Original Publication: Customer Management Insight - June 2008
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In effort to gain recognition and respect, too many centers try to bite off more than they can chew. Implementing performance goals that they have about as much chance of meeting as I do of completing this sentence with a clever analogy. That's why I often encourage managers of mediocre contact centers to stop reaching for the stars and to instead concentrate on just getting up off the floor.
With that in mind, here are some key performance objectives you might want to consider implementing in your center to help you earn some quick wins, build some confidence among staff and quit drinking so much in the morning:
Contact Resolution. Don't worry so much about first-contact resolution (FCR) right now; true, resolving customer issues on the first contact has a big impact on customer satisfaction, agent morale and operational costs, but chances are your center just isn't ready yet to achieve a lofty FCR objective. Instead focus on a more feasible and less intimidating metric – fifth-contact resolution (5CR).
Studies have shown that it is easier to fully resolve customer issues after five tries than it is to do so on the first try, or on the second, third or fourth try. Research has also revealed that centers that are able to resolve customer issues within five contacts report higher customer satisfaction, agent retention and cost savings that do centers that don't resolve customer issues until the sixth, seventh or eighth contact.
Service Level. Don't set your center and agents up for failure by setting a service level objective of answering 80 percent of calls within 20 seconds, or some similar challenging goal. It's much wiser to start out with the following, more palatable service level objective: 80% of calls answered. The number of seconds that it takes to do so should not be a major concern at this point - that will come later. Remember, you have to crawl before you can walk.
Adherence to Schedule. Most contact centers focus too much on whether or not agents are in their seat at the right times. Your center will be much more likely to meet/exceed its adherence objective if you don't emphasize the "in your seat" and the "at the right times" parts so much. Go a little easier on your staff by instead explaining the importance of them at least trying to stay within city limits during their shift. Agents will greatly appreciate the fact that you recognize how challenging and inhibiting their job can be, and, as a result, will strive to meet the new objective you have set forth. Or not.
Contact Quality. When it comes to assuring quality in the mediocre contact center, the emphasis should be less on agents achieving high monitoring scores and more on whether or not the person rating the call throws up. When no vomiting occurs, be sure to praise the agent publicly, and consider grooming him or her for a supervisory role. If, however, vomiting does occur during a call evaluation - and it will - provide the agent with positive and nurturing pointers on how he or she could have made the interaction with the customer less nauseating to the person evaluating it.
