I needed a chuckle yesterday and this one came courtesy of Ann Onimous:
"A call center is like a box of granola. After your remove the fruits and the nuts, all you have left are the flakes."
Thanks for putting a smile on my face, Ann.
I was a relatively good child. I was no saint, mind you, but I was fairly obedient as kids go. As a relatively good kid, my parents could motivate me pretty easily to change my behavior with simple incentives like a small bump in my allowance, getting bed-time pushed back a few minutes, etc. There was, however, always the threat of consequences should I fall short of what was expected of me. I still remember (it's branded in my brain's RAM) my father's stern lecture and painful consequences of not cleaning the dog poop out of the kennel.
Simple, positive incentives were the norm in my family, and usually worked. Yet the threat of negative consequences was always present and occasionally necessary to motivate the necessary behavior change in a stubborn child.
Call Centers and QA programs are always struggling with how to motivate behavior change. One client asked me "do we use the carrot or the stick?" The answer is yes. You will need both to effectively motivate behavior change. To rely on one without the other will ultimately damage the culture of your call center. You need to have both.
The challenge, like being a parent, is knowing when and how to use them.
Creative Commons photos courtesy of Flickr, nickwheeleroz, and michael448
On Tuesday, May 13, I'll be giving a one-hour presentation on "Best Practices in Call Monitoring and Quality Assessment" at a half-day seminar in Atlanta, GA.
Thanks to the event's sponsor, the seminar is FREE! This is a great opportunity to glean quality content without killing your expense and/or continuing education budget! I hope to see you there. Be sure to stop me and introduce yourself. I always love to meet QAQnA subscribers in person.
Topics by other presenters will be:
We're all pressed for time. The speed of business seems to contstantly increase as the windows of opportunity become narrower. As the pressure mounts, time management becomes a larger issue. I've found time to be the most heinous enemy of quality programs. When the phones start ringing and fires start blazing - listening to and analyzing calls is the first thing that gets shoved to the back burner.
I sat in on a calibration session with a client recently. This client hires me to come in once a quarter and calibrate with their team of quality call coaches. At one point during the session I asked how things were going in their "regular" calibration sessions between my quarterly visits.
Blank stares were followed by an explanation of how there has been no time for calibration.
There's no time to listen to calls. There's no time to listen for anything more strategic than whether the CSR did what we wanted. There's no time to pull people off the phone to coach them. There's no time to calibrate and make sure everyone on the Quality Team is analyzing and coaching calls the same way. There's just no time for quality.
As a business partner, consultant, father of teenagers, and community leader - I find there are things for which I don't always have time. Lawn care, home repairs, pest control, automotive maintenance to name a few - these are things that sometimes make more sense for me to hire others to do. That way, I know they will get done, I know they will get done better than I would probably do myself, and my time is better spent doing what I do well. I could do these things myself - but I've learned from experience that they tend not to get done, or they don't get done well.
Perhaps you're finding that you've got no time for measuring customer satisfaction or the quality of service your team is providing on the phone. Perhaps you've tried but you know you're not doing it well and your team's resources would be better spent going about your business. If that description fits you, please give me a call (It's free! 877.482.0735) and let's chat.
Measuring customer satisfaction, measuring service quality, training people to serve well - that's what we spend our time doing so that our clients can spend their time doing what they do well - their business.
Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Shyald
Last month I read another great post by Connie Smith in which she outlined a talk she gave to the CCNG meeting in Lisle, Illinois. What struck me about Connie's post was her premise (to which I heartily agree) that Quality Assessment is moving from being about the call center to being about the entire enterprise.
There is a tremendous amount of information for you to mine from your QA program. Beyond the "yes" and "no" behavioral data is a wealth of information about your company's policies, procedures and how they affect the customer experience on a minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day basis.
The question is, "Are you listening?"
Service Untitled had a great post last week about the Platinum Rule. We all know the Golden Rule, which is to treat others the way you'd like to be treated. The Platinum Rule is to treat others the way they would like to be treated.
Of course, first you have to know what that is.
It's funny, the things about which managers get concerned. When our group provides third party Quality Assessment and analyzes a client's phone calls, it's quite common for fearful managers to call about a host of issues that might hurt their quality scores. I understand their concerns. They have a senior manager or V.P. who will read the Service Quality Assessment reports and hold that person accountable for any drops in quality.
However, some managers' concerns are ill-founded. Take the "new CSRs" concern. It is quite common for a manager or supervisor to call or write and e-mail letting us know that they have a new Customer Service Representative or a crop of new people on the phone. They are concerned that this new associate with limited experience (and sometimes insufficient training) will drastically hurt their service performance.
Data say otherwise.
In our 14 years of providing QA to companies of all shapes and sizes, our data has consistently revealed that new associates perform as well, if not better, than veteran CSRs in providing a quality service experience. In fact, we find that a team full of veterans could use an infusion of new blood from time-to-time.
A while back I was on the road training two groups of CSRs for a client call center. One group were Senior CSRs. Many of them perform well, though most have what I would call an "I'm good enough; What are you gonna do? Fire me?" attitude. Arms crossed, glazed stares, they paid scant attention to the data or the information about how they can improve.
