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CallCopy's New cc: Insight Platform Helps Contact Centers Monitor Business Performance in Real-Time
CallCopy, a provider of innovative call recording, quality management and performance management solutions, has introduced the cc: Insight Platform, a real-time performance management system. The customizable solution provides a flexible platform for executives and managers to view and respond to actionable data in a quick and concise manner. cc: Insight is offered as an integrated part of cc: Discover, CallCopy's suite of contact center solutions. Real-time performance metrics are delivered through a highly customizable interface, which can be displayed on TV screens and supervisor or agent desktops. Additional components allow content to be viewed on mobile devices and smart phones, providing real-time updates anytime, anywhere.

Knoa Delivers Global End-User Monitoring Solution Offering
Knoa Software, a provider of end-user experience and performance management software, announced the general availability of Knoa Global End-User Monitor (GEM). Knoa Global End-User Monitor enables organizations to monitor end-user experience and interaction for all desktop and web-based applications running on users' desktops. The product collects comprehensive, global metrics on software utilization, application health, application response times, user behavior, user experience and desktop performance. Knoa GEM is unique because of its ability to collect a broad range of metrics across all applications that a company runs without any configuration, instrumentation, scripting, templates or cartridges -- simply download, install and immediately begin collecting metrics for all applications executed by end users.

CIOs' Job Satisfaction Increases Despite Recession
Despite having to cope with massive budget cuts, salary freezes and demoralized staffs, most employed IT executives are more satisfied with their jobs this year than they have been in previous years, according to the results of a job satisfaction survey conducted by ExecuNet.

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of the 306 IT executives who responded to the survey said they were satisfied with their jobs. That's an 11 percent increase over 2008, when 286 IT leaders responded to the survey. In 2007, only 41 percent of IT executives reported being happy with their jobs even though the economy was arguably much stronger then than it is now.

IT executives cited work they enjoy (checked by 13 percent), a good relationship with their bosses (12.5 percent), and a comfy fit with their employers (10.2 percent) as the primary reasons for job satisfaction.

Among the 36 percent of IT leaders who indicated that they aren't happy with their jobs, their top reasons were limited advancement opportunities (noted by 14 percent), compensation (11.3 percent) and lack of challenge (10 percent).
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Assessment Centers Can Help Enterprises Recruit Future IT Stars
Too many employment selection and development techniques overemphasize organizational needs today at the expense of future requirements, according to Gartner, Inc. Assessment centers can be a critical tool for enterprises in their quest for talent and particularly for those looking to set up pools of talent that they anticipate will not only perform well today but adapt and grow as business demands change.

Assessment centers are of use in selecting and developing a range of people in organizations around the world. They are commonly used in Europe and Asia to select interns, which is one of the hardest selection processes due to the candidates' lack of previous relevant work experience. In other circumstances the approach is very helpful in identifying which individuals might make it to leadership-type roles while encouraging others to stay on the technical career ladder. Another growing area of interest is using assessment centers to select people for cross-functional moves and "re-skilling."

The assessment center uses tests to replicate the same activity in similar conditions so that the assessment is conducted independently through the observation of interactions or scoring of responses to test questions with only one answer. Test responses are then held in data banks and provide comparisons of what results are typical for the appropriate norm group, such as interns and leaders, and increasingly by job group and industry sector. Tests range from aptitude testing, to simulation testing, scenarios and group discussions.

Tests are usually supplemented by a variety of interviews and could include a technical interview, personality questionnaire, physiological interview, motivational interview and a behavioral event interview.
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Research finds companies pursue customer satisfaction but lag in support of agents
Ventana Research has  released the findings of its new benchmark research on Agent Performance Management (APM). This new research examined the interplay of information, technology, process and people aspects in 365 companies of varied sizes, industries, geographic regions in the world and, most importantly, varied contact center sizes to yield a number of important findings. The research confirms the importance of using the right information, metrics and software to optimize agent effectiveness, showing that companies that shift their focus from saving money on agents to training them and evaluating their performance more effectively realize benefits. Moreover, deploying agent management technology, as well as smarter call delivery systems to route calls to the agents most appropriately skilled and best at handling particular types of interactions or customers, improves customer satisfaction.

However, the research also finds that companies are lagging in applying these best practices. Analysis using the Ventana Research Maturity Index indicates that companies have not matured very far in their management of agent performance, with more than four times as many organizations at the lowest Tactical level of maturity as are at the highest Innovative maturity level.

The report offers recommendations for improvement:

• Improve interaction-handling by thinking more strategically. Focus on automating the agent quality monitoring process, using speech analytics tools to improve the agent assessment process, and utilizing more outcome-focused key performance metrics.

