Customer Reach

Volume 2.1 - Jan 2005 - Page 3 [Previous | Next]

(C) 2005 The Taylor Reach Group

Reproduced with kind permission

As an example look at the chart on the left. In this example a call center manager in an effort to reduce costs choked calls. The result was hiding the to tal number of calls, an increase in the number of abandoned calls, more calls due to pent-up demand and callers taking longer to vent their frustration; increasing AHT and causing agent fatigue and turnover. Costs therefore rose. Once choking stopped, pent up demand addressed and all calls handled in reasonable time and quality the volume stabilized to below pre-change over levels and the costs were reduced and the service provided improved dramatically.

Mystery Calling

From time to time an issue or concern arises which may or may not be a significant issue requiring attention. These issues must be investigated, though their frequency may be low and therefore not ideally suited for research through monitoring. Mystery calling can be employed to more completely understand the depth and frequency of either behaviors or process incidents. Again use of third party or voices of people not of the centre is advised for avoiding bias and 'skuing' results. Mystery calling is tactical and usually revolves around a particular transaction step or group of similar transactions to see what is causing outcomes that are unexpected.

Customer satisfaction studies reveal how customers feel about their customer service experience. They do not reveal why. Customer service measurement reveals the "why" that stimulates continuous improvement. Essentially, satisfaction studies report perceptions and service studies report performance. If a satisfaction study revealed that customers thought food service was slow in a chain of restaurants, valuable information is gleaned. Acting on this information alone would be impractical. Would the chain simply ask employees to work faster? Would it risk serving undercooked food for the sake of quick service? Would it redesign its units to receive food orders more quickly? No, of course not to do so would be to try to fix an unknown.

The chain would drill down deeper into the data to determine the root cause, the "why". The chain would measure the speed of customer service it provides, likely using mystery shoppers to take those measurements. If a subsequent mystery shopper study revealed that table-service customers were waiting an average of 10 minutes to receive their checks, a specific reason for customers to perceive slow service has been isolated. Causes for the delay can now be investigated.

Causes might include slow credit card authorizations, understaffing, a backlog waiting for a manager approval, or lack of equipment or staff training to use computers. That one statistic-the more than 10-minute wait--gives managers a specific issue to work toward correcting. It gives the customer-driven company a way to serve customers better in the short term.

Think of customer satisfaction as the end product of a production line. In a retail environment, one stage of the process might involve approaching customers as they enter the store. Another stage might involve having advertised merchandise readily available, supported by prominent displays. All along the production line, customers decide how the business meets their expectations. Customer satisfaction surveys address the end product of the production line, revealing expectations and perceptions in total. By contrast, customer service measurements from mystery shopping allows an organization to target specific point in the production process to gauge their impact on the end result and reveal performance at each identified stage of the production process.

Taking measurements along a production line and comparing them to established benchmarks should sound familiar. It is a basic principle of Total Quality Management (TQM) called Statistical Process Control (SPC). SPC requires that quality be inspected at every stage of the process, not just at the end. TQM proponents equate statistical process control of a production line to mystery shopping of service businesses.

Quality Assurance is the assessment portion of an overall approach to quality in a company.

If the QA program identifies areas of weakness or failure that management thinks needs attention then the steps on the chart to the left are done.

1. QA identifies areas of failure or process results that are either uncommon, persistent, or have to large a range of variation.
2. Management investigates using root cause analysis, mystery shopping or monitoring results to identity what is causing the problem or variation of results. These are usually in four key areas: Process, Technology (Equipment), People or Methodology (Policies, Practices and measures). On determination of the cause management decides to change or to maintain existing process.
3. Process improvement if determined as required, designs and tests new approach to handling the transaction or process.
4. New process is measured and tracked to determine if it improves the results and whether those results stabilize into a normal range different than the pervious process. If they do then this is accepted as the new standard
5. New standard is accepted as part of the QA process for reporting and quality purposes.

Poll of the Month

Each month on the TRG website (www.thetaylorreachgroup.com) we ask you to cast your vote in our monthly poll.

"What is your Agent Team Size that reports to a Supervisor?"

Poll Results: Results can provide some surprises. Best Practices have long suggested that Agent teams of 10-12 is desirable, beyond this level it is difficult for the Supervisor to effectively manage and often coaching and development lag behind what is generally provided to smaller teams. In spite of this the results show that about ¾ of companies have 12 or more agents reporting to a Supervisor, where ¼ of the companies have less than 12 agents reporting to a Supervisor.

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