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BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2016 2 “We Accelerate Growth”
Contents
Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3
Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3
Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact ................................................... 3
Conclusion........................................................................................................... 9
Significance of Customer Service Leadership ............................................................... 10
Understanding Customer Service Leadership ............................................................... 10
Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................. 11
Best Practice Award Analysis for Plantronics ................................................................ 11
Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................. 11
Quality of Customer Service ................................................................................ 12
Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 12
Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 13
The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 14
Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 14
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 15
About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 16
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2016 3 “We Accelerate Growth”
Background and Company Performance
Industry Challenges
The contact center and office headset industry has been challenged by difficult economic
conditions where many businesses have curtailed new equipment purchases and
demanded better prices from the vendors they purchase from.
The cost of advanced headset models combined with end-user price sensitivity is pushing
vendors to find ways to provide additional value to clients in ways that builds the brand,
enhances loyalty, and lays a path for future revenue growth as economic conditions
improve. Improving customer service is an obvious path to enhancing the value of a
product for customers, but a superior customer service program is not created overnight.
It requires vision, years of carefully planned investment, and training as well as
confidence that the investment will lead to enhanced revenues within a 36 month business
planning cycle.
For publicly traded companies under pressure by financial analysts to show revenue
improvements on a quarterly and annual basis, investing in areas such as customer
service - that are difficult to connect quantitatively to revenue growth - can be difficult to
justify to some investors. Compounding that issue is the fact that many companies don’t
have executives that understand the psychology of customer service excellence and
instead focus almost exclusively on key performance indicator metrics. As a result, most
companies are never able to implement a program that creates long-term brand loyalty
and outspoken end-user brand advocacy in a way that boosts revenues.
In an industry that sells products into both enterprise and the lower margin consumer
market, customer service excellence is one of the most important corporate survival
techniques today. Simply learning about industry best practices isn’t sufficient to achieve
customer service leadership. Attaining that goal requires the belief that there are always
ways to improve, but for those beliefs to firmly take root, a corporate culture must be
committed to customer service from the top down. Only when customer service is baked
into the DNA of a company is it able to truly focus on what the customer needs and
implement changes to products at the rapid pace that the global economy demands.
Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact
Criterion 1: Empowerment
The Plantronics executives have baked a philosophy of responsive customer service into
the DNA of the company, which has resulted in a contact center environment that others
in the industry are learning from.
In the headset industry, when a customer has to call a support line, they frequently
prepare themselves for a war. When customers reach the Plantronics contact center
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however, they speak with technical support representatives (TSRs) that have been trained
and proactively encouraged to make decisions that bring value to Plantronics and the
customer.
One important aspect of Plantronics’ contact center philosophy is that scripts are never
used. Since scripts aren’t used, TSRs aren’t bound to a process where a computer says
“no” and puts a problem back onto a customer. The company learned that the best way to
respond to customer needs is to make a human connection through genuine conversation.
In that way it quickly de-escalates customer frustration and rapidly learns the context that
led to a call.
Based on the context of the conversation, TSRs are empowered to make a decision and
take relevant action on case to case basis rather than applying single solution for all,
without needing permission from a Performance coach, and sometimes this has resulted in
exchanging a product that is out of warranty. Proactive multi-year training and coaching
ensures TSRs understand when a goodwill gesture is warranted so the interests of
Plantronics and the client are kept in balance.
Criterion 2: Leverage of Customer Feedback
Plantronics proactively solicits customer feedback through surveys following each contact
a customer has via telephone or email. Every customer that doesn’t score their TSR
experience in the top 2 levels on a scale of 1-7 gets a follow up call from Plantronics.
If a customer complains about something specific such as a long wait time or not being
able to find information on the web site, Plantronics notifies the TSR involved so he or she
can learn from the interaction; it then calls the customer back within 24 hours to see how
the company can convert the experience for the customer into a positive one.
When displeased customers provide low survey scores for an entire interaction, it becomes
more difficult to understand what went wrong. In those cases, Plantronics performs a root
cause analysis in the follow up call to understand what the real problem is. When the
cause of the dissatisfaction is identified, it is logged for internal follow up meetings that
take place weekly to address issues that create customer friction. These issues are also
compiled on a quarterly basis into a master report that enables the customer service team
to conduct an analysis with the team that drives continual improvements across the global
contact center operation.
