January 14, 2015
It’s not just a cliché that a New Year calls for some new resolutions; it makes good business sense to look back on the past year, discard what didn’t work, and try something new.
That’s the gist of a new blog post by Jennifer Waite, Product Marketing Manager at inContact, a leading provider of cloud contact center software and contact center agent optimization tools. Waite takes a bird’s-eye view of the modern contact center and offers some suggestions to help it reach its full potential.
“The start of a new year brings resolutions and ideas for change,” she notes. “This may be a good time to review your quality monitoring form to identify potential changes that will yield positive results for your contact center and agents.”
A high-quality monitoring form makes it easy for call centers to adapt to necessary changes, including both yes/no questions and rating-scale questions. If your form seems to be falling short and not providing the robust raw data you need, it might be time for a change.
“Making changes to your form will allow you to implement new processes and expectations that will enable you to achieve the goals you have set for the year,” Waite says. “One way to successfully do this is to ensure that the goals set for your organization are represented as elements in your scorecard.”
These elements can be widespread and varied, but there are several points to consider, as she mentions. They include:
- Are there elements that directly relate to your goals from last year, or are they outdated? If so, remove irrelevant past goals to ensure that your evaluation form is concise and uncluttered.
- One of the easiest ways to help align your behavioral scoring is to create clear definitions for each behavior and definitive definitions for each scoring element.
- Look for other ways to draw attention to the behavior you want to encourage in your team. Make sure new agents learn about your goals during new-hire training, and post signs and messages throughout your center to keep these goals top of mind. You can also incorporate these goals into any incentives you offer so that everything conveys a single, clear message about your expectations.
Waite's main point is that you can't just expect people to know what you want. Your success depends on telling them, and then guiding them in the right direction. That's where teamwork in the call center really comes into play.
