Historically, quality monitoring programs were implemented exclusively to monitor a customer service agent’s performance. These quality programs were tactical in nature and inwardly focused; determining which agents were adhering to a specific process or following a given script. Desired outcomes typically addressed only the objectives of the customer service department.
Yet, at its core, quality monitoring should be a process of listening to interactions from the customers’ perspective – their experience with your brand. This can provide great insights from a much broader business view – not only service or operational issues, but also product performance, sales opportunities, or legal compliance validation. By framing a monitoring program to mine cross-functional business insights, organizations can create more strategic outcomes and position the enterprise to differentiate itself in the marketplace.
57% of consumers will tell others about a bad experience
The Northridge Group found in a recent study that 57% of consumers will tell others about a bad experience. Consider the implications of a single complaint by a customer in today’s marketplace. Historically, a customer might tell one or two friends about their complaint and those friends might share that message among their own immediate social group. Today, a person might write a Facebook post or tweet about their experience and that comment could be re-posted to millions of potential customers online. One complaint in a sea of online posts could seem like a drop in the bucket, but in the aggregate, the online community is now heavily relying on that feedback to determine which companies they choose for their business needs. From the Northridge Group’s own experience with social media monitoring, our specialists have found that it’s not unusual for an individual to reference a competitor as a means for comparison in a complaint. This type of direct exposure could undermine your business and provide an advantage to your competitor.
The Northridge Group provides quality monitoring services for companies across a variety of industries and across many customer channels. We know from our own results that when we monitor for those big-picture insights, from the customer’s point of view, there is a direct correlation between our quality monitoring assessments and the client’s customer loyalty scores.
Today, contact center agents are required to deal with more complex issues, as many of the “easy” questions are being filtered out through self-service options offered online through websites and apps. Complex customer problems, which are much more likely rooted in cross-functional issues, are the ones contact center personnel are now tasked to handle. Monitoring these contacts will give organizational leaders more insights on deep-seated business issues. These complicated and gnarly interactions are the critical “moments of truth” that can make or break a customer’s loyalty. Handling them well, understanding what they are, and taking steps to fix their root cause is essential to creating strategic differentiation.
A quality monitoring program can help an organization mine complex customer interactions for key insights into cross-functional and strategic improvement needs. Business leaders must be aware of the nature of customer issues, particularly when they become a trend or are indicative of a systemic business problem. By identifying these critical issues early, an organization can keep customers satisfied, keep products at peak performance, and the enterprise at a strategic advantage.
If you are interested in more information regarding The Northridge Group’s Quality Monitoring program or other customer experience solutions, contact us here.