The other group were made up of new CSRs fresh on the floor. This group was wide-eyed and paying full attention. They asked questions. They engaged with the data. They were taking notes. Eager to do a good job and prove themselves, they actively participated in the session so they could do a better job with their customers.
These two groups were a living word picture of why new CSRs don't necessarily hurt your service quality. In fact, customers will often respond more positively to a new CSR who answers with an enthusiastic "That's a great question. I'm sorry I don't have that right at my fingertips. Do you mind if I put you on hold for a moment? I'll be happy to get that that information for you!" than a crusty, monotone veteran who immediately grunts out the correct answer.
Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Miss Distraction
Do your calibration sessions have you ducking for cover? Are you so afraid of what calibration might unearth that you're afraid to even start calibrating your QA team?
Calibration is a painful experience for many companies. Calibration experiences are often swapped between call center veterans like war stories in a V.F.W. hall. Nevertheless, that Calibration Session on your Outlook calendar doesn't have to produce fear and trepidation.
Avtex has asked me to present a webinar on Successful Calibration Basics. The webinar is free and scheduled for April 17 from 10-11 a.m. CDT and April 22 from 2-3 p.m. CDT. The webinar will cover why calibration is so crucial to the success of QA, different ways you can calibrate and how to run a successful calibration session.
Space is limited so register for April 17th or register for April 22nd!
My team and I are call coaching this week with a client who operates two small call centers with 15-20 Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) in each. Two years ago they had no Quality Assessment (QA) program. They knew they needed to do something to improve their service delivery and customer satisfaction, but didn't know where to start. They called our group and asked for help.
It's an interesting case study.
We started with a team-based Service Quality Assessment (SQA). We developed a QA scale utilizing customer satisfaction research to help pinpoint key drivers of customer satisfaction which we then translated into specific, weighted behaviors on the scale. We captured a statistically meaningful sample of calls and analyzed them. The team's average Overall Service score was 84 out of 100 on their SQA scale. We presented the report to the management team along with group training for the front-line CSRs.
The plan was to help the client develop their own internal QA team in the first year. Utlizing the data we'd already generated and the momentum we'd already gained from the pilot project, we were to teach a team of internal QA reps to analyze, calibrate and coach calls internally while we continued to provide team-based report cards on a quarterly basis. As the first year wore on it became clear that the client was not organized and ready to take on the QA function themselves, so we switched gears.
The second half of the year we provided an Individual Service Quality Assessment (ISQA) for each CSR. We sampled five calls a month for three months and gave them a third-quarter interim report along with a call coaching session based on 15 calls. At year-end we provided a full report on the thirty-call sample with a follow-up call coaching session.
After seven months of the on-going assessment and individual coaching, the average Overall Service score had risen from 84 to 89. That may not seem like a huge move of the needle, but it reflected a major cultural shift in the call centers and a solid, positve foundation on which the on-going QA program could be built. The stage was set.
This week we are presenting the third quarter's worth of Individual Service Quality Assessment data. The CSRs are on-board and motivated to improve. Average Overall Service scores in the last quarter have improved to 93.4. We are witnessing ISQA scores above 95 for the first time. The client is finally ready to start training their people to do some of the QA work internally.
Most important, research reveals a solid improvement in Customer Satisfaction when they call. Customers have noticed the improvement and are reporting higher levels of satisfaction.
So, what are the implications from this brief case study?
The positives of using third-party to help you start a QA program:
1. You learn from those who have experience and expertise
2. You don't risk as much in your own time, energy and resources
3. You can easily fire the third party if it isn't working (not always true of hired FTEs)
4. You don't depend on internal reps to get QA done when their plate is already full
5. Improved service and customer satisfaction for a reasonable investment
6. It gets done
If you've been wanting to start an internal quality monitoring process but haven't been sure how to do it, please drop me an e-mail. We might be able to help. If we can't, I'll try to refer you to someone who can. Either way, you've got nothing to lose and the potential for quality gains.
Unless you're a serious sports geek, you probably have never heard of Ralph Metcalfe. Metcalfe was a sprinter. I've been told that in 1936 he broke the world record in the 100 meters at the Berlin Olympics. But most people have never heard of Ralph Metcalfe and his feat because that day he was beat by the man we now know as the great Jesse Owens (pictured) who was a fraction of a second faster and took the gold medal.
The difference between "good" and "great" in Customer Service is much like the difference between silver and gold in the 100 meters. Think of the variables that can mean a tenth or a hundredth of a second in a sprint. I'm sure aspiring sprinters think that their coaches are being nit-picky and anal-retentive. Yet, those coaches know that the difference between the gold medal and the silver medal, the difference between "good" and "great" lies in a million minor details that are done consistently and done well.
It is no different with QA. The difference between "good" service that the customer expects (and can get anywhere) and World-class service that the customer notices (and wants to experience again) lies in a million minor details (like courtesy, apology, using an ownership statement, conversationally using the customer's name, offering to help with other needs, etc, etc, etc, etc,) that are done consistently and done well.
It is said that "you don't win a silver medal, you lose the gold medal."
World-class service must be learned and measured and practiced.
Customer loyalty must be earned.
