AAA has selected CIAC Certification to certify its contact center managers and leaders. AAA will use this industry-standard certification program to develop and validate mastery expertise in their contact center management professionals throughout its 79 clubs across the US and Canada. Ten AAA managers will begin a pilot program during the second quarter of 2003. Over the three-year contract period, AAA anticipates 1,700 call center executives, including vice presidents, directors, managers and supervisors, will pursue CIAC Certification within the Management Track.

“We seek partner opportunities with organizations that offer services that assist in increasing the call center manager’s range of knowledge and expertise,” said Patricia Kleinfeldt, director, Quality and Education Services, Automotive for AAA. “CIAC Certification will guide individuals in identifying areas of improvement and help them plan their professional development. AAA managers that participate and achieve their professional certification will be recognized as leaders throughout our entire organization and the call center industry.”

AAA individuals in the certification process can obtain three of the four CIAC Certification Management Track designations. They will be pursuing the CIAC-Certified Strategic Leader (CCSL), CIAC- Certified Operations Manager (CCOM) or CIAC-Certified Management Apprentice (CCMA) designation.

Managers pursuing CCSL and CCOM designations will each complete a rigorous six-step testing process. The process consists of four knowledge assessments covering the critical call center management areas of operations, people, customer relationships, and leadership and business. They will also complete a Work Product Assignment that assesses their ability to apply their expertise in a call center environment. The final step requires them to complete a cross-functional 360° Review that verifies their behavioral characteristics meet those identified as essential for executive leadership success. To keep their CIAC Certification active, they will be required to re-certify their proficiency in three years by completing a Master Knowledge Assessment based on then current competency requirements. Individuals pursuing the CCMA designation complete the four knowledge assessments to obtain their certification. They have the option of completing the Work Product Assignment and 360° Review at a later date to obtain their CCOM designation. They must also re-certify their proficiency in three years by completing a Master Knowledge Assessment.

Fredia Barry, President of CIAC said, “We are extremely pleased to have to AAA join the ranks of innovative organizations that are using CIAC Certification. These organizations understand the strategic value of their human capital and the role of their contact center(s) in meeting business objectives.”

As North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides, to nearly 46 million members, travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since it’s founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and an advocate for the safety and security of all travelers.

Building A Center of Excellence

“If only we could capture it in a bottle and spread it around…”, commented one Deloitte & Touche executive after touring the PSN call center in Hermitage, Tennessee. “First rate" and “Amazing", were comments by other executives.

It's called the Personal Service Network (PSN). Not a typical call center name, but the PSN center is anything but typical. The 165 seat PSN center provides support services to 30,000 Deloitte & Touche professionals in the accounting, tax, and advisory service industry throughout the U.S. Combining support for technology, human resources, and business processes into one integrated team of highly skilled call center professionals, the PSN has achieved world class performance.

The emphasis on people and quality is evident from the moment you walk through the PSN center door. Serpentine rows of half-height workstations sweep across the room leading to a glass exterior that extends from one end to the other. Tranquil scenery of the outdoors brings calmness to the bustle of activity going on inside. After a few minutes, it hits you – it’s amazingly quiet in here. “Right on time’”, smiles PSN Director Bruce Campbell, “I can almost set my watch to when somebody is going to say that.” Acoustics was a key factor in the center's design. Your eye quickly catches the large electronic displays throughout the room, with real-time graphics and tickers that provide current information to everyone. “It’s definitely a nice environment to work in”, says Campbell, “but what gets my attention is when our people tell me how it helps them better do their jobs.”

And apparently they’re doing a fantastic job. Campbell sites a number of keys to their success. “We place a lot of emphasis on process”, he explains, “and a team of highly skilled professionals that are dedicated to continuous improvement of these processes.” PSN has developed best practices in knowledge management, learning, and call quality. Another key to the PSN center's success is the way they manage customer relationships. “We constantly check our alignment with the needs of the business, which helps us stay agile and quickly able to respond to changes,” he says.

