counting what counts in contact centres: perspectives on business qa - mar 2014
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Counting what counts in contact centres: Perspectives on Business QATRANSCRIPT
Brought to you by…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Counting what counts in contact centres...
Some perspectives on:
Business QA
Image credit: sxc.hu/profile/onetwo
In the beginning mankind created this…
The humble voice
recorder!
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Foundational measures….
This allowed us to assess the quality of our Agents by
assessing…Measures whether something was done or not
Yes/No standards
More objective…Easy to score; Easy to understand
E.g.’s : Did the agent use the correct…• Greeting and ending• Verification procedure• Transfer and ‘hold’ procedure• Call protocol
&
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Finesse measures….
This also allowed us to assess the
quality of our Agents by assessing…
Measures how something was done
Graded standards e.g. ‘Excellent to Poor’
A lot more subjective…Allows for individual styleBut more difficult to score
E.g.’s : To what extent did the agent demonstrate…• Professional courtesy• Empathy• Active listening• Energy and positivity
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Foundational measures gives customers this type of experience…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Perfectly functional…but a little bland
Foundational measures gives customers this type of experience…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
But with Finesse measures a customer’s experience is transformed…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
from this…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
to this!
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
This works…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
But…this is MUCH better!
This works…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
But what’s really
exciting…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
About this…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Is the opportunity to assess the quality of
customer experiences from a
business perspective.We call this…
Business QA!
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Ok…So what’s so exciting about
Business QA ?&
What is
Business QA , exactly?
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Business QA analyses a sample of customer interactions
and asks questions like…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Business QA asks questions like…
Who’s calling?
&Why are they
calling?
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Business QA asks questions like…
Who’s calling?
Why are they calling?
How could the call have
been prevented?
Was this an unnecessary
repeat call and why?
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Business QA asks questions like…
Who’s calling?
Why are they calling?
How could the call have
been prevented?
Was this an unnecessary
repeat call and why?
How can we improve the
customer experience?
How can we make it easier for agents to
help customers?
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Business QA asks questions like…
Who’s calling?
Why are they calling?
How could the call have
been prevented?
Was this an unnecessary
repeat call and why?
How can we improve the
customer experience?
How can we make it easier for agents to
help customers?
Did this call reflect our
core values?Was this call resolved on
first contact?
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
So what’s the ROI (Return on Investment)
on Business QA …?
Business QA will make you much better at…
Helping your agents help customers
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Talking real numbers
Now you can prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that your idea is going to shave x hours of ‘call load’ and that’s going to save your company loads and loads of R’s, $’s, €’s or £’s
Understanding ‘value versus failure’ demand
Now you can drive meaningful change in your organisation that will enhance moments of excellence and eliminate moments of misery
Proactively preventing customer ire
Now you can get to you customers before they get to you!
Do your agents really have to toggle between 5 systems to get an answer to a FAQ?
Here’s something to think about...
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Q: How do you define a successful customer interaction? Is it…
a.100% QA Compliance: A successful interaction is one in which we have made no mistakes; a 'zero-defect'- 100%- compliant’ interaction
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
OR
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
b.100% Customer Satisfaction: A successful interaction is one in which we have made a 'personal emotional connection' with the customer, whilst fully resolving the customer's query
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Our view is this…
Option ‘a’ is important, but focus more on option ‘b’.Why?
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Be obsessed with… ‘achieving excellence’
Don’t be obsessed with…‘avoiding failure’
Being obsessed with ‘avoiding failure’ will just get you to ‘ordinary’. Being obsessed with ‘achieving excellence’ will get you to ‘extra-ordinary’! Spend much more time discussing how we can improve each customer conversation. Spend much less time haggling about QA scores and whether an agent met particular standard or not. Sure, we need agents to adhere to company policies and comply with ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ (SOP’s). This is important. But does attaining zero-faults mean you’ve had a quality conversation with your customer? Maybe, but probably not.
…continued
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Be obsessed with… ‘achieving excellence’
Don’t be obsessed with…‘avoiding failure’
A zero-fault contact does not always equate to an excellent contact. We need to learn about excellence by analysing and studying excellence, not failure. Excellence is not the opposite of failure; it’s just different. Shifting your customer conversations from ordinary to extra-ordinary requires a different mind-set and a different skill-set. It requires the skill of imagining how we can make each customer conversation even better.
How?
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Here’s some ideas on how we can shift from ‘ordinary’ to ‘extra-ordinary’
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Don’t score.Do discuss.
