1to1 - Spring 2009 - (Page 25) The carrot principle pays off Another way Whirlpool keeps employees inspired is through recognition programs. The “I’m On It” (designated for Whirlpool employees) and “I’m On It Too” (for contract employees) programs recognize employees for accomplishments such as outstanding teamwork, sales, or job performance, like meeting certain goals. Employees use an automated awards-submission process to nominate colleagues; employees who are selected by management to be recognized receive up to $250 in monetary rewards. Additionally, the cXc has adopted a Customer Champion program for exceptional call handling and performance. This involves the use of a dedicated phone line for customers to record compliments regarding agents who have delivered outstanding service. The employee with the best compliment receives a monetary prize and is recognized as a Customer Champion throughout the organization in various communications. The company reviews the compliments a few times per year. An award program called Count on Me recognizes veteran employees and their contributions at various career milestones. For new employees, a “Welcome Award” shows them that the company is glad they’ve chosen Whirlpool and that the organization is excited about their efforts in the future. Empowerment is another form of recognition Whirlpool uses to engage employees, especially those in the cXc. To motivate top call consultants, as well as to reduce overhead and agent turnover, Whirlpool recently introduced a work-at-home program and now employs 350 at-home agents. To become an at-home agent, call consultants must first meet certain standards. “They have to earn the right to work at home,” says Sandy Morrison, senior manager, customer relations, for the Cleveland cXc. Merging Unified Mission Two Cultures Using a Whirlpool’s acquisition of Maytag Corporation united two top appliance brands. It also left Whirlpool with a massive undertaking: merging nine contact centers employing more than 1,900 employees across multiple states into four virtual centers. How would Whirlpool get all the new Customer eXperience Center (cXc) employees to adopt the CxC’s mission of “No customer will be lost because of me”? The answer: a heavy dose of best-process integration and change management. “We had to change every single system and merge every process,” says Lynn Holmgren, national director of customer care at Whirlpool, who headed up the transition. “Everything had to be integrated and [Maytag] didn’t run any of the same systems.” building products and delivering service. Maytag employees then received training on the Gold Ring Promise. In addition, every agent at Maytag had to learn Whirlpool’s products and vice versa. “We had to take the Whirlpool culture and teach it to the Maytag employees,” says Sandy Morrison, senior manager of customer relations for the Cleveland cXc. According to Morrison, the Customer eXperience Center leadership team positioned the training and transition around people, process, and technology. A change management team trained by the Prosci Learning Center, which certifies enterprises in change management processes, addressed motivational issues among both Whirlpool and Maytag call consultants. The team, composed of cross-departmental employees, established an “I Believe” strategy throughout the cXc to inspire employees to continue to make a difference and to believe in the organization. The inspiration came from managers who continuously emphasize through messaging that the agents make a difference to the organization. Holmgren says Whirlpool “overinvested” in change management, formalizing processes to ensure all agents deliver a consistent customer experience. Through daily, weekly, and monthly phone meetings and onsite visits, the change management team kept the process updates on track and reported to Holmgren routinely about the status of each cXc transition. All of these efforts have paid off for agents, for customers, and for Whirlpool. Last year, the cXc received International Quality and Productivity Center’s Call Center Leader of the Year award. customer will be lost because “No of me.” Holmgren’s integration efforts began by establishing an Enterprise Operations Team as an umbrella group across all four cXc sites. This team consists of employees from customer relations, change management, organizational development, and workforce management and focuses on three areas: customer experience, revenue generation, and cost reduction. By applying Lean Sigma approaches to agent call quality and performance, the team was able to align the cXc’s mission with employees’ roles. Holmgren also created a process team, which analyzed all the service procedures at both Maytag and Whirlpool’s contact centers to determine which best practices the company would keep. The team then aligned those processes with the company’s Gold Ring Promise, a commitment to quality in www.1to1media.com Spring 2009 25 http://www.1to1media.com
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