Ultimately the success of the PSN center hinges on its people. “Our people want to be the best at what they do,” Campbell says, “and because of this they take pride in their work and are constantly looking for ways to improve." Deloitte is committed to building a workforce of knowledge workers and strongly supports the ongoing professional development of its people. In demonstration of this, the organization recently committed to CIAC Certification for the PSN management team. With the first group of candidates now well into the industry certification process, the response is very positive. "Everyone is grateful for the recognition and learning a great deal about managing a call center according to industry recognized best practices,” said Campbell.

In spite of their accomplishments, the PSN center isn’t resting on its laurels. “Our belief is that in the service business you can never say ‘we have arrived’.” The PSN is the “first responders” and the firm’s communications hub for emergency management, an outcome of their response during the 9/11 tragedy. PSN is also working closely with leaders in Deloitte’s human resources, information technology, and finance departments to develop and expand service offerings. And, they continue to help the firm improve its processes and supporting technologies. “Over the course of thousands and thousands of phone calls, you get a pretty good idea of where the opportunities are and the value to the business," says Campbell. The ability to bring all of this together - across different business disciplines - is what the PSN center does best and makes it a true center of excellence.

CIAC-Certified Strategic Leader Spotlight

Those of us in the call center industry know there is not a more challenging
and dynamic environment. The call center's interdependence of people, processes and technology requires highly qualified leaders. The CIAC Certification process is essential to developing yourself and your center's management team to understand these dynamics and successfully combine the art with the science to achieve excellence. There are many books and seminars that provide information about call centers. But how can you be assured that your team turns that information into expertise? CIAC Certification is a comprehensive process that requires you to understand, at an expert level, all facets of leading and managing a call center. It also involves hands-on exercises that require you to have the ability to apply this knowledge in a practical way. CIAC Certification not only verifies your competence level, it also verifies your ability to apply this knowledge and inspire others to achieve excellence.

Todd Arnold
CIAC-Certified Strategic Leader
Vice President, Customer Contact Services
Cinergy

Building An All Star Team
Taking Your Contact Center to the Next Level

By Linda Lauritzen

 

"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there."

Yogi Berra

As the competition for customers continues to escalate, contact center leaders realize that their key to success is a high performance team. Organizational leaders regularly borrow innovative strategies, often using techniques from the coaches of winning sports teams. While Yogi Berra may not be the most eloquent coach around, he is definitely the most quoted. He knows the value of a plan. Successful coaches like Yogi don’t just recruit new people and hope that they work out; instead they constantly identify the team’s strengths and weaknesses and execute a detailed plan to build a team that can perform better tomorrow than they do today. In the call center world, this is called continuous innovation. In the sports world, it is called continuous winning.

Here are three strategies that can be easily be applied to contact centers:

Step 1: Develop Competency Models and Success Criteria
The first step in successful team building strategy is to map the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and determine the success criteria for each position. A leader must ask what behavioral traits are associated with each competency and what are the consequences when that competency isn’t present. A baseball coach may determine that a good batter must hit at least .300 to stay on the team, but a great batter will hit .400 or better. The same is true of a call center representative. A leader should know the minimum standards for success and the optimal performance levels.

A mistake that management can make in this process is to look only at internal talent. Coaches evaluate their own teams and also monitor the competition to avoid missing critical information that creates the difference between a “so-so” team and a winning team. So instead of just looking at what it took for a pitcher to win ballgames, a coach needs to compare that pitcher to others who win, particularly those who win more often. Again, this is identification of optimal levels.

For contact centers this can be done in several ways:

1. Using competency models developed by CIAC Certification to understand the competencies required for mastery within leadership positions across the industry. What are the competencies of the most successful?
2. Benchmarking against other organizations. What metrics should our personnel strive for and how?
3. Validating with focus groups and key leaders outside the organization. Does this data make sense to experts?
   