• Make better use of available technology and applications. Follow the example of Innovative companies and deploy unified communications, smarter call routing to best-skilled and -performing agents, desktop screen capture and analysis, and the latest contact center-specific performance management tools including text and speech analytics.

• Reassess key performance metrics. Explore supplementing basic measures such as number of calls handled, average length of calls and percent of calls placed on hold with more outcome- and business-related measures.

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How to Tell Anyone Anything: Coaching Your Service Team  to Success

Wednesday, September 2 at 11:00am PT /2:00 pm ET

If you manage people, the single biggest factor in your morale, turnover, and customer satisfaction levels is your ability to give feedback that really changes performance, without getting people defensive. Based on recent principles from strength-based psychology, this webinar will teach you a new, step-by-step process for truly effective coaching and feedback, based on the speaker's new nationally-published book How to Tell Anyone Anything: Breakthrough Techniques for Handling Difficult Conversations at Work.

Click here for more...

True Tales of Call Center Agent Empowerment
Micromanagement and a lack of agent inclusion in key decisions and projects are all too common in today's customer contact arena; however, there are a number of organizations that not only recognize the impact of an empowered frontline but also walk the talk in that regard. Managers at these centers view their staff not as butts in seats but as minds in motion. Where does one find such agent-centric organizations? They are all over (you might even be one of them). But rather than make you travel the globe in search of them, we thought it a good idea to bring several to you.
Full Article...

Three Steps to Hiring Motivated Employees
Peyton Manning is a Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts who is perfectly suited physically, mentally and experientially for the role. What would happen, though, if his coach put him on the offensive line to “block” 350-pound opponents? As foolish as that would be, organizations all over the world do it every day with their employees. They put good people in the wrong roles and then can't figure out why they fail. This article presents three steps that can help your contact center hire employees who will be successful and motivated on the job.
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Cross-Training Agents Results in More Flexible Call Center Scheduling
Migrating from a traditional call center to a multi-channel contact center presents another challenge: Call center managers must also be able to schedule agents based on their unique skill sets. It’s no longer just a matter of scheduling the proper number of agents to handle phone calls – managers must also be able to accurately schedule the correct number of agents to handle email and Web chat as well.
Full Article...

Ten Hot IT Certifications
The following ten certifications were identified in the Foote Partners July 2009 Hot List as the hottest in the tech business, as judged by IT spending trends, market value increases reported in the company's pay index, interviews with IT management and projections for future skills demand. While some experienced zero growth last quarter, it's important to remember that a flat trend line is the 'new growth curve' in this down economy.
Full Article...

6 ways to be happier at work
With widespread job cuts and a recession to deal with, it's not easy to maintain a positive outlook at work these days. But being upbeat, despite the stress, could actually help you thrive during a downturn. so, do you want to train your brain to stay upbeat? Here are six ways to get started.
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The Process of Empowerment
Empowerment is the process that allows one to gain the knowledge, skill-sets and attitude needed to cope with the changing world and the circumstances in which one lives. Empower your people such that they can take care of customers in one interaction or transaction. Why? Empowerment:

• makes good business sense
• ups your efficiency level
• shortens your call time
• eliminates callbacks, and
• affords an opportunity to cross-sell, upsell or whatever is appropriate in your organization.

Full Article...

If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People?: Smart Quotes for Dumb Times
by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

John Lloyd and John Mitchinson have proven themselves to be masters at digging up obscure facts, abstruse information, and amusing anecdotes and presenting them effortlessly, somewhat slyly, with either great wit or at least a little bit of tongue in cheek. Their gifts are on full display in Quote Interesting, a lively, wonderfully enjoyable anthology of hundreds of quotes you probably have never heard before, arranged thematically from A to Z. From laugh-out-loud-funny bon mots to some real headscratchers, Lloyd and Mitchinson have gathered a universe of star-studded blurbs.

For more information, or to order your copy...

More books can be found in the RecognizeServiceExcellence.com Required Reading section: http://www.recognizeserviceexcellence.com

White Paper: Best Practices for Coaching Your Support Team to Handle Anything

This white paper provides a step-by-step game plan for solving your support agents' worst nightmares, based on the author's experience in successfully "turning around" support performance, as well as current research in the psychology of how we communicate with people. In the process, you will learn how specific, procedural skills -- both for how your agents respond to customers, and how you coach your team -- can change everything about how your interact with customers, in a way that will impact both your support metrics and your bottom line.

Get the full white paper here!

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