Speed of Light
Survey-Like its Not Even There
In the last issue of In Queue (Vol
3, Issue 13) we introduced another one of our
fantastic-everyone-loves-them surveys. One small
problem, many of you were out of town last week on
business or personal travel and did not see our request
for you to rate your experiences with select companies.
So let me tell you again what we are doing.
In our last survey, y'all mentioned that the reputation
of companies was a deciding factor for your buying the
good or not. In other words, if you had a bad opinion of
a company, you would avoid them like the plague, and if
you heard good things about a company, you just might
buy their product for your call center if the price was
right. Makes sense to me. So we want to know, which
companies are on your good list and which ones are in
the dog house. You don't have to tell us a long story of
how a vendor treated you poorly in 1983 and since then
you will not give them a dime. You can share that story
with us, but you don't have to.
The survey is very short, so short almost to be
invisible. It is like eating just one M&M from a bag
(the green one of course), it is like it did not even
happen, it is that easy and painless. I completed it in
just under a few seconds, a Guinness World Record I
think (looking into it). And on top of that, we share
the results from the survey with you in future issues of
the In Queue newsletter. Unlike other
organizations that take data from you through a survey
and then don't share anything in return, we believe if
you take your few seconds out to complete the survey
with us, we should at least let you know what the
results are, right? Seems like the correct and honorable
thing to do. Here is the list of companies were are
asking about
-Alcatel (Including Genesys)
-Aspect Software Aspect Software
-Avaya
-Cisco
-NICE Systems (Including IEX)
-Nortel
-Siemens
-Verint (Including Witness Actionable Solutions)
So please click on the link below and share a few
seconds with us. After all, it is just one M&M, and it
is so fast that you will probably forget that you even
completed the survey by the time the results come out in
a few weeks, it is that easy and simple.
We thank you for participating.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=z5vyAZZPnyIUnwiYFwZMrw_3d_3d
Rewarding Behaviors: Show them the Money… or a Trip to
Hawaii: Part III-Automate Rewards to Further Drive Call
Center Performance
Christopher Cabrera,
President and CEO, Xactly Corporation,
info@xactlycorp.com
The main reason why
non-cash rewards are underutilized and undervalued in
call centers is that managing an effective rewards
program is a complex task – from creation to fulfillment
to accounting and compliance. To simplify the process,
organizations dumb-down their rewards programs, leading
to less than optimal results. But there is another and
better way to simplify the process and that is to
automate it, end to end. That way the program can be as
sophisticated and flexible as it needs to be. However,
automation of rewards incentive programs hasn’t been an
option until very recently.
As odd as it seems, there are still pockets in some
companies that resist automation, relying instead on
error-prone spreadsheets and time-consuming manual
processes. Call centers, on the other hand, are enabled
by automation, and the automation required for
effectively implementing and managing rewards dovetails
with the automation already in place for strategic CRM
and performance management processes. Today, rewards
program automation can bring to call centers the ability
to:
• Tailor rewards programs to individuals, groups and
teams. Freed from manual processes, non-cash rewards
programs can be precisely tailored to any number of call
center employees across any number of functions from
outbound sales to customer service to full account
management. Personalization is no longer an issue, and
complexity is no longer a stumbling block.
• Align rewards to the success of multiple concurrent
call center initiatives. Automation enables non-cash
rewards programs to be easily designed and implemented
for enhancing customer service (tied to call handling
metrics), technical support (tied to case/issue
resolution rate), teleprospecting (tied to qualified
prospects), and general customer satisfaction, to cite a
few examples.
• Offer the largest selection of value-oriented,
tangible rewards. Automation enables you to create and
maintain immense catalogs of rewards online – from
millions of leading brand-merchandise items to tickets
to entertainment and sporting events to travel,
adventure and hotel packages and adventure options
throughout the world.
• Integrate with CRM applications to streamline
administration, provide visibility into attainment,
drive recognition, and accelerate fulfillment. This
benefit is huge. Just envision a call center agent’s
action (an up-sell, cross-sell, etc.) being registered
in the CRM system, and having that action automatically
rewarded with the assigning of reward points. Then
imagine that agent being able to view an online
compensation statement to check how many points have
been awarded (and/or redeemed) to date, all within the
familiar CRM application. And then imagine the agent
being able to check an online catalog of prizes to see
what can be had in exchange for their accumulated points
– again, all within the CRM application.
• Ensure compliance. Non-cash rewards incentive programs
are considered compensation based on their cash value.
The headaches this can cause in accounting have been a
drag on the use of non-cash rewards in the past. Once
the rewards management process is automated and not
reliant on spreadsheets, the complete and accurate
information required for withholding and reporting for
income tax purposes is easily available to accounting
departments, making non-cash rewards easy to track and
audit as part of the overall compensation process.
