Darrell Robertson
Vice President
New York Life

Darrell N. Robertson, Vice President of the New York Life's AARP Operations Contact Center, is one of the presenters in the 'Best Leader' category during the 2009 Top Ranking Performers Conference in Toronto, June 2 - 4. Read this exclusive interview, and be sure to attend the Conference to receive the best ideas and tips to develop your leadership skills!

Click here to learn more about this annual Best-of-the-Best Conference!

Please describe your contact center - no. of agents/reps, types of calls, emails etc you manage, volumes. Inbound or outbound etc
The New York Life Contact Center in Tampa, Florida is a 200-seat operation that is dedicated to serving the AARP Life Insurance and AARP Lifetime Income Program. We handle all Customer Service and Sales activities for over 39 million AARP members and the nearly 1.7 million insureds of the program. We handle over 2.5 million customer contacts a year via inbound, outbound, mail, and email channels.

What plans do you have to continue developing your center in future years?
We are planning a number of new investments over the next few years that will make a positive impact to both employees and the customers we serve. Our first priority is an investment in a Speech Analytics program. The introduction of this tool will help us to better understand customer attitudes and experiences that would otherwise be undetected. In addition, the tool will help to identify opportunities to improve how we serve customers, as we analyze and trend not only why they are calling, but also which activities drive unnecessary calls.

We are also in the process of developing a platform that will be used to create a Unified Agent Desktop. This graphic user interface will allow for the centralization of all customer data with current legacy systems, allowing Agents to spend less time maneuvering between systems and more time focusing on the needs of our customers. This multi-year project will require significant investment in both financial and staff resources to develop a system that will replace the 14 applications currently utilized by an Agent.

Why did you enter the 2009 awards for best contact center leader?
We believe that recognition builds loyalty and a sense of community within our operation. It is the foundation of our extensive Employee Recognition programs and a source of pride throughout our business. Everyone on our team is proud of the work we have done to build a Best in Class operation, so we seek opportunities to compare ourselves against others. In addition, this conference format gives us an incredible opportunity to validate current initiatives and to identify new initiatives that will keep us moving forward.

What are some of the challenges you have had to overcome to get to where you are today?
Over the last few years, our business continued to experience significant growth and we had the opportunity to launch and develop a new Lifetime Income Annuity Program. Managing the issues and impact associated with a growing, profitable business was a major challenge for the contact center. Additionally, launching the new Lifetime Income Program required utilization of a completely different business model for call center Agents to sell high dollar products directly to customers. The call center based sales process is a very different model from existing distribution methods, creating a unique set of challenges. Typically these high value products are sold face to face and no other company has successfully launched a direct sales model. The management team was tasked with pioneering a new business from scratch, utilizing our expertise on contact centers and life insurance sales.

We are always mindful as we build our core business for budgetary constraints and attentive to the startup costs of a new distribution process. We carefully developed both staffing models so that we allow for leveraging of our Life Insurance Program to assist in program development and call handling. Our efforts successfully contained costs and improved overall performance and profitability of both business units.

How would you describe what makes you a different leader than some of the others in the industry?
I remain focused on being an energetic and dynamic leader that balances strong business aptitude to utilize my ability to inspire. I take an active and vocal role throughout the operation by leading recognition events for the call center CSRs. I participate in all employee events, prompting myself to fit in directly with the staff by frequently walking through the operation and becoming acquainted with the staff at various levels. Succession planning and leadership development of the management team are a critical daily focus. Our culture, commitment and business expectations are clearly articulated to all levels of our staff. I operate with an open door and an open communication style with the CSRs. This is a component of our management philosophy, as the CSRs directly represent NYL to our customers.

What's the best part about being a leader?
I have created a vision and a culture that drive the overall direction of the contact center. The vision has components that resonate with every member of the staff and set the tone for how we operate. I work hard to ensure every member of the staff is focused on three items – Achieving "Best in Class" AARP Provider Status, Customer Centricity, and Creating Superior Customer Experiences.

I relish every opportunity to provide motivation, mentoring, and coaching to help employees improve their work behaviors. I take personal interest in the growth of individuals and satisfaction when they achieve success. Throughout the last several years, I guided the contact center through considerable growth periods, with no decline in service level performance, and led the team to many industry awards. Recent awards include the following:

- BenchmarkPortal Center of Excellence designation, for 5 consecutive years, awarded by Purdue University’s Center for Customer Driven Quality
- Call Center of the Year – 2007 IQPC Call Center Week
- Call Center Leader of the Year – 2007 Runner Up, IQPC Call Center Week
- Gold Medal for Best in Customer Service – 2008 Contact Center World, Americas Region
- Silver Medal for Best in Customer Service – 2008 Contact Center World, World Conference
- Bronze Medal for Best Contact Center – 2008 Contact Center World, Americas Region

And what's the worst part of being a leader?
I provide opportunities for my staff to grow, learn and become leaders within our organization. Occasionally, I may encounter an individual that doesn’t want it as much as I want it for them. While this creates many challenges for the individual and myself, I remain committed to continue providing every opportunity possible for individuals to develop.

Please describe a typical day
I am a very active leader and I’m always seeking to motivate my staff. Although I’m involved in all aspects of the business, I tend to immerse myself in the high impact areas where my management team needs me. I often avoid areas where they are fully in control, demonstrating great leadership on their own. My view of my leadership role is one of the leader and motivator responsible for creating the vision, environment and direction for the business, and helping those on my team achieve a high level of performance.
As the leader, I fully engage people in the bigger picture, enabling them to see how they fit and how their contributions are valued. I facilitate an understanding of how they are relied upon to deliver the results. I ensure work is challenging, rewarding and fun.

Lastly, as a presenter at our 2009 June conference, what do you hope to learn from other presenters?
It is an honor to have been selected by ContactCenterWorld, amongst the top 5 of the Americas Best Leaders, for the second year in a row. As a participant in the 2008 Americas and World competitions, I listened to the Best in the World share their best practices. This enabled our organization to glean many best practices that were brought back and implemented into our business. I am very excited to participate in this year’s event and hope to hear many more new Best in Class ideas. I look forward to our round table discussions about what is impacting our industry today. The ability to network at ContactCenterWorld events with the Best in the Americas will continue to benefit both our organization and myself.

For those members who come along to one of our conferences to hear what you do, what will you be sharing with them? Please give some insights into what you would like them to go away with in terms of ideas to improve their leadership
We will be sharing the elements of our operation that distinguish us from others. We will share our overarching contact center strategy, our vision, and the steps we’ve taken to ensure execution of our strategy. Conference participants will learn what NYL has done to improve retention, morale, and customer satisfaction while consistently meeting all key service level agreements. The networking opportunities from the vast expertise of attendees is openly shared and benefits all who participate in the event.

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