With ongoing changes in technology, markets and price-points Customer Loyalty remains the steadfast differentiator in customer transactions and product/service experiences. Research amassed over the years supports the linkage between customer satisfaction, loyalty and shareholder value. Our "Voice of the Customer" services offer a focused, practical and results-based approach to leverage these theoretical models in the Contact Center setting and at other customer "touch-points" along the way.
Our fact-based, analytical approach assists you in understanding precisely who your best customers are, what they want from your company, where, how and how often you interact with them, and how they perceive your current performance. Armed with this information you can make informed Business Strategy decisions about what products and services you intend to provide, where further investment will have the most favorable impact and how best to deploy the resources needed to achieve your unique objectives.
- A Customer Perception Audit provides an accurate, unbiased assessment of how your customers really view your products, services and company, what they value and what they dislike.
- The Customer Value Analysis establishes the relative economic and strategic value of different customers and customer segments, supporting your Business Strategy deliberations with solid facts and offering guidance regarding important risks and opportunities.
- A Customer Loyalty Roadmap clearly identifies the critical points of interaction between your company and your customers, and creates a prioritized list of key service attributes that serve as drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
With a fact-based customer loyalty optimization strategy in place, Customer Interaction Management services support the tactical implementation and ongoing measurement and improvement of the plan.
BUSINESS STRATEGY AND PLANNING SUPPORT
In the late 1990's startup Western Pacific Airlines offered its passengers a unique travel opportunity. For a round trip price of $35, they could take a weekend trip to any one of WP's cities. The catch? You did not know which city you would be going to until you got on the plane. Western Pacific is no longer in business and neither, we suspect, is any company that takes a similar approach to their business strategy.
Tyche understands that every client is unique, and that each must find their own path to success. By combining decades of personal customer care experience with Voice of the Customer business intelligence and effective planning methods and tools, our consultants can ensure that the course you plot is the best possible one for your organization.
- A Facilitated Executive Planning Session provides an effective, focused process for extracting maximum value results from a minimum of invested staff time.
- A Best Practices Review evaluates current best practices for customer care and identifies those most likely to add significant value to your existing operations.
- SWOT Analysis is a well established planning technique that helps develop an effective business strategy within the context of the unique Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that define your organization and situation.
- The Contact Center CATScan applies an activity-based costing analysis to identify specific opportunities for change or improvement within your existing contact center with task-level precision.
Whether you need to create a broad new strategic direction or to assess and fine tune a successful business strategy, TPM Business Strategy and Planning Support services can help you get on the right path for you as effectively and efficiently as possible.
ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS BY DESIGN
Your organization and its culture and communications style can either enable your business strategy and empower your workforce or cripple your efforts before they get started. Tyche consultants bring the combined learning of dozens of high performance customer care organizations to bear on creating exactly the design solution you require.
- Organizational Design services align the functional and logical structure of your customer care operations with your unique business goals and the resources you have allocated to accomplish them.
- The Help Desk Institute's standards for Support Center Site Certification identify both "Distribution of Information" and "Communication Processes" as critical elements of excellent customer support. Business Communications Services will help you to identify process bottlenecks and communication style issues that are holding your customer care functions back, and prescribe effective cures.
- Facility Design Services ensure that the physical layout and human factors elements of your contact center support the staff in achieving their mission. Whether building out for the first time, relocating your operations or redesigning your existing sites, Tyche can help you to create a workspace that works.
Effective customer care organizations do not happen by luck, but by design.
PROJECT AND PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
For many years running, statistics have consistently shown that a majority of business projects fail to achieve all of their stated objectives. Among the reasons usually offered for the commonly cited 60% "disappointment rate" on business projects in the US are:
- Lack of effective project planning.
- Failure to identify a committed executive sponsor.
- Inadequate project management processes and controls throughout implementation.
- Insufficient budget or failure to effectively manage project budgets.
- Lack of adequate progress reporting and change control, i.e., "scope creep".
Tyche consultants employ effective project management tools and disciplines and have the experience of dozens of successful contact center projects to draw upon to make certain that your critical initiatives are done and done right.
CUSTOMER INTERACTION MANAGEMENT
Excellent customer care requires focus, persistence and attention to detail. The health of every customer transaction should be monitored, measured and managed for each of the three Critical Customer Touchpoints: sales, customer service and product support. Tyche's Customer Interaction Management services support the tactical deployment and ongoing execution of your Voice of the Customer and Business strategy by implementing effective processes and providing objective measures of progress and success.
