HOW FOCUS SERVICES BOOSTED AGENT UTILIZATION & BILL RATE WHILE CUTTING MONTHLY ATTRITION AND ANNUAL TRAINING HOURS.

Focus Services is a privately-owned call center service provider, specializing in multi-product telesales and customer relationship management. Founded in 1995 with two employees, Focus has grown year over year by building strong, collaborative and effective vendor relationships with clients across multiple industries. Currently, Focus has over 3,000 employees working in 12 Focus facilities, both domestically and internationally.

 

THE CHALLENGE

Labor costs in a contact center are not only the largest cost you face, but they are also extremely difficult to predict – especially in a BPO. At the root of the unpredictability is an ever-changing variable: attrition. Many things can contribute to high attrition but the aftermath of it usually comes down to these three things: higher training costs, higher recruiting costs, and lower performance across the board. Focus needed to take their call center operations to the next level but no product on the market was going to meet their needs. So when they couldn’t buy it, they built it.

THE SOLUTION

  1. Gamify lead measures – Focus put special emphasis on metrics that are influenceable by agents and predictive of their goals. Then, they rewarded agents with ClearView’s ability to award money, badges and virtual coins. Agents use these coins to purchase company merchandise, prizes, and everyday necessities via the ClearView Marketplace.
  2. Prescribe targeted recognition – Recognition can come in various forms. Some people want to be recognized with their name at the top of the leaderboard while others desperately want their coach to see that they need training on a certain skill. ClearView allows employees to be praised as well as receive development.
  3. Establish flow – Flow obviously isn’t a phrase Focus coined but they’re on a mission to help agents achieve it. Being in flow means you’re in the zone and completely immersed in an activity. Contact centers can be so unpredictable. One angry customer or missed sales opportunity can take someone out of flow. Focus uses ClearView’s performance objectives, coaching, and proficiency automation to constantly align an agent’s skill level with their challenge; all while providing the proper incentives to keep them motivated to improve.

The results Focus experienced after applying this solution have had a domino effect on their operation and bottom line over a 3 year period. As agents were more empowered, incentivized, and accurately challenged, their utilization naturally increased by 26%. This meant that agents were more engaged to handle customer interactions and were rewarded based on their efforts. Because they were more engaged, Focus experienced a 19% reduction in monthly attrition and a 35% reduction in annual training hours. Because Focus was able to retain top talent and more efficiently develop new talent, they were able to perform at a higher level, resulting in an 8% increase in bill rate per hour.