Posts Tagged ‘Training’

A Day in the Life of a WOW! Loss Prevention Specialist

In: Customer Experience & Support

By: Bill Wright on Sep 16, 2010 at 9:18 am

Adam - Loss Prevention Specialist

Adam - Loss Prevention Specialist

There are always a few people in this world that would like to get something for nothing. As a matter of fact, some make a profession out of it. We know this type of activity as “fraud “. There is a department at WOW! that employs individual to check for possible fraud, this is the Loss Prevention Specialist. This very important department is continuously looking and searching the backgrounds of potential customers to ensure they are the people they say they are.  A brief description of the duties and responsibilities would be:

• Research national database and information to secure verification of the identity of new and prior WOW! customers.
• Call customers to discuss status after research is done.
• Follow credit & collections processes and procedures and negotiate possible payment terms (in special cases only) for previously owed balances within policies.
• Refer special credit arrangements, escalations, and high-level problematic accounts to Manager for resolution.
• Coordinate with other departments on credit, collections and customer issues as needed.
• Perform all other duties as assigned by Manager, and additional duties may include assisting the Account Research Department with outstanding requests.

I had the privilege of speaking with one of the specialist in this group, Adam, and asked him a few questions about his day in the life of a WOW! Loss Prevention Specialist: 

Tell me what a typical day in the life of WOW! Loss Prevention Specialist is like?

Adam – A typical day in Loss Prevention is rarely typical, we work inquiries received for new customers and existing customers to investigate for potential fraud or prevent future/further loss from any employee who submits one.  These include valid requests to get service as well as very talented attempts to obtain services which are not valid.  Deal with many escalations from internal, external, regional customers, voicemail, email follow ups daily.  Also contact the collection agencies daily for any disputes and resolve them.  Any potential phone fraud customers are reviewed and notified, and any online request is reviewed and taken through the same process as a Loss Prevention web form.

What are the tools you have available to do your job?

Adam – In Loss Prevention we have scores of tools and websites to help us achieve the greatest results of preventing further loss, fraud or stopping both before either begin.  These include Accurint which is a tool to locate and research potential customers via public records.  The new Credit Check from Equifax which will notify us of any potential customers which may pose a risk and require further investigation.  In addition to these tools access to our outside collection agencies CMI, CCS, IEI, CashPro, the COMX database, and all of our prior web forms worked to review requests from years ago.

What training do you have to go through to do your job?

Adam - The ability to pay attention to the smallest lead or detail, for example an alternate phone number may be the key to link a potential customer to multiple owed accounts.  As you can’t search CSG in that field but having the ability to see the slightest lead and follow up on it.  Advanced computer skills and ability to interpret all the data received back from the above listed tools we use.  Multitasking is essential; have multiple websites open simultaneously, escalations, follow up phone calls, incoming phone calls, and completing the Loss Prevention web form requests and leads each moment.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Adam – Knowing the valid potential and current customers are expedited ASAP so they don’t have to be delayed services because of prior circumstances, such as a blocked address or there is a prior charge off with no relationship found.  And the best part knowing potential loss and fraud has been prevented or stopped!

What is the most asked question by our customers that you work with?

Adam - When an outbound call is placed on an invalid attempt for services “who are you looking for?” or if it is a shared services issue, i.e. roommate or spouse “why are you holding me responsible for his/her bill?”  On valid requests it is usually “how long will it take to get an install” as well as the packages we offer.

These individuals see the ugly side of people and have to confront them on a dialy basis. Without them, the cost of doing business would increase significantly and would, in turn, cost our good customers more in the long run. We should be very happy to have such individuals working to help give you the great customer experience you deserve.

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Post-Hire Interviews at WOW!

In: Culture

By: Sherry Zachary on Sep 07, 2010 at 8:00 am

What the heck is a post-hire interview?  Isn’t an interview what happens when you’re trying to get into a company?  Shouldn’t getting hired be the end of the interviewing process?  Not if you work at WOW!.