- Customer Satisfaction Measurement tools and processes provide the basic information needed to measure the effectiveness of your customer care programs in the context of your strategic direction.
- Closed Loop Customer Feedback Systems ensure that vital customer information reaches those best in a position to evaluate and act upon it, and that developing issues and potential problems are identified quickly and responded to effectively.
- Survey Design and Analysis Services let you fine tune your customer intelligence with data collection and assessment methods that can be customized to your environment and specific needs. Whether you can benefit from a custom survey instrument design, survey administration assistance or data analysis Tyche Customer Care experts can help.
- Customer Transaction Optimization uses your Customer Loyalty Roadmap to identify strategically critical customer touchpoints and then design and deploy the practices and measurements that will empower your organization to strengthen customer satisfaction and loyalty with every interaction.
Loyal and happy customers who are eager to recommend you to their peers are the result of a customer-centric business strategy, the right portfolio of product and service offerings, effective operating processes, and empowered employees. Customer Interaction Management comprises the "command and control" systems that monitor and adjust these crucial components one customer transaction at a time.
BEST PRACTICE OPERATING PROCESSES
Adopting "best practice" contact center operating processes can be a confusing undertaking. There are nearly two dozen purported "standards", half a dozen credible contact center certification programs and the ever present ITIL approach. Which is best? At Tyche we believe that each of these programs has something valuable to offer, and that which approach is best suited to your needs depends upon your unique business objectives and current operating situation. Total Performance Management provides a coherent context within which the most applicable best practice methods can be identified and adapted to best fulfill your requirements.
- An Operations Assessment is like a routine physical for your contact center. Typically within as little as two weeks an experienced Tyche consultant will conduct a comprehensive review of all aspects of your operation and provide you with a detailed review that highlights areas of excellence as well as identifying specific opportunities for improvement. Where the potential exists to refine or enhance your performance you will receive specific, realistic and actionable recommendations for change.
- The ITIL Readiness Review service examines your contact center's current degree of readiness to implement the ITIL model, identifies any material shortcomings or significant risks, and provides a clear roadmap and timeframe for moving forward.
- A Functional Best Practices Survey reviews the proven best practice methods from multiple standard sets and identifies those most applicable to a specific function (or functions) within your contact center. Best practice surveys commonly focus on such important functions as workforce management, recruiting and hiring, call handling processes and performance measurement.
- Outsourcing Analysis services take the guesswork out of the outsourcing decision. Understand precisely where your operations might benefit from outsourcing, what your best options are and how to structure and maintain a healthy relationship with your service provider..before you decide.
Once you have clearly identified which best practice methods will bring the most benefit your unique customer care operations, Tyche's Project and Program Management services can help you achieve the results you expect with thorough planning, effective implementation and on-time completion of your best practice projects.
SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY OPTIMIZATION
Large scale customer service operations simply cannot function without the effective utilization of today's support technologies, and any size customer service function can benefit significantly from selective deployment of CRM systems, workforce management, knowledge management, customer self-help and other service management tools.
- A Technology Audit assesses your existing technology architecture and systems utilization to identify specific instances where your tools can be better utilized or where new or upgraded technologies would materially improve your customer care operations.
- If you are considering an investment in new support tools, a Systems Investment Analysis can provide you with the operational and financial data you need to create a solid business case that wins executive support and approval. Our Contact Center CATScan activity-based costing methodology provides an accurate life cycle cost-of-ownership and return on investment (ROI), along with detailed 3-year budget impact, for virtually any contact center technology investment.
- Technology Implementation Support services ensure successful deployment of complex customer care systems by addressing not only the technical aspects of your implementation but the financial, process and training issues as well. Don't go it alone. Put Tyche consultants' decades of successful technology deployment experience to work for you.
With the important exception of your staff, your customer support systems are the most expensive and mission critical components of your success. Our Systems & Technology Optimization services will help you get the maximum benefit from the tools that you have in place and to obtain and deploy the ones you need.
TRAINING & WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
Nowhere is the business truism "If you are not moving forward you are falling behind" more applicable than in the effective recruiting, retention and development of your customer care workforce. Contact center workforce management has become the far more demanding task of balancing volatile business objectives, employee skillsets and schedules with the ongoing issues of recruiting, retention, training, evaluation and development. Today’s multi-channel, multi-media environment creates new and unique requirements that go well beyond the traditional staffing problem of matching people to call volume fluctuations. And if you aren't moving forward you are, indeed, falling behind.
