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4 Best Practices to Redefine Back Office Services

Smiling female customer representative wearing headphones working in office

Whether it be politics, athletics, or business, what happens in the backlines is just as important as the front. An organization’s back office services work, which includes non-customer facing transaction processing, is fundamental to any great customer experience. That’s why it’s essential to keep back-office operations running effectively. What happens behind the scenes will influence the success of customer-facing interactions.

In our experience, we’ve seen many disorganized back-office practices lead to financial losses and excessive rework, resulting in increased average handle time and other errors that directly impact efficiency and customer experience.

Therefore, organizations need to realize the value in creating a healthy and productive back-office environment. Here are four best practices around training, operations, quality assurance, and automation to create exceptional services:

1. Start with actionable and engaging training

Every great operation begins with providing interactive and responsive training. Outlining detailed workflows for each task and mapping them against areas of opportunity and error can help associates focus on the quality of their work. Use detailed work mapping to scope improvement opportunities while educating associates about different approaches they could take. These training opportunities help them understand what to be aware of during each job.

For complex back-office tasks consisting of multiple steps, we encourage “Mind Maps” — a diagram used to visually organize information. They can help associates remember steps and identify easier and more accurate decision making. Once the scope of the issue is defined, processes that don’t involve human intervention can be identified and automated to help reduce manual efforts.

It is also important to acknowledge that at times, associates may not have comprehensive training documents ready with them, creating fractured customer support service and likely leading to customers being tossed around. That’s why real-time updates to a database or knowledge library should be made to keep the information fresh, avoid ambiguity, and streamline information for the associate to access when assisting customers.

As a way to tie it all in, we’ve seen that gamified training tools such as self-help dashboards can find commonly made errors for associates as a quick reference point. Gamified training is one of the latest training methodologies adopted by organizations that involves applying video game-like designs to help career growth become interactive and entertaining.

2. Safety is the name of the game

In a world full of fraud, leaks, and malicious hackers, the need for security and secure procedures are key. There are two approaches to prevent harmful instances for your customers and organizations that we like to practice: 

Maker & Checker: This review and audit mechanism approach emphasizes dual verification of transactions that are prone to financial losses, wherein a maker would input the details related to a transaction and a checker would validate if the entry made by maker is correct or not. Having an audit mechanism in place at the initial stage helps avoid huge financial losses resulting from incorrect inputs for a high value transaction.

Double key data entry approach: Similar to the Maker & Checker approach, a double key data entry approach helps detect potential errors in the early phase of the process lifecycle thus avoiding any lag in detecting an error. Two associates simultaneously enter the same input values at the same time for a transaction. If the entries match, it would go through and if there is a conflict, the system would raise a red flag.

For example, for one of our travel-hospitality clients, all new customers were required to go through a verification process before they could book their first reservation. All the profile information was double-checked – and if two associates reached different decisions, say one declined and another verified, a third more experienced associate made the final decision.

3. Make quality a priority

The back-office needs to stress thoroughness and efficiency. In industries such as banking, just one mistake can lead to huge financial loss for the institution. A method to prevent this involves performing a “100% Quality Audit” of all the critical and financially sensitive transactions.

In our experience we’ve done a 100% Quality Audit for all the transactions that are processed. For example, a quality audit for enrolling an individual in a 401(k) plan would include auditing personal information, fund allocation, vesting percent, etc. The quality audit can help ensure all such steps are followed with 100 percent accuracy. This may involve additional costs and resources, but it is worth the investment to avoid financial implications such as loss on transactions or penalties due to compliance.

Transactions with financial- and compliance-related implications need to have a stringent quality check mechanism to ensure zero tolerance for errors. We call this a Zero Tolerance QA. For quality assurance grading, any errors would result in a failed transaction score, so it becomes a 0 to 100 scoring mechanism. This is integral to transactions with huge financial implications.

4. Automate intelligently in the back office

Artificial intelligence is reinventing the workplace by freeing up associates to work on complex and meaningful tasks while automation caters to the easier work. But quickly implemented automation can lead to poor and frustrating customer experiences. It’s important to create algorithms for mistake proofing to help avoid errors.

For example, in processes such as ‘Maker & Checker’, the Maker first step can often be automated. The human Checker can then decide to complete the transaction. This can help reduce manual efforts by up to 50 percent.

Recent trends suggest that many companies have created self-help process flows on their websites or apps to enable customers to solve their concerns independently by using credential authentication and one-time password (OTP) option. The OTP option is received by the user on a registered email address or cell phone to authenticate the transaction initiated by customer for any request such as contact information change, authorizing financial charge on the card, or online payment.

With such a feature available, customers can make basic changes on their own and free up associates’ time. However, it is important to note that this will require seamless integration of various front-end and back-end systems.

Set your sights on change

In your organization, customers may not be directly interacting with back-office associates, but their work is integral to meaningful interactions such as changes, approvals, and financial verification behind the scenes. Their contributions help create a seamless flow that makes a user’s experience with a brand that much easier.

Excellent CX Eludes Most Brands

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New research from Forrester finds that the quality of customer experiences is largely at a standstill.

Forrester’s 5th annual U.S. Customer Experience Index report found that the overall quality of the U.S. customer experience grew only by an anemic 0.4 points, to 70.2 from 2018 to 2019. According to the report, 81 percent of customer experience stayed the same, while only 14 percent of customer experiences improved, and 5 percent declined.

In addition, elite brands remain stuck. Eleven of the 16 frontrunners were repeats from last year.

“This year’s CX Index results clearly show that brands are on the right path but still have a long way to go,” Forrester Chief Research Officer Carrie Johnson said in a press release.

The report surveyed over 100,000 U.S. adult consumers and tested 260 U.S. brands across 16 industries.

