After a transaction with an agent at either of Purolator Courier's two call centers, customers rarely ever call back.

At least not to discuss the same issue covered in the first call.

They don't have to. Purolator Courier, a leading provider of overnight shipping services in Canada, boasts one of the highest first-contact resolution (FCR) rates around — with 95-96 percent of all contacts being fully resolved the first time a customer contacts the center regarding a specific request/inquiry.

That's a mighty lofty number for a mighty important metric. Recent research suggests that no single KPI has a bigger impact on customer satisfaction than does FCR. According to customer contact research and consulting firm Service Quality Measurement (SQM) Group, customer satisfaction drops an average of 15 percent with each callback a customer must make to a contact center. SQM Group has also found that for every 1 percent improvement in FCR, you get a 1 percent improvement in customer satisfaction. Further, in a study of over 150 contact centers, SQM found that centers that achieved “world-class” customer satisfaction ratings had a FCR average of 86 percent, while centers that were not among the elite in customer satisfaction had a FCR average of only 67 percent.

So it's not surprising that SQM Group has taken notice of Purolator Courier's performance; handing the shipping company several coveted Call Center Industry Service Quality Awards of Excellence in recent years, including "Highest FCR", "Highest Customer Satisfaction by Industry (unionized sector)", and "World-Class Customer Satisfaction."

Purolator Courier at a Glance: LOCATION: Moncton (New Brunswick) and Montreal (Quebec)   HOURS OF OPERATION: 7 days a week, 18 hours per day FTEs: 470 SERVICES PROVIDED: Customer support on all Purolator Courier products and services CHANNELS HANDLED: Phone, IVR, email and mail NUMBER OF CONTACTS HANDLED: Over nine million per year NOTABLE:  Have consistently achieved a stellar first-contact resolution rate and high customer satisfaction thanks to a dynamic quality assurance program, focused coaching/training and a commitment to agent empowerment.

 

The Quality Quotient

Purolator Courier attributes its enviable FCR and customer satisfaction rates in large part to the center's multi-faceted quality program — headed up by Quality Manager Mike Cooling. "[Mike] has been instrumental in the success of the quality initiatives in our contact centers," says Debbie LeBlanc, contact center director.
Quality monitoring/coaching is conducted jointly by regular managers and members of the center's dedicated Training & Quality team. The latter also looks at trends and common improvement areas uncovered via monitoring, customer/agent feedback and root-cause analysis, then creates appropriate training modules to be delivered in monthly training programs.

Each agent has a minimum of six calls monitored per month. While call recording (using an advanced monitoring system by eTalk) is the most common monitoring method used in the center, remote listening (in real-time) and side-by-side sessions are not uncommon. For recorded calls, agents are given the opportunity to listen to their interactions and self-evaluate prior to receiving feedback and coaching from a manager and/or Quality & Training team member, which typically occurs within a day or two of the actual transaction with the customer. Managers and members of the Quality & Training crew regularly hold calibration sessions to make sure everyone is scoring calls fairly and in a uniform, consistent manner. 

To ensure that the center clearly captures the customer's experience, Purolator has contracted with a third-party firm that surveys a random sample of customers monthly — soon after the customer has completed a transaction with an agent. The customer's rating and comments are later shared with the agent who handled the contact. "We are proud of the overall focus on quality that this 360-degree approach offers," says LeBlanc. "Four customer feedback surveys are performed per employee per quarter. This is also included in the employee's performance review." LeBlanc adds that one of the key things focused on in the customer surveys is first-call-resolution.

 

Setting Staff Up for Success

Purolator knows that, in order to clear the way for extraordinary FCR results, certain more traditional metrics must be rethought — even removed. Asking agents to focus on quality and call resolution while at the same time holding them to rigid quotas on number of contacts handled or "talk time" is counterproductive, says LeBlanc. "We do not measure the number of calls answered or handled per employee. We have also removed the transaction time measurement from our performance measurement system."

Backing up the center's professed commitment to the customer with action has garnered much respect from Purolator's agents. "The feedback from employees has been very positive," says LeBlanc. "[De-emphasizing straight productivity metrics] allows the employee to focus on quality and not quantity."

Of course, fostering high FCR rates requires more than just rethinking metrics and implementing/sustaining a solid monitoring program; agents need to have tools and resources at their fingertips to seamlessly access crucial information during transactions with customers. At Purolator, agents have the luxury of a comprehensive online information center "that contains all relevant, easy-to-access reference material," LeBlanc explains. "We also have a dedicated team of Solutions Specialists who are readily available to answer any questions that may not be covered in the online tools. This team also identifies any opportunities and information that can be added to the online tools."   

 

Power of the People

The most powerful tool driving Purolator's FCR and customer satisfaction success is the center's frontline itself — the human beings handling the calls. Purolator is committed to giving agents the training and tools they need and then getting out of their way to let them take care of each caller.

"We have moved empowerment to our top performing employees to resolve the customers' problems," says LeBlanc, "with a target of having all employees fully empowered in 2007." Examples of empowerment include authorizing agents to offer refunds to customers and/or to credit their accounts, as well as trusting agents to contact and work with the necessary people at Purolator to resolve a complex shipment issue.
Getting agents to take charge is hardly a challenge, according to LeBlanc, who says that she is surrounded by a highly motivated frontline that collectively possesses a tremendous work ethic and sense of pride. "Our employees will do whatever it takes to help resolve a customer issue. We have numerous 'unbelievable recoveries' that happen weekly where our employees save the day with a customer."       

 

Greg Levin, the Creative Projects Coordinator for ICMI, has 13 year's experience writing feature articles, case studies and research reports on call center management. He also pens the industry's only monthly satire column, "In Your Ear," and is frequently invited to speak on a wide range of topics at call center conferences. Greg can be reached at gregl@icmi.com.