Ensure an Accurate View of the Customer Experience Through Your Quality Program

Use your call center quality program to gain deeper CX insights and drive positive change

For some time now, many organizations have marched under banners with words like “Customer First,” “Customer-Focused” or “Customer Success.” For these brands, there is an understanding that highly satisfied customers are more likely to be loyal and that loyal customers are more likely to become advocates for the brand. Focusing on the customer brings not only repeat business but also new customers.

Sounds simple enough, right? While many companies know this and aspire to it, it’s not always that easy to accomplish. And some companies actually make it harder than it needs to be.

Part of the answer lies with your company’s call center quality program. If you think about it, the call center is one of the best windows into the customer experience. Executed well, your quality program can actually provide you with the insights needed to make meaningful change, change that will lead to happy, loyal customers. You’re already evaluating and observing hundreds (if not thousands) of customer interactions through this process, so why not leverage that function to quickly and accurately understand what’s happening with your customer’s journey?

If you know COPC Inc., you have probably heard us talk about quality.  A lot. And while the topic of quality has many facets, there are two key initiatives to focus on as it relates to the customer experience. This is especially true if your goal is to gain a more accurate view of the  customer experience, the kind of view that can help you capitalize on opportunities to improve.

These two initiatives are:

• Designing your quality form with the customer in mind
• Implementing a quality approach that captures ALL issues impacting the customer experience

Let’s start with the quality form.

A lot of the quality forms we see can be described this way: they are developed by a committee for the committee. Often times, the quality form has absolutely nothing to do with promoting an exceptional customer experience. Instead, it has everything to do with the individual opinions and priorities of internal stakeholders, and some of these stakeholders may be far removed from the customer. It’s an approach that isn’t based on data and is all too often blind to what matters most to customers.

We recommend a different approach, one that starts and ends with the customer. Ask yourself this question: Do each of the items on our quality form reflect the items that have a direct impact on overall satisfaction?

The answer to this should be based on actual data vs opinion, and this is done through a key driver survey and detailed analysis of customer satisfaction survey results. An example of typical key drivers includes things like issue resolution, agent knowledge, a desire to resolve, professionalism (not being rude) and handling the transaction efficiently — all from the customer’s perspective. You will notice that you don’t see items such as “thanking the customer” or “using the customer’s name.”  While those items may seem important to some, generally they are not critical to the customer and have very little impact on the overall experience.

If you want your quality program to give you insights into the customer experience and allow you to be more proactive in addressing customer issues, a quality form aligned with those drivers is critical.

Now, let’s talk about how to capture ALL issues impacting the customer experience through the quality program.

Once you have identified key customer drivers and have included those on your form, it is just as important to capture anything that impacts the customer experience. All too often, we see quality programs that are solely focused on capturing what the agent did or didn’t do. However, in our experience, it’s often the case that 75% or more of the issues impacting the customer are related to policy, process or the product, but very rarely are these captured through a company’s quality program — and they should be. For example, if an issue is not resolved, then you should be capturing exactly why it wasn’t resolved, regardless of whether it was within the agent’s control or not. This places the focus squarely on the customer. With such focus, the root cause of issues impacting the customer are quickly identified, providing valuable data that can be fed back into the business.

Carrying the banner of the customer is important, especially for those who have been charged with improving the customer experience. But equally important is putting a stake in the ground for creating real and positive change. We believe greater vision into the current experience can be the catalyst for that change. So, instead of trying the same old approach to quality, consider revisiting your quality program from a new perspective, that of your customer.

 

If you’d like to discuss what is or isn’t working with your quality program, I’d welcome the opportunity to connect with you.
Please reach out to me at lharrell@copc.com or find me on LinkedIn.