Contact center quality monitoring programs aim to capture a 360-degree holistic view of an omni-channel customer journey, focused on the Voice of the Customer and agent behaviors that impact customer experience. The purpose of that exercise is to glean meaningful, data-driven business insights that translate into actionable recommendations and measurable impacts to both the customer and the business. This is our approach at The Northridge Group.
Understanding the customer journey and listening to the Voice of the Customer are key to improving customer experience. A customer’s journey can begin with a few clicks on a website, lead to an omni-channel contact with a business, and end one of two ways: positive or negative. When there is a positive customer experience, we see lower Customer Effort (CE), higher First Contact Resolution (FCR), higher Net Promotor Scores (NPS), and less attrition. The implications of a negative customer experience include higher levels of CE, longer Average Handle Time (AHT), multiple customer contacts on the same issue, lower Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT) and NPS scores, and either attrition or bad press on social media. The Voice of the Customer matters most — and it is often measured by CE, CSAT, NPS and attrition. In general, if the customer experience is positive during contact with a business, then there will be a directionally positive impact to all other sales and operational metrics.
Meaningful and data-driven quantitative business insights, in best practice, are supported by qualitative anecdotal evidence. Quality monitoring programs that offer a comprehensive and in-depth human element to monitoring, in addition to broader speech analytics, typically generate more effective and actionable insights. These insights capture the Voice of the Customer, agent behaviors impacting customer experience, and correlations to KPIs and bottom-line metrics. Leveraging business insights and additional datasets — such as open-source, industry/market, or client-derived data — augments analytic outputs, which feed into dashboards and other coaching tools. Trends from the agent level up through each line of business within an organization are easily identified and used for targeted coaching and training opportunities. Agents and supervisors are engaged through training and adoption followed up with continual performance monitoring. Individuals throughout the organization feel empowered with a sense of ownership when they have visibility into what drives the business forward and an understanding of what matters most to business leadership.
Business leaders expect a measurable impact to the customer experience (increase in CSAT and NPS, decrease in CE and multiple customer contact) and operational metrics (increase in FCR, decrease in AHT). Tying operational metrics to specific KPIs is often easier than trying to equate the dynamic customer experience to specific KPIs, but it can be done. We often find that a positive customer experience corresponds with positive CSAT scores, an increase in customer retention and higher sales rates. This translates into a higher NPS, less attrition and increased revenue. When it comes to operational metrics, it is more straightforward. Agent behaviors that lead to FCR and reduced CE translate into fewer repeat calls and a decrease in AHT — in other words, higher efficiency and decreased operating costs.
The path here is clear: Start by understanding the customer journey and listening to the Voice of the Customer, glean meaningful data-driven insights from the customer experience, translate that into actionable recommendations for agent behavioral coaching and training, and measure the impact to your business. It can be done, and the results are worth the effort. The Northridge Group team embraces this approach. We are experts in the process, and we love building successful partnerships with our clients. Contact us today to learn more.