Cash may be king, but its reign isn’t all encompassing
when it comes to motivating behaviors in the call
center, or anywhere else in business. When automated,
aligned to strategic initiatives and integrated with CRM
applications and your total compensation plan, non-cash
rewards incentive programs can be just the thing to
motivate and sustain exceptional behaviors.
Fortunately, the gloves are now off in regards to
non-cash rewards—meaning you don’t have to rely on
management-by-spreadsheets anymore. Parallel trends in
enterprise mash-up technology, Web 2.0 standards, web
services and on-demand software functionality have come
together to enable all the automation, personalization,
visibility and integration you need to create, deploy
and track sophisticated and effective non-cash reward
incentive programs. In doing so, and thus making room on
the kingly throne for non-cash rewards, you greatly
extend your mix of potential incentive options for
optimizing call center performance and employee morale
and loyalty.
What I am Watching, Reading and Listening To
Because all of the
wonderful people writing essays for In Queue of
late, I have not had a chance to write my essay
reviewing what I have been watching (movies), reading
(books) and listening to (music). To play catch
up, I will list the movies, books and music I have
recently seen, bought and/or listening to and give you a
brief review of each.
Movies/Film
-Eastern Promises-Great movie from one of my all time
favorite directors, David Cronenberg. It is smart, dark,
uncomfortable, and unpredictable. Excellent acting.
-Ben Hur-A classic and part of our list of Oscar winning
movies we are watching. I had seen pieces, but never the
whole movie, throughout. It is epic for sure, but also a
bit dated and overacted.
-The Apartment-Another Oscar movie, Jack Lemmon and
Shirley McClaine, and a host of supporting actors you
would know from 1960s television. Great acting,
excellent storyline, not predictable and just solid. The
story carried the movie and Lemmon's acting, mostly
solo, carried the audience through the story.
-The Sound of Music-Well, we saw this for the first time
before we left for Europe. Thought we must since we were
going to Salzburg, Austria and all. Well, it was OK, but
I did not grow up on the story but heard the songs all
my life. The geopolitical pieces were good as the
Austrian's struggle to keep identity under Nazi rule,
but, well, it was just O.K.
Books
-Nova Swing by M John Harrison-Great writer. Makes the
reader feel fully displaced. Any attempts to grapple
with commonality, find metaphor, feel solid is pulled
out from under you.
-Babylon 5 Script Books J Michael Straczynski-My
favorite television writer who has now jumped to the big
screen. His back of the set view of how scripts are
created, shows produced, politics faced and averted and
capital raised to run a TV show is quite insightful.
Great resource if you enjoyed the show or have any
desire to be affiliated with television whether in front
of or behind the camera.
-The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain-I never read
this as a child, so it is part of the re-visitation of
classic 20th century literature I am reading for the
first time. I firmly believe the Mark Twain, as a
humorist, was one of the best we had for a long time. He
is not only funny, and can tell a good story, but his
wit is often so sharp that he also makes social
critiques making us both think and laugh at the same
time.
-Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon-A
sub-story to the Outlander series by the same author. It
appears that Gabaldon does not know how to write
anything but a 1000 page novel, so her research into
characters take on novella and novel length exploration
which she is now sharing with her readership.
-Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana
Gabaldon-Ditto see above.
Music
-Chant: Music For The Soul-The Christian Monks of Stift
Heiligenkreuz-I love Gregorian chant music. I write much
of my research to this type of sound. It makes me feel
balanced and free to write. Quite spiritual. It is great
to crank up, too.
-Kid Rock: Rock and Roll Jesus-Kid Rock I enjoy, as does
my wife, who does not like chants. This is an excellent
album drawing from and giving tribute to many classic
rock songs and sounds.
-Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis: Two Men With The
Blues-hey, you can't get better than this. Willie
Nelson, an icon, and Wynton Marsalis, part of the uber
talented Marsalis family of jazz teachers and players,
together. Shoot, look out peanut butter and chocolate,
this may be my new favorite.
-Harry Connick, Jr.: Harry On Broadway Act 1-Speaking of
a Marsalis student, Harry Connick, Jr., has done
Broadway. I heard an National Public Radio interview
with Kelli O'Hara who sings/acts with Harry Connick,
Jr., in a remake of the play The Pajama Game. Her
voice sounded great, and together they were wonderful,
so I bought the album and loaded onto my iPod and am
listening to the songs as I go.
Call Center Comics

If you like this comic
and would like to see more write Ozzie at
callcentercomics@yahoo.com and visit his website at
http://callcentercomics.com/cartoon_categories.htm
or just click on the comic to take you to his page. The
NACC appreciates Ozzie letting us use some of his comics
in our newsletter.
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In Queue, please
click here.
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Copyright 2008 National Association of Call Centers
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