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"Best in Class" Tutorial Series
Attribute 5: Quality Monitoring
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What defines a "best in class" call center?
Centerserve
conducted a benchmarking and best practices study with 250
call centers from over 50 countries. As described in our
Benchmarks in Call
Center Operations report, "best in class" call centers are characterized by five
prominent attributes.
These attributes are: a skilled
workforce, strategy, new technologies,
management
practices and quality monitoring.
In previous tutorials from this series we explored
four of five "best in class" call
center attributes: skilled workforce,
strategy, technology and management practices. This week Centerserve will continue to take
your call center to the next level by focusing on quality
monitoring. |
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What are the five common attributes
of a "best in class" call center?
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1 |
Skilled workforce |
A
well-trained, motivated and seasoned workforce with
ongoing training to continually build business
knowledge and customer service expertise. Also
important in establishing best-in-class status is
developing long-term relationships with customers-
skilled agents build trust and loyalty. |
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2 |
Strategy |
A service-oriented and forward-thinking
company that is open-minded, proactive and accepting of
change. Additionally, communicating a consistent, clear and
focused strategy in the call center establishes a company as
a recognized industry leader. |
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3 |
New technologies |
Cutting-edge technologies including web self-service
and multi-channel tools provide customers with
choices and ease of access. Advanced technologies
result in streamlined call handling which reduces
call times and costs and improves customer
satisfaction. |
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4 |
Management practices |
A
mature and flexible management team that promotes
trust and develops motivated and empowered teams is key
to a satisfied workforce and customer base. Good
management also supports situational (crisis)
management as well as long-term strategic and
operational planning. |
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5 |
Quality monitoring |
Promoting a balance between quality and quantity in call
centers, call monitoring focuses on improving agent
performance and customer satisfaction. Actively monitoring
calls and regularly coaching agents to achieve better call
outcomes are key attributes for the best call centers.
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What are common elements in "best in class"
quality monitoring? |
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Promote balance between quality and
quantity
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- Focus on improving agent performance
and satisfaction.
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- Actively monitoring calls
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Where should you start?
Centerserve's Quality Monitoring Lifecycle is a
critical model
for designing or improving your quality monitoring
program.
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Let's 'walk'
through each part of the Quality Monitoring Lifecycle:
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When agents are
hired,
they enter into the Quality Monitoring Lifecycle. |
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Agents immediately begin
training.
During this training period, they are monitored closely for
areas of weakness or skills gaps. Once they have
successfully completed the training, new agents are allowed
to handle calls.
It is at this point that they enter the monitoring loop
where contacts are monitored on a regular basis. |
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Monitoring often immediately brings to
light various
issues and
information
that result in changes to the current process or alterations
in training methods. |
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Issues that relate to process and
system improvements, revised training curriculum and
coaching are often easy to spot once quality monitoring
commences. These and related issues may be raised throughout
the monitoring cycle and usually impact training and work
processes. |
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Feedback
is the next step in the lifecycle. Agents are given
evaluations based on their monitored contacts. |
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Feedback goes to two major destinations: to the
agent
and to the
system. |
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Agent feedback is an evaluation that directs the agent
toward training or coaching sessions in order to improve
performance. The system benefits because group or process
issues come to the forefront. Often system changes are
implemented, training or hiring is altered, or the
monitoring process itself is changed. |
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Once agents receive feedback, they
enter training
and coaching
sessions designed to improve areas of weakness. |
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These training and coaching sessions are created to address
common areas of weakness and group issues. They also provide
a way for agents to interact with superiors in a
non-threatening environment.
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This tutorial is an excerpt from
Centerserve's Quality Monitoring e-toolkit. For
more on this and other call center topics, visit
Centerserve's website:
www.call-center.net
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What are common elements in
"best in class" quality monitoring? |
- Promote balance between quality &
quantity
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- Focus on agent performance &
satisfaction.
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Don't reinvent the wheel!
(or pay
shipping costs!)
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Centerserve is proud to now offer our products in
electronic format!
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environment
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For more on Quality Monitoring,
Training and Motivating Agents
see Centerserve's research based e-toolkits
at
www.call-center.net
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