Leppik notes the technology and operational sophistication available to call centers is "incredible."

"But that technology and sophistication is not always employed in the service of the customer," he adds. "It depends a lot on the individual company. If the call center is measured mainly on cost, then quality suffers.

"The irony is it's often not any more expensive to provide good service. You just have to measure it properly and provide the proper incentive."

Many companies, he notes, will adopt self-service options for routine transactions such as confirming a checking account balance. The idea, of course, is to save money by avoiding having that call go to an agent.

That's fine as far as it goes, Leppik continues, because many customers prefer to use self-service for common tasks. But some companies will take another step and intentionally make it difficult to reach an agent.

"In the research we've done, which is considerable on this topic, making it difficult to reach an agent doesn't stop people from reaching an agent. People call back and figure out tricks to get around the system. By the time they get through to an agent, they're already upset. In the worst case they simply take their business elsewhere," he says.

Leppik's recommendation–always trust the customer's or member's decision on whether they should talk to an agent. For example, if there's an error on a statement, self-service won't fix that. If the caller simply wants to find out if a check has cleared, people understand they can find out more quickly without talking to someone.

He believes a recorded message suggesting the caller could obtain information online is simply irritating. Most people have computers and access to online banking. When they hear the message, they think, "If I could do what I want online, that's what I would have done."

Ideally, the agent should use the same online system the customer or member uses. That takes the agent out of a scripted role, and allows them to teach the caller how to access the information they need.

Call Center Needs CEO Input

Leppik likes the idea of top management phoning the credit union when they're out of the office and, without access to an internal phone directory of extensions or other information, trying to obtain information they need.

He also believes a call center reflects what actually attracts the approval of top management. If senior managers are paying most attention to operational costs and sales rates, that's what employees will focus on. If management truly zeroes in on member satisfaction, that's what employees will strive for.

"The most powerful thing a CEO can do to improve the quality of call center contacts is to take one day a year, sit in the call center, and actually take calls," Leppik says.

"Whether the CEO is any good on the phone doesn't matter. What matters is all of the call center agents and supervisors are going to see how this person is spending his time and what he concentrates on. They are going to feel a valued part of the organization.

Martin Prunty, managing director of Contact Center Professionals, also talks about call center morale. He says it doesn't take long, when he's called in by a client to assess a call center operation, to sense what's happening.

"Typically, when a client brings me in to observe their operation, within about 30 minutes I can get a pretty good feel for how well it's run. I say that based on several things. One is just a general observation of the morale. What is the relationship between supervisors and customer or member service representatives? How do they determine how many people need to be on the phone?"

It's not unusual for Prunty to discover call center workers don't have good tools. He even finds them struggling with the old legacy computer "green screen" instead of the more contemporary Windows environment.

Training and supervision are other issues. Prunty estimates he has trained a couple thousand call center managers. Probably 90 to 95% of the people responsible for managing the call center environment never had any experience working in a call center.

Prunty suggests when a customer or member presents a problem to a call center agent, it's actually an opportunity to cement a relationship. In fact, he notes, studies show someone who has a relationship with a company and never encounters a problem has less loyalty than if there had been a problem the company resolved.

Generally speaking, he says, consumers are somewhat forgiving of waiting on hold for a long period of time–provided they experience first-call resolution. If the situation isn't resolved with one call, satisfaction drops dramatically.

However, some organizations have a policy that the caller is going to talk to somebody. It's a "warm body beats nobody" approach. If no agent at the call center is available, the call may–in an extreme hypothetical example–go to the janitor. The call is answered, but the person answering can't help."

Shorter calls have always been viewed as optimal, but that's not always the case. "Shorter handle time is generally seen as better–but that doesn't account for the fact that the agent with a shorter handle time might be rude and incompetent, and the calls they handle may result in other calls."

Prunty emphasizes that for credit unions and other financial services organizations, a call center provides an excellent opportunity to move to a sales/service environment. The key is a personalized offer, based on information about that specific member. For example, a call center agent with the right tools may resolve a problem, then proceed to something like the following conversation.

"I'm glad we were able to arrange that new account, Mrs. Jones. By the way, I notice you had a new car loan with us a few years ago and you paid that off a year ago. Great. If you're about to look for another car, we have very attractive rates on new car loans right now."

Prunty indicates a contact center that moves into effective cross-selling can generate as much revenue as a new branch.

–[email protected]