Metrics that Enable Better Contact Centre Performance

Brought to you by…
ContactCentreSmart
Dismantling Frustration. Engineering Happiness
Counting what counts in
contact centres...
Managing metrics that enable better
contact centre performance
Image credit: sxc.hu/profile/onetwo
much
Call
Quality
Monitoring

People
Smart
People
Smart
Operations
Smart
Operations
Smart
Countingwhat countsin contact centres…
2
Customer
Smart
Customer
Smart
Strategy
Smart
Strategy
Smart
ContactCentreSmart’s
Hierarchy
of
Counting
Image: http://www.kingtutone.com/pyramids/information

Operations Smart
3
Service Level (SL)
Response Time (RT)
Occupancy
Average Handling Time (AHT)
Call load
Forecast accuracy
Adherence to Schedule
Cost (or Revenue) per contact
ContactCentreSmart
Dismantling Frustration. Engineering Happinesshttp://www. http://aamerch.com/about-us/our-operations

People Smart
4
ContactCentreSmart
http://assets3.bigthink.com/system/idea_thumbnails/19540/h
eadline/Picture_545.png?1270842149
Staff satisfaction
Staff engagement
Staff retention
Coaching effectiveness
Hiring effectiveness
CultureCohesion™
LeaderMojo™

Customer Smart
5
ContactCentreSmart
http://www.getscorecard.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Get-
Smart-Reduce-Customer-Churn-GetScorecard.jpg
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Customer satisfaction/happiness
Call Quality
First call resolution
Repeat calls
Next Issue Avoidance (NIA)
Transferred/Escalated Calls
IVR Complete Ratio

Strategy Smart
6
ContactCentreSmart
http://www.cleanegroup.org/assets/Images/_resampled/blogphoto-
OSW-turbines2.jpg
Understanding the contact centre’s
contribution to the rest of the organisation
via improved:
• Quality and innovation
• Marketing initiatives
• Products and services
• Delivery of services
• Self-service systems
• Brand reputation
• Word of mouth

Defining, demystifying
and detangling…
Call
Quality
Monitoring
7
ContactCentreSmart

Defining, demystifying and detangling…
Call Quality Monitoring (CQM)
What
count
What
count
What exactly is CQM?What exactly is CQM?
Why
count
Why
count
When
count
When
count
How
count
How
count
Counting
cousins
Counting
cousins
Why is getting CQM right a big deal?Why is getting CQM right a big deal?
When is it appropriate to use CQM?When is it appropriate to use CQM?
How do we measure CQM?How do we measure CQM?
How does CQM relate or impact other metrics?How does CQM relate or impact other metrics?
Counting
benchmark
Counting
benchmark
Counting
calamity
Counting
calamity
What are the benchmarks for CQM?What are the benchmarks for CQM?
What can go wrong with CQM?What can go wrong with CQM?
8

ContactCentreSmart
Defining
CQM
Be clear on what CQM
means in your contact
centre
Image: http://callminer.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/contact-center.jpg

ContactCentreSmart
Q:
How do you define
a successful
customer
interaction?
Is it…

ContactCentreSmart
A
100% Compliance:
A
‘zero-defect‘ interaction
Call Quality
We define a successful customer interaction as:
OR
B
100% Customer
Satisfaction:
Resolve + Connect
with customers

ContactCentreSmart
Option ‘A’ is
important, but
focus more on
option ‘B’.
Why?

