WHITE PAPER 1

1. Can customer service

Evolving the traditional organisations really relate to and
apply the latest Workforce
Workforce Optimisation Optimisation value propositions?
model to properly address When the research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc. produced its “Magic Quadrant
for Contact Centre Workforce Optimisation” in October 2009, it highlighted

today’s distinct challenges how ‘increased organisational awareness surrounding the value proposition
associated with WFO – combined with an expanding set of viable vendors – is

of effective contact centre

fuelling market adoption’.
The analyst firm then went on to suggest that Workforce Optimisation (WFO) is

Employee Optimisation and ‘fairing well in the current market due to the impact it can have on customer
experience and operational efficiency’.

Customer Management
By Michael Andrews,
Head of Workforce Optimisation, Sabio
1. Can customer service organisations really relate to and apply
the latest Workforce Optimisation value propositions?
2. Workforce Optimisation Economics
3. Identifying two distinct WFO approaches:
However, one of the challenges organisations face when looking at Workforce
Optimisation, is how to break it down and practically apply it to a business
operation. Gartner, for example, defines a Workforce Optimisation approach as
one that combines technologies from many previously silo-ed functional domains
– workforce management and strategic resource planning, call recording
and quality monitoring, training and eLearning, performance management,
surveying and feedback, and interaction analytics such as speech analytics
and emotion detection.
As with any industry-led initiative, there’s a lot of emphasis on positioning
Workforce Optimisation technology components and processes as an integrated
programme. Gartner suggests that the benefits of an integrated WFO solution can
enable information, insights, workflow and core contact centre functions to be
‘melded so that they complement and align with the business’ high-level strategy’.
Vendors too have their own take on what it is that makes their specific WFO
approach different - with Sabio’s partner Verint, for example, the emphasis is on
‘unified, analytics-driven software’. Other vendors talk about ‘maintaining and
nurturing customer assets, as well as controlling costs’.
This sounds great, and exactly the kind of support that businesses are looking
for – however, as Workforce Optimisation grows through technology led
enhancement, many organisations are finding it daunting to apply in practice.
For contact centre management and their IT colleagues, the general
background positioning behind an end-to-end Workforce Optimisation
approach sounds good and potentially makes smart business sense, however
they aren’t necessarily all buying the full story right now.
2. Workforce Optimisation Economics
All Workforce Optimisation projects need to be justified by means of a business
case. Different types of Workforce Optimisation project realise different benefits
and at Sabio these are categorised in two ways:

Employee Optimisation and Customer Management - Direct vs. indirect

4. Employee Optimisation
5. Customer Management
6. Combining Employee Optimisation and Customer
Management activities for a true customer focused operation
7. Using Employee Optimisation efficiencies to fund Customer
Management investment
- Quantifiable vs. non-quantifiable
Direct benefits are finite, but recurring, and primarily focused around cost/
productivity. Indirect benefits are potentially huge, and concentrate instead on
results that are mainly related to better serving and understanding your customers.
Here, direct benefits could include productivity improvements from Workforce
Management (WFM) projects, and managing PCI (Payment Card Industry)
and FSA (Financial Service Authority) compliance requirements to reduce risk.
Another example would be using speech analytics techniques to carry out root
cause analysis that leads directly to the reduction of non-value contacts.
Diagram 1. Identifying non value contacts

8. Sabio, your best practice partner for effective, next

generation Employee Optimisation and Customer
COMPETITIVE NEW CUSTOMERS
Management solutions
INSIGHT

