When brands seek to refine their customer engagement strategy, a critical aspect is ensuring that contact center customer service operations are running smoothly. To achieve this, it is necessary to assess not only individual agent performance but also the quality management practices in place. Here are seven tips for improving service quality management in the contact center.
Encourage agent feedback. Agents are on the front lines of customer service and have a detailed knowledge of what customer expectations may be. Encouraging agent feedback regarding improved customer service practices is therefore crucial, while peer feedback can also encourage team building and allow agents to learn from peer experiences.
Have agents listen to their calls. During coaching sessions, agents should be given the chance to listen to their calls when discussing which points to improve. By breaking down the process and closely analyzing points such as tone, thoroughness, and ability to achieve first call resolution, agents can get a better sense of what their service looks like and make improvements.
Send post-contact surveys after every interaction. No matter what priorities are set in place in a contact center’s customer service operations, the customer should always come first. This means that customer feedback is just as critical as any peer or supervisor feedback, and quality management demands consistent requests for feedback after each service interaction. Post-contact surveys should include questions that directly address the customer’s needs and preferences with a free-response section for additional comments.
Establish clear KPIs. It is important for all contact center employees to know what KPIs to strive for, so establishing clear goals is necessary. Agents and managers alike should be able to view KPIs alongside their personal achievements, and tools such as gamification can motivate agents to deliver their best and meet their goals.
Evaluate regularly. Agents should be coached and evaluated on a regular basis to consistently aid them in improving their performance. For example, monitoring calls once a week and providing swift feedback allows agents to work on their performance regularly and improve before each subsequent call monitoring session.
Give all agents clear and consistent standards. All agents should have an equal chance for success, so it is important to set clear and consistent standards. Establishing clear points such as whether first call resolution is a top priority or reducing average handling time, which tools should be used and how, and what call scripts should be followed and when to deviate from a script are all steps toward setting clear expectations for agent success.
Take a team approach to eliminate bias. Quality management can be subjective, so taking a team approach to analyzing employee performance is a great way to eliminate bias. Having managers coach agents from another contact center team or exchanging peer feedback across teams are great ways to gain perspective across the contact center in a more objective manner.Improving service quality management requires a team effort across a contact center while keeping the needs of the customer at heart when refining the process.
Learn about Vocalcom contact center software solutions for delivering optimal customer service.