ContactCentreSmart
Option ‘A’ is
obsessed
with…
‘avoiding
failure’
http://previews.123rf.com/images/olechowski/olechowski1209/olechowski120900003/1
5097189-Way-to-success-and-avoiding-failure-concept-on-blackboard-Stock-Photo.jpg

ContactCentreSmart
Being obsessed
with
‘avoiding failure’
will get you to
this…

ContactCentreSmart

ContactCentreSmart
Option ‘B’ is
obsessed with…
‘achieving
excellence’

ContactCentreSmart
Being obsessed
with ‘achieving
excellence’ will
get you to this…

ContactCentreSmart
Be obsessed
with…
‘achieving
excellence’
Don’t be
obsessed
with…
‘avoiding
failure’
Being obsessed with ‘avoiding failure’ will just get you to
‘ordinary’.
Being obsessed with ‘achieving excellence’ will get you to
‘extra-ordinary’!
Spend much more time discussing how we can improve each
customer conversation.
Spend much less time haggling about QA scores and whether
an agent met particular standard or not.
Sure, we need agents to adhere to company policies and
comply with ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ (SOP’s).
This is important.
But does attaining zero-faults mean you’ve had a quality
conversation with your customer?
Maybe, but probably not.

…continued
ContactCentreSmart
Be obsessed
with…
‘achieving
excellence’
Don’t be
obsessed
with…
‘avoiding
failure’
A zero-fault contact does not always equate to an excellent
contact.
We need to learn about excellence by analysing and studying
excellence, not failure. Excellence is not the opposite of
failure; it’s just different.
Shifting your customer conversations from ordinary to extra-
ordinary requires a different mind-set and a different skill-set.
It requires the skill of imagining how we can make each
customer conversation even better.
How?

ContactCentreSmart
Here’s some ideas
on how we can
shift
from
this…

ContactCentreSmart
Score less.
Discuss
more.

ContactCentreSmart
Score
less
Discuss
more
Here’s an idea from the organisation that is ‘Powered by
Service’, Zappos.com.
Quality monitoring at Zappos used to be on a quality
monitoring form rated on a scale of 1, 2 or 3 on a wide range of
dimensions. However, Zappos found that this promoted fear,
not growth, so they changed the formal rating structure.
To reduce anxiety Zappos went from performance metrics to
pure feedback and did away with QA scores for full-fledged
contact centre staff. Supervisors (or coaches) and agents now
just talk about the things they liked and the things they could’ve
done better. Zappos made a shift from top-down evaluations to
open partnered conversations, which makes for happier (and
less defensive) employees and an environment of enthusiasm
for service growth.
Source: The Zappos Experience - Joseph Michelli

ContactCentreSmart
Let agents to
nominate their
bestcalls

ContactCentreSmart
Let
agents to
nominate
their
best
calls
Another idea for promoting excellence is to ask agents to
submit their best calls for quality assessment.
What this does, is that it gets agents to think about being
excellent on each call as opposed avoiding failure on each
call.
This will rejuvenate those often stale and monotonous QA
coaching sessions. A discussion around excellence is much
more liberating than a discussion around avoiding failure.

ContactCentreSmart
Subscribe to less
scripting
Prescribe more
freedom of speech

ContactCentreSmart
Subscribe
to less
scripting;
Prescribe
more
freedom
of speech
Don’t script unless you legally have to.
Do promote socially responsible ‘freedom of speech’
that’s in line with your corporate identity.
I suggest looking at your corporate values and establishing
communication principles that reinforce these values
rather than insisting on strict compliance to rigid policies.
Here’s an example:
Instead of having a rigid policy that says, ‘you must mention
the customer’s name three times in a conversation!’, rather
establish a principle that says ‘build personal connections
with each customer conversation’. Mentioning the
customer’s name three times is not the only way to build a
personal connection.
People want to be self-directed; they want to be able to do
the right things in their own unique way.

ContactCentreSmart
Encourage
caring
with a purpose

ContactCentreSmart
Encourage
caring
with a
purpose
Put the ‘care’ back into ‘customer care’ by giving your
agents a ‘Customer Appreciation Budget (CAB)’ of say,
R500 per quarter. Encourage agents to use their ‘CAB-
money’ to fund deliberate and innovative acts of
kindness for their customers. The agent with the best
‘CAB’ story wins a quarterly prize.
The amazing thing about this idea is that it encourages
agents to listen to customers more deeply and to take a
deeper interest in the lives of their customers.
It adds a layer of ‘purpose’ to their role, which they might
not have had previously.
Yes, the bean counters might see this as an unnecessary
expense, but try it. The gains you get from a CAB program
like this will almost certainly outstrip any other
investment you make in building customer loyalty.

