Call Center Software | Quality Evaluations - What's the Average? | Envision
Apr 25, 2008

Quality Evaluations - What's the Average?
Posted by: Connie Smith

It seems that no matter where I am, people are always interested in knowing what the best practices are around how many evaluations quality teams should perform per CSR per month.  Just yesterday I was asked again by a past Roundtable participant.  I wanted to share my response with all of you. Based on information I have read from industry experts such as CCNG, ICMI and the Call Center School, as well as the validation I have received when conducting Roundtables across the country, the average number of evaluations performed per agent per month is 4-6.  This number is a bit lower then the old average of 8-10, but for a very good reason.  Contact centers are lowering the number of customer interactions evaluated, spending the extra time coaching and developing their CSRs. In my opinion, because coaching and development leads to increased performance, employee and customer satisfaction, this is a very good trade off! How many evaluations do your quality teams perform per month?

 
Quality Evaluations - What's the Average? - 12:00 AM | Call Center Best Practices | Add Comment (2) |
Apr 17, 2008

Call Center Quick Tip -- Management Involvement
Posted by: Connie Smith

Today's Call Center Quick Tip comes from Brian Freer, manager of provider services at Capital District Physicians' Health Plan:

Management Involvement

Our entire management team fully supports the quality program. We are heavily involved in all aspects of the program. Examples of this include: weekly re-evaluation meetings, bi-weekly calibration sessions, quality audits, trending analysis and training. Our strong commitment to quality shows our staff the emphasis CDPHP places on customer satisfaction. We truly “walk the talk.”

 Post tags: Brian Freer, CDPHP, agent turnover, call center manager, call center, employee satisfaction

 
Call Center Quick Tip -- Management Involvement - 2:08 PM | Call Center Best Practices | Add Comment (1) |
Apr 07, 2008

New Hire Training Tips
Posted by: Connie Smith

On April 2nd I was in Atlanta facilitating an educational Roundtable for local contact center professionals.  While speaking about the subject of new hire training, one participant shared a successful way of bringing new hires on board.  They have a new hire course consisting of several weeks of training however eight hours each day is not spent in the classroom.  On the contrary, only ½ of the day is in the classroom to learn concepts, policies and procedures and technical and soft skills needed to be successful on the floor. The remainder of each day is spent on the floor, double jacking with a senior agent.  This gives the new hires the ability to listen and digest what they learned in the morning.  We’ve all probably seen or been a student who’s eyes start to glaze over after about 4 hours of training and many studies show that the longer the training, the less that is retained.
 
Other benefits recognized by this organization through this type of training include camaraderie on the floor, information brought back to the training room of how the live interactions varied from the training scenario and a higher percentage of agents that made it successfully through the new hire program.  I thought this was a great idea for how to improve the traditional type of new hire classroom training and I wanted to share it with all of you.  Do you have new hire training tips to share?     

 
 
New Hire Training Tips - 12:00 AM | Call Center Best Practices | Add Comment (0) |
Apr 03, 2008

Rising Star Program
Posted by: Connie Smith

Today's Call Center Quick Tip comes from Jamie Torgerson, a general manager in the contact center at Costco Wholesale:

Rising Star Program

To offer a career path and decrease burnout and turnover, we offer three different programs to all representatives who are eligible and are interested. Our “Rising Star” program is for a representative who shows that they are at the top of their game, they want to mentor new representatives, and they understand our culture and passion for member service. The Rising Stars are utilized by management for feedback on new programs and incentives, as well as understanding our workflow and how to make improvements. We also offer a SIT program (supervisor in training) twice per year for phone representatives who want to get experience in management to see if this is their next step and an MIT (manager in training) program once per year for our supervisors.

 Post tags: Jamie Torgerson, Costco, agent turnover, call center attrition, call center, employee satisfaction

 
Rising Star Program - 12:00 AM | Call Center Best Practices | Add Comment (0) |
Apr 01, 2008

Economics of Customer Service
Posted by: Connie Smith

Jackie Huba wrote an excellent analysis entitled Mouthonomics describing how great customer service can increase your overall sales—and how bad customer service can detract from it. Basically, a new study indicates that a customer evangelist will spend an estimated $1800 with you and then send you about $800 in additional revenue via referrals. Dissatisfied customers, however, will spend a little less than a satisfied customer, but by talking about their bad experience with you, they’ll end up costing you about $1350, essentially negating their overall value. Tuning into, tracking and effectively responding to the voice of your customers is essential to engendering their loyalty and inspiring them to proselytize on your behalf. What are you doing to turn your customers into evangelists?

 
 
Economics of Customer Service - 9:00 AM | Call Center Best Practices | Add Comment (0) |