Speed kills first contact resolution

Nobody likes having to contact customer service for help resolving a problem. It’s doubly aggravating to contact them a second time because the issue wasn’t fixed. I can’t even tell you how frustrating it is to contact customer service 16 times on one issue.

First Contact Resolution, or FCR, measures the percentage of customer problems that are resolved on the very first contact. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a high FCR rate is a good idea. Customers are happier and companies are able to work more efficiently.

Surprisingly the metric has been slow to catch on. One factor holding back its adoption is speed.

A recent poll conducted by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) found that FCR ranked fifth among metrics shared with frontline call center employees. Two speed-based metrics and another efficiency-based metric ranked ahead of it.

Source: ICMI

The two most popular metrics for front line employees tell call center agents when to work faster. Many reps will speed up their interactions when there are a lot of calls in queue. This in turn allows them to improve service levels (the percentage of calls answered within a set amount of time).

Schedule adherence is an efficiency metric. It calculates the degree to which call center agents are working their assigned schedule. Agents may be less likely to spend time fixing a difficult problem if they feel pressured to immediately take the next incoming call.

The impulse to work faster can hurt FCR. Employees take short cuts, speed up their interactions, and try to multitask their way through an avalanche of work. All of this can make it harder to spot the important details that are the difference between First Contact Resolution and Endless Back-and-Forth. You can see an example of this in my breakdown of an email service failure.

I recently attended the Contact Center Conference & Expo where FCR was one of the hot topics. However, I was only talked to a few people who were actually measuring FCR in their contact center.

One of those people was Kathie Gerrard from MTS Allstream, a business communications provider in Canada. Gerrard told me that their FCR initiative really took off when they stopped emphasizing another speed-related metric, Average Handle Time (AHT).

 “A few years ago, we identified FCR as a key performance indicator and began to set improvement targets. Although we’ve seen improvements in our FCR results, we’ve found that monitoring average handle times contradicts FCR. AHT metrics encourage reps to shorten the length of the call instead of focusing on resolving the customer’s issues.”

MTS Allstream still tracked AHT behind the scenes even after they stopped emphasizing it with their reps. Gerrard told me that they haven’t seen a significant increase in AHT since shifting their focus to FCR. Her observations suggest that the extra time required to resolve a customers’ problem completely is often negligible. It’s the pressure to wrap things up quickly that actually causes the service failure.

Gerrard also told me MTS Allstream had widespread executive support for their FCR initiative. This isn't always the case. Another call center manager I spoke to at the Contact Center Conference & Expo told me his executives resisted moving to FCR because they had invested so much money in technology that measured speed and efficiency. They understood and felt comfortable with metrics like calls in queue and average handle time.

How do you get your executives on board? Show them the money. Here are a few ways that FCR can lead to financial results.

• Reduce Waste: 23 percent of the average call center's budget goes to repeat calls. (Source: SQM Group) 
• Increase Revenue: 66 percent of customers will spend more for excellent customer service. (Source: American Express)
• Retain Customers: 19 percent of customers are at risk of leaving if their problem isn't resolved on the first call. (Source: SQM Group)

Slowing down to speed up is counter-intuitive, but the numbers don't lie. Speed can kill first contact resolution. 

Applebee's customer proves the customer is always right

Applebee’s is the latest company to be caught up in controversy over a receipt. This time it was a server who took a picture of a customer’s receipt and posted it online.

By my count, this is the fourth receipt-related service failure to go viral within the past twelve months, but this one adds a few new plot twists. The public outcry was largely directed against the customer who wrote “I give GOD 10% why should I give you 18” in lieu of a tip. The server who posted the photo was fired, but an online petition urging Applebee’s to reinstate her is gathering steam. And, I’m not even sure Applebee’s is at fault for what’s happened so far (more on that later).

What I do know is this incident offers further proof that the customer is always right.

The true meaning of the customer is always right
It’s unclear who first said “The customer is always right.” I tried to learn the answer while doing research for my book, Service Failure, but the best I could do was narrow it down to a few business leaders from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

One of the best examples was a quote attributed to the legendary retailer, Marshall Fields. He purportedly said, “Right or wrong, the customer is always right.”

The Applebee’s customer was clearly wrong, but we wouldn't be talking about it if the server hadn't photographed the receipt and posted it online. The server neglected the advice from Marshall Fields when she went out of her way to prove the customer was wrong.