We have a practice here of interviewing employees as they are coming up on their one-year anniversaries.  These interviews have nothing to do with the skills, abilities and knowledge of the participants.  Rather, these interviews help us find out about the quality of their employment experience.  What we learn from their responses helps us become better at training, helps us identify tools, reports or processes that improve our effectiveness, and gives the newer employees an opportunity to think out loud, ‘out of the box’ as they say.

Here’s a sampling of our Post-Hire Interview questions:

1. Now that you’ve been here almost a year, what 2 or 3 things would you tell a brand new employee to help them become successful here?

2. What was the most effective training you received… and what training would you like to have next?

3. Other than money, what gives you the most job satisfaction here?

4. What do you do to provide your customers with a truly WOW! experience?

5. If you could improve, change or enhance any policy or practice to build money into our profit-sharing plan, what would it be?

6. Are there any resources you need to improve or enhance the execution of your job?

7. Please describe an incident or event that illustrates your relationship with your supervisor.

8. Pretend you are the General Manager of the region for a week… with full control and no budget restrictions… what would you do?

The answers we get to these questions are shared across the management team of the region and as the funnel point, I get to see them first.  The answer I see MOST often to question number one is this:  “Don’t be afraid to ask questions – everyone is here to help you!”  This makes me both happy and a little bit sad.  I’m happy because with our Servanthood culture, supporting our internal customers (each other) at WOW! is just as important as supporting our external customers.  It makes me a little sad because so many of our new employees have not experienced that sense of teamwork with past employers.  As hard as we try to emphasize our commitment to teamwork at orientation, they still see it as a discovery when they look back over their first year with WOW!.  I guess its okay though – because each employee becomes part of that support team for the next group of new hires. 

What would you tell YOUR employer if you had a chance to interview all over again?

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Why do our employees love working here?

In: Customer Experience & Support

By: Bill Wright on Aug 26, 2010 at 8:26 am

Good question, glad I thought of it :) . It all starts with the hiring and screening process. The HR department does an extremely thorough job of making sure the candidates for hire, fit in with the culture that WOW! has established. This doesn’t mean that the potential employee needs to be overly qualified for the position but it means that the attitude they bring will also fit in.

After the decision is made for hiring the individual, the next step would be on to the training department. The energy this team brings is contagious. Every class they are involved in, are always very upbeat and keep you focused on the subject for that particular day. While passing the training room in the hall, I can always feel the energy that is coming from that room. Once in a while ( ok, quite a bit) I will come by to just sit and listen to the class and absorb the energy. I can tell you this: If you are ever tired and run down, go by the training room and your whole attitude will change for the better.

When the training is complete, the individuals are assigned to the suitable supervisor in their appropriate departments. The supervisor’s job is to take these newly developed people and mold them into a lean, mean helping machine. The individuals are continuously coached on policies and procedure as well as new products and services available. The job of the supervisor is not only to be the developer but also to ensure their individuals are taken care of physically (i.e. the ergonomics of the desk they are in, height of the chairs, etc…) and remain enthusiastic about the job.

The turn-over rate for a call center is typically very high, while the WOW! centers are very low. I have seen people leave from here, to find that greener pasture and return almost immediately. Stating they didn’t know how well they had it until they left. No matter what department the newly hired are assigned to, the result s are the same: Create an experience that lives up to our name, WOW! and have a great time doing it.

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The WOW! Customer Experience

In: Customer Experience & Support

By: Bill Wright on Aug 12, 2010 at 10:07 am

  I have had the pleasure of working with this wonderful company since before we had a single customer.  My job, as the CEO Customer Advocate, is to listen to issues and concerns of our customer’s and resolve them if possible. I correspond with the BBB, FCC, Attorney General and the Public Utilities Commissions, as well as taking calls, emails and letters directly from our customers’. Our philosophy has always been to treat the customer with the utmost respect and we will keep them forever. This philosophy has made WOW! the winner of numerous awards in our areas of interest:
  http://www.jdpower.com/telecom/ratings/high-speed-internet-service-provider-ratings/north-central

  Recently, I have had the displeasure of hearing a few customers stating they are not being treated the way they once were.  This is unacceptable to WOW! The reason that WOW! has been successful is due to the “Customer Experience” we provide.  These concerns, no matter how small in figures they may be, are very upsetting to WOW! as a whole and to  me personally.

