Customer care representatives are a necessity to any company offering customer experiences. Because they are at the forefront, they determine the kind of service customers enjoy or otherwise. Best-In-Class organizations realize this fact and work to turn this service resource into a critical asset.
This is done most effectively through engaging and empowering the customer care representatives. An empowered employee will be motivated to deal with any obstacle as long as they resolve customers’ issues and protect the company image. He or she will strike a balance in the service delivery because they understand the organization’s standards as well as the needs and expectations of the customers.
Here are tips and practices that will help boost front-line performance leading to excellent customer experiences.
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Measure Current Performance :
It is essential to know your current performance situation. What are your front-line employees doing to deliver exceptional customer experiences? Someone once wrote, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” You need to know where you are going and where you are, for success path mapping.
Most companies have customer service goals and measuring tools in place. However, you need to align the metrics to the brand standards for exceptional experiences. Utilize all the available resources to ensure that you measure the essential performance metrics. -
Give Individual Feedback :
For the highest impact, you need to monitor each employee and how he or she interacts with the customers. You may have a script and have trained them on call and chat etiquette, but subsequent to training, you need to monitor each employee and give feedback accordingly. Acknowledge and reward the agents that are doing well and encourage and train those who are lagging behind.
Constant monitoring allows you to notice low-quality interactions and therefore, react before it gets out of hand. When you correct an employee immediately, it helps him or her to change and act in line with the corporate standards.In a large contact center, this might be a challenge given the high number of agents. You can overcome it by holding calibration sessions and group coaching with a few agents at a time.
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Encourage Accountability :
Accountability stems from taking responsibility. When an agent understands and owns his or her role in the customer experience chain, then they will be accountable not only to themselves but also to the company.
You can know whether your employees are responsible during individual coaching sessions. A responsible agent will acknowledge their errors and suggest behavior changes that would ensure it does not happen again faced with similar circumstances. However, if an agent cannot see where they went wrong, they have yet to embrace accountability.Another great way to check for accountability is through customer surveys. After every interaction, the agents should administer the short survey to get customer feedback. When you use the above sources of information well, you will know the areas that require enhancement measured against performance metrics.
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Incorporate Supporting Teams :
Front-line employees do not work alone; a variety of teams support their efforts. For example, the technical team is a crucial part of the customer experience process in a product oriented contact center. Analyze the performance of all the supporting departments to know the weak and strong links.
Strengthening all teams will ensure that customers experience the company as “one” not departments. Free knowledge sharing and working together to achieve organizational goals as far as customer service is concerned will keep you ahead of the competition.The aim is offer consistent experiences to the customer.
In summary, when you measure employees’ current performance state, individualize feedback, encourage accountability and incorporate the supporting teams in the process, you will be on the right track to higher-quality customer experiences. Your goal should be to measure, review and refine agents’ performance.
This blog was first published on LinkedIN