1. Do entry-level positions possess any of the competencies needed for leadership positions?
2. Are any required skills sets missing or in need of strengthening? Call center metrics are often helpful tools to use during this stage.
3. How do these success models fit with future growth or direction of the company?

Figure 1 below illustrates competency models for three successive positions in a call center.

To complete this process, management would need to develop the behavioral characteristics associated with successful performance at each level. For example, what is the level of communication skill needed at the Agent Level versus the Supervisory Level.

According to an article in Workforce Magazine, GE uses a similar competency management process developed in 1995 to identify labor and training needs. The company uses a formal competency-analysis program based on 45 different behaviors deemed essential to the organization’s success. Managers and trainers can then focus on specific behaviors needed within a particular competency model.

Step 2: Screen Effectively at Each Level
While coaches make most staff decisions based on performance, many contact center managers let “bias-creep” cloud their decision-making process by engaging in the “mini-me” strategy of promoting people who are very similar in style or the “halo-effect” which is over-valuing some traits while under-valuing others. Either practice can be lethal in an uncertain economy that demands greater depth and breadth of every company. In baseball, a lot of great players would be traded because they didn’t “fit” the coach’s personality style.

To counter these tendencies (and we all have them) a formal evaluation process should be developed, not just for selection, but for promotional considerations as well. There are a variety of tools available including Personality Trait inventories, Skill Assessments, Behavioral Interviews, Work Samples and References. The questions to answer here are:

1. Does the candidate have the skill to do the job?
2. Does the candidate have the will to do the job?
3. And, this question is equally important:Does the candidate have potential beyond the scope of the current job?

The key to a successful program is to ensure that any new selection tool or process is validated according to professional standards. Once implemented, it should improve performance by selecting better candidates. A word of caution. Do not introduce selection tools that have no relationship to the critical job skills. A coach would not be looking at a pitcher’s speed in the outfield, neither should a call center measure skills not directly associated with the job. An example is giving a math test. Is math ability critical to the job? Does the candidate need to be able to perform mental math? If not, this should not be part of the testing process. A second consideration is to ensure that the selection process doesn’t systematically screen out certain protected groups. If it does, it will counteract any diversity program within the company.

The selection process for promotional candidates is one designed to be comprehensive and free of “bias.” In sports, it is well known that good players don’t always make good coaches, but in call centers employees are often promoted without evidence that they possess the abilities to handle that next position. Promotional selection should include skills assessment, leadership profiles and behavioral interviewing. To supplement any testing process, selection teams are often used to strip away the layers of “subjective bias” by offering differing perspectives about candidates. During this process, ensure that all candidates are evaluated by the team in the same manner using a standardized rating system.

The article from Banks and Dean illustrates several ways that a competency model helps meet corporate objectives.

Step 3: Implement a Strong Development Program
A strong development program for a sports team is varied and continuous. It could include training, coaching, work-outs, game plans and game analysis. The same is true for a call center. Once you have selected or promoted individuals, they need to be prepared for their new role. The goal of this process is to move from a staffing model that requires constant monitoring by management to one that produces motivated, self-directed staff, who need little intervention to handle their job successfully.

The development program process sets expectations that are clearly delineated coupled with information on how performance will be measured and how often. The training, which can include one-to-one, classroom, CBT or Web-based Training, and Study Manuals, should follow effective Instructional Design to facilitate the learning process. Training should also be on-going to build a continuous learning environment for each individual.

The coaching process helps to reinforce training and fine-tune performance expectations. Effective coaching takes place on all levels of the contact center, not just for the CSRs. A good coach can provide feedback and assist the individual in developing their skills. Their direction includes a discussion of best practices and corporate culture issues, ensuring that each individual understands their role in the continuous improvement of the call center. Of course, a coach must also be able to provide honest feedback on problem areas, assist in developing an action plan for improvement and hold each person accountable for achievement of that goal.

