ICMI's Customer Management Insight - September 2007 - (Page 33) O P E R AT I O N S expect unwanted turnover in their center to increase (20 percent) or stay the same (50 percent) over the coming year. Nor is it a big surprise that such a high percentage of agents leave the call center after just a short stint: one in three respondents (30 percent) indicated that they experience the highest turnover within the first 90 days that an agent is on the job; another 23 percent said they experience the most agent turnover around six months, with yet another 23 percent reporting that agents stick around for only one year before moving on. Of course, not helping matters is the fact that only 32 percent of respondents reported that leaders and supervisors receive some form of employee retention training, and that many centers do not formally hold leaders accountable for retention. Further, only 19 percent of respondents feel that the leaders in their organization are “very highly skilled” (2 percent) or “highly skilled” (17 percent) at retaining the center’s best employees. Some of the findings, however, were promising. For instance, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of participating call centers reported an external agent turnover rate of 25 percent or less over the past year — not bad considering that in recent years, many researchers have cited average external agent attrition rates of well over 30 percent for the call center industry. Nevertheless, it appears that the industry may have hit a plateau — or even regressed some — in the area of agent retention and engagement, and must now aim to embrace more progressive retention practices if the call center is to continue to evolve in its role as the powerful customer-facing hub of the enterprise. QUALITY MONITORING Virtually all call centers recognize the criticality of having a formal quality monitoring program in place to ensure continuous improvement to customer satisfaction, agent performance and development, and operational efficiency, but many centers are finding it highly challenging to carry out their quality monitoring functions successfully. Only 55.8 percent of centers stated that their quality assur- their self-service channels — thus setting up their promising IVR and Web-based support strategies for ultimate failure. Only 25.8 percent and 27.4 percent of centers monitor their IVR and Web self-service contacts. ance personnel are given the time and/or resources they need to lead an effective quality program — down from an already low 58.2 percent in a similar study we conducted in 2004. Centers’ struggles to obtain the resources they need could be attributed in large part to the fact that they aren’t sharing enough key data and trends uncovered during monitoring with the enterprise as a whole. Just over half (52 percent) of respondents reported that their center shares monitoring data and customer feedback with other departments within their enterprise. Another concern uncovered during the study is the fact that — while they are doing a decent job of monitoring traditional phone calls and customer email contacts — most centers have failed to extend their quality assurance efforts to Some findings, however, were promising. For instance, most centers surveyed are doing positive things like clearly explaining the center’s monitoring program and objectives to agent candidates to ensure understanding and acceptance early on (72.4 percent), and empowering agents to selfmonitor and evaluate some of their own contacts prior to receiving formal feedback (71.1 percent). However, most centers would vastly improve their quality programs and the customer experience — as well as the agent experience — by adopting a few other easy-toimplement tactics and processes, such as seeking agent input when developing the center’s monitoring form, utilizing e-learning modules to enhance the efficiency of feedback delivery and the complexity of feedback content, and implementing a dynamic “voice of the customer” component to help give the center and — specifically, agents themselves — a clearer view of customer preferences and the customer experience. | SEPTEMBER 2007 icmi’s insight www.icmi.com 33 http://www.icmi.com
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