Poking a sleeping bear
Proving a customer wrong is generally a zero sum game. It tends to escalate the situation by engaging the customer’s defense mechanisms and can trigger powerful emotions such as frustration, embarrassment, or shame. In many ways it’s like poking a sleeping bear where nothing good will come out of it, but a lot of bad things are likely to happen.

In this case, the Applebee’s customer was told by friends that her receipt was posted online. This led to strong feelings of shame and embarrassment and now the Applebee’s customer was an angry bear.

Angry bears don’t apologize for their misdeeds. They call the offending restaurant and roar and roar until someone gets fired. In this case it was the server who posted the receipt online who lost her job.

Why Applebee’s isn’t (entirely) to blame
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post suggested an employee’s viral service failure is the company’s fault. That still holds true, but from the perspective that most people have heard about the Applebee’s receipt incident but don’t know the names of the individuals involved. 

The negative publicity generated by this incident may be part of the cost of doing business. The Applebee’s restaurant in question is a franchise, which means that Applebee’s doesn’t have direct managerial control over the restaurant’s employees. They also took swift action to address the issue and even confirmed that the server in question had been fired.

The situation has created some unfortunate PR challenges for Applebee’s. I’m just not sure what else they could have done. (Ideas, anyone?)

A service failure reveals surprising customer service trends

On the Friday before Christmas my wife, Sally, headed to Newark Liberty airport for what she thought would be an uneventful flight home to San Diego. What followed instead was a string of bizarre delays lasting nearly nine hours that could only be caused by a company as inept as United Airlines.

Throughout the day, Sally texted me frequent updates on her flight status. I captured her messages in a blog post that turned out to be my most read post of the year.

Sally finally made it home safely. As she recounted her ordeal over a late dinner that night I realized that her experience reflected a few surprising customer service trends. Perhaps most surprising of all is that Sally intends to remain a loyal United Airlines customer (more on that later).

Trend 1: Communication is more important than the problem
Research posted by Rob Markey on the Net Promoter System blog just one day prior to Sally’s trip suggested that the way airlines handled a flight delay had a larger impact on customer perception than the delay itself. More specifically, passengers were much more understanding when the pilot provided frequent, clear, and empathetic updates.

This is exactly what happened on Sally’s flight. The pilot and the rest of the flight crew were absolutely terrific and the passengers generally remained calm as a result.

Trend 2: Anticipatory Customer Service
In his book, High Tech, High-Touch Customer Service, Micah Solomon describes the concept of anticipatory customer service where companies predict customer needs and proactively address them. Anticipating a customer’s needs gives companies an opportunity to provide unexpectedly good service or fix a problem before it gets even worse.

By the time Sally’s flight landed, the passengers on her plane had received an email from United Airlines apologizing for the delay and offering their choice of travel credit or frequent flyer miles as compensation. Sally has experienced her share of challenges in the past trying to get a response from the United Airlines customer service department, so it was a pleasant surprise to receive a proactive resolution.

Trend 3: Not all customers are equal
A day prior to Sally’s trip, Adam Toporek wrote a post on his CustomersThatStick blog explaining how all customers should expect excellent treatment, but they can’t all be VIPs. In the real world, Toporek explains, some customers will receive better treatment and service than others and deservedly so.

Sally certainly had some advantages over other passengers on her flight from Newark. She was relatively comfortable in her first class seat with plenty of legroom, a power outlet to keep her computer and phone charged, and attentive service from the flight attendants. Sally also knew from comparing notes with other passengers that she received a higher compensation offer in her email from United than the people sitting next to her.

Sally received better treatment than her fellow passengers because she is Premier 1k frequent flyer member. To earn this status, she had to fly more than 100,000 miles on United Airlines in 2012. This frequent flyer level comes with perks like complimentary first class upgrades, but Sally had to spend many hours and many flights sitting in coach to get there.

Final Trend: Why Sally is still loyal to United Airlines
Last November, Bruce Temkin shared new research that reveals some companies’ customers are more loyal than their customer experience ratings suggest they deserve. United Airlines was 19th on Temkin’s top 20 list. One of the explanations offered by Temkin was that people may be more loyal to a company than reasonable when there aren’t a lot of acceptable alternatives.