The CX Index is divided up into five categories; very poor, poor, OK, good, and excellent, measured by consumer rankings of CX quality and customer loyalty. Most companies – 65 percent – were ranked as OK, a drop of one percent from last year. Only 17 percent were ranked as good, 16 percent as poor, and 2 percent as very poor. No companies were ranked as excellent.

According to the report, although some brands scores increased or declined, the change in points never exceeded 5 points.

Broken down by industry, health insurers went up by 1.5 points, moving from 14th place to 13th place, while direct banking, hotels, wireless service providers, mass market auto manufacturers, and multichannel retailers all increased by one point. The airline industry’s CX score dropped by one point and luxury auto manufacturers took first place from multichannel banking. According to the report, this change resulted from statistically insignificant score fluctuations, not real changes to CX quality in either industry.

Because there were no CX leaders, Forrester divided brands up into four categories: languishers, lapsers, locksteppers and laggards. Languishers were brands that rose high then stalled — 20 percent of the CX Index were considered languishers. Lapsers — brands that rose then fell back down, represented four percent of brands. Of note, 17 percent of direct brokerages were lapsers, making them the industry with the highest percentage of lapsers.

Locksteppers were brands that moved up and down in the pack — 52 percent of brands were in this category, including 70 percent of the direct banks on the list. Lastly, laggards were brands that stayed at or near the bottom, representing 24 percent of the CX Index. 73 percent of airlines and U.S. federal organizations fell into this category.

Make customers feel something about their experience

The report noted that the key to achieving CX differentiation is through customer emotions; feeling appreciated, happy, and valued boosts loyalty the most.

For elite brands, for one emotionally negative experience there was 22 positive ones, but for bottom brands, for one negative experience there were only three positive ones.

“With customers in the driver’s seat and heightened consumer interest in organizations’ corporate values when making buying decisions, how an experience makes customers feel has a bigger influence on their brand loyalty than any other factor,” said Johnson. “That’s why it’s critical to understand the intersection of in-the-moment customer feedback and which CX drivers matter most to customers and your bottom line.”

Key CX takeaways

The report sheds light on the importance of the customer experience, particularly individual moments that matter. Here are three takeaways to remember during CX transformation:

  • Lead with humanity. You cannot automate your way past good CX. AI is fantastic for the simple, everyday interactions, but customers are people. And people prefer to interact with humans sometimes, especially for emotional or complicated interactions.
  • Voice of the customer will help drive better experiences. Customers want to be heard and understood. Utilize voice analytics to explore conversations across multiple channels to provide coaching opportunities for employees and gather customer insight. Every win and loss with a customer is an opportunity to grow, if you listen closely.
  • Customer experience is a never-ending journey. Your organization’s work is never done. Customer expectations continuously evolve. Create a nimble organization that can adapt, react, and anticipate change in customer behavior. There are far too many examples of age-old brands that were too slow to adapt and fell to irrelevancy.

Human Resources Adapts to a Changing CX Workforce

Human resources requirements. Management concept. Miniature people. Business illustration vector graphic on white background.

Anyone working in the contact center space knows that finding and engaging top-performing front-line employees is a challenge. Companies are hard pressed to attract and retain customer care workers in the midst of low unemployment rates, expanding competition, and changing expectations from potential staff about what they want in a workplace environment. 

A strategic use of human resources can be the secret weapon to help a company stand out among competitors. Data-focused strategies and a commitment to new ways of engaging employees help firms get, keep, and grow the best customer support talent, which leads to the best customer experiences.

We recently interviewed TTEC human resources leaders Michael Wellman, Judith Almendra, and DJ Valente about how they are overcoming employment obstacles and cultivating great customer support talent. Below is an excerpt of the conversation, and the full interview can be found on www.theCXPod.com.

What are you seeing in the labor market today? And why is it such a challenge?
Michael Wellman: It’s become a perfect storm. There is a new competitiveness in the market as it relates to talent and skills of the workforce and a higher demand for more qualified workers. Then there are wage pressures and supply-and-demand issues in different cities. This keeps intensifying and it’s harder to attract candidates. But then when you do attract them, how do you get employees committed long term? 

DJ Valente: And there are a couple of other things that are really driving it. There’s one of the lowest unemployment rates in five decades—over 3.6 percent unemployment in the U.S. There are 7 million current active job openings today in the U.S., which is the highest in basically five decades. So I think when you combine that with the wage pressures and availability of labor, it’s a perfect storm for some of these tier 1 and tier 2 skill levels.

Judith Almendra: Technology has really revolutionized the way that consumers and candidates behave, as well. In a single interaction, you can actually have a candidate apply to multiple jobs at a time, and it’s much easier for them to fill out an application today on average. So that really adds to the competitive nature of the market. Candidates are more informed than ever in terms of the salaries that they should be making, and what options are available to them. 

How is this changing your approach to the job and business? 
MW: Across organizations, human resources and people strategy are the differentiators more than ever before. Data is probably at the top of the list as it relates to what is the true story of your workforce and the issues that need addressing to attract and retain employees. And last but not least, it’s about having a collaborative relationship not just internally, but externally with our clients and our colleagues that support organizations and other industries. 

How can HR leverage data in new ways to help spur employee success?
MW: We have some standard reports that we look at as far as applicant flow and market data as it relates to how large of a market that we have to mine from. We look at daily reports of applicant numbers and hires, but we’re also assessing once somebody goes through the interview process and is hired. We measure every step of that process, from going into that permanent role to using real-time feedback to understand and respond quickly to issues that come up. And we’re able to look at trends around the applicant experience, but also the new employee experience. 