The feedback process is not just about asking a customer to provide data to Plantronics;
it’s about understanding how the company can help the customer. The customer outreach
has had the effect of surprising and delighting customers that learn Plantronics values
their input and uses the feedback to initiate a two-way dialog that benefits customers as
well as the company.
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The capstone of the customer feedback program is called “Customer Speak Up” which
gathers unedited comments from customers that provide constructive feedback and puts
them into a report for the CEO. This part of the feedback program ensures that the CEO of
Plantronics has constant insight into the customer service operations and stays in tune
with the needs of customers around the world.
Criterion 3: Speed/Timeliness
Like any other contact center operation, Plantronics measures key performance indicators
(KPIs) for B2B and B2C customers. KPIs for B2B partners are more demanding to ensure
that enterprise customers using Plantronics headsets in their own contact center
operations lose as little time as possible. However, B2C customers are not made to feel
that they are second-class customers for not having an enterprise-class product. All
Plantronics are directed to the same triage support line, rather than segregated support
lines designed to make one class of customer feel more important than another.
Nonetheless, operational KPIs are set to address specific customer type needs and are
based directly on customer experience survey feedback. Thus, some KPIs are based on
the speed to answer a call, response times to emails, technical knowledge, empathy,
clarity of explanations, and language abilities.
The Plantronics management team assigns goals to teams and to individuals, but
approaches KPI metrics in an intelligent way that promotes better customer service. The
philosophy of the management team is that customer reaction is more important than
KPIs. The measurement of success or failure isn’t about answering the phone in 20
seconds or in 2 minutes; it’s about making a human connection with a customer in a way
that increases customer satisfaction rates overall.
The approach to KPIs and goals at Plantronics is global, but the overwhelming objective is
to provide efficient but meaningful customer service that leaves a lasting positive
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impression on both B2B and B2C customers.
Criterion 4: Frictionless Interaction
Plantronics’ approach to frictionless interaction begins in the recruitment process. Where
some contact centers hire based solely on industry experience, Plantronics’ philosophy is
that previous contact center experience isn’t always the best way to assess new
applicants. What is most important is finding someone capable of empathetically relating
and adjusting to different people. To accomplish this task, Plantronics conducts personality
assessments to identify the right people during the recruitment process. Once initial
candidates are identified, Human Resources works closely with the hiring manager and the
customer contact team itself to assess if a candidate has the potential to collaborate and
work well with the entire team.
The step to ensure frictionless interaction with customers is training. When a new member
joins the team he or she goes through 4 weeks of introductory training followed by a 3
year training program that helps TSRs develop empathy for customers. TSRs are also
provided with weekly data that tells them how they are doing on a weekly basis and
Plantronics provides performance coaching to help TSRs improve and succeed. Throughout
the 3 year training period, Plantronics tailors courses to individuals to help TSRs develop
professionally.
An important part of the training process are facilities that allow the TSR team to install
and use different headsets with different types of equipment so they can understand
issues from the perspective of the customer. Since Plantronics has a lot of products, the
training program and the hands-on experience with different headset configurations is
critical for the contact center operation goal of first call resolution (FCR). To achieve
higher rates of FCR, however, TSRs have to know the products well enough to handle
problems themselves, rather than transferring a call to an engineer. The training efforts
have increased Plantronics FCR rate by approximately 8% since the program was
introduced back in 2013.
BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2016 7 “We Accelerate Growth”
Two other key techniques that Plantronics uses to make customer interactions frictionless
are the use of wireless equipment and remote worker programs. Using wireless equipment
enables TSRs to move to quieter areas in the office when they need to concentrate. The
equipment also enables TSRs to work remotely when they need do.
The remote working program has resulted in happier employees that tend to log in earlier
and stay online later. The program has also resulted in a 3 percent higher customer
satisfaction rate because some TSRs are able to provide better service when they are
allowed to work in a more comfortable and quieter home office that has fewer distractions
than a contact center environment.
Criterion 5: Technological Investment
The technological investment that Plantronics makes to facilitate superior customer
service begins with its online learning program for TSRs. It enables Plantronics to train
TSRs on the importance of the impact of speech. Since 60 percent of all Plantronics
customer service interactions are via telephone, these online training programs help TSRs
convey messages in an impactful way without the aid of visual-based, non-verbal
communication. In addition, customer surveys provide feedback on TSR performance,
which allows Plantronics to identify areas to focus additional training and coaching on
topics that are relevant to each individual TSR. This maximizes the return on the training
and coaching investment while lifting customer satisfaction metrics.
