Answers Online

Business Networking - Useful?

I have just started down the long road of Internet business networking. Yes, it takes diligence but I have seen good results. Jobs are posted and people are matched. I've asked questions and gotten great answers. I've made good contacts with people that I would have otherwise never met.

What experiences have you had? Are you part of any networks you would recommend? Do you have any hints to make the experience more useful?

I am part of:
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/)
Fastpitch (http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/),
Plaxo Pulse (http://pulse.plaxo.com/pulse/).

If you haven't tried it and want to have access to good people, this is definitely one way to go.

]]> Here is a link to a whole bevy of business blogs. While you will need to sort through them, it certainly gives you a view of what's available:

Quality monitoring practices

Question:
What are some of the best practices in call / quality monitoring these days? This is a 2006 initiative.

]]> Answer:
I know the following is going to sound like a consultant's answer but here goes.

There are a lot of quality monitoring "practices" bouncing around these days with an equal number of "benchmarking" studies and "surveys" being published. The problem is, it is difficult to assess "best practices." As I always say, survey results can lead a company, like a lemming, over a cliff.

Quality monitoring is a broader project than many companies are currently implementing. Companies are realizing the gold mine in monitoring calls and technologies are giving us the opportunity to expand our horizons. There is one system that claims to be able to monitor and score calls without any human intervention! While this may be true, I'm not sure it covers all the bases (e.g., business process protocol monitoring). However, it can do some neat things!

Call monitoring isn't just about agent skill and knowledge anymore. However, process, product, and competitive monitoring is really still just a great idea. Few companies have implemented it fully. Most companies are still struggling to get the required performance management process in place that supports "basic" call monitoring (for skill and knowledge).

I believe best practice companies today are the ones that have a fully integrated performance management infrastructure (metrics, performance standards, coaching / training, etc.) that supports the results of skill and knowledge monitoring.

If you haven't already, sign up for our newsletter. We have published call monitoring research and practices. After that, check out our site for other quality resources. Good luck with your initiative!

E-mail management

Question:
What are customers expecting these days as far as e-mail response times?

]]> Answer
There is a lot of research behind e-mail response times. That makes it pretty easy to give some parameters.

Most customers wait for some kind of "immediate" response to their e-mail. Otherwise they begin to question if their e-mail got to you and will end up calling you to confirm you are working on their inquiry. So, if you aren't acknowledging e-mails, you may be generating additional calls into your call center. This first acknowledgement response can be automated and should arrive within an hour.

The "answer / solution" to a customer's e-mail request should be within 24 hours (however, if the request is "urgent" then within an hour). This turnaround time is pretty standard for customers these days. I know, as a customer, it is was I expect!

Number of Monitored Calls

How many calls should we monitor for each agent?

]]> There are a couple of ways to answer this question. Most important is for your team to discuss the financial aspect of this. Are you budget constrained? Are you quality monitor constrained?

According to LeapFrog! data, almost 50% of companies monitor 10 or fewer calls per reporting period per agent. Almost 30% of the companies monitor five or fewer.

According to APQC and Response Design best practice studies, best-in-class call centers monitor six to ten calls per reporting period.

Response Design also cautions call centers to document how they are going to use the calls. If the monitored calls are going to be used to determine training needs and/or short term recognition then the numbered monitored each reporting period can be used for this. However, if you are going to use the calls for any type of disciplinary action then you should wait until you have at least 30 calls scored (this can be a rolling average).