Aspect Training Program Pilot Helps SIRIUS XM Radio Improve Sales, Performance and Customer Satisfaction

Chelmsford, Mass. — Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced the company is helping SIRIUS XM Radio improve agent job satisfaction, performance, workforce optimization and customer interactions through the Management Impact Program, an innovative training program for contact center managers from Aspect and Touchpoint Associates. SIRIUS XM Radio participated in a pilot program and is using the results to help standardize management training for multiple contact center locations around the world. Now, the company has the capability to lower agent tardiness, to increase sales and to lower costs for participants in the pilot program.

The Management Impact Program combines consulting, classroom training, and one-on-one coaching geared toward the specific workforce optimization capabilities provided by the Productive Workforce™ unified communications application for the contact center. The program is designed to help frontline managers become more effective leaders and positively impact agent performance.

“Contact center managers have a huge impact on customer satisfaction—from motivating the agents, to ensuring consistency, to directly addressing customer concerns. The Management Impact Program goes way beyond the surface of what most human resource certifications or traditional training programs cover,” said George Kirby, senior vendor manager, SIRIUS XM Radio. “I haven’t seen any other vendor offering a specialized, packaged workforce optimization training program like this before. I’ve been in the business for more than 14 years, and even I have benefited from this pilot program, such as learning how to develop better workforce optimization strategies, influence employees through metrics, and inspire others to be better managers.”

The Management Impact Program is a joint offering from Aspect and Touchpoint Associates for Aspect customers using Productive Workforce capabilities. Consultants from Touchpoint and Aspect® Professional Services worked with SIRIUS XM Radio contact center managers over the course of a week for the pilot program and engaged participants in interactive classroom sessions and one-on-one mentoring, discussing leadership skills, coaching, feedback, metrics, and the importance of interpersonal relationships. SIRIUS XM Radio contact center managers participated in post-program analysis for Touchpoint and Aspect to track improvement within the contact center groups.
 
“Everyone can really benefit from what we have learned with this program at SIRIUS XM Radio. I think it should be given to the whole customer care program as it is such an engaging and interactive way to learn,” said Darryl Peete, Management Impact Program participant. “I was so excited for the program to end just so I could get back on the floor and give back what I had learned.”
 
Touchpoint Associates and Aspect Professional Services worked directly with SIRIUS XM Radio executives to customize the pilot program for the contact center managers, based on specific metrics drawn from workforce optimization tools, contact center structure and corporate consistency with other sites. Pre-program consulting and analysis included agent and manager surveys, conference calls and onsite forums.
 
“The Management Impact Program is a unique offering that companies looking to optimize contact center performance can benefit from,” said Bob Kelly, vice president of the PerformanceEdge Group, Aspect. “The program gives contact center managers a clear understanding of how to improve individual agent performance, as well as how to use organizational key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive bottom-line results. Through this program, SIRIUS XM Radio can ensure consistency across its global, multisite contact center operations, and enable supervisors to better utilize the workforce optimization capabilities at their disposal.”
 
About SIRIUS XM Radio
SIRIUS XM Radio is America’s satellite radio company delivering to subscribers commercial-free music channels, premier sports, news, talk, entertainment, and traffic and weather.

SIRIUS XM Radio has content relationships with an array of personalities and artists, including Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Buffett, Jamie Foxx, Barbara Walters, Opie & Anthony, Bubba the Love Sponge®, The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Bob Edwards. SIRIUS XM Radio is the leader in sports programming as the Official Satellite Radio Partner of the NFL, Major League Baseball®, NASCAR®, NBA, NHL®, and PGA TOUR®, and broadcasts major college sports.

SIRIUS XM Radio has arrangements with every major automaker. SIRIUS XM Radio products are available at shop.sirius.com and shop.xmradio.com, and at retail locations nationwide, including Best Buy, RadioShack, Target, Sam’s Club, and Wal-Mart.

SIRIUS XM Radio also offers SIRIUS Backseat TV, the first ever live in-vehicle rear seat entertainment featuring Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network; XM NavTraffic® service for GPS navigation systems delivers real-time traffic information, including accidents and road construction, for more than 80 North American markets.
 
About Touchpoint Associates
Touchpoint Associates, Inc. offers a wide array of consulting services to help companies improve the Customer Experience. The company was founded in 2003 by industry thought-leader Bob Furniss with a specific focus on improving the greatest resource in the company – the people. Touchpoint consultants have worked with some of the top companies in the world and offer real-life experience in the areas of leadership and people management. For more information, visit www.touchpointassociates.com.
 
About Productive Workforce
Productive Workforce is a unified communications application for the contact center that delivers the tools and processes to help you optimize resource utilization and adopt a continuous improvement culture. By motivating agents throughout their workforce lifecycle, you can service more customers with fewer agents, reduce customer interaction costs, and improve customer service, sales and collections results.
 
About Aspect
Aspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.