   I would love to hear back from anyone who feels that their experience has been anything less then what they expected from WOW!  and what WOW! could do to make it better.  Your concerns are our concerns.

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A Day in the Life of a WOW! Resource Management Specialist

In: Customer Experience & Support

By: Bill Wright on Jul 08, 2010 at 9:36 am

Ron Perry

Ron - Resource Management Specialist

Today’s “ Day in the Life” , is one that I have always admired. I will not say that I am saving the best for last but if there is any department that does so much and is never noticed by the customer it is the : Resource Management Specialist.  Below is just a few of the tasks they are responsible for: 

 • Analyzes, identifies, recommends and communicates staffing adjustments in order to achieve service level goals.
• Monitors all telephony and server systems within the Call Center.
• Analyzes the performance of the real-time management system to ensure the implementation of process improvements.
• Forecasts real-time requirements and communicates change requirements to the external sites for compliance.
• Publishes work schedules, assigns meetings and training, and manages special project allocation.
• Gathers data, performs needs assessment, defines user requirements and develops specifications for real-time management system.
• Monitors a multiple call center environment, making appropriate recommendations to the Network Operations Center management staff regarding potential problems and proposed solutions.
• Assists front-line supervisors and provides limited desk-top support when necessary.
• Simulates different scenarios and proposes contingency plans for unexpected events.  Invokes emergency plans as necessary.
• Performs reporting for management regarding call volume drivers that impact all call center locations.
• Performs other duties and special projects, as assigned by the Senior Manager – Resource Management.

Ron, one of our Resource Management Specialist, took a few minutes away from his extremely busy schedule, to answer a few questions for me regarding his job duties:
•         Tell me what a typical day in the life of WOW! Resource management is like?

Ron – On a daily basis our team monitors the activities of agents across three sites, balancing their off phone functions with on phone time.  We work on any outages that may occur to get messages up for our customers, so they are aware of what might be happening in their area.  We also work with agents and supervisors to ensure everyone’s scheduled times are correct.  This is how we assist our HR group with payroll.  On the forecasting side, we schedule all team meetings/training sessions/off phone project time for our agents.  There are also several planned and Ad Hoc reports we are asked to run so our management group can better assess how WOW is performing.
       Throughout the day we handle calls to help with troubleshooting, questions, and other issues.  We manage this along with the other duties we have to keep our agents focused on helping WOW’s customers. 

•         What are the tools you have available to do your job?

Ron  – We use Avaya software to view all our queues in all sites, and each agent at all sites so we can monitor usage.  We also use Verint software to manage our agents scheduling and time off, as well as forecasting call volume for each site.  We use Excel a lot for many reports to track daily, weekly, and monthly data.  We have several tools that have been built by our IT team for our team to use through Java/HTML also.

•         What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Ron - I take pride in knowing that agents, supervisors, and even managers and our directors can come to Resource Management when they have any issues or questions, and they have confidence we will give them the proper assistance.  In many cases Resource Management is the front line of contact with issues.  It is rewarding to know that people see us as a group open to come to, and that we resolve issues promptly.

•         What training do you have to go through to do your job?

Ron – Resource Management’s training is very much On-the-job.  There is about a six month learning curve to get to know all the applications and comfortably manage every aspect of the job.  And honestly, you never stop learning in this group.  The one constant is change, so Resource Management is always adjusting its processes.
•         What is the highest number of customer service agents you observe during a typical day and where are they located? 

Ron - During the week we can manage 300+ agents through the day, and even 200+ at the higher intervals through the day.  We have three call centers and our Colorado Springs site takes approximately 50% while our Hamilton, AL and Longview, TX sites share the other 50%.  This includes the Colorado Springs location handling 90%+ all new sales calls, and nearly 90% of all sales calls total.

I cannot say enough about these individuals and the job they do on a daily basis. To think there are only about three individuals doing all of this and they never miss a beat. To all of the Resource Management staff “Thank you for all you do!!!”

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