Here’s an idea from the organisation that is ‘Powered by Service’, Zappos.com.Quality monitoring at Zappos used to be on a quality monitoring form rated on a scale of 1, 2 or 3 on a wide range of dimensions. However, Zappos found that this promoted fear, not growth, so they changed the formal rating structure. To reduce anxiety Zappos went from performance metrics to pure feedback and did away with QA scores for full-fledged contact centre staff. Supervisors (or coaches) and agents now just talk about the things they liked and the things they could’ve done better. Zappos made a shift from top-down evaluations to open partnered conversations, which makes for happier (and less defensive) employees and an environment of enthusiasm for service growth. Source: The Zappos Experience - Joseph Michelli
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Allow agents to nominate their best calls
Another idea for promoting excellence is to ask agents to submit their best calls for quality assessment. What this does, is that it gets agents to think about being excellent on each call as opposed avoiding failure on each call. This will rejuvenate those often stale and monotonous QA coaching sessions. A discussion around excellence is much more liberating than a discussion around avoiding failure.
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Subscribe to less scripting;Prescribe more freedom of speech
Don’t script unless you legally have to.Do promote socially responsible ‘freedom of speech’ that’s in line with your corporate identity.We suggest looking at your corporate values and establishing communication principles that reinforce these values rather than insisting on strict compliance to rigid policies. Here’s an example:Instead of having a rigid policy that says, ‘you must mention the customer’s name three times in a conversation!’, rather establish a principle that says ‘build personal connections with each customer conversation’. Mentioning the customer’s name three times is not the only way to build a personal connection.People want to be self-directed; they want to be able to do the right things in their own unique way.
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Rewardgiving with purpose
Why not give your agents a ‘Customer Appreciation Budget (CAB)’ of say R500 per quarter, which they can use to fund deliberate acts of kindness for some of their customers? The agent with the best ‘CAB’ story wins a quarterly prize. The amazing thing about this idea is that it encourages agents to listen to customers more deeply and to take a deeper interest in the lives of their customers. It adds a layer of ‘purpose’ to their role, which they might not have had previously.The gains you get from a CAB program like this will almost certainly outstrip any other investment you make in building customer loyalty.
Here’s another thing to think about...
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Q: Is your contact centre mostly viewed as:
a. A ‘Complaints Disposal Unit’ OR
b. A ‘Customer Research and Development (R&D) Machine’
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Our view is this…
Here you definitely want to move to option ‘b’.You don’t want to get stuck in option ‘a’Why?
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Be clear on the contact centre’s value proposition
Contact centres stuck in ‘Complaints Disposal Unit’ mode:• will never get the funding and support they need to be a strategic contributor to their organisation’s success.• will always be viewed only as a cost-centre where costs are cut to the bone, resources are stretched to the limit and where it’s all about achieving 'Service Level’ at month end.• will only interact with other departments, reactively. • will always be the ‘last to know’ and the ‘last in line’ when it comes to budget allocations.
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Be clear on the contact centre’s value proposition
Contact centres that evolve to ‘Customer R&D’ mode:• will help pinpoint and prevent quality problems in key areas of the business. • will contribute to developing more focused marketing campaigns and customer communications.• will help improve the usability and acceptance of self-service systems. • will proactively engage with other business units to help them achieve their strategic goals.• will get the budget they need to be a strategic contributor to their organisation’s success.Moving from ‘Complaints Disposal Unit’ to ‘Customer R&D Machine is crucial.
How?
…continued
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Here’s an idea on how we can shift from ‘Complaints Disposal Unit ’ to ‘Customer R&D machine’
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Do more Business QA…
ContactCentreSmartDismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
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About the author...Hilario FiandeiroHilario is the owner of ContactCentreSmart, an independent consulting practice, specialising in ‘dismantling frustration and engineering happiness™’ in customer-facing environments.
He has more than fifteen years experience, as an operations manager, facilitator and management consultant, across various industries, in the customer experience and contact centre space.
As a professional consultant operating from Johannesburg, South Africa, Hilario focuses exclusively on making customer-serving professionals more successful and customer interaction experiences more rewarding.
Hilario’s academic background includes a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of the Witwatersrand (1994) and an MBA from Edinburgh Business School (2010).
Hilario is a ICMI /CIAC Certified Management Consultant (CCMC) having achieved his certification in 2012.
Contact me on:
www.ContactCentreSmart.com