Monitoring Calls

[imran94]

Every week I have to monitor atleast 2 calls per agent and have 25 agents in my team. All most all the agents are seniors (having worked in this same call center for more than a year) and are good in their calls, especially when I am with them doing deskside monitorings.

Sometimes, infact most of the times, I have no feedback to give. Some times the calls are very simple; even if the call is a difficult one, since all the agents in my particular team are "pros", its childs play for them to handle such calls. BUT, I have to do monitorings as it is required by COPC but I personally do not find any use for such "useless" monitorings. I feel it is waste of time, really. Every day I "waste" more than an hour in these "worthless" call-monitorings!!!

Any comments or suggestions are most welcome.

[beejay]

One of the important requirements of reaching top performance as a supervisor and as a team (and sustaining it) is development and feedback. Each supervisor should spend at least one hour per month in coaching and development activities with each member of the team. This would be in additon to the monthend review of goals and performance. The sessions can last only 15 minutes at a time but this time spent is crucial to success.

Monitoring activity is a development tool you have to use. I'd suggest you change the approach. I suspect the way you feel about monitorings could come through to the agent when you recap with them. Do you have a check list of items you are looking for in a conversation? If not, you should create one. It should contain all the elements of a call. Monitoring should be done both side-by-side (25%) and remote (75%). There will be performance differences between the two approaches and you will be able to address them as well as the call elements.

After the monitoring session, sit with the agent and provide constructive feedback. However, it should not be one-way. Ask the agent's opinion and input as to how they could do it differently and better. These monitorings then become part of the overall monthly one-on-one review of performance.

Outstanding performance should be recognized particularly at team meetings. Team members want and need performance feedback and love the recognition that comes with it.

[globalrespondez]

You have been trying call monitoring with them on the floor. May be since you are around on the floor with the agents they understand that you are there to monitor. Have you tried "Remote monitoring" ? It works!!!! You have to be very smart in doing so, without informing the agents about monitoring.

[yooo]

I have tried everything, remote, deskside monitorings. My main concern is what feedback we can give to the senior agents, as they are already good enough.

Remote monitoring is not the answer, I think. I know we can "catch" agents doing incorrect things on the calls when we monitor remotely but I am not interested in doing that. I would like to give them some constructive feedback but since they are already such seasoned CSRs, what else can one tell them to do better on the calls.

[Ian Alexander]

keep your eyes peeled for efficiency tips you can provide. Myself, I focous on just that, as well as word choice.

A common example of an "efficiency tip" is if someone calls us and asks a question that is answered on your website. It is common for the rep to simply answer the question...no harm done. What I am pointing the reps to do is say:

"Mr/Mrs. Customer, are you infront of your computer right now? Great! Would you care to join me @ www.yoursite.com?" and then proceed to LEAD THE CALLER to where they can find the answer, rather then simply answering the question.

It falls under the "Feed a man to fish, feed him for a day, TEACH a man to fish, you feed him for life".

By showing the caller how to find the answer themself, they will hopefully refer to the website/resource again before calling in the future.

Word choice can nearly always be improved upon. An example:

"We don't support that, you will have to contact X for support"

while the answer is correct, it is very negative and may come off as such to the caller (whether it's conscious to them or not)

an example of the same answer with positive word choice would be:

"The contact centre you've reached provides support for B. In order to recieve the most efficient support for X, it would be a matter of contacing them directly. I can transfer you if you'd like"

No matter how seasoned, word choice & efficiency can always be polished.

[yooo]

Thank you very much Ian. This was the feedback I was looking for. I will try to impliment that more as I would do that too.

[D Gentry]

[

I am a group leader for the call center c/s area. I want to put together a " Goals and mission statement ". Any advice would be helpful. Also I am putting together some coaching sessions dealing with stress in the call center. Any advice on these 2 subjects would be appreciated.

[Ian Alexander]

you're welcome. Feel free to email me if you have further questions.

mcvicar@canada.com

[ALFAGTV-6]

When I went to COPC training, it was stressed that you only may have to monitor a Tech one time a month if they are high performing techs with predictable and reliable results. However, those Techs with low QA scores need the extra feedback. monitor them several times a week to give them feedback and to see how your coaching is altering their behaviors. Spend the time monitoring where it is needed most, not on your high performance Techs.

I further used this common sense approach to montitoring at my center and we certified COPC in March. Try it, COPC will not slight you for it.

[Frank A. Engle]

IMRAN-

As usual, there have been many great suggestions. Faced with the same predicament myself when trying to advise a client on the same situation, I suggested the following:

Concentrate on a quantitative/quantitiative evaluation based on zero error rate. Even though it appears as though all of the agents are performing at an extremely high level because of knowledge, experience, simplicity of call or some combination, there is still a "creme de la creme" of performance. Define that parameter...and integrate your company mission and image into the formula. In a room full of response geniuses, there still is a curve to grade upon and you just need to find the parameters of that curve.

Remember...it is one thing to be efficient and a "meets expectation" in a company perspective and quite another perhaps in a customer perpective.

Hope this helps!

[Operator X]

During my time as a telemarketer, i was monitered quite often, as well as the other agents. I always wanted feedback so i could improve myself. They usually told me i did a gooc job. When we got a new call center manager. He called me into is office once and told me what he thought of my work. He used some explicitives and thought my work was bad. I had done nothing different since before he came, so i don't know where he got off by talking to me like this. He would say things to me such as: "Your performance Sucked ---" or "You are really doing (Explicitive) job" I knew he was monitoring. He did this almost everyday, and i asked him how this was supposed to motivate anyone. This guy had no prior experience as a telemarketer, so one day he told me all these things i could do better. So i finally said: "Why don't you do this yourself, or just shut the hell up" He left me alone after that.

[Gloria 64]

You should not feel that you are wasting your time. Any monitoring done should be viewed as a learning toll for all. My suggestion is that you use different approaches when monitoring. If all you sessions are as a result of side by side... Then try random silent or recorded calls. By doing this the representative has no idea when their calls is being monitored and they will display the true personality.... I have 15 reps that I monitor six calls each. All my feedback sessions are done from recorded calls and selected randomly. I find it most helpful to me and to the reps to have them sit and listen to the calls that are being evaluated. Try some new ways to break up the routine!