A good coach needs to have tools to use when evaluating performance. Standardized Performance Reviews and 360° Degree Reviews are useful in developing a strong performance and development plan. It helps each individual get a realistic, yet objective view of the strengths and weaknesses from a variety of sources (peers, subordinates and managers).

As with any team, what worked yesterday may not be good enough today. So, an effective strategy includes consistent re-evaluation including:

1. Develop competency maps for these positions to determine how positions align and build from level to level.
2. Avoid bias hiring practices that restrict diversity.
3. Create a development plan that will assist new hires in achieving optimal performance in their current job and develop skills for higher-level positions. Continue the developmental program for each position.
4. Constantly look for and recruit talent from other organizations to stimulate innovation, add a broader perspective, and provide technical expertise or extensive experience.
5. Plan for contingencies, i.e. losing talent. Have a strong corporate talent bench.
6. Align strategies with business needs.

Fostering an environment that selects the right people and helps each individual achieve their potential is the goal of competency mapping. It ensures that the team has the right skills, is preparing people to win games and develops a diversified support team with the potential to move into leadership roles. Winning is the name of the game. As Casey Stengel once said to a Yankee rookie, "Son, we'd like to keep you around this season, but we're trying to win the pennant." Contact Center managers who use the same planning and team building principals as the winning coaches will soon be winning too. The Yankees are planning to win the World Series, but so are other teams. The World Series for Contact Centers is happening right now. Will you have a winning team?

Competency Mapping

By Kathy Dean of Banks and Dean

If contact centers are serious about effectively managing their human capital, they need to understand the importance of competency mapping. Competency mapping involves analyzing critical success factors for each position and mapping them across the spectrum of positions within the contact center. This requires an understanding of the mission of the contact center and how the contact center fits into the strategic direction of the organization. When done well, competency mapping can become a road map for effective recruiting and selection processes, training, performance evaluations, compensation and career pathing.

Competency mapping has much value, but it sometimes takes a back seat to more urgent issues that are causing immediate pain; issues like ineffective or inefficient recruiting and hiring processes that impact attrition and service quality.

So as a first step, we often utilize competencies to help hiring managers make informed selection decisions.

This involves:

	Facilitating a discussion around key competencies with the contact center management team.
	Interviewing individuals in the position to get their perspective on the critical success factors
	Analyzing all the documentation relating to various positions, like job ads, position descriptions, performance evaluations and training.
	Determining the key technical and behavioral competencies

Once job competencies are properly identified we integrate those competencies into the selection process to ensure that the right person is matched to the right job. This also helps the contact center understand the investment required in training and development when the candidate has competency gaps.

Then we develop structured interview questions designed to probe the level of competence each candidates possesses. We don’t rely on competencies alone in selection. Predictive assessments that measure potential to succeed in each position, plus interview questions assessing fit to the position are also integrated with competencies.

We remind contact centers that for selection to be predictive, the competencies that are measured in selection have to be the same ones defined in the job description, trained for in training classes, and evaluated in performance reviews. Conversely contact centers have to re-evaluate position descriptions, compensation and performance evaluations once they have changed their competencies.

Even if an entire contact center has not been mapped, the best place to begin is where organizations will get the best return on their effort. Examples from our experience include:

From Salary to Performance-Based Pay:
This required attracting and selecting individuals who could significantly increase their take home pay if they exceeded specific but attainable service measures. Their pay would also decrease if performance levels went down. This required entirely new competencies such as accepting responsibility because the pay levels of the Customer Service Reps ultimately were their responsibility.

Service Center Changes To Cross-Selling:
To achieve this business objective we created a screening and selection solution that identified individuals who would fit this particular opportunity. One component in developing the solution was to identify competencies around relationship sales such as initiating business opportunities, managing rejection, and closing style. This new set of competencies would help identify individuals with the behaviors to cross-sell in a service-based environment. As previously mentioned, we worked with the contact center to ensure that these competencies were mapped throughout the HR process: job ads, job description, training, performance evaluations, and compensation.

