In your opinion, what has been the greatest challenge the contact center industry has faced in the last 12 months?
The biggest challenge in the contact center industry has always been around hiring. A contact center agent is the face of the company, and a bad hire can be incredibly damaging to the brand and the business. In our research, we've found the performance gap between the best agents and the worst is surprisingly large, with good agents being twice as productive and scoring better on customer service metrics as well. Although there is a lot of technology that helps contact centers get smarter and more efficient, at the end of the day, the single biggest determinant of success is the quality of the hiring process.
Why do you believe has this been a challenge?
It's really hard to actually measure the quality of a hire and then tie that back the the decisions made in the hiring process. Historically, recruiters have been focused on metrics like fill rates and cost per hire because these can be measured easily. Quality of hire gets lip service, but without a recruiting analytics platform that can track it, you can't really do anything about it.
In 2012, what do you think will be the top priorities in the contact center industry for:
a) Company Executives
Company executives that we're working with have identified hiring for fit as top priority. A bad hire in a call center is a very expensive mistake. These are people who use up expensive training resources, underperform, and then quit early if they aren't fired. The cost works out to thousands of dollars per employee.
Preventing bad hires is a priority because it's one of the biggest addressable cost areas left in the contact center.
b) Human Resources Directors
The Human Resources Directors are as focused as the executives on preventing bad hires. But they also have a lot of tactical challenges they need to address at the same time. There is still a 'do more with less' directive that means they'll need to be hiring and training people with less money. As the economy improves, they'll see turnover increase, especially among their better employees. We're already seeing some of this in the data.
What technology do you believe will have the biggest impact on the industry over the next 12 months?
Virtually everything is being impacted by cloud computing, and contact centers will be no exception. But I also think the distributed "work from home" agent model will continue to gain momentum. Contact centers will need to find ways to build and manage remote workforces. They'll have more access to talent, but selectivity just becomes that much more important.
What impact have "external events" even had on your company, and how have you adapted your business?
We've found that many employers have found it's gotten harder to get quality applicants. Perhaps the economy has gotten a little better. Our service allows employers to be selective and hire measurably better people. For this, employers need to have enough applicants to be choosey.
We've now started helping employers generate candidate flow, and we've even taken over the recruiting process entirely for a few clients. Clients are really happy because not only are we meeting their fill rates, we're doing so with substantially better employees.
Do you feel the service you personally get as a customer is better or worse than it was a year ago?
Personally, I think customer service is really good these days. I travel a lot, and am constantly on the phone with airlines. It seems like the people they have really understand what they're doing and want to help. A few weeks ago I called my bank with a complicated question. When the agent didn't have the answer, he said he'd research it and call me back. The next day, he called back to say they were still researching. And then, he called back later with a detailed answer.
What contact center technology or other innovation excites you the most as an Executive in the contact center industry?
I'm really excited about big data, and how it's being used in so many different ways to improve customer service. We're a part of that with our talent analytics, but there are plenty of companies doing cool things.
What has been the most important contact center related conversation topic in 2011 and what are your views on this?
I think the move towards home agents really jumped forward in 2011. It's been on everyone's radar conceptually for a long time. But now we're seeing it as a funded initiative if not a critical priority. This is a great thing for the industry, as it really opens the talent pool and I think you'll see huge improvements in quality. We're already helping companies select home agents, and the difference it makes for the business is tremendous.
Lastly, what do you think 2012 holds for the industry?
I think 2012 is going to be a great year for contact centers.
About Max Simkoff:
Max co-founded Evolv in 2006, to change the way hourly employers and employees got “matched” through predictive science. Prior to Evolv, Max was the Director of Corporate Development for RCS, a hospital payment technology company backed by Austin Ventures and InvestRx. At RCS, Max oversaw the evaluation and negotiation of strategic acquisitions and joint venture programs while also managing the design and implementation of the company’s talent acquisition program. Before joining RCS, Max was a co-founder of InvestRx, a San Francisco-based private equity fund. ax has a BA in History.
About Evolv On-Demand:
Evolv is the leader in Data-Driven Workforce Selection, enabling employers to improve productivity, retention, and customer satisfaction. It is the only solution that ties employee productivity data to hiring decisions, and uses this to improve the recruiting process. With the insight gained from on the job employee data used to calibrate workforce selection, companies can measurably improve their operations, brands and bottom lines. Evolv delivers data-driven certainty with a streamlined process that easily integrates with existing workforce management and HRIS solutions.
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