Unlocking Value through Improved Agent Performance

Page 2 | Unlocking Value through Improved Agent Performance

Companies seeking profitable growth recognize the importance of the customer service experience in driving customer retention. Accenture research1 shows Customer Service is one of the most important factors influencing customers’ initial choice of providers and their remaining with those providers over time.

Yet many companies are not delivering acceptable customer service and, as a result, are losing customers. According to Accenture’s 2012 Global Consumer Pulse Research:

•Nearlytwo-thirds(63%)ofconsumerspointtoserviceasthemost important factor in their choice of brand.

•Forty-fourpercentofconsumershavehighercustomerservice expectations than they had even a year ago.

•Sixty-threepercentofconsumerssayitisextremelyimportant to them to have agents who are polite and friendly;despitethiswish,65%reportoneoftheirtop-twoactual service frustrations is dealing with customer service agents who are unfriendly or impolite.

•70%ofconsumerssaytheyarelikelytoswitchiftheydealwith agents who are unable to answer their questions.

•Sixty-twopercenthaveactuallyswitchedcompaniesinthepast year due to poor customer service.

•Ofthoseconsumerswhoswitched,85%saidthecompanycould have prevented them from switching: the most commonly cited preventative measure was if their issue had been resolved in the first contact.

As a company’s “face” to its customers, service agents directly impact the customers’ experience and resulting loyalty to that company.

1.Accenture2012GlobalConsumerPulseResearch,http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-accenture-global-consumer-pulse-research-study-2012-key-research-findings.aspx

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Page 4 | Unlocking Value through Improved Agent Performance

Find the sweet spot of performance managementCompanies have long made enormous investments in the customer service support channel, though agent performance has remained frustratingly inconsistent. Nowcompaniesarefocusedonreducingcustomer care support costs while still using the customer service agent support channel to promote the company’s brand image and overall reputation. With Accenture’s Agent Performance Management service, you can achieve both these goals now.

Customer service expectations: three-year trend

Easier/more convenient to obtain customer services

Faster customer service

Customer service representatives to be more knowledgeable

More options for obtaining service

Specialized treatment for being a good customer

Customer service representative to know more about me

201175%

76%

74%

71%

71%

66%

67%

74%

67%

60%

66%

64%

50%

48%

33%

32%

19%

39%

2010

2009

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Simultaneous benefits: Reduced costs and increased customer satisfaction by resolving issues on the first call.

A very simple illustration of this is when agents can resolve more issues on the first customer call. Eliminating the need for repeat calls reduces the company’s cost to serve and helps increase customer satisfaction.

Customers continue to have high service expectations. Having full visibility to each agents’ performance is a critical enabler to delivering on the company’s service promise and providing a differentiated customer experience.

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Drive quantifiable changeTo significantly improve service center performance, the manager must understand each agent’s performance improvement opportunity areas and be able to coach, train, and incent individual agents to elevate their performance.

Traditional performance analysis methods do not provide the visibility needed to truly assess individual agents’ performance. Instead, agents are assumed to have the sameneedsandgaps.Thisbroad-brushapproach has made it difficult to drive quantifiable improvements in an individual agent’s performance.

Traditional methods sample small numbers of support calls selected at random. While limited sampling is useful for uncovering support center trends, it is less useful for identifying development opportunities relevant to individual agents. Why? The confidence level for sampling results at the servicecenterlevelisusuallyhigh(±1–2%)butlow(lessthan50%)attheindividualagent level.

Accenture’s solution, uniquely powered by intelligent analytics, accounts for all of an agents’ customer interactions. It provides a 360°viewofindividualagentperformance,using four different performance lenses (seeFigure1):

1. Balanced scorecards with “metrics that matter” aligned to company and service goals. Metrics are calculated with statistically significant data sources.

2. Incentive compensation opportunity directly linked to overall balanced scorecard performance

3.Targetedperformancemonitoringbasedonanalytics-drivenperformanceinsight

4. Continuous assessment of productive vs. nonproductive time

Whether we like it or not, every agent metric can and will likely be gamed. This is especially common when there is a an emphasis placed on driving particular metricresults.Ourserviceprovidesnaturalguardrails to identify and control metric gaming. This is achieved by leveraging our performance analytics capability to

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1. Performance Scorecards

2. IncentiveCompensation

360º Performance Management

4. Agent Productivity

3. Performance Monitoring

“I have never had this level of visibility into my vendor or captive center agent performance. Now I know how to drive our performance and exceed our customers’ expectations.”