PRODUCT FEEDBACK COMPLAINTS

INFORMATION REPEAT CALLS

REQUESTS

Possible contacts to avoid

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Direct, quantifiable benefits are also those that are attributed directly to the Customers, however, are left to work out just what exactly is being performance
proposed activity or technology without the need for additional action. For managed. Is it your contact centre operating costs? Is it agent performance?
example a direct quantifiable benefit could be the reduction in scheduled hours Is it the value of customer interactions to the business? Is it overall customer
through an increase in schedule efficiency resulting from the implementation of satisfaction or retention? Perhaps the focus is more on ensuring that your business
WFM. This is easy to measure and directly related to WFM. is fully compliant with the right processes or industry regulations? Or maybe
your goals are more strategic, and you’re looking for a Workforce Optimisation
Diagram 2. The Benefit of Optimised Scheduling approach that is more considered and requires analytical tools to find out what’s
Optimal Schedule
Manual Schedule really driving your customer interactions?
Reduced hours Instead of looking at a single continuous WFO ‘wheel’ or a layered series of
Work
WFO components, at Sabio we believe it makes more sense to place a logical
divide within the standard Workforce Optimisation framework. From working
with customers across a broad range of industries, we’ve found that a far more
pragmatic WFO approach is to split the different components into two distinct
areas: Employee Optimisation and Customer Management.
Improved
service level
Diagram 4. The symbiotic WFO process

EE OPTIMISA
OY TIO
PL YEE OPTIMISA N
Cross-skill M LO
P TIO
IS
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PTIM ATIO

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Ca A n
O

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& yt

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Fe ust

M erfo
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8:00 18:00

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ss lity t
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Indirect benefits include collecting customer feedback from survey technology

en
As Q ont

m
C
and using speech analytics to enable marketing insight. Another example would

di e
Au nc

lin &
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be delivering improved conversion and performance through quality, training

Co Tra
ia

du ng
g

&
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ac ini
and performance management. Indirect benefits can also be significant, though

he sti
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Sc ca
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TOME
they do require additional activity to realise, and that’s why they are much harder

re
Fo
to reference in initial Workforce Optimisation project cost justifications.
US EN

T
C

Non-quantifiable benefits could be attributed to successful customer feedback TO M

or speech analytics projects, however the very nature of these projects frequently M ER
MANA GE
involves organisations searching for unknown information to provide competitive
advantage. It is therefore often impossible to quantify the initial scope of a
project, let alone know what exactly is necessary to realise benefits. Employee Optimisation combines all of the processes attributed to effectively
managing and developing people in your operation; coaching and training,
All business cases will invariably include benefits that fall into multiple categories, resource planning, contact quality assessment and performance management.
though initially the most compelling benefits will be direct and measurable -
and it is these on which we are often dependant for financial approval. While Customer Management incorporates more specific customer-related
it may be easier to justify projects using direct benefits such as voice recording elements, including customer feedback, call and data analytics and
and WFM, we believe that the longer-term potential and reward is likely to be compliance audit. Call and data analytics and customer feedback are focused
achieved by those organisations that invest in the more sophisticated areas of on consistently obtaining customer and marketing intelligence that can be used
WFO such as performance management and analytics. to tune all aspects of the business, while compliance audit ensures suitable
controls are in place to satisfy regulatory and internal commitments.
Diagram 3. Sabio Benefits Realisation
200 This categorisation allows organisations to focus on the immediate business
Cost
Claimed Benefit requirements, while still accommodating the complex relationship between
Common Real Benefit operational efficiency and the competitive advantage that can be gained
Sabio Benefit
150 through effective customer management.
Sabio approach offers quick wins,
increasing returns and stronger
long term benefit
100
Unrealistic immediate
4. Employee Optimisation
strong benefit In the 21st century, every contact centre operation must have a mature and
50 effective method of optimizing their employees. In an increasingly pressurized
commercial environment the following questions must be addressed and
Common delayed,
limited actual benefit considered basic hygiene;
0
• Are my employees productive?
Purchase

Install

Go Live

3 months

6 months

9 months

12 months

15 months

18 months

• Am I answering/responding to contacts within an appropriate and

consistent time frame?
• Am I presenting a consistently good quality of service for each

3. Identifying two distinct WFO customer interaction?

• Are my agents adequately equipped to serve my customers and
approaches: Employee Optimisation achieve objectives being set for them?

