Meet Laura Grimes

Meet Laura Grimes

Laura is CEO of Harrington Consulting Group Inc. She is an experienced consultant with over 20 years of successful business planning, project management, traffic engineering and resource management. She has developed unique operational solutions for companies facing the challenges of managing multiple skills in multiple centers spanning the globe, including site selection and facility design. She is deft at developing customer relationship strategies and drilling those strategies down to operational plans. Laura has taught and lectured at several universities, and has published many articles on different facets of call center management including strategy development, deployment of resources, motivation of associates and forecasting and scheduling. Laura is an ICMI-Certified Call Center Management Consultant.

Check out our Q&A with Laura:

If we prioritize coaching and QA now, what compelling, quantifiable business value can you show within 60–90 days?

LG: First, make sure your QA specialists, supervisors and coaches understand the request and are prepared to deliver feedback and guide conversations. Also, ensure that QA processes align with mission, vision and values while supporting customer expectations. These are vital steps and have significant impacts on how the feedback is received and implemented.

Once you are ready to prioritize feedback, here is what you can expect:

• Improved clarity on expectations and increased confidence in what to do. This can be detected with higher first contact resolution, improved CSAT. 
• Improved adherence to schedule - coached well, agents will be able to make better decisions (i.e., when to leave a couple of minutes early for a break, how to better manage conversations)
• Improved attendance: confidence and clarity create engagement and engaged employees show up!

How would you position the ROI to executive stakeholders to make this the must-have investment?

LG:

• Increased efficiency: Agents can handle the workload in less time when they are confident and clear.
• Increased productivity: Agents spend more of their workweek devoted to customer-facing problems.

What’s one tip you would give for improved productivity? 

LG: Ensure that supervisors are proficient at coaching by having top coaching talent observe coaching sessions and giving the coaches feedback. If the supervisors are ineffective at delivering feedback and getting buy-in for change, OR if your QA is punitive and nit-picky, you are wasting time and effort. 

Share a fun fact

LG: I love to travel and am always ready for an adventure. 60 countries, 49 states. And when I’m not traveling, I’m seeking adventure through reading.

If you are interested in working with Laura and the rest of the ICMI consulting team, email [email protected]