Another technology tool that has proved valuable to the contact center team has been the
use of Skype for Business. It was implemented globally and enables TSRs to connect with
engineers or executives in the moment, without asking to call a customer back in 24
hours. If an engineer needs to get pulled into a call, it can be done instantly, without
having to put the customer on hold, and that improves FCR metrics. Skype for Business
has allowed Plantronics to increase the total number of customers that have a solution
before they hang up and in the process it has eliminated departmental silos. With
connections into every department in the company, the contact center is now at the
center of the company instead of on the periphery. Executives all the way up to the CEO
are on Skype for Business at Plantronics, which makes it possible to pull an engineer, a
product manager or even the CEO into a customer conversation if needed.
Use of Skype of Business has also strengthened the Voice of the Customer program since
executives are no longer cut off from the customer. As a result, executives that are asked
to join a conversation with the customer get to hear on a first hand basis how customers
are reacting to a product or a problem. That in turn has significantly helped drive
engineering improvements at Plantronics because executives hear customer opinions
directly.
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Criterion 6: Customer Service Experience
Unlike many contact centers, Plantronics’ customer service philosophy advocates
interacting with customers as an important way to improve its products. As a result, the
company doesn’t try to avoid customer calls like some of its competitors actively do in
different parts of the world. It doesn’t force customers to create an account to access help
tools or compel customers to go through a series of decision tree questions before they
can get in contact with a TSR. It provides toll free numbers to help customers get in touch
with TSRs quickly and without any friction.
Another innovative aspect of Plantronics’ customer service is its dedication to in-warranty
replacement. The company isn’t interested in frustrating customers by debating whether a
product should be replaced. Instead, it provides tools online that facilitate simple in-
warranty replacements. Moreover, in 70 percent of its global theatre of operations,
Plantronics is able to provide a replacement product within 24 hours. This amazing
replacement time is possible because Plantronics ships a replacement before it has
received the defective device from the customer. It is also facilitated by partnering with
reliable international transport companies such as DHL and allowing pick up of a defective
device and delivery of the replacement to either a home or business address. This
additional level of service is appreciated by Plantronics customers that use the devices for
business and in contact center environments. These efforts have pushed up satisfaction in
the replacement process by 14 percent and increased the timeliness satisfaction score by
11 percent.
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To ensure that Plantronics’ customer service experience remains higher than competitors
and continues to improve year over year, the company also takes a close look at manuals,
websites, products and customer service procedures of its competitors. By looking for
ways to incorporate industry best practices and not getting complacent with its superior
performance in 2015, Plantronics has set itself on a path towards setting a 21st century
standard for Global Contact Center and Office Headset Industry.
Conclusion
Plantronics is a company with products that are widely used by contact centers around the
world as they provide customer service to their clients. As a company providing equipment
to customer service operations worldwide, executives in the company understood that
they had a responsibility to set high goals and redefine what customer service means for
customers in the global 21st century marketplace. It eliminated scripted conversations that
frustrated customers and implemented a customer service program to train and
incentivize customer service representatives to make a human connection with the
customer. The goal was to get customer service representatives to understand the unique
context behind each call, facilitate first call problem resolution, and leave the customer
feeling positive about the entire customer service experience. In the process of these
changes, Plantronics baked the philosophy of customer service into the DNA of the
company by eliminating company silos and giving the customer service department, and
thereby the customers themselves, with immediate access to managers and executives
across the company when needed. That has helped facilitate engineering changes to
products and has created heightened levels of customer awareness across the entire
company.
Because of its strong overall performance and industry leading 24 hour replacement
program for in-warranty products, Plantronics is recognized with Frost & Sullivan’s 2016
Customer Service Leadership Award.
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Significance of Customer Service Leadership
Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from your
company, and then making the decision to return time and again. The service experience
is therefore a critical component of a company’s efforts to retain customers over the long
term. Through successful retention, companies enhance their brand, increase demand for
their products, and differentiate themselves from the competition.
