3 Tips to Win the CRM Awards
With Laurie Smith, director of CRM Consulting
Show Notes
Laurie Smith is the director of CRM Consulting. She’s the force behind the annual CRM Contact Centre Awards, the industry’s largest awards in New Zealand.
Laurie shares her top tips on how to win.
Laurie’s Top Tips:
Get a preaudit done by the CRM Consulting team - you’ll get their recommendations on where to improve, which will also lift everyday customer service (10:34).
Talk to past winners, which you can do at the showcasing events. You can also check out the past winners here https://www.crmconsulting.co.nz/crm-awards/2020-results. They always offer lots of tips (11:36).
Bring your agents to the awards. If you don’t win an award on the night, they’ll come away from the event really wanting to be up on the podium next year (12:12).
You'll Learn:
The 3 things the CRM Awards have done for the contact centre industry in New Zealand (01:50).
The awards up for grabs (03:32).
The 4 key characteristics the Supreme Award winners have in common (05:42).
The timelines for the awards each year - what happens, when (08:15).
How CEOs and Managing Directors often say the awards evenings are one of the best they’ve ever been to (12:48).
Check out the highlights of the 2019 CRM Awards: https://vimeo.com/384424183/eb4f6423fb
Connect with Laurie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-smith-24875a14/
Transcript
Blair Stevenson (00:00)
Welcome to the Secrets to Contact Center Success podcast, connecting you with the latest and greatest tips from the best and the brightest minds in the industry.
I am Blair Stevenson, founder of BravaTrak - The Future of Contact Centre Coaching. We help contact centres lift agent performance by 11% in 7 months. Guaranteed.
Today I'm joined by Laurie Smith from CRM Consulting. Many of you in the New Zealand contact centre industry will know Laurie is the force behind the annual CRM Contact Centre Awards.
So, Laurie, welcome along. Great to have you here.
For people who don't know you, just tell us a bit about your background and your expertise.
Laurie Smith (00:42)
I've had over 30 years experience in the industry. I started off as an agent on the floor, got account management and supervisory roles, team leader roles and so forth.
I worked for a company called Startel Teleperformance, who first introduced the awards back in 1997, and the awards were gaining momentum every year.
Unfortunately, Startel went into liquidation in 2003. I could see the commercial opportunity in the awards. I was driving home one night and thought, "Oh, I think I can turn this into a business". The next day went to the liquidator, purchased the IP (intellectual property) and haven't looked back since. That was 2003, so 18 years.
Blair Stevenson (01:36)
Those CRM Awards have really gained momentum over those last 18 years. What have the awards have done for the contact centre industry in New Zealand?
Laurie Smith (01:50)
Contact centres are the first point of contact for customers, and we're very much underrated by the hierarchy. Senior management have now realised the importance of providing superior customer service. And as such, the awards have raised the profile of contact centres within their organization.
Also, the awards have given contact centre managers, team leaders and agents, a focal point for the year. It's an event they all look forward to every year. It's a great motivational tool, with a number of contact centres using the awards as an incentive program as well. And it's certainly an event that everybody wants to attend.
And I can honestly say, they all put their heart and soul into it.
Blair Stevenson (02:35)
Yeah. You mentioned the customer service area - in what way do you think that the awards have highlighted customer service for the industry?
Laurie Smith (02:48)
The awards have given them a benchmark to work towards. The evaluation criteria that we use for the awards is very much QA (Quality Assurance) that everybody uses within their contact centres. So it is very much business as usual. And it's given them a stake in the ground.
They love the benchmarking, and love to be able to compare their performance against their peers in their industry, and so forth.
Blair Stevenson (03:24)
Cool. Tell us a bit about the methodology that you use. How do the CRM Awards operate?
Laurie Smith (03:32)
Sure. Okay. The types of awards we have, we have some industry group awards, which are across 14 different industries. We have email, live chat, social media and outbound. Business to business, and business to consumer.
The criteria for the awards is actually set by the industry. So every time we introduce a new category - such as live chat, which we introduced about six years ago, which is going gangbusters now, and social media three years ago - we get together people within the industry. And it's actually the industry that sets the evaluation criteria and the methodology.
So basically, we're working with the industry. So the feedback that we give organisations, and the way we evaluate the awards, are very much in tune with the industry.
Blair Stevenson (04:30)
Very cool. You mentioned QA earlier, and I know from experience that some - maybe a lot - of contact centres weave your QA criteria in their everyday criteria.
What are your thoughts on contact centres doing that?
Laurie Smith (04:53)
We're absolutely fine with that, because as I said before, the evaluation criteria has been set by the industry. It's not trademark. So we are more than happy for the industry to use the criteria that we use. And I think that most contact centres out there, in some shape or form will use the criteria.
Blair Stevenson (05:16)
Very good. And it's great that you're not precious about that.
Laurie Smith (05:21)
No, definitely not. We're more than happy for them to use it. And especially with live chat and social media, actually. When we first started doing the awards, there didn't seem to be any set form of criteria that anybody was using. So what we've done is actually helped with their inhouse QA as well.
Blair Stevenson (05:42)
True. I'm going to ask you to think about some of the Supreme Award winners you've seen over the last few years. What are some key characteristics they've got in common?
Laurie Smith (05:59)
I would say consistency and tenacity. They have faith in the ability of their contact centres. They're not afraid to enter every year, and for that I commend them. It's tough being at the top, because the best case scenario is you stay there there.
