Call Center Management Featured Article
From Reactive Management to Proactive Management: Performance Management in the Spotlight
Many companies today use performance management in the contact center in order to evaluate agents. They may use the information to promote or demote, determine raises or apply spot training as needed to agents who need to brush up on their skills. But these functions are only the tip of the performance management iceberg: companies that have successfully implemented wide-ranging performance management are able to use it to improve processes across the entire spectrum of contact center operations.
“Performance management provides a clear direction and a shared understanding of what is to be achieved, the leadership approach required and support for the continual development of the individuals to ensure it is delivered,” wrote Monet Software CEO Chuck Ciarlo in a recent blog post. “It is both a process and an application. And for contact centers it’s a way to approach data-driven management and apply it to correct adherence issues.”
Even if all agents are doing their jobs to the best of their ability, an inefficient schedule, unplanned events or software glitches can cause a contact center to go out of adherence. Unfortunately, most contact centers today don’t have the kind of performance management in place to reap any large benefits from the increased insight it can offer. Compared to many other types of contact center software, performance management lags behind in adoption. In a recent study, DMG Consulting surveyed contact center managers to determine why so many are still reluctant to invest in a performance management solution. The five most frequent responses included, “I'm not sure what it is or what it will do for my contact center,” “I already have too much reporting; I don't need another reporting package,” “It's not worth the effort,” “It requires too many integrations” and “My management won't approve the investment.”
Performance management solutions providers clearly have some educating to do when it comes to contact center managers. They can help managers understand that performance management doesn’t simply calculate performance after the fact, but it can provide actionable intelligence that managers can use now to improve efficiency both in the short-term and the long-term future and allowing them to move from reactive management to proactive management. Another great selling point is cost reduction: something every contact center is interested in.
“The overwhelming majority of ongoing call center expenses are related to staffing – as much as 70 percent of the budget,” wrote Ciarlo. “Even slight improvements in agent productivity and motivation can have a big impact on performance and cost management of your contact center. Performance management provides powerful tools to identify trends and potential issues that might have gone undetected, and delivers business insights to improve overall performance.”
For companies that believe it’s too expensive or too hard a sell to the Chief Operating Officer, cloud-based solutions have eliminated many of these barriers. With little to no upfront investment required and the ability to scale use to exactly what the contact center requires, cloud-based performance management enables contact centers to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the solutions, without the drawbacks.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi