From an enterprise point of view, Contact Centers are measured by performance metrics regarding the contact center and the agents who man them. These metrics tell us how the Contact Center is doing in terms of efficiency, cost, service quality, and performance.  At a very high level, here are some key indicators:

Business Metrics:

• Revenue Generation- conversion of contacts to sales, sales generation (leads), Note, is the contact center at cost or a profit center?
• Cost efficiency – quality of the agents, infrastructure utilization, call time utilization
• Customer satisfaction – customer’s experience when dealing with the contact center and the agents

People Metrics:

• Abandon Rate-  how long before the caller hangs up  (today the customer is getting even more less likely to wait)
• Availability and Agent Utilization- not just the next available agent but the appropriate agent regarding your issue
• Average Speed of Answer (ASA) – how long is the customer in the queue before someone answers?
• Customer Satisfaction- how fast the issue is resolved with what quality and professionalism to the customer’s satisfaction?
• One Call Resolution Rate- is the issue resolved with just one call?
• Service Level – measures percent of contact handled over a specific time frame

As you can see from a high level, Contact Centers and agents can be measured in many ways (far more than what has been discussed) and the key is having the necessary functions, skills and resources with the correct balance to meet the every growing customer demands.   What makes this even more challenging is that new technologies seem to develop each day and thus new media, new methods or issues come into play for the contact center.

Back to the original question, how is your Contact Center measuring up?  When is the last time you have had Marketing survey your customers, do a competitive analysis to see where you stand, or promote your Contact Center as a differentiator?  

Remember your might just be a phone call away from losing a customer.

For more details on what today’s Contact Center should look like CONTACT US.

RHL 10/05/10

The most common response I hear when I ask a sales person how he or she did for the quarter or the year; is something about their quota. i.e., “I made quota” or “I’m at 70% of quota, but with two big deals hanging fire.”  While quota should always be part of a performance evaluation, I would suggest a good appraisal should include other considerations.

In a previous posting we talked about Marketing Metric, Sales, needs Performance Metrics. Good performance criteria should have quantitative and qualitative measurements. The following are some of the major categories for both areas.

Quantitative measurements for a salesperson (note: appropriateness will depend on the salesperson’s role or title).

1-Sales quota for the year, for the region/territory, percentage as compared to others and other regions/territories.

Looking at just one person’s sales quota does really tell you anything about that person’s performance. You need to see how each person in doing relative his/her surround, the regional performance and others.

2-Accounts managed, number of account calls

You need to measure sales personnel on how they handle and manage accounts. You may have one person having a good quota but with just one account versus another person with equally good quota but with numerous accounts. Who is actually performing better?

3-Handling of expenses

It is great to have good people exceeding quotas but you want them to be profitable at the same time. Individuals should be goaled on managing and controlling expenses as related to their job (examples: marketing programs, travel, demos, and sales venues)

4-Geographic coverage, account “density”

Similar to criteria # 1, account coverage should be factored in to get a quota per account ratio. This will recognize individuals who not only strive for revenue, but also strive to develop accounts for future rewards.

5-Products and services sold per goals

A well balance of portfolio to revenues not only benefits a sales person but provides a nice competitive advantage in the overall market place

6-New accounts/ new opportunities

It always great to get re-occurring revenues, but a good salesperson always needs to develop the “next” group of customers. This is important for many reasons; two of them are increasing your base and opening up new markets.

Qualitative measurements for a salesperson

     1-Innovation- creative ways to “sell” to various accounts

Companies always need to differentiate themselves and what better resource then your sales person who is the front line with the customers. You can write great brochures, wonderful case studies, but the best promotion is a high energy sales person who exudes enthusiasm.

     2-Recuiting and training of others

People in sales are the most critical resource and usually ones of higher salary; therefore bringing on and training these individuals is a key component for sales success.

     3-Motivation and motivation of others

Sales people’s attitude is a reflection of the company they work for, thus if you want your image to be positive, can do, and confident looking then make sure part of sales appraisal has this factor.

     4-Role modeling/leadership for others

Related to recruiting and motivation, sales are a focal point from a customer’s point of view.  Thus performance should include how a sales person is viewed by the customer, follow sales people and sales management

     5- Managing accounts, tasks and personnel

Sales people have to be good business people also. How one manages and cares for accounts is equally important as acquiring accounts.

     6-Efficiency in tasks, meeting goals

Good sales people (actually all employees) need to be efficient because we all contribute to the success of the enterprise and therefore how we get things done has an impact on both customer satisfaction and economic factors.

In summary a salesperson’s performance appraisal should be multi- dimensional.  The two major sub- categories of qualitative and quantitative provide a good balance for each salesperson.   Second, by having a mix of criteria, you normalize sales people, territories and goals for apples- to- apples comparison. Third, you will have your sales force working towards all goals and objective and thus a win – win for all.

So once you have your sales strategy in place, one of the major tasks is to develop territory goals and eventually goals, measurements and performance criteria for each member of the sales team.

RHL 5/4/10

One tool to help you in the process is market segmentation (A market segment is a group of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics that cause them to have similar product and/or service, from Wikipedia).

The following is a guide for the segmentation process

For the purpose of this guide we will assume we are marketing in the B2B environment (there are differences versus B2C but it is more in the ingredients versus the formula).

First here are some key initial steps in helping make the selection process.

1-     Is there information about the customers to be obtained?  

2-     Will these markets be accessible, i.e. can we reach them?

3-     Is the segment large enough to spend effort on them (this will lead to estimating profitability, but that is a different exercise).

4-     Does this segment “match” your enterprise goals and objectives?

Second, completely understand the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) strategies and product/service portfolios so that you have a firm reference point(s) on what segments best match up to their goals and objectives.

Third, know your competition and what are their strategy, products/services and their value proposition in these segments… it may be different for different segments.

Fourth, consider what I call the “surrounds” those aspects that can relate and impact a segment.   Two examples are: the mobile phone and how it impacted land lines vendors and suppliers. The internet and how the convergence of data and voice impacted traditional PBX vendors, tariffs and business applications.

Fifth, start with macro segmentation, which has organizational characteristics such as size, geography, and organizational structure. A helping structure is North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). For the NAICS codes 541511, a high level breakdown  looks like this; 54 is for technical services sector and 1511 is for Computer software analysis and design services.

Sixth, assuming you have the resources, dig deeper. A micro segmentation addresses areas like decision making, buying attributes, and user attitudes of the players in the segment.

In many cases of B2B it is important to know the buying habits of the end user or the buying procedures of the enterprise.  A marketer might be required to have messaging or value propositions that appeal to the purchasing organizations. An example is the buying cycle, if one can improve this cycle for its customers this could be an overall key factor.

Seventh, test your assumptions and segmentations before making any major investments.

Eighth, Now if you have done the above you are half way there. The next major step is the implementation of your strategies. Keep in mind that the strategy for B2B is NOT a short time or quick fix issue; it needs to be thought out such that it will last, at least long enough to have time for implementation and a buying cycle so you can analyze actual realistic results. An example of implementation is what type of service will be needed to support the business and marketing goals. Another example is how is the sales force organized relative to the market segmentations?

Here is just one example of an enterprise that utilizes segmentation with great success. Dell has at the macro level the Home segment (B2C) and the Business segment (B2B). Then within the B2B they have small businesses.  Within the small businesses they have solutions that range from laptops to high end servers. For each sub segment, Dell offers various packages.

Key point:  if you do not know your customer, and your competitor does, you won’t make a sale!

                        To see some examples of the implementation process, Click Here

RHL 3/30/10

The news this week from Wall Street is centered on the size of bonuses that will be paid to members of the financial services firms.  Putting aside, for the moment all the arguments that relate to the bonuses, I wonder if the Wall Street firms are aware of the reputational damage that is occurring to them in the digital world?

A quick look at #goldmansachs or #wallstreet bonuses on twitter, or the comments on the Goldman Sachs pages on Facebook illustrate how damaging the issue of the bonuses has become.  One rule of thumb is that for every complaint you hear there are ten that you don’t.  Using this scale suggests that there is a significant populist movement against the bonuses and by extension the firms that are paying them and their management.

If the bankers on Wall Street read and understand the printed and the digital out-pouring, they are faced with two options:

1. Ignore the public, continue with their plan under the assumption that this is what they have always done, and they need to continue to do it to maintain quality people.  If they choose this path they risk alienating a large, vocal segment, which may come back to bite them later in the form of decreased business, increased taxes, or stricter regulation.
2. Recognize the reputational damage that they are incurring and make changes (they have done so slightly by announcing that the bonuses will be paid mostly in stock…which may be even more valuable in the long run).  Here the voice of the populace is heard, and the response, while never providing 100% satisfaction, begins to restore the reputations that have been shattered.

Five to ten years ago the print and TV press would be leading and/or interpreting the issue of the Wall Street bonuses.   Today their role has diminished as bloggers, tweeters, and Facebook fans have taken to the digital world to vent their frustration, communicate with others and form communities.  The long lasting aspect of the perception of these communities has yet to be quantified, but as the bankers on Wall Street know banking is built on confidence, and once you have lost it, you are done…see Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. as prime examples.

The lesson here is to understand the power of the digital environment and to make sure, as the responsible Marketing person, you are plugged into it.   This then allows you to work more effectively with management in constructing your messaging and positioning your firm appropriately.

Have you reviewed what people are saying about you and your products today?

RHM  1/14/2009

site is performing, there are a number of tools that can address this need.  A popular data-gathering tool is Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics/).  While it may not be the most extensive, I would recommend it for two main reasons; one, it covers a good range of statistics for those who are just starting in this area and second, it is free (not bad considering today’s economy).

The following are some initial guidelines in getting started and tracking some of the critical variables.       

 1- Tracking Code: To collect any data for review you must first install on your web site what Google calls its tracking code.  After signing on to Google Analytics go to overview and click on Edit and then click on status.  It will show you a copy of the tracking code and explain where to paste the code into your web site.  Once you have installed the tracking code, wait at least 24 hours for Google to provide some initial data.  After waiting, sign in to Google Analytics and click on view report.  You are now ready to starting analyzing your web site’s performance.

 2-Bounce and Exit Rates:   After clicking on view report, look on the left side of the page, click on content and then top content, scroll down to see the details.  You will see bounce rates and percent exits.  Bounce rate tells you that for this particular page the viewer came and left just that page.  If you have too many high bounce rates, you might want to reconsider the contents of these pages.  Exit rates tell you that the visitor left your site via this page.  Again, like the bounce rate, if you have many exit pages, you might want to change the content of these pages or the linkages.

 3-Keywords: Go and click on traffic sources and drop down to keywords.  This page will give you an idea of which keywords are driving clients to your web site.  You may want to modify some keywords if you are not seeing the results that you are want.

 4-Landing pages: Click on Content and then Top Landing Pages.  Landing pages are the pages on how visitors got to your web site.  It is important that these landing pages have viewers go to other pages or stay on these pages.  Again, if the data shows otherwise, you might want to modify the content and/or insert an offer or put a call to action on these pages.

 5- Average time on page: Click on Content and then Content by Title.  Average time tells you how long a visitor is on each page.  This is an important piece of data because it tells you if the viewer is just “passing though” or is actually reading the content of the various pages.  Again, if the average time is low on certain pages, you might want to modify them.

 6- Goals: Google Analytics provides you with the capability of setting up four (4) goals.  By creating goals, you can see if activities like campaigns, emails or promotions are meeting your targets.  To setup your goals click on view report and then Edit.  Scroll down to the goal section where you can name the goals, select types and input a value for each goal.

 Well these are just some of the basics in getting started with Google Analytics.

Regardless of which data collection tool you choose, pick one and start gathering so you can see if you are meeting your goals and how your web site is performing.

 If you have any questions or issues with Google Analytics drop me a note and I will get back to you.  Until next time, turn that data into information!

 RHL  11/ 05/09

Last week I was in my local bookstore and I saw a book whose title stated “50 mandatory marketing metrics.”  My reaction was WOW, 50!  So I went home and after only five minutes of surfing the web found about 200 MORE marketing metrics!  I had two reactions; one, boy most of us are really out of touch, and market research vendors should add marketing metrics as a separate industry segment.

 After reviewing the 200+ metrics (not really) such as RFM, CPA, CPL, CRM, clicks, leads, ROI, and #$%@; I realize there are some keys ones missing.  So if you want to be a top-notch marketer then include these (these are for consumer marketing only, don’t want to give too much away) in your research.

 WMW   -This measures the Willingness of My Wife to let me buy it

 KUJ      -Does buying this Keep me Up with the Jones?

 BME     -Does the product Boost My Ego?

 CFB      -Can I Fudge the Budget to buy it (let’s just charge it anyways)?

 HII       -Does this have High Impressive Index?

 CCI      -What is the Celebrity Correlation Index?

 And of course a very key one!

 PCI     -Politically Correct Index

If none of these really works, then I would suggest that you cut the 200+ list down to the following:

• Understand your targeted audience
• Create some real metrics that you can measure
• Actually follow up and measure them. 

 Stop insulting your customers with all the marketing spin, be honest, give them a real value for the product or service, and make it a favorable experience!

RHL 11/3/09