Need to develop action plan to improve error ratio among reps

[Barb Steinseifer]

I work in an inbound/outbound call center which averages around 10 to 19 reps. To provide our customers with the best level of work we are trying to improve their error ratio. We would like to know if there are any other call centers who have developed guidelines in their center for grammar errors. How do you track them? Our customers sometimes request all comments made to our reps and the project managers spend many man hours just retyping and correcting errors. One rep may have comments 20 sentences long with 1 error where another rep only had 3 sentences with 3 errors. Any input would be great on how other centers handle this.

[Ian Alexander]

When you say you're looking for a system on improving the level of gramatical errors, it brings a few questions to mind...

1) Is your outbound support via email? Are these grammatical errors written (typed)? Or are you referring to spoken, verbal errors?

2) If the outbound support is via email, what is your email client?

3) What is the age range of your employee base?

4) If you don't mind me asking, do you have many reps that do not have english as a first language?

[Capshaw]

Alexander is on the right track and his questions are essential to correctly answer address your problem.

If you are talking about e-responses to customers here is a simple way to correct (for the most part) this ongoing problem.

A simple but tedious way to resolve this issue with grammar would be to have your agents send all responses to a qualified agent that can correct any errors, ensure quality, and then forward the response to the end customer.

If this is an e-sales center that may become a problem and as all of us know, you don't mess with someone elseÂ’s money. On the other hand a trusted colleague would be fine to administer this position within a management capacity.

[freja]

Do I understand that you say that the customers request (written) copies of the conversations, rather than e mail replies to queries?

If the former, then the customers need to accept that conversations are not recorded verbatim, but that agents use a precis of the conversation: ' Bob Jones (client) has an XYZ100 machine with error code 911. Advised him to check connections and re-boot .'

If the latter, then agents need to be recruited for their written skills as much as their spoken skills. As a minimum, replies should be randomly monitored and evaluated for grammar, content, accuracy of information etc. If necessary, run a quality check on all replies from specific agents, whilst providing extra training to help them to improve.