Call Center Incentive Scheme

[Doberman]

I am a TL in a Call Center of the banking industry. My manager has asked me to prepare an incentive scheme for our reps.
I have taken into consideration two parts:
Part 1. is the performance of the agents which includes call quality, ASA, ACH, and the daily service level.
Part 2. is the sales, which includes salary accounts, other types of accounts, loans, credit cards, investment funds etc.

Can anyone help me to enhance the scheme. What other factors should I include in it? How do you generally evaluate your staff to make sure they're entitled to get the monthly incentive?
I appreciate your help.

Thank you

[Doberman]

Nobody wants to offer help :(

[WDWJoy]

I think you need to consider what the purpose is of the incentive scheme.

I would consider weighting each of the things you mentioned depending on the objective of the scheme. (i.e. is it to increase sales? improve customer service? increase productivity? The driving force of the scheme should make up the greatest part of the incentive in order to communicate it's importance.)


What is your attendance like? Unless it's fabulous (which would be wonderful in a call center) I would factor that in too.

I would be interested to see what your final result is. Good Luck!

[Doberman]

Dear DWDJoy

The main point of incentive plan is to increase both 2 parts, performance and sales. ( but sales mainly )
I have assigned numbers of points for each factor in the (performance part) and a minimum of 40 points has to be gained in order to count the points of the 2nd part (sales) into the incentive scheme.
Of course I have weighted each factor in (performance part) according to their importance to our call center and have assigned points to each factor also depending on their importance. As for attendance, break time, acw etc.
I have put that in mind but in a different way. For example, tardiness or exceeding allowed break time will result in a deduction of points.

Now I need to know what else to be added or is there a better incentive scheme that I can use and develope before I give this one to my manager?

I need your help guys.

Regards

[Doberman]

I have seen 113 reviews and only one reply??
Many thanks to DWDJoy.
Someone help me please, those who have experience in Call Centers this is a simple question..

[tin_graham]

Hi!

I don't know your purpose of the incentive but I'm sure it would only lead to increasing sales and drive of the agents. Aside from the increase of commish, I'm sure a daily spieff ( did I spelled it correctly?) for the agents is really challenging. For example, the first agent who reach the quota gets a fee lunch to one of the expensive restaurants in town or a box of pizza or a strabucks coffee. Or the first three agents who got the highest sale gets an extra cash. This is to develop competition and drive to each of the agents to work hard each day.

I hope I get your point right!

Have a good day!

[Doberman]

Dea Tin-Graham

Thanks alot for your post. Yet, I have already decided on what to reward my agents when they achieve their target. I needed help in preparing the incentive scheme, I don't want to hand it to my boss unless it's totally perfect. Do you have an incentive scheme that you use for your staff? If so, I would appreciate it if you'd share it with me.

Regards

[alucinari]

First off, let me say that I applaud your efforts to implement incentives, and that you're focusing on two major parts of an agent's performance.

One thing I thought was peculiar about the metrics you've already suggested to measure such as ASA, service level, and average calls handled, is that these metrics are not in the agent's control. These things are based on how well the planning and staffing has been done which the rep takes no part in. However, measuring productivity is obviously important.

Some things to consider that the agents CAN control may be: amount of time spent in a non-productive state such as AUX, average handle time, average after call time, and schedule compliance. Quality is also of course of high importance. You may want to consider using three categories such as Productivity, Quality, and Performance aka sales. Many times in a sales or collections environment, agents are scored on their averages such as sales per contact, dollars per sale, etc. I also definintely agree with the previous post that said attendance should be taken into consideration as well.

Hope this helps!

[Doberman]

Dear Alucinari,

Thanks for the great tips. I have taken into consideration almost all of the factors mentioned in your post except for productivity. which I don't know how it never came up to my thoughts.

Thanks again for the info. And thanks for all who have posted replies to my thread.

[Frank A. Engle]

Doberman-

Of the many "incentive plans" I have either created or been involved with, the most effective have had the following components:

1. Easy to understand. The agent should be able to track their own performance hourly if possible. They should also know if they missed an opportunity to earn part of the incentive on virtually every call.

2. No negative points. For example, they may not qualify for extra "points" if they are tardy or absent, but no earned points are taken away from the total from good work they have performed.

3. As alucinari mentioned, the bulk of the incentive must be in the control of the agent to achieve it. A good example would be an appointment setting agent who is only incented on the conversion rate of their appointments. Since the majority of the conversion in the hands of the employee keeping the appointment, the agent who set it has no control over the incentive. A better way would be to incent the agent on "qualified appointments" that were confirmed by QA. no matter what the conversion.

Hope this helps...Good Luck!!!

[Doberman]

Thanks alot for the tips.
I am working on the incentive plan now and i'll make sure these points are taken into consideration. I have a meeting with my manager tomorrow morning, and I'll mention all the points mentioned by you guys.
Hope she likes it.

Thanks again.

[vonhan]

Hi,

I would focus on two opjectives:

1) Quality
2) Performance

[jadarvev]

Hello.
We have a program like this:

Service and Quality: (70%)
Result of the quality assurance group.
One call resolution rate.
index of customers' satisfaction
Results of knowledge exams
Productivity: (30%)
Adherence.
AHT.

Be careful that is not recomended include the service level when evaluating agents because this indicator doesn't depend really of teh agents. (forecasting, schedulling, etc) what must be done by agents is to fit to the shifts and that is measured by adherence.

[Doberman]

Thanks alot for the great tips.

[alwayslooking]

Besides what has already been mentioned, the two biggest keys I've found in agent incentive plans is:

1. Are the goals attainable? If the agents work hard at one plan and nobody wins, the next incentive will flop guaranteed. If the goals can be attained with a some extra work and effort I have found the results go way beyond my expectations.

2. Can you make it fun? A silly thing like handing monopoly money out to the agents for the points they earned rather than just listing their points goes a long towards making them work harder. It is more work running the incentive but you will be rewarded with higher sales.