at all, it can cast your brand in a poor light. Your social media responses are public and will be read and shared with other consumers. The fact is that social media has really blurred the lines between marketing and customer service. Just make sure the two teams work together to tackle social service.
- Don’t ignore traditional channels because you’ve become focused on social media. Remember that social media has simply provided a new channel for engaging with your customers; it has not replaced the other channels. And just because a customer is reaching out to you on Twitter does not mean you need to drop everything and respond instantly; you must evaluate and discern the level of urgency first. The balance is important: You can’t simply move all of your great service exclusively to social media channels at the expense of traditional channels.
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by Harry Fozzard
A Few Badges
Chat & Email Support
Content Management & Updates
Social Media Monitoring
Cusomer Service
Data Mining & Scaping
Technical Support
Surveys & List Updates
Operator Services
Customer Acquisition
Quallity Analysis
Website Ecommerce Support
Data Entry
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by Harry Fozzard
The Art of Excellent Customer Service 101: How to Hire the Right People
Find the expanded article on the Olark site, written by Bill Thompson is the Guru of Customer Happiness at Olark.com. According to the editor’s note on the Assistly site, where I found the article, “He has been involved in Online Community and Internet Customer Care and Service since Web 1.0 for companies like Winamp, SHOUTcast, and Grouper.com.”
Here's a great excerpt that is a great synopsis of the 6 personality traits Mr. Thompson interviews for:
- Genuine warmth: A person that exudes friendliness, caring about other people and an upbeat and outgoing personality.
- Empathic: Able to understand other people’s feelings and relate well and be sympathetic to someone under stress.
- A good listener: A person who trends toward active listening in order to fully understand an issue or problem before acting
- Conscientious: It sounds basic, but it’s vital to have people who by their nature take pride in taking care of every little detail perfectly
- Anticipatory: This sounds as though it’s antithetical to #3 but it’s slightly different. A person who is excellent at anticipating cause and effect can save much time in not just answering the main question but also digs deep to make sure every corner of the customer’s problem is fully resolved by the time the conversation is over.
- Optimistic: Again, it sounds basic, but an optimistic attitude is vital in avoiding burn-out as the daily exposure to people sometimes in stress and not acting in tune with their better angels can drag a person down.
Having a 6 point plan is easy. Making the right decision isn’t always an exact science. I use a combination of carefully crafted scenario questions (thank you Psych 1A in college) and trust my gut above and beyond trying to quantify sometime soft traits. Others you need to try out, guide and develop more slowly into becoming standout superstars on your CS team.
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by Harry Fozzard
Philippines Holiday Schedule
Knowing the local holidays for most BPO's is simply an accounting matter. Most contact centers and service providers supporting companies in North America, Europe or Japan tend to observe days off at the behest of their clients rather than the local red-letter days.
In any case, the Philippines' Official Holiday schedule is good to know since non-essential personnel can run up quite a tab at 2x pay. We recommend letting Finance, HR and Admin take off on those days and try to go a bit leaner on IT.
Regular Holidays
New Year’s Day - January 1 (Sunday)
Maundy Thursday - April 5
Good Friday - April 6
Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) - April 9 (Monday)
Labor Day - May 1 (Tuesday)
Independence Day - June 12 (Tuesday)
National Heroes Day - August 27 (Last Monday of August)
Bonifacio Day - November 30 (Friday)
Christmas Day - December 25 (Tuesday)
Rizal Day - December 30 (Sunday)
Special (Non-Working) Days
Chinese New Year - January 23 (Monday)
Ninoy Aquino Day - August 21 (Tuesday)
All Saints Day - November 1 (Thursday)
Additional special day (non-working) - November 2 (Friday)
Last Day of the Year - December 31 (Monday)
Special Holiday (for all schools)
EDSA Revolution Anniversary - February 25 (Saturday)
T-shirt image from http://www.bayaniart.com/edsa-revolution.html
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by Harry Fozzard
Get Satisfaction & Assistly
Setting up a support platform for clients today. Our jiggy, new Get Satisfaction Community Icon.
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by Harry Fozzard
Nihonbashitei - Retrofunkynipponese
I usually hit Little Tokyo for the raw fish and atmosphere to spare experience. It's all good unless its raining or you don't want to shell out $65 (PHP2,814.50) for fish and libations. Lately Nihonbashitei has been my Izakaya of choice. Good grub and cheap for heaps of raw goodness.
The space is oddly retro, diner-ish dynamic that I fully dig. Its also got an nicely ecclectic collection of patrons: Nippon homies, local families, and party/gangsta folks all roll for the fare. Its open late for those nocturnal BPO-types.
Forget about the beef dish thing, documented here a few minutes after hitting the table.
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by Harry Fozzard
