Kirsty Tulk, Manager of Liberty Life, is one of the presenters in the 'Best Leader' category during the 2009 Top Ranking Performers Conference in London, June 15 - 17. Read this exclusive interview, and be sure to attend the Conference to receive the best ideas and tips to develop your leadership skills!

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Please describe your contact center - no. of agents/reps, types of calls, emails etc you manage, volumes. Inbound or outbound etc
Liberty Life is a progressive South African financial services group offering tailored risk, investment, retirement and health products to both the individual and corporate markets. The products are marketed through various intermediary and direct channels. Over the last 50 years since selling its first insurance policy, Liberty has become one of South Africa's leading insurance and investment groups. The Center was established in 1997, with 200 agents dealing with both Inbound calls and emails.

What plans do you have to continue developing your center in future years?
To ensure that the development of the contact center is moving in the right direction we looked at the previous year's achievements and root causes of problems. We analysed the future in terms of customer needs, future technology, global finance, the future of the country as well as the company's plans. After this we were then in a position to make our plans going forward. I use the term 'we' as the process is as follows:

-The company announces their plans, visions and values to their staff. We (the team leaders and management team) then take these and workshop the influence the contact center has on them.
-We then develop our own plan and target dates with responsible people and quarterly follow up sessions.
-As a captive inbound contact center it is imperative we remain a value center to the organisation.
-As a company we are diversifying and growing and we need to have a contact center that is able and prepared to do the same.

Our Vision is: To be Africa's easiest and most reliable wealth management organisation to do business with. We believe in the liberating power of dreams. Our passion is to see you take the journey that will set you financially free

Why did you enter the 2009 awards for best contact center leader?
After numerous successes at the South African awards I was advised to enter. I jumped at the opportunity as this award is very prestigious and just having the opportunity to submit my entry together with the world’s best is an honour and a privilege.

Often I get caught up in the everyday business and the issues of the moment, achievements can be easily forgotten. Completing the entry form has allowed me to pause and consider what has contributed to my successes and who has helped me to achieve these. By reviewing the successes of my team I am now more able to present these , so they know what they have achieved. This will undoubtedly instil a sense of pride and create a solid motivational force for the year to come.

To measure my performance - I will be able to assess the strength of my entry against others in my category comparing my style and abilities to the very best in the world.

I will have the opportunity to network with the best in the industry and will grow both as a leader and as a person. I will be privy to new technologies and the latest ideas which I can bring back to my contact center to improve operationally and help us grow from strength to strength.

What are some of the challenges you have had to overcome to get to where you are today?
Every day is full of new challenges but some of the big challenges I have had to overcome. Staff attrition and retaining good people. Attrition is probably the most indicative 'metric' of staff satisfaction. Whilst my current staff attrition rate is below the industry standard, any loss is critical. When an agent hands in a months' notice, replacing this person could involve 3-6 weeks recruitment and training, and an additional three months to get the agent to an acceptable QA standard. The cost of this is minimal when compared to the loss of the employee's intellectual property.
De-motivated staff. Dependency on various support areas (which are critical in fulfilling promises we make) has a negative impact on motivation. Agents field angry calls when expectations are not met. System time delays, errors made internally all have an impact on call volumes. Often process failures falling beyond the contact center ambit of control or influence.
Escalations and the decrease in Service Level. Service levels were falling due to an increase in call volumes, repeat callers and handle time. A drop in adherence, more outgoing calls and agents spending too much time in Aux codes also contributed. I needed to find out why. I found and addressed each reason individually; however the biggest cause was a backlog of payments in the processing area. I was unable to track the true volumes or the impact this had on my calls as my escalation procedure was not sufficient. There was no way of assessing trends and determining how to resolve issues. Motivation, staffing and overall service began to suffer.

How would you describe what makes you a different leader than some of the others in the industry?
I am a passionate people person who leads people by giving them opportunities to grow and by providing a level of trust, support and confidence. I have an extraordinarily good view of the bigger picture able to turn big problems into simple solutions.
Below are a few of my beliefs, values and teachings that I am passionate about:

- I believe that if you enjoy it you will succeed
- My team must never doubt my support.
- I believe in adult to adult interactions with a good dose of child to child to relieve the stress.
- My team leaders run their call centre; I am only their sounding board.
- Feel your call centre’s vibe it is the most accurate metric.
- I facilitate a culture of understanding, flexibility and open communication at all levels.
- If you are not coaching, training or talking 80% of your day you are not leading
- 9 out 10 times the person asking me a question knows the answer but is scared to make the decision. Let people make decisions and guide them
- A lack of knowledge or skills can be corrected with training, laziness and bad attitude has to be managed -preferably out the door.
- Own the call own the client and own the great service that follows.

What's the best part about being a leader?
Watching people develop/grow and fulfil their potential.

And what's the worst part of being a leader?
Not having time to talk with your whole team due to shifts

Please describe a typical day
- Greet each and every employee.
- Look at previous days stats
- Check absenteeism and call volumes forecast, and take necessary action
- Follow up on tasks given (in person not via email).
- Email catch up, client complaints and compliments. Eat my lunch at desk if I am lucky.
- Meetings or own tasks
- Current stats and walk about. Congratulate staff individually for compliments, birthdays and good QA. - Discuss with supervisors and resolve complaints bad QA etc.
- Meetings or own tasks
- Email and review daily performance of supervisors, agents, QA’s and training

Lastly, as a presenter at our 2009 June conference, what do you hope to learn from other presenters?
I would like to enhance my ability to be a great leader by becoming exposed to the ideas and cultures of other countries I will expand my knowledge and capacity to run my own contact center at a higher level.

For those members who come along to one of our conferences to hear what you do, what will you be sharing with them? Please give some insights into what you would like them to go away with in terms of ideas to improve their leadership
I would like everyone to have more fun and to give ideas on how to get your agents to want to come to work (some of the time anyway)

About Kirsty Tulk:
Kirsty has progressively built her experience and knowledge in the industry as an agent, team leader, second in charge and finally as a manager. This has left her in the invaluable position of being able to connect and empathise with staff and offer relevant and efficient solutions to problems at every level.