and Customer Management
While based on strong operational principles, current Workforce Optimisation
models are often presented as a single unifying process, hiding the evolving
product sets that have been assembled either through development activities
or serial acquisitions.
Look carefully at your vendor’s product set and you can probably work out
their history that leads them all to end up with a slightly different Workforce
Optimisation methodology. The mechanism that links their methodology and
product suite will be some form of linear or circular process that signifies the
sequential nature of their product offering – typically under a performance
management or enterprise-wide banner.
• Am I targeting my employees appropriately, developing their skills in line
with strategic business objectives and offering them frequent support
and feedback?
In each question above, the answer involves continuous focus and improvement
and this is where the classical best practice operational processes and tools
(workforce management, quality monitoring, performance management and
training) contribute significantly.
While benefits will be realised through improved customer experience and sales
performance, the business justification for Employee Optimisation projects will
generally be focused around efficiency through improved business practices
essentially achieving more for the same or less staffing investment.
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For example; deploying a WFM tool can help to reduce unproductive time
through more accurate forecasting and optimised scheduling, and can help
to cut back on lost time thanks to better tracking of real-time adherence. Using
quality monitoring tools and coaching/training to focus on areas such as
improved screen navigation will also help to enhance agent productivity, with
optimised average call handling times and reduced call hold and wait times.
Agent feedback tools such as desktop scorecards and more targeted training
can be used to help improve agent motivation, development and efficiency.
There are also a number of important areas where expense reductions can be
achieved, allowing contact centres to cut their overall costs without impacting
service levels. Here the focus should be on automating manual management
information production, providing self-service tools throughout the operation
to increase agent autonomy which helps reduce employee attrition and most
importantly giving back time to Team Managers and Supervisors to invest in
coaching their teams.
These same disciplines can also be applied to help improve revenues, with two
common goals: increased up-selling/cross-selling conversion, and improved
customer retention. Again the deployment of better coaching and training at
the most optimal time, the sharing of best practice performance and improved
planning for business peaks can have a significant impact in these areas.
Collectively, these Employee Optimisation disciplines can combine to provide
organisations with the defensive techniques they need to help improve productivity
and lower their costs. Developed initially for the contact centre, these approaches
can also be extended across the enterprise to other customer interaction functions
such as the back-office, the branch network and home workers.
5. Customer Management
Once a contact centre starts to get its house in order by attacking waste and
optimising agent resources through Employee Optimisation techniques, they
can then start to work on externalising their customer service focus through the
Customer Management side of Workforce Optimisation.
With speech, data and application analytics as part of their Customer
Management approach, organisations can better identify market opportunities
and competitive trends, while in-depth analysis can ‘surface’ information that
might otherwise have gone undetected. While it isn’t feasible to play and analyse
thousands of recordings, advanced speech analytics solutions can assess these
recordings for their business critical intelligence enabling Marketing departments
to; better understand the effectiveness of each marketing campaign, profile “at
risk” groups of customers for feeding into the retention process, identify valueless
calls for automation/avoidance and identify what makes the “good” agents
“good” and reproduce their characteristics through training.
Diagram 5. Leaveraging customers interaction
Most centres actively listen
to <1% of their calls
ALL 25,000 CALLS PROCESSED
BY SPEECH ANALYTICS
Only 250 calls
Evaluated daily for agent quality
The more successful Customer Management solutions will combine advanced
speech analytics with behavioural analysis and call indexing techniques to
create more meaningful, context-specific analysis activities. This could, for
example, include automatically categorising calls according to specific business
challenges or objectives – such as competitive threats, customer retention issues,
and up-sell opportunities.
Speech analytics offers enormous potential in terms of providing timely and
accurate intelligence about current business issues and how to address them.
Another key Customer Management issue for organisations is the protection
of customers by evidencing compliance to regulation. While Recording is
traditionally considered as a simple, defensive purchase – one that only has to
be done to meet regulations defined by bodies such as the FSA - the increased
focus on PCI-Data Security Standards and new powers available under the Data
Protection Act render this subject more complex than ever, presenting risks to
organisations that are simply too great to ignore.
