People who work in contact centres want to help customers and do the right thing by them, especially those with experience in that environment. Despite this, complications can dramatically reduce customer service.
Product difficulties, competing internal service priorities and bad performance measures from management can all affect the quality of service provided. Some organisations seemingly prevent good customer service from ever being possible with kooky policies and procedures.
What Agent Shadowing looks for
SuccessCX developed a method called “Agent Shadowing” to find the problems holding your customer service back, so you can improve the customer experience. We carefully select agents with different skills and experience, then meet with them to review several tickets together.
From the way those tickets are managed, we calculate an overall customer experience score against the following criteria:
- The level of skill displayed when operating the customer service platform. Are advanced features being used?
- Are defined processes being followed, and are they consistent across the team?
- Does the agent have access to knowledge to allow them to work effectively?
- Is there a 360-degree view of the customer, including customer history, events and objects?
- Are third-party platforms integrated into the “single pane of glass”?
- How is work prioritised, and does the platform make it easy to select the next enquiry?
- Can the agent refer the customer to pre-built knowledge for more detail?
- Can the agent create draft articles and comment on existing articles when working on issues?
- What are the agents’ KPIs, and do they promote good customer service?
- How is the voice of the customer measured, and does that feedback make it to the agent?
- What coaching, training and support is available to the agent?
- Are there collaboration tools available to allow cross-agent assistance?
- How is empathy used to support customers?
What agents need to do the job
Organisations need to do better to support their Customer Service capabilities and staff. Customer service teams need information ready in an easy-to-read format. Agents need an immediate understanding of customer context, which is the base of a personalised and effortless customer experience.
Access to knowledge is also part of effective customer support. Documented resolutions to known issues give agents speed to resolution and the best approach to solving, and they can be updated for continual improvement. Those resolutions also help product managers understand customer issues, improve products, boost customer loyalty, and enhance the company’s competitiveness and profits.
Customer Service agents need direct access to stock systems and product details, which helps them quickly find information and spot up-sell opportunities. That access is essential for effective customer support.
What leaders need to provide
Customer Service leaders must give front-line staff a lot of support and guidance. Very few customers call into the Customer Service Centre to advise what good service agents are providing, and customer problems and frustrations are common, making the job tiring and difficult for the agents who handle them.
A positive team culture is essential. Service Leaders should regularly celebrate successes and good customer results to encourage healthy behaviour among team members. Writing up good customer feedback on the team board is a great way to highlight good work. I show the OnePlus Customer Service Video in my training classes to teach the right service culture.
Letting agents make quick decisions for customers helps them feel responsible and leads to better outcomes. Agents can give customers up to $50 gift vouchers to compensate for a bad experience.
Leaders and staff should regularly give and receive coaching and feedback to help everyone improve and enhance team performance. The management team must create and implement career paths for employees to become leaders or experts in their fields.
Customer Service Leaders must create clear business cases when they need extra budget or tools, and they should have direct access to senior management to make things happen quickly.
The number of considerations that take your Customer Service Centre to a high level of excellence is daunting. You can still deliver excellent customer service with support from management, dedicated leaders, proper tools and committed staff. Done well, that leads to great success for the business.
