Archive for September, 2009

Forward the (employee experience) Revolution!

Posted by: Ian Mapp | 18.09.2009

We talk a lot about the customer experience, but relatively little about the employee (or agent) experience. This is tightly wrapped up with that of the customer since often the two interact directly with each other.

More than simply sterile discussions and weasel words about employee engagement, a genuine shift of responsibility and leadership to the frontline employees leads to improved employee satisfaction – which will in turn be reflected in the levels of customer satisfaction. Dealing with an employee that can actually take responsibility for problems and get them solved is a refreshing experience!

Middle and senior management are often loathe to give up their power and perceived control – but wake up, those days are gone and there is a fundamental shift in the operating model and the way successful organisations are managing themselves.

Budd has long been a proponent of this culture of trust, through its WOCAS (What Our Customers Are Saying) processes and tools. So, it was good to read this article by Louise Druce at MyCustomer.com. Okay, it is only an introductory piece, trailing an event later in the year, but is a useful two minute introduction to the topic.

WOCAS, agent experience, customer experience, fast+simple | No Comments

Changing a Wiki

Posted by: Sue Cooke | 11.09.2009

Everyone in the contact centre would agree that wiki/ intranet is an exceptionally useful tool, but there are still boulders to trip over.
A call centre I visited recently had a lovely intranet wiki very easy to use until THEYYYY changed it! What followed was soul destroying to see, previously nicely ironed out brows became knitted, heart rendering sobs, desperate sighs and irritated customers asked to hold for a minute or 2,3,4 utter confusion, frustration, well complete chaos really.
The cause as always was simple; of course the business told the users they were changing the wiki and they even very generously gave them a quick 5 minutes off the phone to demonstrate the changes but what they failed to understand was that people learn at different speeds so some bright sparks got it, but those of us who take longer to learn or learn by use didn’t get it and had to struggle in front of the customer, how embarrassing and unnecessary. I will let you sum up the effect on the brand and reputation of that business!

wikis | No Comments