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Some key information is needed to do this. That is what are the transactions handled by the centre, their volume, which ones start and end in the centre, which ones need other areas of the organization involved in order to complete, the number of failures that are now produced in the center or elsewhere in the process of the total transaction.
Let's examine a simple call for an order. Customer calls in, call is taken by the switch or ACD, routed to a CSR using some form of menu system, IVR or voice prompts. CSR answers the call, asks some key questions, and enters the responses into another computer system. If payment is required, the system deals with other systems to process credit card information to ensure payment. A system generates a pick/pack order for someone to fulfill. The order is packed, shipped using a vehicle which can be from yet a third party, courier or shipping firm. Finally the product is delivered to the customer.
From a transaction, company or a systems point of view it is complicated. There of over ten points that can fail in the described order process.
If viewed from only the call center perspective this is a straight forward call received, call answered, information gathered, closed call. This has a perceived low likelihood of failure.
From a customers point of view the process is also simple. Place a call, give information, wait for and accept deliver. Not much could go wrong. For the customer if anything fails, it is a failure. They don't care what went wrong, just get it fixed.
Your next step in developing a QA program is to develop a list of transactions that the centre handles. These will only fall into two general types: value adding or failure fixes. Value adding transactions are, as they sound, those transactions that add (or potentially) or could add value. These would include; orders, subscriptions, pricing requests etc. Failure Fix transactions involve correcting a problem that has occurred in one or more of the organizations processes. These would include; out of stock, order not received, not as ordered, service not delivered service/product not satisfactory, billing errors etc.
Collect information is available about the number of failures or complaints by type. This forms the 'failure' baseline.
With a complete transaction list identify the volume of transactions by type and period. Rank the order of transactions by volume, value and the number of failures per 1000. This is the baseline numbers from which to start the overall reporting on.
The focus of QA programs is on the system not primarily on an individual. People are the 'face' of the organization and a conduit for assessing quality, there is an opportunity to assess individual though the information has less validity on an individual basis.
Monitoring
With monitoring start assessing each of the transactions being done. Is the transaction done according to the specifications process flow and standards defined by the organization? For each of the observed transactions track the results to success or failure. Monitoring with this approach focuses first on what the system is producing and not whether or not an agent is performing.
Assessing the individuals' performance in following the defined process, procedures and flow of the particular transaction provides an assessment of how well the agent performed or adhered to the expected processes. Deficiencies identified in the course of this monitoring can then be shared with the training and coaching staff for individual coaching and training.
It must be kept in mind that any assessment of individual performance almost certainly lacks statistical validity. The majority of centers will only monitor their agents on 10- to 20 calls per month. If an average agent handles 50 calls a day then this represents only 1 - 2% of the agents' calls. This is sufficient to identify significant issues but is unlikely to uncover minor issues or misinterpretations by the agent.
The same approach of keeping records about customer complaints (which by definition are failures) and their resolution, if any, will produce a data set for tracking and analysis. Again, the primary issue for management is what produces the errors not who. This can only be determined with enough data and incidents. What that number is, is outside the scope of this document since each depend on the circumstances of the situation.
Customer Listening and Satisfaction (CLS)
CLS consists of two parts. Management, at all levels benefit from listening to actual, unedited calls. Ideally this is done between an hour to two hours of conversations with customers and prospects every month or quarter depending on their level of involvement. This can be facilitated either in person or if the technology is available via CD. This gives management a perspective and insight into customer issues and behavior that is direct and unfiltered.
At the same time on a quarterly basis a survey of callers, customers and prospects should be completed to ensure statistical view of the center, its trends and the organizations performance/progress. This must include all the critical segments for ongoing tracking; but should also key issues or concerns on a rotational basis as those are identified and focused on for understanding or resolution. This is usually best done by a third party or a different group to the people already handling calls in the centre to avoid any slippage, bias or perception thereof.
Customer Relations
'Customer relations' refers to any call or incident that requires escalation above the level of senior agents. These events combined with Customer complaints form the first line of warning to an organization. Usually agents and senior agents have been trained to handle all the calls into a centre. Any that require escalation indicate that something in the system or process is not working and requires attention or identification as an unusual 'one-off' which is out of the normal or ordinary.
Dispositioning and tracking of these quickly produces patterns that can be reported on; and processes or policies developed to add to the agents arsenal of tools and techniques to handle similar calls when they arise again. Accurate tracking and summarizing is essential for this to succeed. Frequency of reporting and format need to evolve depending on the organization and it ability to react. A caution here is needed. Reacting quickly to fix an individual issue is great. However without good records and reporting, single or low frequency incidents which require a systemic or organization approach can and do get lost in the noise of day to day operations.
Error Analysis
Management needs to periodically review all errors from the summaries, customer relations, and satisfaction surveys and listening sessions to identify commonalities or areas for correction and change. Front line staff, CSR & supervisors often have little or no authority or control to change policies or procedures in most operations. This is the role of management. This is the tool that starts to improvement of quality as defined.
All quality costs. High quality does cost more than most organizations consider appropriate. The issue is that low quality often costs even more than high quality. This is key to understanding that while higher quality which we all inherently see as more expensive may actually cost less.
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