JA: There is also a very strong partnership now between human capital and our insights side of the house to start connecting those dots from all the data that Michael mentioned, from applicant to labor market data. We look at external metrics as well as internal metrics and how those connect, which allows us to make more informed decisions about the propensity of someone to leave or stay in the organization. You can take proactive actions to retain that individual and connect engagement to performance.  

What about the last key differentiator you mentioned, the people strategy?  
MW: We have a global people strategy that is focused on three core areas. The first being human capital delivery. We combine our expertise with tools not only for human capital leaders, but also for business leaders and people leaders to create experiences for our employees that are memorable. 

Another is our total reward strategy, which combines our competitive compensation and benefits that really matter to employees, like tuition reimbursement and robust vacation time. We built a plan that’s more the voice of our employee versus being driven from the top down. And so, our employees have made it known what they would like to see us invest in as it relates to total rewards. It’s not perfect, but we’re taking those into consideration as we mold our strategy.

Last, but not least, is our talent strategy. It’s like a factory—you’re building it internally, but also having that strong external brand through social media, employee referrals, and other avenues that are focused around our image. From our leadership to our working environment, we are creating career paths and opportunities for candidates and employees that they can understand before they even join the company.

DV: The other piece that we’re really working on is that for this younger generation of employees. They want a sense of community and to see how an organization supports their communities and how it gives back to less fortunate people in these places. We’ve accelerated these efforts to become more appealing to folks.

JA: And whether it’s work-life balance, giving back to the community, career path, or continuous development, our programs are established in a way that can offer a holistic approach to an individual, to make sure that they feel they can reach their full potential within the organization. Keeping them engaged, excited and showing them what’s the current path within the company is something that is very critical to us. 

3 Ways to Create a High-Performing Employee Culture

Relaxation in the office.

For years a close family member suffered from severe migraines and, in a desperate attempt to find a cure, visited a holistic healer. Holistic medicine practitioners believe that the whole person is made up of interdependent parts and if one part is not working properly, all the other parts will be affected.

After analyzing diet, sleep habits, stress levels, relationship issues, plus work and home environments, the holistic healer helped my family member identify potential problems and recommended solutions. A few simple lifestyle changes resulted in a rebirth-like experience filled with a new-found joy of life and the ability to be a present, productive, and high-performance individual both socially and professionally.

While disengaged and demotivated employees might physically turn up to work, they tend to behave in a detached, unproductive, and nonchalant mode that’s reminiscent of a severe migraine sufferer who’s hiding in the dark, seeking to distance themselves from their colleagues, customers, and the world. As managers and leaders, we need to adopt a holistic healer-like approach to creating and maintaining an employee experience (EX) that continuously provides moments of unexpected delight to inspire employee loyalty and retention.

Why EX is the new CX

EX is commonly equated incorrectly to employee engagement. Measuring employee engagement—which most organisations are obsessed with—is definitely not the same as improving it. A better way to think about employee engagement is to view it as a moment in time outcome. On the other hand, EX describes the ongoing journey that delivers a level of employee engagement. The simplest way to think of EX is as the sum of all observations, encounters, and feelings that employees have before, during, and after their employment with an organisation.

When a company’s EX is positive and employees are aligned with the organisation’s purpose, vision, and values, they are likely to not only get their work done efficiently, but also are willing to go the extra mile and put in considerable discretionary effort to “do the right thing” and keep customers happy. In an academic study, Alex Edmans determined that “Companies listed in the ‘100 Best Companies to Work For in America’ generated 2.3 to 3 percent higher stock returns per year than their peers.” 

So how can it be done? By administering the EX prescription below, leaders can lay the high-performance culture foundation that drives exceptional levels of CX:

1. Provide employees with positive touchpoints at all stages of the employee lifecycle. Employees interact with the company they work for in a multitude of ways at each stage of their employee lifecycle. It’s the sum experience of these interactions—from selection, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, exit to alumni—that creates a memorable employee experience.

In the CX world, a customer journey map is the primary tool used to create a visual representation of customers’ interactions with a brand to understand where and when the connections occur, how customers feel at each connection point, and identify where any potential friction exists. EX professionals are now borrowing the same tools to create employee journey maps that help them to visualise current-state EX and design improved future-state EX.

Reengineering the exit process to include counseling or outplacement services, an authentic and unbiased exit interview, appropriate and timely team communications, or even leaving a card, gift, or small send-off event could mean the difference between a scathing and glowing Glassdoor review for your company.

2. Create a work environment that balances technology, culture, and physical surroundings. There’s nothing worse than the slowly escalating panic attack that sets in around 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon as you dread the mental preparation required to survive the upcoming week.

As a holistic EX healer, a simple remedy for work dread is to treat your employees as if they were your only and most important customer. Setting up employees for success requires an end-to-end, employee-centric approach that aims to make their lives as easy as possible by removing friction and allowing them to focus on delivering world-class CX to your customers.

A common trap many organisations fall into is thinking that providing a work environment filled with foosball tables, free food, and funky decor will in itself deliver an amazing EX. While these factors certainly help employees feel more comfortable and valued, they need to be incorporated into a broader EX strategy to deliver more substantial EX outcomes.

Rather than only focusing on the physical environment, start with culture. You can think of organisational culture as the behaviours that employees demonstrate—especially when no one is looking. As managers and leaders, it’s up to us to create a unique organisational DNA where we establish a set of clear behaviours that our employees know, understand, buy into and passionately live every day.

EX enablers of a high-performance culture mean all employees understand what’s expected of them and they consistently behave in an aligned way. In this environment the technology and processes need to be built to support the team’s purpose, values, and behaviours. And behind that technology, it’s about employees who are genuinely excited, engaged, and empowered to deliver the shared cultural norms. This is strengthened by rewards and recognitions for their efforts and results.  

