Many call centers claim to be highly people-centric; Virgin Mobile Canada's Customer Care center has a team of enthusiastic agents and a rather big trophy to back up that claim.
Last year, the call center won the elite JD Power Award for Customer Satisfaction in Prepaid Mobile -- in the company's first year of business. Virgin Mobile Canada managers attribute such success and accolades to numerous things: The numerous people working on the frontline.
"We won this award because of the fantastic work that our call center staff performs every day," says Nancy Tichbon, director of customer experience for Virgin Mobile Canada. "They consistently go the extra mile with our customers, and in doing so, provide our customers with a personalized and memorable experience. They worked very hard to achieve this award and deserve all the recognition for Virgin Mobile's recognition in this category."
Tichbon and her team of managers and supervisors deserve at least some of the credit; after all, it is they who have created a call center environment where agents are able to -- and feel inspired to -- perform at peak levels. The center adheres strongly to a "people-first" philosophy, believing whole heartedly that happy agents hold to the key to lasting business success.
"It just makes sense to us: if our people are happy and motivated, our customers are going to have a great experience," Tichbon explains. "And it goes without saying that if our customers are satisfied, our shareholders will be delighted. Thus, if we live by this value of people first, customers second, and shareholders third, ultimately, everyone wins."
Higher Hiring
Paving the way for such victories is Virgin Mobile Canada's fresh approach to recruiting and hiring. The center doesn't covet previous experience when evaluating candidates; instead, it looks for candidates with the right attitude and drive to sustain and enhance the Customer Care center's critical "buzz," says Tichbon. "We can teach almost anyone to be a brilliant communicator or to troubleshoot a broken phone, but we can't train someone to ... have a fire in their belly for exceeding our customers' expectations."
The center's multi-hurdle assessment and selection process starts with a telephone screening. Candidates who pass the screening - i.e., sound professional, have good diction, etc. -- must then successfully complete a grammar and numerical skills test before moving on to the next phase of the selection process: personality profiling. It is at this stage where, through focused behavioral-based questions, the center is able to begin discerning which candidates have the right drive and desire to succeed in the contact center environment.
After the profiling is complete, the center's hiring managers convene and, as a group, assess the strengths, weaknesses and potential of each candidate, then invite the most promising ones in for a face-to-face interview.
Tichbon acknowledges that selecting the best agents is hard, time-consuming work, but she has no plans to make it any easier.
"It's a timely process, and quite involved. It requires the help of amazingly talented individuals who have a knack for identifying the 'stars.' In the end, our investment in this process [enables] us to hire fantastic people who do an amazing job -- while having a blast doing it!"
Removing Restrictions to Raise Retention, Performance
While its hiring tactics determine which agents stand out, the center's retention tactics enable agents to dress down, chow down and get down. There is no documented dress code to speak of, and staff can eat, drink and even listen to their personal choice of music at their desk when not handling contacts.
According to Tichbon, strong employee commitment and stellar customer service is the result of empowering and respecting -- not inhibiting -- staff. "People can have purple hair in a Mohawk if they want; in fact, someone has one and it looks pretty cool!"
Empowerment in the center goes far beyond choice of hairstyle, clothes and music. Agents are also trusted to use their own judgment in customer relationship management. For instance, they are given the green light to reward credit to any customer they feel deserves it.
"We do, of course, report on this every day," Tichbon explains, "but the flexibility in our approach gives our staff confidence in their decision-making skills, while allowing us to manage the exceptions rather than the group as a whole."
In addition to being empowered on the phones, agents play a key role in ensuring that systems and processes are easy to use and customer-friendly. The center's technology team frequently solicits agent feedback on things like workflow efficiency, script effectiveness and what customers are saying about the center's self-service applications.
"Creating a happy, motivated and engaged workforce starts with respecting people and treating them like professionals. ... We continuously spend long hours making sure our people are smiling."
Virgin Mobile Canada At-A-Glance
location
Toronto, Ontario; Riverview, New Brunswick
hours of operation
9 am to 9 pm Mon-Sat, 10 am to 7 pm Sunday (EST)
services provided
Pre-sale inquiries, sales, activation and general customer support.
channels handled
Phone (live agent and IVR), email, Web
notable
The center's "people-first" philosophy has led to consistently high performance and customer satisfaction. Particularly noteworthy is the center's unconventional -- yet highly effective -- approach to agent recruiting and hiring, as well as the its strong focus on fun and freedom to enhance agent motivation and retention. |
Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. All rights reserved.
12/1/06, Issue # 1912, page 44.
