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.
CIS Magazine Table of Contents
|