At Sabio, we aim to integrate Compliance projects into an organisation’s broader
Customer Management approach. With one travel operator, for example, an
effective compliance solution has been instrumental in reducing their overall
level of compensation payments as they now always have an accurate and
accessible record when contesting liability claims.
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Positioned for success
At Sabio we’re convinced that it will be those organisations that successfully
integrate the more sophisticated elements of Workforce Optimisation into their
Customer Service operations who will be better positioned to take advantage of
a sustained market recovery.
We believe that the ability, via customer feedback, for an organisation to really
know what their customers find most positive about them can prove invaluable
in building Marketing strategies to attract new customers. Similarly, those using
speech analytics can tap into emerging customer behaviour trends and turn that
data into a competitive advantage by building the findings into their ongoing
Marketing programmes.
6. Bringing it all together – combining
Employee Optimisation and
Customer Management activities for
a true customer focused operation
While distinct Employee Optimisation and Customer Management activities can
deliver their benefits and provide compelling individual business cases, contact
centre operators can unlock significant further strategic advantage when these
two Workforce Optimisation areas are brought together.
It is important to note that, the tools referred to under Customer Management
within this definition can support Employee Optimisation and vice versa. For
example; as was previously stated, speech analytics can be used to identify
“good” agent characteristics to feed into the employee training process. Similarly,
the quality monitoring process can also surface marketing insight.
Furthermore the numerous physical points of integration that exist within the
Workforce Optimisation suite provide users with significant advantage in terms
of increased convenience and greater insight into cause and effect within the
operation. For example;
Adherence analysis - Supervisors accessing the real-time adherence screen
have the ability to live monitor an agent who may be out of adherence. Similarly
the visual historical display showing non-adherence can be used to replay
specific calls occurring during periods of exception allowing the supervisor to
quickly pinpoint if they are dealing with process or behavioural challenges.
Diagram 6. Adherence
Planned work
6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 1.00 2.00 3.00
Price, Sarah
Scheduled
Actual
Exception
Interactions
Deviations from plan Recorded Calls
Internal vs. external quality – A further example of physical integration providing
convenient and valuable insight is where customer feedback can be directly
compared to an internal quality score for each agent in order to benchmark
internal versus external perception of quality.
Propagating a culture of Workforce Optimisation - While the physical integration
and unification of WFO tools delivers direct benefit and process efficiency to
administrators and operations managers, Sabio believes that the most significant
benefit realised through the adoption of an effective WFO solution is cultural.
In a traditional contact centre operation, where support staff are aided by
point solution technologies, the business tends to become reliant on pockets of
specialism around a number of different tools - each with their own associated
language and nuances. At Sabio we believe that the most valuable benefit of
an integrated WFO solution is that all members of the Operations and Marketing
team can view the same management information in the same tool - presented
in a way that is relevant to their role and purpose.
This means that the whole company can share the same experience, and that the
value realised is not limited by a small group of specialists only familiar with their
specific products. This enables a culture of Workforce Optimisation to propagate
throughout the operation, and breaks down the traditional knowledge barriers
that inhibit the realisation of potential benefit.
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7. Using Employee Optimisation
efficiencies to fund investment in
Customer Management
It’s increasingly clear that Employee Optimisation techniques such as workforce
management are one of the greatest contributors to helping organisations
ensure that they’re managing their contact centre costs effectively. At Sabio
we’re seeing solutions such as WFM playing a key role as the first stage of broader
Employee Optimisation and Customer Management programmes – and a smart
choice for organisations wanting to use the savings released by effective WFM
initiatives to fund added value Customer Management investment.
Working with Sabio, organisations such as Addison Lee, Thames Water and
HomeServe have all successfully secured significant savings through their WFM
deployments. London’s leading private hire firm, Addison Lee, for example has
already unlocked savings of over £1 million. They have found that optimising their
call centre forecasting and scheduling activities and reducing overtime costs
has already enabled a 30 percent overall saving on their annual staffing costs.
Another organisation – Thames Water – has transformed its front and back-
office operations by deploying the latest workforce management technology.
By doubling forecasting and scheduling productivity, with optimised scheduling
adherence and reduced absence and shrinkage, Thames Water has secured
