If you have spent any time at all in the call center industry you will know that resolve a customer’s problem on the first try (first call resolution) is not always at the forefront of your mind. Instead, the focus is on making the customer happy with your service, but what better way is there to make a customer happy than to fix their problem on the first try?

First call resolution from a managerial standpoint is defined is a percentage calculated by dividing the number of customers whose call was resolved on the first try by the total number of customers that called in.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

The last couple of years have seen an increase in the number of Home Based Virtual Contact Centers leveraged by the huge traction that the Work at Home agent’s business model is receiving from the industry.

Work at Home agents is not a new idea, in fact; companies have tried to implement this model for several years. What is changing? What are the drivers pushing this business model?

The question does not have an easy answer as each contact center will privilege the specific characteristics relevant to its business context. Nevertheless, there are some business drivers that can help describe why Work at Home agents is becoming such a prominent and strong reality.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

While Rosemary Rein wrote this article in 2009, her message on creating award winning customer service is right up to date.

The Oscar of Customer Service in 2008 Goes to USAA!

This year the national business award for outstanding customer service, considered the OSCAR of Customer Service went for a second year in a row to USAA, the Financial and Insurance Provider to the U.S, Military. (Reported in the March 2008 Edition of Business Week)

The news was not surprising since last year alone the Customer Service Team at USAA attended over 240,000 hours of “Additional Training” beyond their “Basic Training”.

As you listen to your service rep phone calls, (you do don’t you? through call monitoring?); hear and see employees in the hallways, who frankly look and sound more like street thugs than valued and motivated employees; as you read painful customer complaints, customer surveys and oh no, see that customers have told the world how bad your service is by blogging you; Do you think maybe, those responsible for taking care of your valued customers might need a little more training and recognition themselves? Well, perhaps you need to say Hello and Hooray for Hollywood!

Rate Your Hollywood Star Power:

The first question for every CEO and Training Manager is how many hours of field training do you give your front-line staff each year to up-level their skills to achieve Oscar Worthy Customer Service Performances? The second question is how effective is that training? The third question is what, inspiring, recognition programs do you have in place to honor outstanding service achievements?

As a Former Director of Customer Service Training, I followed the Hollywood OSCAR Model for Service Training and Employee Motivation, using the format symbolized by Hollywood’s Golden Man. It produced results. It inspired and motivated the team and much like the Oscars, was talked about, read about and even ignited friendly competition to be the best. What else could you want from your a Customer Service Training and Recognition Program? Here’s how to execute a similar Hollywood Style training model and Roll Out the Red-Carpet to your Service Team

Develop & Deliver Red Carpet Training & Recognition:

1. Define Award Categories for all the Areas of your Company that Impact Customer Service Performance, including those back office functions like technical direction, script writing, and outstanding achievement in special effects (service improvements).

2. Develop a Nomination Process and rules for and selection criteria for “Your Service Academy” that represents a cross section of your organization or departmental areas. This is a critical step requiring analysis of all contributing factors to the total customer experience for award integrity.

3. Acting Class for Customer Service Employees? You bet! Why do actors say the right thing and project emotion? They have scripts and use theatrical/communication techniques! Great Hollywood Actors also understand the principles of directing the Big Picture! Do your employees know what the big picture is for your company and your customers? We use an engaging Hollywood theme in our customer service training. Note/ Themes Build Team.

I usually held these spirited 1 days training sessions in the Spring, after the Oscars to reinforce key service principles, introduce award winning customer scripts and even run screen tests with video-tape feedback by a customer service producer. A fun “improv workshop” helps employees improve body language, voice tone and most of all learn to laugh again and connect with the heart of the Customer/Audience. It’s all part of the work it takes to climb to the top of the service charts.

4. Finally, start planning your Big Red Carpet Oscar Night. Make It Big! Make It Memorable! Make it the Event of the Year that Everyone Talks About! Make Winning a Service Oscar, the aspiration of every bright star on your team, who has worked hard the past year, to deliver consistent and a heart-stopping customer service performances.

Rosemary Rein, Ph.D is an award winning Author and Speaker on Customer Service and is writing the chapter on Best Practices in Customer Service, in a new upcoming book “Blueprint for Success” with Dr. Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard.

Bring Rosemary’s Customer Service Academy Awards Program to your Organization. For a free training proposal and Oscar template, write Rosemary@gowildgogreat.com or visit her web-site at http://www.gowildgogreat.com