Blair Stevenson (06:19)
Yeah. So just thinking about that, because you talked about consistency, what are the advantages of consistently entering in terms of helping them get better and better?
Laurie Smith (06:31)
Once again, they like to be compared with the peers in the industry. They like to know that the winning formula is such that what they've done to win an award is consistent - not only with what they've done in the past to gain that award, but what they need in the future to retain it as well.
Blair Stevenson (06:57)
I'm guessing one of the advantages of entering is that you've not just got your in-house QA going, "This is where we're at". You've got an external specialist consultant group giving guidance about where you sit.
Laurie Smith (07:18)
Yeah, most definitely.
Blair Stevenson (07:19)
And there's huge advantages in that.
Laurie Smith (07:22)
Yeah, there are, because we are impartial. We're evaluating a call from a customer's perspective.
At the end of the day, the customers don't really care if there's five or 500 people in a contact centre. When they call, they just want their query, their question, resolved in a timely and efficient manner.
Also, customers don't care about what technology there is. Not that I'm taking away the importance of technology. So really the awards are based on pure customer service.
Blair Stevenson (08:07)
Makes sense. Just as a reminder, what are the timelines for the 2021 CRM Awards?
Laurie Smith (08:15)
We start off every year with showcasing events. We've already had those back in February. We managed to get a live showcasing event in Auckland. And then in Wellington and Christchurch, we had to do virtual, but that was fine. That worked okay.
So in those showcasing events, we have winners from the previous year who are on a panel, and they talk about what they did, what effort they put in to win the awards. What it did for them, both internally and externally within their organization. The industry is certainly a very sharing industry. They're not afraid to offer lots of tips.
So anybody who's perhaps not thinking about entering this year, but would be thinking about entering next year, that would be the first thing to do. Come along to the showcasing events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. So that's February.
Then we go out to contact centres with the opportunity to purchase what we call a pre-audit report. It's a customer service audit report. It emulates what we do in the the awards. So we're just in the midst of doing those now, and getting them out, presenting them to those people that have commissioned those reports.
Then we start on the main audit, which is the end of July. It goes for a five or six week period, and then culminates with the awards, which is on Friday the 17th of September.
That's the timeline that we go through every year.
Blair Stevenson (09:52)
And do you find that some people might do the pre-audit but then decide not to enter?
Laurie Smith (10:00)
Very rarely does that happen. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but it certainly doesn't happen very often.
And the pre-audit is just what we've badged it. But really, it’s a customer service audit. It's not just all about the awards. At the end of the day, we want the awards to be business as usual.
Blair Stevenson (10:24)
Yeah, exactly right. And I can see huge value for contact centres for having that preaudit done, in terms of getting - as you say - a stake in the ground.
Laurie Smith (10:34)
Yeah. And it's not even for the fact of, "Here are some tips to win the award". It's the fact that, you know, "We've had a customer service audit done, here's some recommendations that can help with our everyday customer service". So it's not all about the awards.
Blair Stevenson (10:54)
Yeah. So let's wrap up with one last question, which I suspect a lot of people will be waiting for.
What are your top three tips for contact centre teams who want to either win a Supreme Award, or want to win one of the category awards at the CRM Awards?
Laurie Smith (11:15)
Tip #1
Sure. Well, firstly you've got to be in to win, so don't be afraid to enter. It's just business as usual, so it's very important that unless you're a finalist or winner on the night, we never divulge anybody's participation. Which I think is very important for people to know.
Tip #2 (11:36)
Also get the buy-in from your team. Promote it as a fun event, while at the same time, an opportunity for them to improve or maintain top customer service. Contact centres have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. The learnings from the whole experience will benefit them. I would suggest they talk to past winners, or as I said before, attend a showcasing event.
Blair Stevenson (12:07)
That's a really good idea, talking to past winners.
Laurie Smith (12:09)
Yeah, absolutely. Talk to them.
Tip #3 (12:12)
And last, but not least, is bring along your agents to the awards. They're they ones that have done the work. They're the ones at the coalface. Get them in that room for the night. If your contact centre hasn't won an award for that night, I can just about guarantee that the agents will come away from the event and really want to be up on the stage, up on the podium next year.
Blair Stevenson (12:36)
Yup. Having been along to I think three awards now, it's probably one of the best awards nights I've ever been to. They're astounding.
Laurie Smith (12:48)
It certainly is. We've had a number of CEOs and MDs from the organisations come along to the awards evening to support their team. And quite honestly, they've said that it's one of the best awards evenings that they've ever been to. They just love the whole vibrancy of the night, the excitement. The fact that a lot of the agents attend the night.
It's certainly not a boring affair at all. Even though we have in excess of about 25 different awards on the night, the night goes very quickly.
Blair Stevenson (13:30)
It sure does. Fantastic. Laurie, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.
Laurie Smith (13:35)
A pleasure.
Blair Stevenson (13:40)
Okay. For listeners, you'll find the link to the show notes in the episode description below.
When you click through to those show notes, you'll find a few other links there as well.
If you haven't experienced the CRM Awards in person, you're in for a treat. You'll find a link to the highlights of the 2019 CRM Awards there (https://vimeo.com/384424183/eb4f6423fb).
Now, if you'd like to link with Laurie on LinkedIn, you'll also find a link to her LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-smith-24875a14/).
And lastly, if you'd like to follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevensonblair/) or if you'd like to connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/blair.stevenson.980), you'll find the links to my profile there as well.
Well, that's it for us today. Have a productive week.