— Client executive

Figure 1: Agent performance management service

identify underlying agent manipulation behaviors that frequently go undetected with traditional performance management approaches. It is important to balance the right metrics with the right controls to raisetheperformancemean.Ourserviceprovides comprehensive performance insight with these important controls.

This balanced view, formed from multiple perspectives, produces detailed insights into the performance of individual agents. As a result, service center managers have the proof points and recommended actions they need to raise the performance bar and cut the costs of customer support. Instead ofaone-size-fits-allapproach,theycantailor feedback and coaching to fill specific gaps for each member of their team.

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Innovate with metrics that matterAccenture has developed an innovative and effective approach to managing and drivingagentperformance.Wehave25years of experience helping our clients design,buildandimplementagentmetric-driven approaches that deliver results. Accenture has developed more than 90 unique performance correlations leveraging our robust analytics capability. This helps provide a level of visibility into agent performance that companies previously have not had and helps them make significant improvements to impact the bottom line.

Ourclient-testedsolutioncanhelpyouto:

•Targetareasoftheserviceexperiencethat matter most to customers, as validated by our industry research.

•Defineandimplementabalancedsetofindividual performance metrics aligned with the company’s vision, strategy and goals.

•Provideactionableopportunitiestodriveefficiency and productivity for individuals.

•Leveragetheservicechanneltodriveanimproved customer service experience, customer retention and loyalty.

•Incorporateinsightgainedthroughscorecard results and targeted monitoringtoenableperformance-basedrouting, customer segmentation and differentiated treatment models.

Why a managed service?While Accenture offers a range of ways to improve agent performance, implementing this solution as a managed service is a compelling option.

We can set up and execute the service—often more quickly than most companies can develop the capability themselves and at a competitive price point. By subscribing to this service, a company can benefit from our many years of investment in improving agent performance through service channels.

Ourspeedtomarketcorrelatestospeedtovalue. There is a direct connection between relying on a proven solution and driving quantifiable value faster. Additionally, companies have found leveraging a third party service can provide a legal advantage when addressing and taking action on fraudulent agent behavior identified through theservice.Beyondthat,ourthird-partyobjectivity helps prevent “internal politics” and bias from influencing the results.

Maintain improvements over timeCompanies typically have difficulty maintaining performance improvements over time. After initial gains are made, momentum often slows, thus minimizing future benefits.

Accenture’s Agent Performance Management service serves as a control. The service provides continuous and systematic measurement, monitoring and tracking agent performance results. This new level of visibility and actionable insight enables companies to maintain value created while continuing to drive performance improvements. Its systematic approach, driven by metrics that matter, supports ongoing review of individual agentperformance(seeFigure2).Andthisnew level of visibility helps companies to continue to drive performance upward and to maintain the value they have created.

Anaytics Powered Opportunity Identification Drive Performance Improvement

Figure 2: New levels of visibility enable significant performance improvement results

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Agent Performance Management Service

•One-timeserviceactivationfee•Monthlybaseservicefeeandper-agenttieredpricing•Fourcomponents(bundledorpurchasedseparately)•Typicalcontract:1-3years•Solutionimprovescosttoserveby25-30%, customersatisfactionby15-20%.

About Sales & Customer ServicesSales & Customer Services helps companies acquire, develop and retain more profitable customer relationships. We offer a broad range of innovative capabilities that address every aspect of the customer experience, including pricing strategy and profitability assessment, customer analytics, direct and indirect sales force execution, customer service, field support, customer contact operations, and retail/branch operations. We use these combinations of skills to help our clients accelerate growth, improve sales productivityandreducecustomer-carecosts—helping increase the value of their customer relationships and enhancing the economic value of their brands.

About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 259,000peopleservingclientsinmorethan 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them becomehigh-performancebusinessesandgovernments. The company generated net revenuesofUS$27.9billionforthefiscalyearendedAug.31,2012.Itshomepageiswww.accenture.com.

Copyright ©2013Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and HighPerformanceDeliveredare trademarks of Accenture. mc289

Contact Us To learn more about Accenture’s Agent Performance Management services, visit Accenture.com or contact one of our managing directors:

Erika Simpson erika.j.simpson@accenture.com

Dawn Palmer dawn.e.palmer@accenture.com