Utilizing the groundbreaking assessment and feedback systems of Profiles International, Tyche approaches staffing issues within the context of your unique business objectives to help you create a comprehensive framework for recruiting, training, motivating and retaining your workforce.
- Profiles International's integrated, web-based set of Hiring, Coaching, Development and Performance Feedback Assessments provides call center and HR management with the information they need to hire the right people the first time, sharply reduce expensive turnover and boost employee productivity through targeted feedback and development systems.
- A Recruiting and Retention Practices Assessment reviews your recruitment, hiring, training and retention practices and provides specific, practical steps you can take to optimize these critical activities.
- Customer Care Training offerings encompass a full spectrum of standardized and custom courses for front line, supervisory and management staff.
- Coaching and Mentoring Support ensures that your investment in training pays off by working directly with your staff to facilitate the adoption of newly acquired skills and knowledge into their daily work routines.
- Employee Retention and Development Programs make the difference between tenure and turnover by using the latest knowledge of contact center compensation, motivation and career planning practices to create the kind of working environment that rewards and retains top performers.
- Staffing, Scheduling and Workforce Planning Services provide comprehensive solutions that ensure the optimum deployment of your current workforce and allow you to anticipate and plan for evolving future requirements.
Contact center managers consistently cite workforce management as among their most pressing and problematic activities. Bring the power of Total Performance Management to your training and staffing issues with Tyche's field tested workforce management solutions.
MEASUREMENT, ANALYSIS & REPORTING
Effective measurement and reporting processes complete every solution by providing the kind of meaningful information that permits the early identification of problems and performance shortfalls. The necessary feedback processes are established to ensure that this information is translated into remedial action plans and that fixes are implemented in the context of a continuous improvement quality plan.
- The Contact Center CATScan offers an affordable activity cost based analysis of your entire contact center operation, and delivers a detailed map of your operating cost structure at a highly granular level. Whether you need to reduce expenses, justify a proposed investment or undertake process or organizational changes you no longer have to estimate or guess the impact of change.
- The Balanced Scorecard approach to measuring performance in the contact center ensures congruence with enterprise business objectives by assessing progress and accomplishments from the four interlocking perspectives of customer, employee, business and organization.
- Contact Center Benchmarking can be a useful management tool but it is also one that is fraught with danger for the unwary.
Measurement, analysis and reporting are the "command and control" systems that enable success. The Total Performance Management approach ensures that you are measuring the right things the right way, at the right time for the right audience.
PROCESS IMPROVEMENT & QUALITY ASSURANCE
Any process that is not constantly improving is constantly degrading. What worked last year may not even be competitive next year. Postponing or ignoring continuous quality improvement processes is a formula for long term failure.
- A Process Improvement Healthcheck gives you an immediate, objective assessment of your overall process improvement and quality assurance programs. Find out what's working well, what isn't and exactly what to focus on to improve.
- If you currently have no quality management process, or need to make changes to the one you do have, Tyche's Quality Process Design & Implementation services will design an optimal solution for you and provide assistance throughout the planning and implementation effort, ensuring that your improvements are deployed effectively and achieve the results you expect.
Achieving the full benefit of robust and effective measurement and reporting systems requires that information spur action. Your Process Improvement & Quality Assurance programs can ensure this happens consistently and dependably.
LIFE CYCLE & CHANGE MANAGEMENT
In the world of Customer Care change is a given. Whether change is planned and managed or chaotic and disruptive is up to you. Change Management is the process by which changes to the existing infrastructure, network or system configurations are proposed, evaluated, approved, planned, and implemented throughout the life cycle of the products and processes of which infrastructure is comprised.
- Tyche's Change Management Process Audit provides you with the hard data you require to make certain your change management process is working effectively, and where to focus if it isn't.
- A Change Management Financial Review, using Tyche's powerful CATScan activity-based costing methodology, reveals the bottom line financial impact of your change management efforts, including exactly how much is left on the table if improvement opportunities are not pursued. If you are building a business case for improving change management an ABC financial review arms you with the detailed cost, investment and ROI data you need to make your case.
An ineffective change management process will usually manifest as large numbers of problem reports occurring any time a change is deployed. Customers suffer, costs are higher than they need to be and the contact center's reputation unfairly takes the hit. With Tyche's Life Cycle & Change Management solutions, everybody wins.