annual savings of upwards of £250,000. Coupled with impressive customer
satisfaction improvements, the Thames Water project clearly shows how effective
Employee Optimisation initiatives should be top of the to-do list for contact centre
managers that need to be doing more with less.
For HomeServe, the worldwide home emergency repair service, the results
have been equally compelling, with the company working with Sabio to
unlock cumulative savings of up to £2 million per year, securing a three percent
productivity uplift through real time adherence benefits at one site, and a further
two percent productivity saving on inbound operations at another. When you’re
employing nearly 1,500 agents, achieving percentage improvements in contact
centre productivity can make a huge bottom line difference.
Given the results achieved by organisations like these, it’s clear that Employee
Optimisation has a valuable role to play. The question organisations should be
asking now is whether they can afford to ignore the added opportunity presented
by Customer Management initiatives.
Enabling more strategic Customer
Management activities
The potential operational savings released through approaches such as
workforce management can also play a key part in enabling organisations as
they transition their Workforce Optimisation activities to focus on more strategic
Customer Management activities such as customer feedback and speech
analytics. An essential element here is to make full use of your existing WFO
investments – for example, most contact centres record customer conversations
yet many of them fail to use that valuable recorded data as a strategic resource.
Adding speech analytics and customer feedback techniques can help to
address why your customers are calling your contact centre in the first place, and
also then provide callers with the ability to respond immediately to the service they
have just received. The advantages of such a structured feedback approach
are striking. A recent US study produced by the University of Michigan found that
for every five percent increase in an organisation’s customer satisfaction index,
there is an associated almost 20 percent increase in the shareholder value.
Contact Sabio on 0844 412 3000, email info@sabio.co.uk or visit www.sabio.co.uk
Sabio Sheffield
Sabio London Sabio Glasgow
Enterprise House Tontine House
1-2 Hatfields 8 Gordon Street
London SE1 9PG Glasgow G1 3PL
Sabio Limited Registered in England Number 03644452 Registered office: Enterprise House, 1-2 Hatfields, London SE1 9PG. Product names mentioned herein maybe trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies. The information contained in this brochure is subject to change without notice. Sabio shall not be liable for errors or admissions contained herein. Terms and conditions apply. E&OE.
4
8. Sabio – your best practice partner
for effective, next generation
Employee Optimisation and
Customer Management solutions
Sabio is a specialist contact centre systems integrator focused on delivering
exceptional customer contact strategies, applications and solutions. Sabio has
worked with many major organisations across the UK including Citibank, DAS,
HomeServe, Leeds City Council, Pitney Bowes, Scottish Widows, Student Loans
Company, Thames Water and Yorkshire Building Society.
Sabio is one of the few UK organisations with detailed knowledge of all the
key Workforce Optimisation components - from an integration, implementation
and business perspective. As a Verint Premier Partner, the company is one
of Verint Systems’ leading specialist Workforce Optimisation partners, and is
ideally positioned to help organisations take advantage of the latest Employee
Optimisation and Customer Management approaches within their businesses.
Key Sabio strengths
• Sabio is a Verint Premier Partner and an established Workforce Optimisation
Centre of Excellence
• Award Winning - Sabio’s unique combination of proven Verint expertise and
in-depth Employee Optimisation and Customer Management skills ensure
that the company is a multiple award winner, most recently as winner of
Verint’s prestigious ‘Project of the Year’ award for a major unified WFO
project for one of the UK’s leading financial services companies
• Sabio has the experience and skills to design and deliver integrated
solutions that meet the specific challenges of the contact centre, from
Workforce Optimisation to speech-based self-service applications to major
virtualisation projects
• Sabio takes full accountability for a project by delivering an end-to-end
solution using its own people and not relying on third parties to provide skills
and knowledge
• Sabio has developed a comprehensive Workforce Optimisation modelling
approach that allows businesses to find out exactly how much business
value could be unlocked from an effective Employee Optimisation or
Customer Management deployment
• Sabio can also offer a consolidated support contract, with the ability to
genuinely offer third line end-to-end support for all elements of an Employee
Optimisation or Customer Management solution
• Sabio is an Avaya Platinum Business Partner ensuring that the company
has an in-depth understanding of the broader contact centre technology
environment
• Sabio is privately owned, with no debt and an excellent credit rating from
Dun & Bradstreet
For further information about how an effective
Employee Optimisation of Customer Management
implementation can unlock savings for your business,
please contact Michael Andrews,
Head of Sabio’s Workforce Optimisation at
mandrews@sabio.co.uk
Building 1, Callflex Business Park
Golden Smithies Lane
Doncaster Road,
Rotherham S63 7DN
Email: info@sabio.co.uk
Web: www.sabio.co.uk