Cross Selling in the Call Center

I was surprised when I heard the Call Center Manager explain to me that they do not ask the agents to cross sell because it does not work. The manager went on to say that his agents are not trained to sell and asking them to do something they are not trained to do would be a waste of time. His metrics would also be adversely be affected by having his agents cross sell. I suggested the agents did not need to sell but rather just bring up the idea of another product or service.

When was the last time you were so surprised that you were almost speechless? This is what happened to me when I was talking to this manager for a major insurance company. His entire argument about cross selling does not work because of training is ridiculous. I am in sales and I no without a doubt that cross selling works. In fact it worked on me the other day.

"Yes, I am calling to receive a copy of my mortgage interest statement for 2010." "Ok, please give me your account number...." After the main purpose of the call was done the agent asked me if I was interested in learning about the current interest rates for refinancing my home loan. "Sure" I said and I was quickly transferred to another agent that did some routine questions with me then I was transferred to a loan officer. Within 15 minutes I was ready to make a decision.

Cross selling works. Call Centers and Call Center Managers that do not cross sell are missing a tremendous opportunity. I suspect the insurance company CC manager was afraid that cross selling might negatively affect his metrics and scorecard. This manager is missing the big picture.

For those that want to employ cross selling there are some very basic rules to follow:

1. Train the agent to mention only a single product or service;

2. Make the cross selling statement simple and quick. The statement should take no more than 5 seconds to ask;

3. Remind agents to cross sell using your call center reporting tools such as wallboards, desktop messaging and weekly meetings;

4. Everyone should be cross selling, everyone;

5. Reward the agents that cross sell, especially the successful cross sellers;

6. Track your efforts.

Cross selling works and more call centers should employ this technique to boost review. By the way the question, "Is there anything else I can help you with?" is not cross selling.

Help Desk Metrics

Last week I was speaking with a Director of Operations in charge of a Help Desk Customer Service Center. This director was interested in metrics he should be using for his operation. One issue that he mentioned at the beginning of the conversation was that he did not want typical call center statistics.

Our conversation explored his customer service center and what his goals were for the center. It is interesting the differences between inhouse and outsourced customer service centers. I have found that inhouse centers focus on the number of tickets opened and closed while outsourced centers fixate on SLA's. Perhaps given their respective reporting responsibilities it maks sense.

For this outsourced service center I suggested the following metrics to report and track. These metrics are not in any order or priority.
Total Number of Tickets Logged per Product - real time and for the day
Total Time Worked per Ticket and per Product
Average Number of Tickets per Product
Average Time Worked per Ticket per Product
Tickets Opened per Product real time and for the day (this differs from Tickets logged)
Tickets opened per Product for the Day
Service Level real time for the day per Product / All Product / Group
Tickets Closed pre Product real time / day
Average Handle Time per Ticket per Product (Can be a misleading metric)
Max Handle Time per Ticket per Product
Max Handle Time all Tickets / Products
First Call Resolution per Product
Tickets resolved in X hours since Logged per Product
Tickets resolved in 8 hours since Logged per Product
Tickets resolved in 24 hours since Logged per Product
Tickets unresolved for the day / week per Product
Tickets escalated per Product for the day
Customer Satisfaction Rate per Product / Total
Ticket Closure Ratio per Product / Total
Average Time to Close VS SLA's
Average Response Time per Product

All of these metrics should be run by group and by agent as well. This level of detail can show which groups are performing well and which CSR needs training. There are many idiosyncrasies with help desk metrics that can be misleading and should be analyzed prior to using the data in performance reviews.