I am currently trying to set up a Call Monitoring Program. The aim of the programme is to ensure that high quality, consistent service is being given to every customer. I have been advised that the best place to start is defining acceptable standards for all sections of the call, e.g verbal handshake, Obtaining Customer details, complaint handling, closure of the call etc. My question is to anyone who has experience with the development of a similar programme: Can you give me the benefit of your experience?

Helen,
Regarding call handling quality measurements and monitoring programs, we've had the opportunity to work this process in a number of call centers. Effective monitoring and subsequent feedback is crucial to high service. The same call handling guidelines won't work in every environment. A few tips, hope they help:

1. Start with the purpose of the call. Are you selling something, are you providing customer care, technical support? Define everything that you want to happen on the call. You mention consistent, high quality service is the ultimate goal...what else? The goals should be crystal clear before you do anything else.

2. Once you know what you want to accomplish on a call, define the corresponding actions and behaviors that must be exhibited on the call to support them. For instance, how are you measuring 'high quality'? Surveys? If so, what questions are you asking? Are the call handling guidelines for your agents in direct alignment with the results you are expecting, and your methods for measuring them?

3. Use your agents' knowledge. The people who are answering your calls today are the ones who will have the best ideas for call handling quality guidelines. Perhaps utilize an agent help committee to give you the feedback you need - ask them to create the 'ultimate' call handling guidelines. This will increase the success factor of the project, and will help to ensure their buy-in when the new guidelines are implemented.

4. Monitoring. Supervisors should monitor with consistency, and score fairly. In addition, feedback to the agents should be prompt and helpful, not condescending or unecessarily strict. The goal is for the supe to *help* the agent. There are some good training programs out there that help supes learn this, if it's new to them.

5. Performance evals. Call quality and call handling guideline adherence should be a weighted portion of the agent performance evaluation. In one client site, 90% adherence to call handling guidelines was required to even *qualify* for monthly bonuses.

Hope this gets you off to a good start - let me know if I can help to answer any other questions. I might even have a few copies of call handling guidelines I could dust off for you and send. Let me know.

Brent

Brent,
Thank you very much for your response to my dilemma, it has given me a very solid starting point. I have started this by writing a customer care policy with the help of agents, colleagues and senior managers, which defines the call centres attitude toward customer care, its processes for complaint handling and the methods it it will use to measure customer satisfaction. The thing I need to do now is define how we are going to measure what the customers needs and expectations are, and secondly how far, if at all, we have exceeded those needs and expectations. Do you have any experience of this? If so I would be grateful for your advice. I would also be extremely interested in those dusty guidelines!
Thanks again!
Helen