3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

If you’ve put off efforts to improve the quality of customer care you provide because you imagine it will require large efforts and capital expenditures, you’re probably short-changing your organization. It will require making some changes, and it may require spending some money, but a surprising amount of positive change can be made with relatively inexpensive fixes.

In a recent blog post, consultant Jeannie Walters of Connext 360 noted that there are many ways to make noticeable improvements for customers and employees alike, without making a big investment or sidelining other projects. A lot of what makes a great customer experience is understanding, listening and empathy on the part of contact center agents, so a good place to start is in changing the language agents are using.

If you monitor with recording and quality monitoring or third-party remote call monitoring, start listening to the language your agents are using. You may find it’s confrontational, apathetic or cold. Walters recommends replacing accusatory phrases like “you need to” with more teamwork-oriented language.

“For instance, ‘you should’ is something that’s easy to read as a judgment,” she wrote. “It is patronizing and accusing. ‘You should have done this right all along. Shame on you!’ ‘We would like’ or ‘may I suggest’ can change the whole tone of a message.”

Another way to make small improvements that can lead to larger rewards is to monitor the customer journey and look for the biggest stumbling blocks. Analyze your call recordings, chat messages and emails for customers complaining about problems. Is the language on your website unclear? Does your IVR have too many choices? Are too many transfers happening? Additionally, find out what your agents’ biggest challenges are, because chances are good that solving them will lead directly to improvement of the customer experience. Walters recommends that managers spend part of each day with a different team to observe their challenges directly.

“Encourage them to speak candidly and ask questions,” she wrote. “Take note of everything that complicates their efforts and recognize those things as obstacles on the path to a better customer experience. This exercise will give you knowledge about what your employees need to save time and effort for themselves so they can deliver a better experience to customers, and be happier while doing it.”

If it’s impractical for managers to be physically present with agents, rely on your quality monitoring solution. If you’re using third-party remote call monitoring, you can let the company know what your goal is: find procedural stumbling blocks in the customer experience and ways to solve them.  Once you write new scripts, help agents change their language and solve some minor procedural problems, chances are good you’ll see dramatic improvements in the customer relationship.