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September 2008 | Volume 27 / Number 4
Innovative SOLUTIONS

Maximizing Agent Productivity with Closed-Loop Coaching

By Rick Reiman;
Innovative Solutions from the BPO Experts


In today’s challenging economy, contact center managers are expected to meet seemingly impossible demands
and are pulled in multiple directions by conflicting priorities. The executive team demands high levels of customer
satisfaction while at the same time increase revenues and control costs. How can a call center manager
reconcile these seemingly opposing goals?

One solution is to implement a comprehensive performance management process.

Agent salaries represent 60% or more of a contact center’s budget, so improving the productivity of your customer-facing agents means significant increases to the bottom line.

Closed-Loop Coaching is a process, enabled by technology, to baseline, evaluate, and develop call center agents. Companies “close the loop” through an ongoing process of measurement, action, and re-measurement until the desired results are achieved.

In this article, we will explore the concept of Closed-Loop Coaching and show you how implementing a comprehensive performance management process will result in a powerful return on investment (ROI) for your organization.

The Closed-Loop Coaching Process


Closed-Loop Coaching is a comprehensive performance management process that leverages audio and screen recordings to maximize agent productivity and reduce agent training time.

Closed-Loop Coaching:

• Closed-Loop Coaching is AN ONGOING PROCESS. Measurement, review, coaching and reassessment must be integrated into the company’s culture and continued on an ongoing basis to effect long-term change. Imagine going to the gym once. Would that get you in shape? Of course not, it’s only with regular and repeated workouts that you see improvement.

• Closed-Loop Coaching MUST EXTEND to include the workflow of your sales and service processes. Every organization has a unique sales or service workflow, supported by agent desktop applications. A key element of Closed-Loop Coaching is ensuring that agents are trained in the proper usage of such systems, accomplished through analysis of screen and audio recordings.

• Agent Performance Feedback MUST be timely. Critical to the coaching process is timeliness; i.e., agents must be coached as soon as possible after the interaction has occurred for maximum learning and retention.

• Recognizes that all of us LEARN differently. Some people respond to hands-on training, some respond to reading, some to formal or informal training and coaching sessions. Closed-Loop Coaching allows supervisors to train by example, allowing agents to hear specific areas of interactions where they have opportunities to improve.

• Reinforces a CULTURE and COMMITMENT to continuous improvement. It is critical that Closed-Loop Coaching is integrated into the culture of the call center. By supporting a culture of success, supervisors can promote a positive, competitive, and winning attitude among call center agents.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the steps in the Closed-Loop Coaching process.

1. Plan and Establish Goals/Metrics/KPIs. The first step in the process is to establish KPIs that tie directly to an organization’s corporate goals. In a sales environment, these goals will most likely be revenue-related. In a service environment, typical goals include first call resolution, average call handle time, and customer satisfaction ratings. This information will be used to create agent evaluation forms that reflect KPIs of greatest importance to the organization, and will also be used as a starting point for measuring improvements in agent productivity.

2. Review Results. The second step is needed to determine where each agent stands in the performance hierarchy. One method for segmenting agents is to “triage” them into three groups - the best performing 20%, the worst performing 20%, and the middle performing 60%. This serves as a baseline for measuring group performance in addition to individual agent performance. This process will give you a clear picture of which agents could benefit the most from additional coaching, training, and mentoring.

3. Record Interactions. In this step, agent/ customer interactions are recorded using TDI’s Encore Enterprise Suite or other call recording systems. To obtain the most comprehensive evaluation, agent desktop screens should be recorded along with the audio. These recorded calls will be used for conducting agent evaluations.

4. Evaluate and Measure Performance. In this crucial step, agent interactions are evaluated based on the KPIs specified in the planning stage. The goal of this step is to identify WHAT developmental areas agents need additional coaching. The evaluation scorecard should include a mix of operational must–dos as well as sales or customer service-specific evaluation points. Each category on the evaluation form serves as a reference point to specify training needs for that particular agent. Most full-featured agent evaluation systems include the capability to email a completed evaluation form along with the appropriate recording so agents can immediately hear, for themselves, what areas need improvement, and simultaneously see their evaluation score for a particular interaction.