Understanding Customer Service Leadership
Customer Service Leadership is defined and measured by two macro-level categories:
quality of customer service and customer impact. These two sides work together to make
customers feel valued, and confident in their products’ quality and long shelf life. This
dual satisfaction translates into repeat purchases and a high lifetime customer value.
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Key Benchmarking Criteria
For the Customer Service Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently
evaluated two key factors—Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact—according
to the criteria identified below.
Quality of Customer Service
Criterion 1: Empowerment
Criterion 2: Leverage of Customer Feedback
Criterion 3: Speed/Timeliness
Criterion 4: Frictionless Interaction
Criterion 5: Technological Investment
Customer Impact
Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value
Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience
Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience
Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience
Criterion 5: Brand Equity
Best Practice Award Analysis for Plantronics
Decision Support Scorecard
To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance
categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool
allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to
the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that
basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation;
ratings guidelines are illustrated below.
RATINGS GUIDELINES
The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Quality of Customer Service and
Customer Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the
definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team
confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which
confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a
significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies.
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The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the
interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players
as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.
Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)
Customer Service Leadership
Quality of
Customer Service
Customer
Impact Average Rating
Plantronics 8.7 9.3 9.0
Competitor 2 6.8 8.4 7.6
Competitor 3 5.6 7.9 6.7
Quality of Customer Service
Criterion 1: Empowerment
Requirement: Service providers are encouraged to take independent, informed, and
creative approaches to issue resolution
Criterion 2: Leverage of Customer Feedback
Requirement: Customer opinions are continually solicited and monitored, leading to direct
changes to product features or the service model
Criterion 3: Speed/Timeliness
Requirement: Issues are resolved within a timeframe satisfactory to the customer and the
provider
Criterion 4: Frictionless Interaction
Requirement: Service providers deftly avoid customer conflict by maintaining a friendly,
professional demeanor at all times
Criterion 5: Technological Investment
Requirement: Investment in best-in-class technologies that enhance customer knowledge,
accelerate issue resolution, and/or improve the customer experience
Customer Impact
Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value
Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar
offerings in the market
Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience
Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that
addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints
Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience
Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a
positive experience throughout the life of the product or service
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Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience
Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality
Criterion 5: Brand Equity
Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty
Decision Support Matrix
Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,
analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to
visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at
best-in-class levels.
High
Low
Low High
Cu
sto
mer I
mp
act
Quality of Customer Service
Competitor2
Competitor3
Plantronics
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The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best
Practices Awards
Research Methodology
Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research
methodology represents the analytical
rigor of our research process. It offers a
360-degree-view of industry challenges,
trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of
Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.
Too often, companies make important
growth decisions based on a narrow
understanding of their environment,
leading to errors of both omission and
commission. Successful growth strategies
are founded on a thorough understanding
of market, technical, economic, financial,
customer, best practices, and demographic
analyses. The integration of these research
disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for
benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.
360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN
THE CHAOS
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 15 “We Accelerate Growth”
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices
Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate award candidates and assess
their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are
based on close adherence to this process.
STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT
1 Monitor, target, and screen
Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe
Conduct in-depth industry research
Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies
Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria
2 Perform 360-degree research
Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline
Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners
Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria
Rank all candidates
Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another
3
Invite thought leadership in best practices
Perform in-depth examination of all candidates
Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all
candidates Identify any information gaps
Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates
4
Initiate research director review
Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles
Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives
on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles
Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper
5
Assemble panel of industry experts
Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders
Share findings Strengthen cases for
candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates
Refined list of prioritized award candidates
6
Conduct global industry review
Build consensus on award candidates’ eligibility
Hold global team meeting to review all candidates
Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all
eligible candidates
Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide
7 Perform quality check
Develop official award consideration materials
Perform final performance benchmarking activities
Write nominations Perform quality review
High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes
8
Reconnect with panel of industry experts
Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient
Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner
Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria
9 Communicate recognition
Inform award recipient of award recognition
Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for
continued success Celebrate the recipient’s
performance
Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand
10 Take strategic action
Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers
Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award’s role in future
strategic planning
Widespread awareness of recipient’s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees
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© Frost & Sullivan 2016 16 “We Accelerate Growth”
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth
and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's
Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined
research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation
of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in
partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment
community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit
http://www.frost.com.