Once you have the metrics in place, how do you recognize success?
First, make sure that a supervisor is conducting regular one-on-one meetings and giving feedback to the agents. Have a scorecard in place and give agents the metrics in a simple format so that they understand and are graded on the responsibilities of their job.
Both individual and team recognition are important, and you can do this without costing the company money. For example, a word of praise can go a long way. Every time you receive an internal or external compliment on one of your employees, write it up and post it on a board with the associate’s picture. You can also put that recognition into a frame that employees can hang in their cubicles, and it can also go on an internal Web site.
In addition, when you see employees going above and beyond, send an e-mail thanking them and copy it to the vice president of the division so they know their extra effort is being recognized.
What else do you need to consider when measuring and rewarding effort?
Make sure that you’re not just looking at inbound call volume. You also need to consider other work that agents might be required to do, such as customer follow-up or interactions with other departments.
Agents are responsible for making sure customers’ problems are resolved and that customers are satisfied with the resolution they’ve received. They shouldn’t be allowed to just throw the problems over to another department and assume it’s been handled.
But you have to find a way to measure this work so that you can assign the appropriate personnel and make sure that you have the right number of people to handle all the work, both inbound and outbound. Sometimes that piece of a call center is overlooked.
What advice would you give a business leader who says it’s too expensive to have a call center in-house?
You need to look at the short-term gains of outsourcing it versus the long-term gains of doing it in-house. Yes, on the bottom line, it would appear to be more expensive, but when you’re managing things in a customer-centric way, the long-term gains outweigh the short-term gains of outsourcing.
Bridget A. Carlisle is a customer care manager at InsightBusiness. Reach her at [email protected] or (502) 410-7373. Johnathon Downing is a customer care supervisor at InsightBusiness. Reach him at [email protected] or (502) 410-7328.