Attracting CSRs with Extensive Technical Skills:
The first step was to identify the required competencies. It was clear that to attract and retain individual’s with such competencies, pay ranges couldn’t be pegged to the local service contact center market. To attract and retain the right caliber people, compensation had to be tied to the specific competencies required for this unique contact center position. In this case mapping competencies with the job description, attraction strategies, selection and compensation was key to the contact center’s success.

Identify CSRs with the Potential to be Team Leaders: The client realized that not every CSR had the potential for promotion to the next level because too often the contact center was losing a good CSR and gaining a bad Supervisor. We worked with the client to clearly identify the competencies required to be a successful CSR and the competencies required to move to the next level, Team Leader. We put a selection process in place that allowed the contact center to clearly evaluate which CSRs had the ability to fulfill the Team Leader requirements.

Katherine S. Dean, SPHR, is a Managing Partner with Banks & Dean. She can be reached at 262-240-9400, 888-241-8198 or by email at kdean@banksanddean.com. Banks and Dean can be reached at 888-241-8198 or www.banksanddean.com

The State of Today's Call Center Industry

By Brad Cleveland

The state of the call center industry is strong. In the United States alone, there are between 75,000 and 100,000 call centers. We employ upwards of 5 million people (some studies have estimated as high as 7 million), representing between 4 percent and 5 percent of the 143 million civilian labor force.

We are spending a combined $150 billion to $180 billion annually running our operations. Most analysts believe the industry will continue to grow – some believe the requirement for agents will double in the next seven years.

Call centers have become a conduit for the real-time exchange of information. We have discovered first hand that our economy is not just an information economy, as it was called in the '70s and '80s, nor is it just a knowledge economy, as it was referred to throughout much of the 90s. We are truly part of a communications economy. Raw information is worthless unless it is usable knowledge. And knowledge does no good unless you can get at it when you need it. This is a fundamental trend that will fuel our economies well into the future.

Our industry also faces significant challenges. Consumers have become savvy with communications technologies very quickly. They are increasingly unforgiving of organizations that do not provide the choices and services they demand. And according to the surveys, far too many don't.

Further, technology is in a state of flux, and the technology vendors themselves have been among the hardest hit in the 8 trillion dollar market cap decline we've seen over the past three years. Three years ago, the technology-heavy NASDAQ reached a record high of 5048. It has since lost over 75 percent of that value. (In a recent dialog on our Web site, someone asked, "What does an email response management system cost?" Someone else replied, "How much do you have to spend?")

Even if bargains are the silver lining to the uncertainty in the supplier community, many call center managers are struggling to get the budget they need to handle basic workload demands, let alone do everything they would choose with CRM, integration and other projects they would like to get done. And getting the right people with the right skills, knowledge and abilities at all levels of the call center remains a concern, even though the sluggish economy has slowed turnover rates.

But I believe the biggest challenge – the one above all others – is that of unfulfilled potential. I also believe that is our biggest opportunity. This is the time for us to live up to our potential to create tangible, high-value services for our organizations and customers.

Key Priorities

There are some priorities we must focus on now to prepare for changes taking place. These priorities are inter-related and must work together.

Our call centers must deliver unquestioned strategic value to our organizations. That is what will help us to get the support we need from colleagues across the organization. It's what will help us to secure adequate funding. It will facilitate the means to attract the talents required. And it will, in a cumulative fashion, enable us to create and deliver even more strategic value.

We do more than efficiently handle contacts. We have the means to handle them in such a way that customer satisfaction and loyalty are improved. Further, call after call, hour after hour, day after day, the call center is capturing information that can literally transform an organization's ability to deliver effective services. Consider the impact when the call center helps manufacturing or operations pinpoint quality problems. Or when it enables marketing to develop more focused campaigns. Or serves as an early warning system of potential legal troubles. Or works with IT to design better self-service systems, based on the experiences of helping customers.

