In a recent article, Jeremy Hyde offers some ideas for how to improve contact center quality programs. He suggests it’s not the best idea to judge contact center agents by going down a form and checking off what the agent is doing wrong in every step of the process. The problem with nitpicking agents is that they end up feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated. If agents feel like you’re constantly watching them in order to catch them doing something wrong, they’ll feel nervous or uneasy and won’t be able to perform to the best of their abilities. If this method of quality monitoring isn’t effective, what can contact centers do to improve their quality? Hyde offers five steps to measure your contact center quality in a way that positively brings the best out of your agents and delivers the highest quality of customer satisfaction.
1) Redefine Your Quality Goal
Whatever your goal is, you need to build it based on the input from employees on all levels, from management to agents. You want your quality program to unite your employees with a common goal, not cause tension among them. Ask for your employees’ insights when determining your quality goal and you will succeed together.
2) Ditch your quality form (or at least hide it)
Hyde suggests to get rid of traditional methods of tracking call quality like checklist forms and grading scores. Instead of using these traditional methods, take the key aspects of the call and track the agents’ call behaviors. These behaviors can include utilization of resources and emotional skills such as empathy.
The idea behind this is simple: if an agent is being graded with a checklist, they’ll be more concerned with their grade than actually helping the customer. Hyde offers further explanation and examples of a new grading system in his article.
3) Have Your Agents Listen to Leader/QA Calls
This can be one of the more fun activities. Let your agents listen to calls handled by their leaders and ask their opinions on the call. This allows the managers to lead by example and lets the agents know they can relate to management. In addition, this exercise can be a great way for agents to learn from managers and each other.
4) Focused Coaching (vs. Randomly Selected Calls)
When you eliminate the traditional scoring methods, you no longer have to concern yourself with being “fair” about the calls you select to evaluate. Simply find the recorded calls that were great examples of how agents handled specific situations and use them as a coaching tool. You use calls that demonstrate positive examples of agents’ work in order to teach them how to move forward in their role.
5) Tie Bonus to Engagement, Not Scores
Getting a high quality score can sometimes have unintended results when using traditional scoring methods. Hyde points out that some agents only feel relief when they get a high quality score as opposed to feeling proud. Basically, using a checklist system causes them to focus more on getting a paycheck than doing the right thing for the customer. Hyde recommends setting up a system that rewards agents for engaging the customer and truly listening to their needs.
Hyde’s article goes on to discuss how you can use this new quality program to effectively manage contact center performance. To read the full article, please click the link below:
5 Steps to Revolutionize Your Quality Program – Jeremy Hyde
If you’re interested in outsourcing with a call center, we can help at no charge!
Outsource Consultants are call center experts with over 25 years of outsourcing industry experience that have spent thousands of hours vetting and analyzing the strengths and specializations of the industry-leading outsource call center vendors. If you’re considering call center outsourcing, simply call 888-766-4482 or request a free call center cost proposal today and we’ll help you find the solution that best fits your exact requirements.