This is exactly why Sally will continue flying United almost exclusively. United Airlines offers a flight schedule that best meets her overall business travel needs in terms of cost and convenience. Her frequent flyer status also ensures she spends less time waiting in airport check-in and security lines and receives frequent seat upgrades. Looking at the big picture, Sally would have to spend more money and travel with less convenience to avoid flying United Airlines.

One Final Note
United Airlines might pat themselves on the back for earning Sally’s continued loyalty. What they may not realize is they still lost a customer that day – me.

I flew enough miles on United Airlines last year to earn their Premier Silver status. I plan on traveling a lot more this year and that status would have come in handy. However, unlike Sally, I have several good alternatives that make it easy to say I won’t be buying a ticket on United Airlines anytime soon.

All I want for Christmas is United to fly my wife home

Yesterday, Rob Markey published an excellent blog post analyzing the root cause of passenger anger over flight delays and cancellations.

Little did I realize that I would see these same circumstances unfold today as my wife, Sally, tried to fly home on United Airlines. She experienced delay after inexplicable delay that ultimately caused her flight to take off nearly nine hours late. 

Below is a transcript of the text messages she sent me. I think they give a pretty clear picture of what was going on from a passenger's perspective.

9:27 am

- Flt currently 1.2 hours delayed. Weather bad and heavy rain and winds. Here's hoping no more delays, and a safe flight.

10:02 am

- I was wrong. Delay not due to weather (as most flts are), crew rest requirement and captain. And, he's late. Still hasn't arrived, and we were to depart 15 min ago.

- And when he does arrive, he still has to do paperwork. Ah, United.

10:15 am

- Captain finally on his way to plane. He better be sprinting.

10:31 am

- Apparently he wasn't quite as close as they indicated. Still no pilot.

10:49 am

- This is RIDICULOUS. Still.NO.Captain!!

- Saga continues. They are now allowing passengers off plane, and no captain. They are trying to find one for our flight. Will text when I actually leave.

(Me: What?! They actually boarded the plane with no Captain?!)

11:00 am

- Yes, because they were told at 9:20 he was on property and heading to gate.

- Turns out, not our captain.

- Got off plane to grab lunch. Board showing 1145 departure. Lovely.

11:45 am

- Still no pilot.

12:05 pm

- My flt# is UA xxxx. Online now showing 1pm depature

- Sure am glad I woke up @ 5am.

1:02 pm

- Guess what we still don't have. And they have no status update. Lovely day...

1:15 pm

- Oh Captain, my captain!! Progress... I may just land by 5pm!

1:41 pm

- Door closed!! On way home :)

- Door back open. Addressing a 'minor' service issue with fuel.

2:00 pm

- This is INSANE. Turns out fuel pump issue is a recurring problem. Mechanic trying to avoid aircraft change. They have brought a new food truck, switching out breakfast. CRAZINESS.

- No plane change. Finishing up approvals.

- Door closed (again)

- If you don't hear from me again, then we actually took off.

2:24 pm

- I'm back.

- Misunderstanding on the maintenance repair - they are 'crunching #s to see if we can go to CA'.

- So over this.

- !! Door being disarmed.

- Ops Mgrs now involved

- Changing aircraft.

3:02 pm

- Insane. Crew has at least been great - and captain cool. New plane landing at 3pm, we are scheduled to leave @ 4.

- Will keep you posted. Lady just ate it hard in bathroom. Another woman traveling solo w/2 kids, and dog down below. My day could be worse.

- Captain uber cool - he went to check on pup.

- That's replacement captain, not jackass no show captain.

3:38 pm

- Plane here. Crew, captain, co-pilot all on board. Captain asked lots of questions before boarding. Making most of it.

- On plane. Fingers crossed.

4:14 pm

- Passengers on. Luggage on. Door still open - no catering.

(Me: Seriously, remind someone to check TP supply.)

- Laughing with crew - told them story, she ran and checked. Came back to report, 'unless everyone gets sick, we are all good'!

- Their one positive - they recovered my iPad I left charging on first plane (doh!)

- (Continental) crew has been awesome

4:33 pm

- Crew upfront talking about their time limits. They have been at airport since 9am

- One just said, 'oh crap. That will go over well'

- Yup. We were to leave @ 4pm...and then just checked online and it said 435pm

- Still no catering

- Old plane they cycled breakfast and lunch. wonder if we will now get dinner

- I was wondering why they hadn't offered us any beverages. She only has 'dirty dishes'

(Me: Did you ever get a meal voucher?)

