Measurable solutions through immeasurable insights

Quantity is not Quality. Are you substituting performance metrics for Quality metrics? Most call centers have software that capture this hard data you need --- number of calls answered, talk time, handle time, ASA. Do these relate to Quality? I suggest that measuring these alone has little if anything to do with Quality.

Let’s look at talk time. A shorter call can be perceived to be a good thing. But how do you know the call was successful? Did the caller go away happy? Did they end the call short due to frustration? What does a short talk time show other than it was a short call? We can also look at a long call. Was this a good thing because the agent was engaged with the customer solving problems, upselling or generally improving customer satisfaction and loyalty? Or was the call long because the agent did a poor job of answering questions, following the call roadmap and/or engaging the required resources to resolve the issue? Looking at call time alone does not really tell you much.

You need to take the time and listen to the calls to understand exactly what is taking place. What is impacting call time? What trends do you see? How can you improve the experience? This is the same for the other performance metrics too. Number of calls, hold time Queue etc. the numbers alone do not mean much. If you are truly looking for Quality you must listen.

The qualitative elements of a call can only be captured through listening --- and really hearing --- actual calls with the ears of an objective outsider. Only highly trained assessors can tell you:
 Did the agent address both the customer's stated and unstated need?
 Did they flexibly follow the call flow?
 Was there an opportunity to educate the customer?
 What else could have been done to delight this caller?
 What were the opportunities to reduce talk time while providing better service to this customer?
A good monitoring solution delivers measurable improvements through immeasurable insights. Do not fall into the trap of only looking at the numbers. Quality and satisfaction can not be measured by numbers alone.

Call Center Layoffs: Retain your top talent

Are you in the eye of a hurricane of layoffs? Once done, your call center will be a changed organization. Will it be changed for the better? Will you be left with a smaller, yet stellar, team of front-line service providers? Will you be better positioned to meet a fiercely competitive landscape?

Job eliminations are a delicate act. If not conducted soundly, costly and distracting litigation is likely to follow. With that in mind, it is tempting to simply base layoff decisions on agents’ operational and productivity metrics, such as AHT, adherence, and attendance. Call centers will easily shy away from using call monitoring and other customer-centric metrics as an input into personnel decisions, as these measures are typically laden with biases and their scores do not differentiate top performers from the rest of the pack. But do the operational metrics alone help you retain your best service providers, the front-line Reps who truly delight customers?

Aon can identify your outstanding service providers quickly, accurately, and defensibly. Aon objectively monitors the effectiveness of call center staff on behalf of call centers across industries, in the US and off-shore. By listening to calls remotely, “with the ear of the customer”, our professional assessors are “blind and deaf” to the factors which are related to potential discrimination. Our behaviorally-based monitoring approach sifts out your top service providers --- those who you should retain --- from those with weaker call handling skills.

Our proprietary methodology, called Service Talent Audit, has been developed by Ph.D. Industrial / Organizational Psychologists according to legally defensible procedures and applied systematically and consistently. We have conducted these behavioral assessments for over 30 years. We have never lost a legal challenge.

Retain your top talent. Make your workforce reductions legally airtight. Aon can help.

For more information, please contact:
Miriam Nelson, Ph.D.
Aon Consulting
p: +212 441 2152
e: Miriam_Nelson@aon.com

Rick Sherman.
Aon Consulting
p: +617.457.7675
e: Rick_Sherman@aon.com