How many call centers are reaching this potential? I believe most are achieving some basic efficiencies. Perhaps up to half are positively impacting customer loyalty. But a smaller number of call centers – perhaps 10 to 15 percent – are making significant strategic contributions. Even those furthest down this path know this is an art and science we continue to discover and perfect; one that offers enormous potential.

We must have a clear understanding of what a call center is and what it does best. Contact channels do not make call centers unique; call centers are unique because they can meet real-time demands, whatever the channel of contact.

Ask anyone else in the organization if they are busy. Most will say, "Yeah, it's busy; it's very busy, in fact." But the difference in call centers is that, unlike the accountants, lawyers, or marketers, we can't come in early in the early in the morning to get a head start, or stay late to make up for the workload that has stacked up. We've got to be there when the contacts are there to be handled.

A safe prediction is that technology will eventually meld separate channels into all-in-one voice/video/data contacts that enable customers to see agents as they converse, exchange documents and view Web pages. Probably from a pocket sized device. And call centers will be more necessary than ever in connecting people with information and services. No other mechanism on the planet that has such powerful capability to deliver services real-time – as demand dictates.

We must be accessible. Accessibility is at the heart of what we do. A decade ago, being accessible meant having a call center, a toll-free number and reasonably well-trained and well-equipped agents. Today, multiple channels of access, 24 x 7 operations and one-stop shopping have become well-established best practices.

And that's just the beginning. Other trends include:

	DaimlerChrysler, GM and others in the auto industry are now building communications centers into automobiles, which can be linked to satellite positioning capabilities and maintenance diagnostics.
	Speech recognition is enabling a new breed of voice services; call Coke, and you'll be greeted by Hank; Miller has Bill the Brewmaster; Amtrak's Julie books thousands of reservations per day.
	Web-based, agent-assisted services, such as text-chat, co-browsing and click to talk, are, by fits and starts, beginning to proliferate.
	Outsourcing options run the gamut – and the rapid emergence of service bureau call centers in India, the Philippines, South America and elsewhere is a trend that's real. Rather than all or nothing, more companies, including GE, Microsoft and British Telecom, are outsourcing certain pieces of their operations, such as text chat or off-hours coverage.
	Service level and especially, response time standards are evolving rapidly – right now, even in this economy. For example, there is a small but a growing number of call centers that staff for email like phone calls – they handle them as they arrive.

These trends are impacting expectations customers have across the board.

We must make access choices clear to our customers. "I can't find your technical support number on your web site." "I got trapped in the system." "I can't seem to figure out how to reach a real person anymore. " These are complaints that are indicative of a perversion of the spirit of customer relationship management. Playing hard to get is not how customer segmentation should play out. And many low value customers will never become high value customers if we treat them the way some organizations are treating them.

Some of us are getting drawn into a cost-tradeoff debate in our organizations that is a trap. It's the issue of comparing the cost of service channels – Web transactions cost 25 to 50 cents, IVR costs 35 to 40 cents, and agent-assisted calls cost over $5.00. As if they have the same purpose! A call center agent is a bad choice when you need to download a printer driver. Speech recognition doesn't work well when you want to look at a graph of company's share price. Web-based services don't come close to matching the proficiency of an experienced technical support rep, nor can they develop rapport and empathy like a human being. All contact channels have a place.

Remember, one of things that destroyed so many new economy companies (along with having really silly business plans) is that they thought the rules of customer service had fundamentally changed. Why invest in expensive call centers when customers would have little need to interact with humans, given the availability of IVR and Web capabilities? The very premise was flawed. Our customers will decide what channels they use, and we must make those choices clear to them.

We must attract, develop and hang onto the right people. Of course, if these points were in order of importance, this would be at the top of the list, because it is an enabler to everything. High-value call centers are high value because of the skills and knowledge of people, and the culture that is in place. Call centers require more diverse skills than perhaps any other part of the organization.

