Contact center performance management is a thankless job, as is all customer service and support work. It’s a job that’s definitely not for everyone. On top of needing to be a people person, a patient individual and a great communicator, you also have to have an understanding of the human animal above and beyond general social skill. You have to have a good sense of yourself and your coworkers’ states of mind as well.
But, here you are. Contact center performance management is a responsibility you have been charged with, and if your company has any sense of giving the right people the right jobs, then you must be cut out for it. But, what’re some good things to consider when it comes to this daunting and often stressful job?
Well, let’s take a look at a few of these that I know can work and let you decide your best practices.
#1 – Define a Good Job
Your staff are going to hold your views of positive and negative performance as the de facto standard for them to follow. This is how leadership works, and it may seem like a heavy responsibility, but such is life. With that in mind, be sure to sit your staff down and show them recordings or hypothetical examples of an exemplary job in which obstacles are overcome and employees perform to your standards.
#2 – Communication of Leadership
The ten at ten strategy is a good example of this, where you hold a daily meeting of all management and team leadership in your call center. Usually, you cover ten key points and topics of current importance or issue, and you can all work out new solutions or concerns you have.
This dependable communication between leadership, especially in a large department, is vital.
#3 – End of Day Sessions
This is another good daily practice for communications, not just between managers but the staff at large as well. This informal last 15 minutes of operation is a time for everyone to discuss problems they have had, complaints they have or have received and the like. This is how you can get vital input, and detect and address problems that you may otherwise not become aware of. This also works for the first 15 minutes of the day. The tips might help someone in the team.
#4 – Get in the Customer’s Head
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes, and remember that while issues they have might be routine to you, they may be new issues to them. As a result, if you don’t remind yourself of this, it’s easy to lose your empathy to customers, and maybe convey the wrong message. Make sure you remember this issue, and that your staff does as well.
#5 – Encourage Agent Feedback
Well, we’ve covered the need for frequent communication, including fifteen minutes open discussion at the end of operating hours, but this isn’t enough. Encourage and assign value to feedback from your agents at any time. Make sure your door is open to them so that if they have an issue to pass on from customers, or have issues themselves with something, they can bring it to you while it’s fresh.
Contact center performance management is mostly about communications, which may or may not surprise you. Try your hand at a few of these methods, and see for yourself what works best for you.