5. Coach and Change Processes. In this step, action is taken to improve the agent’s skills in areas identified as weak in the evaluation step, and to reward agents who exceed their performance goals. These actions may include: • One-on-one coaching, including reviews of agents recordings as well as “best practices” clips.

• Formal training sessions. • Modification of agent desktop tools. In many cases, inefficiencies and in desktop applications can be improved for greater productivity throughout the call center.

• Rewards and recognition for top performers.

At this point, after the changes in step 5 are made, the agent is reassessed to see if/how his/ her performance has improved. If improved, the supervisor is free to work with other agents; if not, the agent should be re-coached in areas where they need improvement.

Closed-Loop Coaching in Action

TDI, in cooperation with a key customer who is in the outsourced call center business, created a pilot program to implement a closed-loop coaching process. The customer operates a 200 seat inbound/ outbound call center and works multiple campaigns simultaneously, with an emphasis on up- and cross-selling. While this company had a performance management strategy in place, it was driven by manual processes that were neither efficient nor scalable. Managing evaluation forms and linking them to recordings was a manual process; there were major inconsistencies in evaluation scores between supervisors and QA; as a result, recordings and evaluations were not systematically used as agent coaching tools. Based on this scenario, the customer and TDI mutually agreed to focus on one objective: Improving the performance of the bottom 1/3 of performers who were working a specific sales campaign, a total of 24 agents.

Using TDI’s Encore Performance Management Suite, the bottom 1/3 of agents were identified. These agents were recorded and evaluated on the key critical aspects of their customer interactions. Coaching clips were shared with the agents so they could hear themselves in live interactions, while viewing the evaluation forms being completed for that call. The agents also viewed clips of successful interactions (those resulting in a sale) from top performing agents.

The results from this group of previously struggling performers was positive. Over a seven-week period, as agents in the group received a greater focus from their supervisors, their evaluation scores as a team went from an average of 53% (out of 100) to over 75%. More importantly, their linear sales per hour (SPH) more than doubled, from .23 to .52! Additional “soft” benefits were realized through more effective coaching sessions, added ability to track the specific areas where agents had received coaching, and the ability to actively coach for tone of voice issues. These benefits can be directly attributed to implementing the closed-loop process and the customer is now in the process of extending the process to the rest of the agents in their call center.

Could Your Call Center Benefit From Closed-Loop Coaching?

If you answer “no” to most of the questions listed below, then your organization could probably benefit from implementing a Closed-Loop Coaching process:





• Do you record 100% of voice interactions?
• Do you record agent screens to understand use of desktop applications?
• Have you established a formal process to communicate feedback to your sales and/ or service team?
• Do you tie that feedback to your rewards/compensation system and performance metrics?
• Do you have a separate process to provide feedback to supervisors and QA team members?
• Have you automated your feedback processes?
• Is your training realistic, timely, and engaging?

Request a TDI Discovery and Assessment

If you are considering changes to your company’s performance management strategy, you can request a formal TDI Discovery and Assessment. This Discovery and Assessment is a comprehensive analysis of your contact centers status in the following areas:

• Current technology infrastructure and its ability to support an effective performance management process

• Analysis of your company’s business goals and how effectively your contact center workflow reflects and supports these goals

• The gaps in technology and processes you need to address in order to achieve success in meeting key performance indicators

A Discovery and Assessment consists of meeting with your company’s key personnel from sales, marketing, technology, including contact center supervisors and agents. Based on this discovery process, TDI will provide specific recommendations for improving your performance management process that will reduce attrition, increase sales revenue, and improve customer satisfaction. Contact TDI at [email protected] for more details.
CIS

Rick Reiman is responsible for Product Marketing at TDI (News - Alert) , the developer of Liberation® and Encore™, a proven technology platform that helps companies increase revenues and develop their workforce. Liberation manages a contact center’s entire sales workflow process, including campaign design and management, and agent effectiveness via an agent desktop; industry templates for ease of integration and operation, and performance management and reporting of results and trends. The Encore Suite maximizes the productivity of a contact center’s workforce via integrated voice and screen recording, performance management, coaching, and its Portfolio™ reporting package. For more information, contact TDI at 800-531-6440 or visit www.tdirect.com.

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