Providing the technologies and tools required to do the job is a
mandatory element of EX, as well. Look for opportunities to leverage technology when streamlining core activities such as:

  • Proficiently locating customer-related information by leveraging integrated tools and customer systems like CRM.
  • Efficiently locating corporate, product, and policy information by using a centralised knowledge management system.
  • Empowering employees to learn skills, processes, and tools at the time and point of need with an adaptive, next-generation learning platform.

3. Holistically bring together HR functions to build bridges between EX and CX. Many forward-thinking organisations around the globe have formally acknowledged their commitment to EX by creating the role of Chief EX Officer. An integral part of this strategy is to adopt an employee-centric view that holistically integrates all employee HR functions by aligning these with the stages of the employee lifecycle. Bringing together talent acquisition, learning and development, compensation and benefits, and all other HR functions will ensure a smoother transition from one employee lifecycle stage to the next.

Take, for example, the responsibilities of Airbnb’s Vice President of Employee Experience Beth Axelrod. The Fortune 500 company describes her responsibility as overseeing the recruitment of employees, maintaining a healthy and diverse work environment, and organising employee benefits and resources.

Another key EX enabler is the “consumerisation of HR”—applying a consumer and digital mindset to a company’s HR functions by creating social, mobile, and consumer-like experiences for employees. A recent report from McKinsey estimated that by 2025, 75 percent of the workforce will be digital native millennials who will expect to interact at all stages of the employee lifecycle using flexible, mobile-first apps on their own devices. A well-designed employee experience isn’t just about understanding how to improve their livelihood, but also being aware of how they conduct their everyday lives and fitting to their expectations.

Employee experiences feed into CX success

Consider the words of Sir Richard Branson, “My philosophy has always been, if you can put staff first, your customers second, and shareholders third, effectively, in the end, the shareholders do well, the customers do better, and your staff remains happy.”

Likewise, a carefully administered EX prescription that considers employees’ thoughts, feelings, and physical work environments together with a consumer-like approach to managing HR functions will generate exceptional levels of engagement, excitement, buy-in, loyalty, retention, and employer brand loyalty. This will result in the sustained health and wellbeing of your organisation’s CX.

How to Tell If Your B2B Website Is Customer-Centric

Marketers, if your B2B website was on a “first date,” would it get a second one? For many websites, the answer is probably “no,” according to recent research by Forrester. Many B2B websites would make poor conversation partners—their main focus is about what they do, they don’t relate to the other person, and they share dull stories that are nearly identical. In short, companies are missing an opportunity to better engage buyers and drive sales with a buyer-centric approach. The upside is that even with just a few changes, companies can stand out from the competition, attract audiences, and generate greater demand.

Rethink your website from the prospect POV
In its research, Forrester evaluated 60 websites of leading enterprises across 12 industries such as human resources, manufacturing, marketing automation, sales enablement, investing, and medical products. The websites were judged on whether content spoke to buyers’ issues versus company products; if content was tailored for different audiences or roles; were infographics, videos, and other media used to highlight key information; was there a convenient way to connect with sales, and other criteria.

So, how did the websites do? The study showed that the vast majority of websites in the study failed to deliver an engaging content experience and only four sites received a passing score. Most of the websites focused on the company’s capabilities and offerings instead of demonstrating an understanding of buyers’ concerns. “There are a number of reasons why marketers end up in this position and part of it is simply muscle memory,” says Laura Ramos, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, who co-authored the report. “This is how marketers are used to portraying information, but industries are getting more competitive and people are demanding more.”

The importance of buyer-centric websites also speaks to a larger trend. “Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, people expect you as a brand to know something about them,” says Scott Mager, a principal with Deloitte Digital. “The question, how do I get the right content to the right person in the right channel at the right time to create the right optimum experience for that person should be top of mind [for marketers].”

Start with customer-focused content
An effective content marketing strategy is built on three pillars: buyer insights, buyer behavior, and content design. Creating compelling content means leveraging these three areas to demonstrate how well a company understands its target audience’s needs and challenges. Some marketers, though, fear they’ll alienate potential buyers by taking a more focused approach to their content. “A common question that we hear from clients is, ‘won’t this narrow our audience?” Ramos says. Yes and no. Broad descriptions, Ramos explains, don’t communicate the value of a company’s products or services and require more work on the buyer’s part. “The onus is on companies to do their research, figure out which types of customers and situations they want to work with and make it clear who the information is intended for,” Ramos says.

While creating a better website requires time and effort, there are a few relatively easy things companies can do to start, Ramos adds. Those low-hanging fruits include making sure the homepage is easy to navigate and that the site is optimized for every channel. If the company already has different types of content, allow visitors to indicate which types of information they’d be interested in (even better: filter the information by role or other relevant categories). Even companies in highly-regulated industries can improve the user experience by replacing jargon with concise definitions.

Be human
Research shows company websites are still one of the most effective tools for building brand awareness. Websites are also what often forms a prospect’s first impression of the company and its offerings. And prospects are more likely to turn into buyers if a company demonstrates that it understands the issues prospective buyers are looking to solve and is ready to help. Or as Ramos puts it, it’s about “giving content a human voice.”

Take a Smart Seasonal Approach to Health Insurance Open Enrollment

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Open enrollment has become a make-or-break time for insurers. Besides the pressure and competition to entice and enroll members in individual, family, Medicare, and other plans, the process to prepare and staff for the season is full of rising costs and inefficiencies. Companies essentially restart the process each year, accruing higher costs every time. Licensed, U.S.-based associates are legally required to assist consumers in their choices of health insurance, which can be expensive and hard to staff in different geographies. 

Annual enrollment on average requires a 600 percent increase in staffing levels compared to the rest of the year. It can cost some payers up to $5,000 to license an associate across all 50 states. Finding the right people in a specific geography and ramping up the physical space to house all those associates are difficult challenges. What’s more, it can take 90 days for new licensed associates to reach proficiency. 

Once hired, trained, and placed in a live environment, these highly trained expert associates often spend up to 35 percent of their time handling misdirected calls from people who see the enrollment phone number and call about something else, like a claim question.

Instead, payers can reimagine their open enrollment preparation and operations to not only save costs, but also lead to better conversions and other outcomes. It’s an approach we at TTEC call “Smart Seasonal.”

TTEC’s Smart Seasonal approach hires and trains a mix of onshore, offshore, and @home employees, then manages call flow to deflect non-sales calls to lower-cost, pre-sales support channels. Associates are hired full time, to be utilized in different ways and on full- and part-time schedules throughout the year. This leads to tenured, expert associates who can work with consumers more effectively. 

As a result, average handle time and wait times decrease, while sales conversions improve.

4 pillars to exceed open enrollment performance goals

1. Find the right labor mix

With U.S. unemployment below 4 percent and hourly wage growth up 19 percent in the past six years, it’s hard to find and keep good labor without investing in workers. Yes, licensed onshore associates are required, but not for everything. The right combination of markets and staffing structure can help meet the labor challenge and optimize results. 

Offshore resources and self-service options can remove some of the burden from onshore licensed associates for simple service inquiries that do not require a license. These associates can manage a large portion of interactions and can qualify true sales inquiries that are then sent to licensed, U.S. employees. 

The U.S. workforce model can also be adjusted to be a hybrid of brick-and-mortar and @home associates. The model allows associates to be staffed all year, which reduces annual ramp and training requirements and improves knowledge and expertise. Home-based workers are more likely to be interested in a flexible schedule, working full time during open enrollment periods and part time the rest of the year. They are more likely to become experts and more effectively drive conversions by as much as 36 percent. 

2. Invest in an optimal people strategy
The secret weapon of any company is its people. The best people provide the best member experiences. That’s why it’s important to invest strategically in the right wage structure and engagement approach to lower attrition and deliver higher performance.

A Smart Seasonal approach recommends investing in higher wages for U.S.-based, licensed associates. It will be a tighter, nimbler group of employees who are focused on complex sales-related interactions. Higher wages will attract and retain high performers, saving costs in the long run on talent acquisition and training. 

So what’s the correct wage range? It’s different for each company, based on multiple factors like geography, competition, and even job level stress. Our healthcare experts work with individual payers to help determine the wage sweet spot for each situation.

In addition to wages, we recommend payers execute an integrated engagement strategy for onshore, offshore, and @home workers. It should be a holistic approach to the member experience, not siloed groups working on their own. 

3. Empower associates to drive conversions
The right tools and processes can supercharge open enrollment outcomes. The Smart Seasonal approach uses advanced knowledge management tools as the foundation to help associates find the most appropriate information at the right moment. 

Call flows are modified to focus on conversions, scripts are regularly updated based on call history insights, and real-time sales coaching uses analytics and 360-degree associate understanding to boost strong skills and improve weak ones.

4. Implement technology to accelerate results
While associates are the experience, the right technology removes friction from both sides of the interaction.

For members, customized quote microsites help steer open enrollment inquiries to self-service tools. The sites are shared with prospective members after the initial contact with an associate. Members are greeted with a site that includes a sales associate’s photo and contact information, as well as details about insurance plans discussed and instructions for signing up. In addition, co-browse and omnichannel capabilities empower consumers in their chosen channel. And call-back assist tools shorten customer wait times and improve NPS. 

For associates, insight from voice analytics helps to refine interactions and deliver improved outcomes. TTEC’s Associate Assist puts information in the associate’s hands in real time to drive CX and efficiency. And our RealPlay AI proprietary learning program uses AI bots for digital, simulated learning in a gamified environment. 

This mix of human and digital technology creates a perfect balance of positive member experience and streamlined operations. 

Get smart about seasonal strategy to open enrollment
Every year, it costs more to convert fewer health insurance prospects. The current approach to open enrollment isn’t sustainable. A Smart Seasonal approach requires some disruption to the ways things have traditionally been done.

Changes made to associate staffing, training, and licensing can alleviate inefficiencies and allow associates to focus on what they do best while improving the experience for members. By taking best practices from other industries and applying them to health insurance, improvements are possible, even within a highly regulated industry like insurance. 

Contact Center Leaders: Look Back to Look Forward

Customer Contact Week—a conference focused on customer experience and customer care technology and trends—recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in Las Vegas. So, how has the customer experience evolved in the past two decades? While there have been some significant technological advances, attendees agreed that far more work remains to better serve customers. Business leaders and industry experts shared insights and identified opportunities to evolve even further.

Overcome CX transformation roadblocks
Back in 1999, smartphones didn’t exist. The Net Promoter Score had yet to be developed (it was introduced in 2003). And Customer Contact Week was known as Call Center Week. A lot has changed since companies were “just beginning to talk about something called digital technology” said Mario Matulich, executive director of Customer Management Practice, in a kick-off address. At the same time, some things remain the same. Companies, Matulich noted, still debate which metrics matter and strive to deliver value to the customer. The main challenge is staying ahead of customer expectations at a time when customers are more distracted, connected, and informed than ever before.

Transforming the customer experience to meet or exceed customer expectations is top of mind for many business leaders. The problem is, aside from making relatively simple changes, “people find it very difficult to implement change effectively,” said Megan Burns, founder and principal of Experience Enterprises. An aversion to change often results in companies inadvertently creating roadblocks that prevent successful transformations. Burns shared three ways to overcome CX transformation roadblocks:

1. Be specific – Shifting to more precise language can do wonders in uncovering true priorities and pathways. For example, when you’re told that a CX project is too expensive or has to be put on hold, “because of Wall Street, remember that there are two types of shareholders,” Burns said. “Investors who are in it for the long term and speculators who are looking for quick profits—so push back and ask, which type of shareholder are we most concerned with?” Knowing the answer can help CX leaders align projects better and increase their chances of being green-lit.

