Focused on the Relationship

* new agent recruitment and training.

* organizational aspects, such as combining the sales and customer service departments.

* the contact center’s technology tools. These in turn have helped enhance efficiency. “Several supervisors were not even PC-trained,” Wolfe recalls. She also co-developed and introduced a customized agent-tracking system. “Each agent gets a monthly report card that states what his or her performance was.” The system has helped make Orvis’ agent incentive program easier to track and manage. And, she notes, “it’s really helped us in keeping productivity levels up.”