ContactCentreSmart
How to
measure
CQM?
What options do we have?

ContactCentreSmart
Measuring CQM
100%
Call
Coverage
0%
Subjective Data-driven
Agent
Judgement
Post-Call
Survey
Random CallRandom Call
Monitoring
Analytics-
System
Analytics-
based
Performance
System
Source: Yankee Group, 2008
Accuracy

In the beginning mankind created this…
The humble
voice
recorder!
ContactCentreSmart

Foundational measures….
This allowed us to assess the quality
of our Agents by assessing…
Measures whether something was done or not
Yes/No standards
More objective…
Easy to score;
Easy to understand
E.g.’s :
Did the agent use the correct…
• Greeting and ending
• Verification procedure
• Transfer and ‘hold’ procedure
• Call protocol
&
ContactCentreSmart

ContactCentreSmart
Finesse measures….
This also allowed us to assess the
quality of our Agents by assessing…
Measures how something was done
Graded standards e.g. ‘Excellent to Poor’
A lot more subjective…
Allows for individual style
But more difficult to score
E.g.’s :
To what extent did the agent demonstrate…
• Professional courtesy
• Empathy
• Active listening
• Energy and positivity

ContactCentreSmart
Foundational measures gives
customers this type of experience…

ContactCentreSmart
Perfectly
functional…
but a little
bland
Foundational measures gives
customers this type of experience…

ContactCentreSmart
But with Finesse
measures a customer’s
experience is transformed…

ContactCentreSmart
from this…

ContactCentreSmart
to this!

ContactCentreSmart
This works…

ContactCentreSmart
But…this is
MUCH better!

ContactCentreSmart
What
impacts
CQM?
What metrics inhibit CQM?
What metrics promote CQM?

ContactCentreSmart
Factors impacting CQM...
Staff turnover and CQM?
CQM
LL
LL
HH
HH
Staff Turnover
If +
Then
-

ContactCentreSmart
Agent Knowledge and CQM?
CQM
LL
LL
HH
HH
Agent Knowledge
If +
Then
+

ContactCentreSmart
Query Complexity and CQM?
CQM
LL
LL
HH
HHIf +
Then
-
Query Complexity

ContactCentreSmart
Occupancy and CQM?
CQM
LL
LL
HH
HHIf +
Then
-
Occupancy

ContactCentreSmart
AHT and CQM?
CQM
LL
LL
HH
HH
AHT
If +
Then
+ ?

ContactCentreSmart
NPS and CQM?
CQM
LL
LL
HH
HH
NPS
If +
Then
+ ?

50
Hopefully we’ve created better…
Awareness
which will lead to better…
Choices
which will lead to better…
Results

ContactCentreSmart
Rate
Please rate this content.
Submit a 1-10 rating here…
Read my accompanying article ‘What's Wrong
with CQM in Our Call Centres and How To Fix It!’ Read
Find this content useful? Connect with me on
LinkedIn to receive more of this type of stuff… Connect
Want me to deliver a customised a CQM
workshop for your organisation? Enquire here… Enquire
Need help with a specific question relating to
CQM? Ask here… Ask

About the author...Hilario Fiandeiro
Hilario is the owner of ContactCentreSmart, an
independent consulting practice, specialising in ‘dismantling
frustration and engineering happiness™’ in customer-facing
environments.
He has more than fifteen years experience, as an operations
manager, facilitator and management consultant, across
various industries, in the customer experience and contact
centre space.
As a professional consultant operating from Johannesburg,
South Africa, Hilario focuses exclusively on making customer-
serving professionals more successful and customer
interaction experiences more rewarding.
For more information…
Contact me on:
hilario@ContactCentreSmart.com
www.ContactCentreSmart.com

Metrics that Enable Better Contact Centre Performance

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