Kohl's Department Stores

Company: Kohl's Department Stores, Menomonee Falls, WI
Company Description: Kohl’s is a family-focused, value- oriented specialty department store offering moderately priced, exclusive and national brand apparel, shoes, accessories, beauty and home products in an exciting shopping environment.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year

Nomination Title: Kohl’s Charge - Call Center Services 2009/2010

1. Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

The Kohl’s Charge Call Center is a 300+ seat environment with locations in
Menomonee Falls, WI and Corsicana, TX. It provides Customer Service and
Operational Support to over 25 million customers who have a Kohl’s Charge Card
for use exclusively at Kohl’s Department Stores throughout the US.

In the ongoing pursuit of quality design and maximum customer impact, the
Kohl’s Call Center has created and implemented a variety of initiatives that
has aligned Purpose & Process with the People that provide our services. The
emphasis of excellent (i.e. “world class”) service today centers around easy
access to information/solutions (via IVR, Associate, support group, etc.),
responsiveness of the Associate and their firm to customers (connection with
the customer and ownership of the call), and resolution of any issue accurately
(identifying the reason as well as the appropriate solution for the call).

Focused on providing easy access, responsive services and accurate resolution,
Kohl’s Charge Call center has designed a Unique Call Center Brand experience to
deliver this to all callers. Based on the premise of being “one thing” to all
people, not all things to all people, the Kohl’s caller experience has been
designed to provide customers a Convenient (access), Courteous (responsive) &
Correct (accurate) service experience – or C/3 Performance. In the C/3 model,
the Kohl’s Call Center expects to “Take Care of People,” one call at-a time.
The design of Associate accountabilities (their “experience”) must therefore
align clearly with the branded design for the customer and provide a
consistent “First Customer Focus” with each caller over the course of the day
(the absence of variation is critical to a “quality experience”).

Delivering this C/3 experience or the branded “impact” on our customers
effectively as well as the gathering feedback directly from the customer to
validate the consistency and quality of their experience is the focus of the
remainder of this document.

C/3 Performance “Scorecarding” … Six fundamental Associate behaviors have been
identified that will create a C/3 (i.e. Convenient, Courteous & Correct)
Experience. All Associates are recruited, trained and coached for successful
performance in each area. The scorecard is a measure of each Associate’s
performance (including direct customer survey results) from the previous day.
In addition, these “scorecard results” roll up into Supervisor, Management and
site level outcomes for review on a daily, monthly and annual basis. Finally,
these outcomes form the content for the Accountabilities (i.e. goals and
objectives) that “cascade” throughout all Management and Associate levels of
the Call Center Organization. (refer to the attached document for example
of the C/3 Scorecard)

Unique Pay-for Performance programs, … based on the C/3 Brand model and
performance Scorecarding above have been designed to identify and reward
Associates on three separate tiers of performance. Since this innovative
program was implemented, Associate performance has improved over 13%, resulting
in increasing performance targets (“raising the bar”) four times in the past 30
months. Finally the plan has averaged annual payouts to Associates of over
$250,000 while cost has been more than offset by a 4% increase in production.

Customer Satisfaction Indexing … CSAT Reporting … Increasing the scope of the
Call Center Experience resulted in the development of a comprehensive CSAT
(i.e. Customer Satisfaction Index) Report based on industry performance tiers
and measurable benchmark targets. Gathered from a variety of industry sources
and tied to 19 Retail & Financial performance traits for Credit Card Services,
it provides a comprehensive tool that aligned the C/3 Brand experience with
benchmark and “best in class” metrics (The 2009 CSAT index also included the
4th and 5th C’s of Employee Communication and Cost designed in the past year to
reflect “internal experiences” within the Call Center Operation… refer to
attached document for example of the CSAT index).

Strawman & Scarecrow Production Modeling … Development of standard templates
(i.e. The Strawman) that establish production, coaching, training, meeting
times, etc. that are scheduled for Managers and their Associates on a daily
basis (i.e. “the gift of time”). Strawman scheduling identifies the most
productive time (based on Call Volumes, schedules, etc.) for an Associate to
spend in coaching, training and meeting sessions with their managers.
Scarecrow reporting then measures the actual outcome of these activities as a
part of Associate and Management daily/monthly performance (tied to their
Convenience objectives). As a result, Associate productive time on the phones
has increased, coaching and training for Associates consistently averages to
over 1 hour a week, and schedule adherence remains above 90% on a daily basis.

9 Box Grid of Management Skills … Based on input from the Management Staff,
ongoing development of a 9 box grid of common Exempt Skills defined a common
skill set for all Managers to be successful in the Call Center environment.
This management tool identifies critical skills like Training, Coaching,
Meeting Leadership, Documentation, and so on to ensure Associates will have a
consistent experience in all aspects of their jobs (for example: The skill of
Reviewing … Kohl’s expects to complete 400 Associate annual reviews
consistently, one way - not 400 ways) regardless of their team alignment,
shift, status (part time, full time, flex, etc.) or skill set.

Unique IVR strategy … The Kohl’s Charge Call Center changed its IVR in 2008
(i.e. automated 800 number) and again in the 4th Quarter of 2009, increasing a
callers access (and speed) to an Agent at the “front end” of their call. This
has not only reduced the time for a customer to reach an agent, but improved
VOC (i.e. Voice of Customer post call survey scores) results immediately upon
each release into production. Additionally, in 2008, the Kohl’s Charge
Customer Service IVR was recognized by SQM (i.e. Survey Quality Measurement,
Inc.) for Highest IVR Customer Satisfaction - in the area of Navigation.

In total, defining a clear Convenient, Courteous & Correct experience (the C/3
Brand) for Associates to extend to customers, developing a consistent set of
metrics and establishing the proper tools to manage performance has led to a
13% increase in Associate and Manager Performance with “Voice of Customer” post-
call survey results increasing in the past 36 months well beyond the industry
target of 90% for “world class” service. (refer to the attached document for a
graph of the results) In addition, Associate turnover has declined nearly 20%,
Telephone Service Levels that have consistently exceeded 90% of all calls
answered under 20 seconds and “first call resolution” indicators exceeds 90% +
for all inbound service calls. In addition, the Call Center Agents and Managers
are more focused, engaged and successful as indicated by internal Associate
surveys completed annually for the past 3 years. Finally, in 2008 & 09 the
Kohl’s Call Center has been recognized by the States of Wisconsin and Texas for
its Quality commitment and performance as well as by the American Business
Awards (i.e. finalist for the past 2 years in as “Best Customer Service
Organization” category and a “Stevie” Award Winner in 2010 for “Innovation in
Customer Service”).

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://thestevies.com/ABA10Attachments/Kohls/KohlsDepartment.doc

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:

Jim Nagle’s current responsibilities include the overall direction of the
Kohl’s Charge (i.e. Card) Call Center, providing Customer Service and
Operational Support to Kohl’s Charge customers across the nation. Prior to
Kohl’s, Jim spent 20+ years in the Financial Industry holding leadership
positions in Retail Banking, Mortgage Servicing, Call Center Sales and
Servicing, Technical & Merchant Help Desk Support as well as Debit & Credit
Card Operations. In addition, Jim has been a frequent presenter on the local
and national levels touching on topics ranging from Leadership to Call Center
design. Jim’s background in Call Center work has also focused heavily on a
variety of quality principles impacting strategic design and management that
have led his teams and Call center operations to various State and National
Awards for Excellence.