2. Help people see the invisible – Similar to the first point, examining something from a new angle or breaking a project down into smaller pieces could make it easier to visualize a way forward. Thinking of a customer journey map, for instance, as “a customer journey blueprint gives the connotation of planning before making a decision,” Burns said, and reduces the pressure to create the perfect map.

3. Leverage existing routines – It’s much harder to make room for a new task than to add to an existing routine. Another way to think of it is “jumping double-dutch,” Burns said. “Just as you have to get the timing right in double-dutch, look for initiatives that already have momentum and figure out how to join them.” Waiting for a budget meeting, for instance, to get approval for a project makes more sense than trying to introduce the project outside of that timeframe.

The future of AI is a human partnership
“We’ve experienced the age of the customer and now the age of the employee is upon us,” Matulich said. The understanding that great customer experiences are impossible without great employee experiences was a major theme at the conference. And as Lance Gruner, EVP of global customer care at Mastercard, pointed out, the age of the employee is concurrent with the age of AI. “Questions about retention and creating a good work environment still exist but people evolve,” Gruner told 1to1 Media. “And companies have to adapt, which is why understanding how to use AI and CX tools effectively is so important [to improving the employee experience].” More specifically, while AI is helpful for training customer care associates faster and taking on routine parts of customer interactions, technology is only a supplement to the human experience. “Tools and technology are essential, but they can’t replace the human element.”

Nick Cerise, CMO at TTEC (1to1 Media’s parent company) agreed. “AI serves a multitude of purposes, but the technology is even more effective when it’s paired with humans,” he explained. High-performing employees, for instance, are well suited for training an AI system to provide customer and education support, creating a “virtuous cycle where you’re using your best employees to train an AI that in turn trains more employees, which increases speed to proficiency and delivers an even better customer experience.”

Consistency beats novel CX
Customer loyalty is more elusive than ever, noted Shep Hyken, a customer experience and service expert. Part of the reason is not only are companies competing with other firms in the same industry, but “people also compare your service to the best service they’ve ever received from any sector,” Hyken said. However, trying to constantly one-up competitors with newer and better services and products is a fool’s game. “The best companies who are constantly seen as amazing are a little bit better than average all the time,” Hyken explained. Consistently good, personalized service is much more effective (and cost effective) than over-the-top experiences that may go unnoticed. How do companies know when they’re doing it right? Companies are on the right path when “the word always is followed by something positive [when customers speak of a brand],” Hyken said. “That’s when you know you’re in the zone of amazement.”

What’s next
Attitudes about the customer, employees, and technology’s role have significantly changed since 1999. At the same time, the pace of change has rapidly accelerated. As Gruner put it, “in the next five years we will see more changes in CX tools and AI than we have in the last 20 years.” If the past 20 years was about adapting to changes, the next 20 years will be about predicting change and preparing for it without your customers ever noticing.

Employees Shine in Some of 2019’s Best Workplaces

In 2019, a great place to work isn’t always defined by a paycheck. The modern workforce is increasingly interested in an environment where employees feel they have meaning and can support the values of the company.

Research by USGBC found that 84 percent of employees desire a job with a strong, concrete mission and positive values. And findings from the University of Warwick show that happy employees are 12 percent more productive.

“This year, we’ve seen more employees tout a mission-driven culture they can stand behind, [with] clear direction from their senior leadership team on where the company is going, transparency around career advancement opportunities, competitive compensation packages, as well as unique benefits and perks, ranging from dog-friendly offices to free catered lunches,” says Glassdoor Community Expert Sarah Stoddard. 

We reached out to leaders and employees from brands named in this year’s Glassdoor Employee Choice Award and Inc.’s Best Workplaces survey to find out what it means to be a part of a winning employee culture.

23andMe

The direct-to-consumer (D2C) genetic testing and research company 23andMe, which provides ancestry, health, trait, and wellness reports for consumers, has interwoven transparency into its culture. With a mission to help people access, understand, and benefit from their genetic material, the fast-growing company recruits and supports employees who embody a mission of understanding of the world from a microscopic to global level.

“I think that people have a sense of belonging to the mission, and when you feel like you are a part of something bigger than yourself, it’s deeply motivating,” says Jen Mease, head of recruiting at 23andMe.

The company was ranked 26th by Glassdoor in the best Small to Medium Companies to Work for in 2019, with a 97 percent recommendation rate on the website. Employee reviews on Glassdoor praised its work/life balance, mission-driven work, and investment in company culture as some of their biggest motivators.

“Knowing that behind every data point is a human being is truly inspiring for our employees,” says Mease. “We hear of stories on a daily basis of customers who find siblings or discover potentially lifesaving health information. Feeling like you are a part of that and connecting to the product is really remarkable and unique to 23andMe.”

Research from Imperative has shown that employees who feel a strong purpose with their company are 30 percent more likely to be high performers in the workplace. 23andMe seeks potential employees with relevant job experience and skills, but more importantly, Mease says the company wants to employ people who embody its core values.

“I think it can be relatively simple to provide someone with tools and resources to get better at their job, but it’s more difficult to teach someone to align with your core values. Ideally, we want everyone we hire to make a long-lasting impact at 23andMe,” says Mease. This helps create a work environment that she described as fun, collaborative, innovative, and imaginative.

