Monitoring by performance

[barb2monitor]

I monitor calls in a 200 seat inbound/outbound environment. Our agents are increasing more rapidly than our QA staff can handle and we don't have approval to hire enough new QA's to handle. Currently we monitor everyone the same amount of monitors per month.We would like to move to a graduated system. For example we might monitor the average or "On Target" perfomer 10 times, a below average "Below Target"performer 15 times and an above average (Above Target) performer 5 times. We want to do this fairly and defuse any objections from the agents that we can. To judge which category each performer placed in (we have detailed performance ratings) should we look at the last 3 months, the past month or something other than those? I know there are inherent problems that we would like to avoid. Any advice from someone who's been there?

[gkern]

We do the same thing internally. I am not part of the QA group, but I can hook you up with someone to talk to. We have also gained some efficiency in our monitoring/feedback process through some tools that we developed internally. It allows the people doing the monitoring to be more productive. We can show you the tool as well if you wish.

Greg Kern
CallTech
512-261-0409

[donnapestell]

A couple of questions....

Do you have a contractual number of evaluations to complete on a weekly and/or monthly basis?

Do you have a ratio set for quality persons to agents?

Our centre uses a ratio of 35 agents to 1 quality person and that generally achieves 2 evaluations/agent/week. If we have contractual obligations that maintain different ratios, we usually can work them out to 30 agents to 1 quality person. The most evaluations weekly we are held contractually to are 3/agent/week which works out to 12/agent/month. My staff works a regular shift of Mon to Fri, 7.5 working hours per day. They are able to obtain the above objectives.

As well, the operations supervisors are required to quality monitor and coach as well.

If you have more questions/info, don't hesitate to ask.

[barb2monitor]

Thanks, Donna! Your information is very helpful. Let me give you more details. We are not contracted because we are monitoring agents in our own company.

What we are required to do currently is monitor 40+ agents with 3 monitors per week per quality person . This number will grow to 60+ agents per quality person by the end of the year and they did anticipate hiring one person (now postponing that).

We are also expected to do side by sides with agents, attend at least 1 half-day class per month, attend team meetings, management meetings,calibrations with supervisors, assist in training, support agents on the phone as needed, entertain and instruct visitors on our process, and each of us has specific projects.

If we are out sick, on vacation , or personal time for less than 3 days, we still have to complete the same amount. If it is more than that, the work is distributed among the five remaining , in addition to our usual monitors.

Now that I've given you a picture of our environment, let me ask you a couple of questions. How many questions do you have on your form? What type of feedback do you give? Is it detailed or do you just check a box? Thanks! Barbara

[donnapestell]

I actually work for a company that is an "outsourcer". I am the quality manager for this site and we currently have 7 different clients.

Each form for each client is different, most of them coming from the clients themselves without our input. Others follow our own internal quality guidelines.

We have the yes/no/na check off but additionally, when the "no" is checked off, we offer a 3-step coaching process on the form:
1. Identify specific criteria needing improvement
2. Describe method in which agent addressed criteria being coached.
3. Identify how agent can improve that area and benefits of improvement.

We also include at the beginning of the form a high level description of the call and at the end of the coaching, we always offer a positive overall note. For example, "Agent responded to the caller with enthusiasm."

[barb2monitor]

Thanks, again! I had assumed you were an "outsourcer". Do any of your clients have the "graduated scale" for monitoring that I described? Also do your agents do anything besides monitor?

I can't tell you how enjoyable it is to talk to someone who is familiar with the same job!

As you can see, we are trying to find a way to monitor an increasing number of agents without hiring additional staff.

[donnapestell]

In answer to your questions....

No, we don't use the graduated method on any of our campaigns.

And yes, the specialists (as we call them) do have additional duties which include 2 hours/month taking live calls, agent recognition, developing best practices, training/sharing trending reports with pre-designated agent pods.

How many specialists do you have?

[barb2monitor]

We have six "specialists" - we use that term, too. We used to be "Quality Specialist" but we just changed to "Selling Capability Specialists", as we are in a sales environment.

Are your specialists hourly or salaried? We are salaried, exempt (that's the reason for the 50 hours), but we are having problems completing our work in 50 hours.

When you do the 3/agent/week, how many agents will a specialist have? How do you handle absences?

[donnapestell]

Our specialists are hourly.

The specialists who are obligated to 12/agent/month have 30 agents each on their lists. Their quality form is 1 page long; however, very detailed.

Absence is handled by adding additional workload to the others on the team. Also, if someone is off during the week, they are encouraged to come in on the weekend to make up the time. They generally do because they are hourly paid.

Do you work as a peer or are you a mgr/sup? How much control do you have over time management with the rest of your team?

[barb2monitor]

I'm a peer - we have a manager, but she encourages us to be involved in solutions.

How many specialists do you have?

[donnapestell]

25 specialists and 3 supervisors

[barb2monitor]

Thanks, Donna. Your information has been very helpful.

[mlik]

Hi,
We have solutions which will help you monitor precisely the agent, the campaign, the time and number of calls.
You can have your vacation peacefully without bothering who will monitor your calls. You can record them and review when you are back.
What's more, you can grade the calls / agents just the way you want and compare gradings etc.
I obviously cannot talk much about this on the forum.
why dont you send me a mail on maulik@avontechnologies.com, acknowledging reading this message and we'll take it forward from there.

[barb2monitor]

I'm not sure, but sounds like you might have a system you're talking about. We already have Witness with random monitoring. My company is definitely not interested in purchasing anything else. It's covering personnel's time out that is our problem.Thanks.