- Yes. $5. I didn't stand in line for it - just went and got lunch... 5 hours ago.

4:45 pm

- One of the crew members just said, 'The Mayans are laughing'

- Still no catering. They were to take it from our old plane (at gate 85) to our new plane (at gate 83). Stupid crazy

- Seems they moved old plane before doing so.

- Yet another new departure time: 510. Let's see if we blow that one too.

(Me: New crew required?)

- Not yet. Heard them say they had 1.5 hours max before they got pulled.

5:02 pm

- 5pm - captain came on board explaining we are still waiting on catering. Stated front door open, and passengers are well within their right to leave and request a refund. At this point all we are waiting on is catering. Thanked people for patience.

- Seriously restless natives.

- Lady with dog down below is going NUTs

- 8 hour delay, 6 hour flight.

- YES! Catering truck just arrived.

5:17 pm

- Lady next to me just said, 'I don't think I've ever been on a plane where they announced 2 meals they would be serving, and never served it'. Hysterical. We are taking bets on which meal we will receive.

- catering finishing. They are doing a passenger head count. Everyone better be on this plane.

- Door closed...

5:30 pm

- Agent funny. Just said, 'FA, prepare doors for departure... again'.

- not shutting down until the wheels move.

- You seriously can't make this shit up. Arm stuck on jetway. They are trying to move it back so we can get out of here.

- Moving!

Your employee's viral service failure is your fault

This week’s viral service failure was a waiter who identified a trio of diners as “Fat Girls” and allowed this label to be printed on their bill. The waiter’s identity is unknown, although his first name is Jeff. (Thanks for giving the rest of us Jeffs a bad name, idiot.)

What we do know is the name of the restaurant is Chilly D’s Sports Lounge. We don’t know the name of an employee who typed “lady chinky eyes” on a receipt earlier this year, but we do know they worked for Papa John’s. You might scratch your head at the name Steven Slater, but I bet you’ll remember the JetBlue flight attendant who exited a plane via an emergency evacuation slide after directing a profanity-laced tirade at a passenger.

It's your company, not your employee, that everyone will remember.

It’s not a training issue
When viral service failures occur, the offending employee is typically fired while the remaining employees undergo some type of training. I’m not a gambling man, but if I were, I’d lay down a big bet that it wasn’t a lack of training that caused the problem and no amount of training will prevent it from happening again (more about the training = performance myth). 

How you can prevent it
If training won’t stop your employees from creating the next viral service failure, what will? Here are three things:

#1 Hire right.
Take the time to hire for organizational fit, not just the right skills. Many business invest too little time in the hiring process to get it right, or they pay such low wages that they can’t attract even mediocre talent. If you want to hire right, take the time to identify what makes an employee right for your business (see my handy competency model tool) and consider offering a competitive wage that will allow you to attract more talented, stable employees.

#2 Pay attention to your supervisors
The most influential person for an employee is their direct supervisor. Chances are employees will treat their customers well if their supervisor sets a positive example, meets regularly with them to discuss expectations, and provides regular feedback and coaching to guide performance. Unfortunately, studies show that 50% or more of frontline supervisors receive little or no training on how to lead others. You need to invest in your supervisors and give them training like my Getting Started as a Supervisor program to help them capably lead their team.

#3 Mind your culture
While doing research for my book, Service Failure, I discovered some strange ways that organizational culture can influence employee behavior. In some cases, employees can knowingly do something they know is wrong in an effort to fit in with everyone else. In other cases, employees lack the maturity or experience to truly differentiate between right and wrong and will instinctively follow the examples set by their co-workers and supervisors.

The opposite is also true. Employees will emulate positive examples from their co-workers and supervisors. This leaves business owners with a clear choice: create a positive work climate or risk bad behavior.

Conclusion
Having your business gain national media attention for all the wrong reasons has got to be a nightmare for any business owner. However, in almost every case, these business leaders were asleep long before one of their employees did something on camera.

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Jeff Toister is the author of Service Failure: The Real Reasons Employees Struggle with Customer Service and What You Can Do About It. The book is available in paperbook, e-book, and audio book formats.

You can learn more about the book at www.servicefailurebook.com or purchase a copy online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell's Books.