Additionally, the company is bolstered by the strong leadership of its CEO and co-founder, Anne Wojcicki. As of March 2019, Wojcicki had a 100 percent approval rating as CEO on Glassdoor and was ranked as the 24th Top CEO of 2018 by the site. Despite the company’s growing size, 23andMe hosts an all-hands meeting every Friday to discuss the state of the company and dedicates time for Q&A from employees with Wojcicki and her executive leadership team.

Team Rubicon

There are a select few organizations that inspire their employees to literally go the distance and enter harm’s way to help others. Founded in 2010, Team Rubicon is a non-for-profit volunteer organization that recruits military veterans, civilians, and first responders to help with the unmet need for disaster relief and humanitarian aid across the globe. An important objective of the organization is giving veterans a chance to use the skills they learned in the service to help others, with former military making up almost 70 percent of the volunteer force.

The organization has helped during disasters such as Hurricanes Michael, Florence, and Maria, which impacted parts of the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

“Many of Team Rubicon’s values, standards, and roots can be found in the military service of its founders, leaders, and volunteers,” says Josh Anderson, talent management at Team Rubicon and a Marine Corps veteran. “Many of our organizational values have to do with the delicate balance—the compromises—that must be struck during periods of conflict, stresses, hazards, or moments of severe consequence. In disasters, as in combat, the stakes are high.”

Employees and volunteers commented on Glassdoor that its mission-driven, challenging, and collaborative culture is a big driver as to why they are part of the organization.

Research from Team Rubicon found that 78 percent of those deployed report contributing to a greater purpose. “Our values are fundamentally different from what many experience in their adult working lives. They are strong, fearless, liberating, and bold,” says Anderson. “If you embrace them, live them, they free you up to become your best self, to really show up and make a difference in an authentic way. They also create a lot of value for those we serve.”

Purpose- and value-driven employees are essential to creating a positive and impactful environment. A survey from BetterUp Labs revealed that nine out of 10 American workers would give up 23 percent of future earnings to have a more meaningful career.

“We have a bias for action, but we are accountable for our actions and can’t afford to be reckless,” says Anderson. “The people who rely on us most can’t afford for us to be anything but precise, bold, and efficient. But they also need us to be totally human, to help bring them peace when they’re experiencing their worst day.”

Boll & Branch

Launched in 2014, Boll & Branch is a D2C textile (bedding, sheets, etc.) seller founded by husband and wife Scott and Missy Tanne. The pillars of the company focus on care, fair trade, and ethical workplace cultures. Reviews on Glassdoor praise the company’s ethical supply chain, family atmosphere, and values.

With a belief that family comes first, Scott Tanne wanted to ensure that those values are equally ensured to his employees. “We encourage our employees to find the balance that works for them. And, as leaders, we ensure that people feel trusted and empowered, knowing that we focus on measuring our outputs and results vs. over-emphasizing late nights in the office and trivial things like that,” he says. “The result is an office of workers that feels [and looks] more like a home with people who treat and trust one another like family.”

According to Gallup’s “State of the American Workplace” report, over half of respondents said that the ability to have a better work-life balance and personal well-being is very important to them. To Tanne, a big perk of the company’s D2C model is the ability to have a centralized team compared to traditional retailers that are more spread out. This enables the company to home in on work-life balance and flexibility by all working in one location and managing similar work schedules.

As a Fair Trade Certified company, the brand also follows ethical standards around reduced water use, no child or forced labor, living wages, and premiums to the factory and farms associated with the company.

Tanne encourages a work environment that begins with a one-on-one discussion of the company mission during hiring, and continues with transparency and reports for employees following factory trips. “When the Fair Trade impact report is released in June we present that to the full team,” says Tanne. “Things like this we prioritize to ensure we’re keeping people, our mission, at the heart of Boll & Branch’s culture.”

High ethical standards is a key ingredient to employee engagement and great workplaces. LinkedIn’s 2018 “Workplace Culture Trends” report found that 87 percent of American workers say pride in the company they work for matters, with 46 percent citing a positive impact on society as a key factor.

goodr

Founded in 2015 in Los Angeles, goodr’s small team of 39 employees runs a successful line of athletic sunglasses for runners, cyclists, and various athletic competitions and training. The brand has a lively and unique employee culture backed by autonomy and ethical workplace awareness.

For starters, everyone who applies for a position at goodr has to submit a drawing of an octopus fighting a pirate.

“What’s interesting about our brand is we’re a super vibrant fun company. And if you see us, I think there’s this idea that we slam margaritas all day, but nothing could be further from the truth. We actually work very hard,” says Stephen Lease, co-founder and CEO of goodr. “We have a super in-depth onboarding process because we realized our culture is so different and we have to deprogram people from normal ways of thinking.”

The company’s extensive onboarding process, which it calls goodr.OS (goodr operating system) is made of eight pillars that the staff, both new and current, go through. Examples include:

• New hires get a swag bag of books that goodr feels are cornerstones to its culture.

•Team members are encouraged to put together a personal productivity system.

• Training and test on an Enneagram (a tool for measuring personality types) so employees can better understand each of the nine personality types and how to best work with each other’s differences and strengths.

• The production of a weekly “Learn goodr” video that the team watches and discusses.

Goodr also has a flat reporting structure where there are no bosses, which they find isn’t for everyone. “You have a role you know what to do, we try to train leaders and adults, not followers,” says Lease.

What it takes to be a best place to work

These brands prove to be not only exceptional on the outside, but meaningful and impactful for those making it work on the inside. As consumers become more aware of unfair, toxic, or mistreated workforces, leaders need to look at the brands that are creating forward thinking and ethical workplaces to be impactful.