In today's environment, we must encourage the growth of specialized talents – with a unified purpose. The traditional “jack-of-all-trades” call center management role is being divided among specialists doing everything from data analysis to scheduling, quality monitoring, technology management and training.

Establishing a unified purpose is a primary leadership responsibility. What do your people have the most affinity with? For example, will your workforce analysts relate most to workforce management? If so, maybe their next job will be with an airline scheduling flights. Or with local government planning the dispatch of emergency services. Maybe they relate most to the industry your organization is part of. They do workforce management, but it's for a bank, and banking is what they most relate to. Or insurance. Or wireless services. Maybe they see themselves as call center professionals with a particular type of expertise.

Does it matter? Yes, it does, because we are competing for levels of talent that we need in order to build high-value services. Many organizations are wisely putting more effort into career and skill path development. And professional certification through the CIAC plays an important role – the process is not only a great way for your management team to improve their skills and knowledge, but also helps them feel bonded to the call center profession.

We have the chance to create a new vision. This priority is really the culmination of all others. The current economic climate presents an astounding window of opportunity. If our call centers really can deliver high value services – and they can – then we must. I believe we'll look back on these challenging times as a catalyst for significant development. We have a window of opportunity to, once and for all, shed the cost center image has lingered in some corners, and to redefine the meaning of what call centers are about and the value we deliver.

I also believe there is another level to that value – one that goes beyond our organizations. And that is the impact when our customers can pick up a phone, or click on a mouse, reach out and get the services they need, and really understand those services. That's a quality of life issue in our societies.

We, in the call center industry, are part of a great opportunity. The pace of modern life, the changes in our society, our customers and their expectations, our organizations, the topsy-turvy economy, globalization, new communications capabilities – all will bring challenges in days ahead. But they are also the very things creating the need for effective customer contact services.

Our industry is alive and well. And it's a great time to be part of it.

Brad Cleveland is President of Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI) and can be reached at 410-267-0700, ext. 958 or by email at bradc@incoming.com. ICMI can be reached at 410-267-0700 or at www.incoming.com.

Training Programs for CIAC Certification

The "Call Center Management Competencies"’ were established to identify the knowledge and skills required for an individual to have a mastery-level command of contact center management. Because of this most candidates for CIAC Certification require training – the amount and type being dependent on the individual’s unique knowledge and experience level.

As the certifying body for the contact center industry, CIAC’s role is to test and validate the competence of contact center professionals; CIAC does not provide training. However, recognizing the need for high-caliber training to prepare for CIAC Certification testing, CIAC partnered with leading providers of contact center training to form the CIAC Certification Training Consortium.

The CIAC Certification Training Consortium is a select group of independent training companies and colleges/universities formed to provide individuals and organizations with a variety of quality training options for certification testing. The CIAC Certification Training Consortium offers a wide range of training programs and delivery media, from classroom to self-study. You can choose one program and delivery method or combine courses from different providers with different delivery media.

CIAC does not dictate how you acquire the competence required to earn CIAC Certification. The required knowledge and skill may be acquired through training, self-education, on-the-job experience, formal education, etc., however, preparation for CIAC Certification testing is your responsibility. CIAC strongly encourages that you utilize the CIAC Certification Self-Assessments to assess your existing knowledge, skills, and experience against the competency requirement for your job role. This will enable you to identify specific areas where training and/or additional job experience may be necessary before you test.

To help an organization choose the training program(s) and delivery method(s) best suited to the learning needs of its certification candidates, CIAC offers an easy-to-use RFP template that the organization completes and submits to CIAC. CIAC then distributes the RFP to the CIAC Training Partners who in turn provide a proposal based on the RFP requirements. The organization then makes its training selection based on the best fit for its overall needs.

