Technology reports facilitate staff coaching

Telemarketing, Jul 1994 by Hochman, David

A fumble, a turnover or a missed touchdown tells a coach his football team needs more practice, but it takes hours of reviewing game tapes and statistics to pinpoint weaknesses and develop a plan to overcome them. Similarly, observing nonproductive behavior, such as frequent breaks, tells a telemarketing supervisor his or her agent team isn't working up to par, but it takes close scrutiny of the day's calling activity to identify most problems and ways to fix them.

Fortunately, commonly used telemarketing technologies, such as automatic call distributors (ACDs), agent software and predictive dialers, have stepped up to the plate with automatic and customizable reporting systems that provide the necessary data to "coach" telemarketing service representatives on winning strategies.

These reports--the same you may already be using to predict call volumes and staffing requirements offer invaluable measurements of telemarketing service representatives' performance. By themselves or in conjunction with costs and sales data, these statistics can help you spot agents with low productivity and those who are candidates for retraining. On the flip side, they also can alert you to high performers whose techniques may be useful to share with the rest of the team.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

While systems may vary in their reporting parameters, one currently marketed automatic call distributor produces the following statistics. All of these statistics can be used to improve TSR performance.

* AGENT NAME AND IDENTIFICATION NUMBER. Reports can be generated not only at the group or team levels, but at the agent level as well. By breaking down team performance into each individual's contribution, you can easily compare how one rep is doing in relationship to the others and spot variances that could point to a potential problem.

Try sharing these reports with your team. A team member who is not pulling his or her weight could be motivated to be more productive when made aware of how his or her performance ranks among colleagues. No one wants to be "the low man on the totem pole." Since the reports include the agent ID, you can post the data anonymously if you wish.

* ACD EFFICIENCY. The agent reports can contain a calculation of agent efficiency that is equal to the total ACD time (talk time, hold time and wrap time) divided by the total ready time. This number, if very low compared to the rest of the team, is an instant indicator that an agent group may be overstaffed or an agent may have a problem. Examination of other statistics in the report is needed to determine why an efficiency rating is not up to par. Generally, however, it indicates one of three things: The TSR needs retraining, requires disciplinary action, or was misplaced in that agent team. A misplaced agent is one whose skill set does not match the call task if, for instance, he or she took the call as part of an overflow team not normally assigned to the project.

By downloading figures from the agent report into a PC-based spreadsheet program, such as LOTUS 1-2-3, you can devise any number of calculations to give you an efficiency rating that is meaningful to your call center, group or team. By determining an average efficiency rating, you also can calibrate appropriate thresholds of efficiency (e.g., 90 percent, 95 percent) needed for cost-efficiency on a project for quick assessment of each agent's contribution to the project's success.

* NUMBER OR PERCENTAGE OF TIME SPENT ON ACD CALLS AND NON-ACD CALLS. These statistics break down calls taken by an agent into two categories: ACD and non-ACD. ACD calls are those that are work-related, while non-ACD calls are usually personal in nature.

A disproportionate number of non-ACD calls to ACD calls likely indicates a disciplinary problem. Be judicious in taking action based on these statistics alone; the statistics can be misleading, especially in a call center where agents are expected to make outgoing calls to return customer inquiries.

* NUMBER OF REFUSED CALLS. In an ACD environment where there is no automatic answer feature, it is important to monitor how many calls a TSR does not answer when the system indicates he or she is logged in and ready to accept calls. A high number of refused calls indicates a disciplinary problem, such as spending too much time away from the designated position, or a misunderstanding of appropriate log in/out procedures.

* AVERAGE CALL DURATION. Once a campaign is under way, you can determine the amount of time a typical call should take. If a TSR's average call duration is significantly lower or higher than this threshold, the TSR may not be adequately trained and, thus, experience a lot of hang ups or have difficulty closing the sale. Lengthy call durations may also point to overtraining. If the TSR knows too much or has a personal interest in the product he or she is selling, the TSR may lose control of the conversation due to his or her own enthusiasm for the subject.

* AVERAGE WORK TIME. ACD time, response time and wrap-up time are included in work time. Again, this statistic, when viewed in comparison to other team members, can alert you to TSRs who are slacking-off or experiencing a training problem.