Managing Satisfaction with the Company from the Contact Center Seats
By Dr. Jodie Monger – President, Customer Relationship Metrics
Can a CSR in your contact center have an impact on overall satisfaction and loyalty
with your company? Yes. The culture in your contact center must clearly communicate
that fact. Do not assume that each CSR knows this – tell them…and then
help them to be responsible for that fact.
It is easy for a CSR to focus on the detail of the position. After all, you are
focused on the details. While he may feel that he does not have a direct affect on
service level, he certainly does. And he has an affect on the entire customer contact
experience which ultimately influences general satisfaction. It is easy to act as if
the general company satisfaction is something that someone else is responsible for but
research indicates that no less than 70% of the feeling about the company is directly
controlled by the contact center experience. Who controls the call center experience?
It is time to put our money where our mouth is. If we touch everything and everything
touches us, then we must take responsibility for the company satisfaction ratings.
Why should a CSR on the phone care? They won’t unless you explain to them that
satisfaction is the leading indicator of profitability and market share. They can
and need to influence it. The buck stops here. Stop rationalizing why any customer
score is not your responsibility. Measure it and manage it.
This example is indicative of the behavior that you must change: The customer calls
about an invoicing issue. The CSR laments with the customer that in fact the company
has experienced this pervasive problem and if she had a dime for every customer who
called about it, she wouldn’t have to work. And then she takes care of the
customer issue. At the expense of the company, the CSR has made herself look good.
Not acceptable. CSRs must consider how their action and reaction to customer issues
ultimately have an effect on the satisfaction with the company.
Begin your move to this mindset by including the company satisfaction question on
your caller satisfaction measurement instrument. Begin the education process with
your team. Add an item to your service delivery goals for this metric. Track it,
talk about the effect of this metric. Then add it to the performance review scorecard.
Hold everyone accountable for the specific metrics about their individual performance
– and if you are managing the correct individual metrics, your overall company
satisfaction scores will be positively impacted.
This is a cultural issue that must be changed through management of the metric.
As a manager, you can quantify what it means for your CSRs to move this metric.
You should also use this information when reporting the contribution of your contact
center(s) to the company. Take credit for the change!
