5 Ways To Judge Your Contact Center Agents' Customer Centricity

I definitely judge your agents during – and after – customer engagement interactions.

And insofar as agents represent the face of your business, rest assured that I’m almost certainly relying on my assessment of the individual agents to judge your entire organization.

Given those high stakes – a bad agent can result in a negative overall perception of the business – it is imperative that your business control the impression your agents are generating. They must individually reflect your business’ overall commitment to customer centricity.

With that in mind, here are some ways you can judge your agents. If they pass these tests, they are likely the agents you want representing your brand.

First Impression: For businesses, customers are supposed to represent the center of the universe. They are the paramount priority.

When the interaction commences, do your agents communicate that importance? Do they express glee at the mere opportunity to connect with those responsible for the business’ survival?

Bored, indifferent, impolite greetings are unacceptable. They contradict any claims of customer centricity and set the call on the wrong course.

Personal Connections: Personalization is not the sole responsibility of the agent. An agent cannot personalize a call without instant, comprehensive access to the customer’s profile, previous feedback, purchasing patterns, and history of service interactions. It is the responsibility of your business to build an architecture that gets agents the information they need – when they need it.

What is the responsibility of the agent, however, is leveraging the combination of “people skills” and the information he does have to forge meaningful connections with customers. No matter the nature of the business or of the individual interaction, the agent must make it clear that he believes (and thus the business believes) he is talking to a valued, unique human rather than a number.

Efficiency: Some thought leaders advocate against “efficiency metrics” like average handle time and average speed of answer. Their perspective has logical merit – agents should not sacrifice a complete, high-quality, resolute experience in the name of “call time.”

The perspective should not, however, be mistaken as a claim that efficiency does not matter. It does, perhaps more than the “strategic call” advocates would like to admit. While customers are not necessarily looking for incomplete, impersonal calls, they are looking for smooth, expedient, low-effort interactions. They do not want to spend any more time – or devote any more effort – than is absolutely necessary for the desired resolution.

The best agents, therefore, operate with a mind for efficiency. They do not ask customers to wait, and they do not stumble while providing support. They listen, analyze the facts, and provide the necessary response in a quick, concise, confident fashion.

Agents should not blindly substitute speed for efficacy. They, on the other hand, should recognize that speed is a component of efficacy. It is a part of being customer centric.

If an agent cannot deliver an effective experience efficiently, he is not an ideal agent.

Outcome-Driven: Some agents align their behavior with scripts, policies, and procedures. If they do what they are “supposed to do,” they have done their job.

The best agents align their behavior with customer-oriented outcomes. Their job is not to walk through a script or deliver a generic form of care; it is to drive customer satisfaction (or whichever similar metric is of greatest relevance to the brand and its customers).

A customer centric agent, therefore, uses the customer as a barometer for performance. He does not end a call because his training suggested the call is over; he does so because he has provided the experience the customer desired. He does so because he brought the customer to a state of optimal satisfaction.

Balanced Collaboration: Study after study reveals that call transfers are among the biggest pet peeves. In addition to requiring the customer devote extra time to each call, they also ask the customer to begin communicating with another agent. Even if that agent has knowledge of the customer’s profile, history, and ongoing interaction, he does not have the built-in relationship.

The experience has suffered.

Transfers should thus be avoided at all costs, and the best agents contribute to that effort. They, aided by a culture of empowerment and a strong understanding of the brand, its core values, its products, and its service options, do everything conceivably possible to solve each interaction on their own. They do not transfer to supervisors because they do not need help; they know how to best serve the customer. They do not transfer to colleagues because they do not hate the fact that they’re on the call; they cherish the opportunity.

That independence, however, must be balanced with a strong sense of collaboration. Agents know that great intelligence exists all over the contact center floor, and they are thirsty to acquire some of that insight.

They also know that the customer experience is a business-wide concern; every colleague’s successes and failures, therefore, are their own.