Forrester CX NYC 2019: How to Break Through Stagnant Customer Experiences

At Forrester’s CX NYC 2019 conference, the message was clear: customer experience has a hit a wall. The failure to understand what customers really want and deliver value has led to irrelevant experiences and disengaged customers. Across a total of 16 industries in the research firm’s latest U.S. Customer Experience Index, 81 percent of the brands have a stagnated customer experience.

The good news is with the right strategy, data insights, and a healthy dose of experimentation, companies can break through the wall to drive greater customer engagement and loyalty. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the conference on how to do exactly that.

1. Think POST
While cutting-edge technology is a key driver of great customer experiences, it isn’t the only component that matters when making a buying decision. “Too many firms don’t put the customer in the center of their CX technology buying decisions—or they’re not taking a holistic view of how the technology fits within the rest of the organization,” said Forrester Senior Analyst Faith Adams at a breakout session.

The result is a waste of resources and unsuccessful customer outcomes. Adams suggested the acronym POST (People, Objective, Strategy, Technology) as a smarter and more effective way to integrate technology into a company’s CX initiatives.

Kathy Schwartz, director of customer experience at pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, shared additional tips for implementing a successful CX strategy based on her own experiences. Being transparent in the RFP process about the sources of data that vendors would be asked to work with and asking them to demonstrate their capabilities quickly pares down the list, Schwartz said. 

Also, defining the success metrics of the CX program early on is important, but “don’t overcommit to those metrics,” she advised. As the CX program matures, companies should remember that KPIs and priorities could change, so it’s also important to do regular assessments.

2. Engage values-based consumers strategically
In an increasingly polarized environment, more and more consumers are selecting brands that reflect their values. Globally, 64 percent of consumers choose, switch, avoid, or boycott a brand based on its standing on a societal issue, according to the Edelman Earned Brand 2018 report, which is up 13 percentage points from 2017.

Brands, though, should be wary of adopting and broadcasting values simply to attract customers, warned Harley Manning, VP and research director at Forrester. “What’s hugely important is authenticity,” he said. Customers, Manning noted, are very quick to spot opportunistic attempts to win business.

Brands need a strategy to bring social, political, or moral values into their business models, added Manning, who helped create a values-based experience framework for exactly that purpose. The framework outlines nine potential approaches brands can take to integrating values into the customer experience. There is no right or wrong option, Manning said. It’s just a matter of “figuring out do our values match our customers’ values and how intensely do we want to depict those values?”

3. Unlock empathy by humanizing data
Research shows that employees provide better and more effective service when they feel empathy for a customer. The challenge is triggering empathy when employees are quickly numbed by the volume of customer complaints and requests that they receive daily. A possible solution is video testimonials. 

“Creating empathy is the key to inspiring action in CX,” said Raj Sivasubramanian, customer experience insights manager at Airbnb, in a presentation. Sivasubramanian shared a pilot he recently launched in which a small group of Airbnb users were invited to submit short videos with feedback about the rental company’s service.

Video elicits emotions that compel the viewer to act faster in a way that text doesn’t, Sivasubramanian claimed. To support his point, Sivasubramanian shared several video testimonials that ranged from a man on a hospital bed thanking Airbnb for promptly issuing him a refund when he was unable to use his reservation, to various disgruntled customers. “Our customers provide more context and deeper insight via video,” Sivasubramanian said. In one case, when a customer angrily complained about the company’s confusing cancellation policies, the video prompted the necessary teams to re-examine the text and simplify it.
Of course, video testimonials present their own challenges, such as being easily overwhelmed by the volume of content. Yet humanizing customer data can help produce better and more effective support. As companies look to pull more insights from their data, they should consider whether there are ways to visualize and tell a story better or add emotion that was stripped from another channel. Or as Sivasubramanian put it, “don’t lose sight of the human element in your data.”

4. Employee experience matters
In Forrester’s employee experience track, analysts dove into the importance of creating genuine and meaningful interactions inside of an organization.

Getting an employee experience right is tough. Forrester analysts Angelina Gennis, Sam Stern, and Adrian Chapman explained that it’s complicated to create a healthy employee environment because so many organizations shape their workers’ experience around customers’ rising expectations. Instead, they advocated that organizations design experiences that fit their employees’ expectations first. “We think what truly matters to the employees is the ability to connect to them and [for them to] stay productive on the work that matters most to them,” said Chapman.

This means fostering an environment for “purpose workers,” employees who are encouraged to incorporate their own values and meaning into the work they do. According to Forrester’s 2018 Workforce study, 96 percent of workers at high EX firm are willing to stay for the next 12 months, while fewer than half are willing to stay at a low EX firm. Additionally, 85 percent at a high-ranking firm would recommend their company’s product, while only 16 percent at a low-ranking firm would do so.

While organizations have been using customer personas for some time to better understand their customers, the analysts stressed that organizations need to paint a better picture of their employees too. Gennis outlined three steps to create an employee persona, a snapshot that represents a large segment of employees as a single individual.

  • Set a clear goal: Personas need to let an employee tell a story. Let it show how an employee can have (or what may prevent) a ‘perfect’ day at work. Then have the persona focus on a specific objective of what the end product should be and how it can be successful.
  • Plan research to inform insights: Analyzing a single employee persona does not provide a big enough picture to solve a problem. Use qualitative research to cast a wider net on an issue and use this technique to connect the dots between employees by articulating their shared experiences.  
  • Strive for inspiring and actionable: Use the story told and research collected to discover mindsets and personality traits that can be attributed to different demographics in an organization. By better understanding groups of employees’ desires at different stages of your career, an organization can introduce actionable insight.

For several years, firms have been able to elevate the customer experience by taking advantage of quick wins and simple fixes. Such opportunities are increasingly rare as more companies compete on the customer experience. As analysts and industry experts at the conference suggest, it’s time for companies to climb higher and leverage data, technology, and human creativity in more strategic and innovative ways.

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