Today's Call Center Quick Tip is from Morris Branson of VSP:

Show Them Where They Stand

If you have a goal for your call center and are seeing people fall below the goal, let them see what their peers are achieving. I’m not talking about a situation where the CSR is not meeting standards, it is about those areas where they could improve but for one reason or another they do not. For example, our call center does not have a set handle time; however, it is a goal to get calls below a certain level. Some CSRs were resistant to lower their handle time believing that it compromised quality. Once we were able to show that they had peers whom had good handle time AND good quality we saw them automatically improve. We also proved to ourselves that there isn’t any relationship between high talk time and better quality.

If you'd like to hear more from Morris, check out his archived Webinar or visit with him at the 2007 Envision Customer Forum on June 12-14, 2007.

Post tags: Morris Branson, VSP, contact center agent, contact center effectiveness, call center, contact center

flickr photo courtesy of amfindingmyself

Post tags: Kathy Zeier, calibration, call center agent, agent development, call center, contact center

Post tags: Joan Brennan, Weyerhaeuser, Click2Coach, contact center agent, contact center effectiveness, call center, contact center

flickr photo courtesy of DuncanC

Today's Call Center Quick Tip comes from Gail Workman of Premera Blue Cross:

Our coaches are known as “personal trainers,” and the reps look forward to their customized workout where they can really concentrate on areas of opportunity that they personally have identified.

Post tags: Gail Workman, Premera Blue Cross, contact center agent, contact center effectiveness, call center, contact center

flickr photo courtesy of rengirl

Today, Tom Vander Well over at QAQNA.com posted a thought-provoking entry on the topic of IVR post-call surveys versus call monitoring and QA. I agree with Tom's position on the topic, and also posted this comment:

I am not a fan of utilizing agent specific post-call surveys exclusively as a way to measure an agent’s performance. It has been my experience that no matter how tight or immediate your survey questions are, outside factors influence the customers’ opinion of the service they’ve received. Say the agent respectfully quoted a policy or procedure that the customer was not happy about. Chances are that the customer would mark the agent down in the category of being helpful. Perhaps the hold time was a bit long. The customer could mark the agent down for not being efficient as in his/her mind, the interaction took too long. And then there is the matter of calibration or a lack there of within our customer base. Each customer has different expectations of what it takes to meet or exceed their expectations.

As far as traditional call monitoring, I don’t believe that forward thinking companies will abandon their traditional call monitoring software. These companies understand that this tool gives them the ability to identify skill strengths and weaknesses. They use this information to coach and develop agents, thus increasing performance, lowering turnover and increasing customer satisfaction. Those that find traditional quality monitoring ineffective are not taking action on the valuable information these tools provide to make these performance improvements.

What do you think? Will post-call surveys ultimately replace in-house QA programs? Feel free to post your comments here, or join us on Thursday, May 10th for an interactive Envision Exchange™ call and hear what your colleagues have to say.

Post tags: Tom Vander Well, agent effectiveness, post-call survey, quality monitoring, call center surveys, call center, contact center