Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

SIRIUS XM Radio, a provider of commercial free satellite radio programming, has announced it’s been able to significantly improve how its various contact centers a run and are managed, as well as improve the satisfaction of agents and customers thanks to the Management Impact Program from Aspect and Touchpoint.


Because workforce optimization is vital to success, the Management Impact Program offers specialized training for contact center managers to allow them to be more effective and help improve agent performance through better classroom training, consulting and one-on-one coaching.

"Contact center managers have a huge impact on customer satisfaction -- from motivating the agents, to ensuring consistency, to directly addressing customer concerns. The Management Impact Program goes way beyond the surface of what most human resource certifications or traditional training programs cover," said George Kirby, senior vendor manager, SIRIUS XM Radio.

The offering is available for Aspect customers using their Productive Workforce unified communications application which focuses on delivering solutions for motivating agents and improving overall customer service levels.

During a week long pilot program, SIRUIS XM Radio worked with Touchpoint and Aspect Professional Services on improving several aspects of their contact center operations including improving their leadership skills, gaining knowledge on the importance of interpersonal relationships, and discussing topics like feedback and metrics. In addition the managers also worked with the companies on post program analysis to track improvement.

The results are now allowing SIRIUS to standardize their contact center training practices around the world to improve agent functionalities as well as help increase sales for the company.

"The Management Impact Program is a unique offering that companies looking to optimize contact center performance can benefit from," said Bob Kelly, vice president of the PerformanceEdge Group, Aspect.

"The program gives contact center managers a clear understanding of how to improve individual agent performance, as well as how to use organizational key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive bottom-line results. Through this program, SIRIUS XM Radio can ensure consistency across its global, multisite contact center operations, and enable supervisors to better utilize the workforce optimization capabilities at their disposal."

Michael Kropdlowski, Product Marketing Manager at Aspect commented in a recent interview with ContactCenterSolutions that promoting UC implementations is necessary throughout the enterprise to ensure buy-in and that experts must understand the importance of quality customer care as well as how to achieve it.

 

“There are two basic ways that contact centers can leverage knowledge workers for a UC strategy,” said Kropodlowski. “First, agents that work with customers can identify the available expert in the enterprise and bring them into the interaction with the customer, either by directly routing the customer’s call or instant message (IM) to the expert, or by having the expert join in the conversation.”

 

“As second alternative,  for situations where experts are not prepared or lack the skills to interact directly with customers, agents can draw upon and communicate with the experts, engaging the knowledge worker for advice or answers, then simply relaying that information back to the customer. The knowledge worker in this instance doesn’t directly interact with the customer at all.”