Quality Management: Hunt for Heroes Instead of Finding Failure
We’ve recently been involved in a number of discussions around quality management. In any contact center, from a handful of seats upwards, it’s common practice to monitor team activity to ensure the required standards are being met. But what exactly should you look for? Read on as we share our findings.
In smaller contact centers, monitoring team activity might involve feedback sessions with a team leader or a review of post-call surveys. For larger contact centers, it probably requires a separate quality management team using specialist technology to mark individual calls against a predetermined set of criteria. This can range from listening in to calls, reviewing call recordings, or even using speech analytics to identify best practices and areas for coaching and training.
Having listened to the discussions, here’s what we picked up on how to reframe quality management for a more successful outcome.
Rename the team
Just the name “quality management” infers failure. It assumes that there is a problem with quality and that it needs to be managed. The team might as well be called the “secret police.”
If the objective is to improve the customer and agent experience—then focus on those audiences. Certainly, “experience success” or “happy customer” have a more positive sound to them. Choose a name that your agents can buy into so they see that the purpose is to help them and their customers.
Hunt for heroes
Now that you have a new team name, it’s time to start hunting for heroes instead of finding failure. A word of encouragement is far more powerful than corrective comments. Even the rawest recruits will make some great calls during the day. So select those calls, highlight what they are doing right, and help them to develop those skills further.
Also, making heroes out of your top and most improved performers has a greater influence. In many instances, the collective kudos are sure to positively impact the agents that sit near them.
Consider 100% as average
In your system, enable scoring over 100% to better capture exemplary service. For example, when agents do what’s expected of them and callers leave satisfied—that merits 100%. But now, where agents go above and beyond and wow callers—they can receive their well-deserved score over 100%.
Encourage team analysis
A great tip we heard was to let the team themselves diagnose a call. Makes sense, as team members are on the phones, they know what it’s like in the real world, and they can provide genuine feedback that the individuals concerned can believe.
This should be done in a positive and discrete manner, using great calls to show what success looks like. No one benefits from dissecting a poor call in front of your colleagues.
Focus on your customers
When determining what success looks like—always focus on your customers. That’s because customers will define success as whether they got the answer they needed in a timely manner, not whether your agent said 15 key words or statements.
In whatever system or process you build, remember what the end goal is and then ensure that your “happy customer team” is aligned with it.
Change the perception
What we have picked up is not a change of process, but a change of perception. How do you run quality management in your business today? Do you think it’s pessimistic in nature or have you positioned it in a positive way?
We’d love to hear what you think (just let us know through the email icon at the bottom of the page).
For more information on Vonage Contact Center and how we help to deliver amazing customer experiences, please visit: vonage.com/contact-centers.