For more information on the CIAC Certification Training Consortium or how to become a Consortium Partner, contact CIAC at info@ciac-cert.org.

We are pleased to present the CIAC Certification Training Consortium Partners, representing the best of the best for certification training. Visit www.ciac-cert.org for the course offerings of the CIAC Training Partners.

Congratulations on your decision to join the growing rank of contact center leaders by earning your CIAC Certification credential. You’ve selected your role designation (CIAC-Certified Strategic Leader (CCSL), CIAC-Certified Operations Manager (CCOM), CIAC-Certified Management Apprentice (CCMA), or CIAC-Certified Management Consultant), reviewed the matching competencies, and are now thinking, “ So what’s the next step?”

CIAC encourages you to complete the Self-Assessments as your next step. The Self-Assessments enable CIAC Certification candidates to identify areas where training and/or additional job experience may be needed before testing. Simply put, it’s a training gap analysis that’s applicable at the individual level and when assessed collectively, for a center’s entire management team. Consider the Self-Assessments as a road map for identifying the training needs of yourself and your management team.

There are four Self-Assessments for each role designation - one for each of the CIAC Certification competency domains (People Management, Operations Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Leadership and Business Management). Are you ready to get started? Click here to download the Self-Assessments for your role designation. Conducting all of the Self-Assessments will take approximately 90 minutes, but it’s not necessary that they all be done at the same time.

(Sample section - actual CIAC Self Assessment)

The Competency column (left most column) lists the CIAC Certification Competency category and sub category. The middle columns are the rating scale and the last column (source) provides space for your comments supporting your rating selection.

Make an honest evaluation of your current level of knowledge and experience using the five -point scale:

Place an asterisk (*) in the appropriate column for every competency row where your score is two or less. This will denote areas where additional training will be necessary.

To assist with rating yourself, think of the paint can analogy in the figure below. Is your knowledge bucket empty, ½ full or overflowing?

As you evaluate each competency and sub competency, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have I had a course of study related to this subject matter?
2. Have I had the opportunity to assist or shadow a mentor in this subject matter area?
3. Have I had hands on experience with this subject matter?
4. Is this a reoccurring part of my current duties and responsibilities?

Asking the above questions will greatly enhance your accuracy and honesty in evaluating your current level of competence in comparison to the competencies required to achieve CIAC Certification.

If you have questions or comments about the CIAC Self-Assessments or any other aspect of the information presented in this column, contact Gerry Barber at gbarber@ciac-cert.org.

Q: Who is CIAC Certification available for?
A: The first CIAC Certification Track is for contact center management professionals in operational and strategic job roles. Examples of titles for these roles are: Contact Center Manager; Customer Service Manager; Manager of Help Desk Services, Director of Operations; Director of Technical Support; General Manager Customer Contact Services, Vice President of Customer Care. Industry certification for other contact center job roles is upcoming.

Q: How do I know which role designation is right for me?
A: The At-A-Glance Matrix will help you to determine the CIAC Certification role designation that is right for you. If you need further help, call CIAC at 888-859-2422.

Q: What are the key benefits of being industry certified?
A: In addition to the traditional benefits like validated expertise, improved performance, and increased confidence in your skills, contact center management professionals that earn an industry respected credential have verified mastery that is transferable across the industry, that differentiates them in the marketplace, and significantly enhances their value to their organization and overall industry. Further, for those that have mastered contact center management earning industry certification establishes them as corporate leaders. For those that are building a career in contact center management, industry certification provides a framework to develop the knowledge and skills needed for success. And lastly organizations with an industry certified management team can be assured that their center is being managed according to best practices.

Q: How can I get more information about CIAC Certification?
A: Visit the CIAC Certification web site at www.ciac-cert.org or call CIAC at 888-859-2422.

Do you have questions about CIAC Certification or the process of becoming industry certified? If so, let us hear from you. Send your questions to us at info@ciac-cert.org and we'll provide the answer in the next issue of CIAC Certification News.