Q I've been working to convince my executive team that our contact center is a legitimate revenue center, based in large part on service I consider to be more than satisfactory. I can produce internal service metrics to prove my point, but our executives feel service can be better. I've been asked to provide "voice of the customer" data to show what customers are actually saying, and I've found a post-call survey application to capture such data, but now my immediate manager is questioning its cost and whether I have a strategy for implementing the surveys. Any ideas on how to prove the application's value?

A I applaud your efforts toward using post-call surveys. With a slumping economy right now, finding any possible way to improve customer service equates to a competitive edge, and gathering information from customers is the best way to measure, and improve, customer satisfaction and your contact center's revenue contribution

Post-call surveys let contact centers colica customer feedback moie diligently and use the resulting data to pinpoint lagging satisfaction. Surveys also supplement metrics like call times and hold times to measure agent availability and routing of calls to the right person or department. Mostly, customer surveys can help take service levels from "more than satisfactory" to superior.

CFI Group offers a few best practices for the makeup of a survey from its American Customer Satisfaction Index(TM) (ACSI), published annually by the University of Michigan and termed by the New York Times as the "definitive benchmark for how buyers feel."

1 . Use scientific questionnaire design. "Did you find the agent knowledgeable and experienced?" This type of question addresses two issues at once, but fails to capture meaningful information for either agent qualification. Make sure each question equates to one issue.

2. Define the goal. Set objectives upfront and don't deviate. If the goal is to collect feedback regarding an agent's knowledge level, don't let Marketing add a question about a new giveaway promotion. A clearly focused survey also respects the customer's time.

3. Keep IVR surveys short. The goal of a survey is to collect actionable information. While there are no established rules for time frames, post-call surveys of 2-3 minutes have proven to collect enough information to be useful and still hold the respondent's interest.

4. Measure what matters. Say a survey asks travelers to rank an airline by "important characteristics" and respondents put safety #1 . Safety, however, is not what ultimately compels travelers to choose a particular carrier - price, schedule, and frequent flyer rewards programs do. So, stick to real cause-and-effect analytics.

5. Use the right scale. A ??-point scale is standard for most consumer surveys, but for IVR surveys ACSI recommends a 9-point scale using the phone numbers 1 through 9 to shield respondents from "slow-finger" coding errors (typing 1 and O fast enough for IVR system capture). With ACSI, 9-point scales are converted to ??-point, and final scores converted to a 100-point scale for reporting and "rightmarking."

6. Don't strive for a benchmark - find the "rightmark." Never mind industry average benchmarks or those of current best performers. Integrate operational targets and satisfaction data to find the point where service and delivery converge for your customer base.

7. Coordinate with IT. Integrating speech engines, survey apps, IVR systems and call recorders. Storing and distributing survey data and making it accessible. Maintaining reporting mechanisms. Trust me, IT teams need advanced warning for a survey initiative. . . and you'll need their buy-in.

8. Don't use survey results to evaluate individuals. Instead, use results to coach an agent and tailor a training regimen for improvement if scores are low. (Recordings of high-scoring agents can be a helpful training tool.) If possible, let your IVR system automatically transfer callers for post-call surveys to prevent agent intervention and bias.

9. Report often and make results accessible. Survey results should ideally be made available to users upon a survey's completion, whether via your IVR/survey solution or using dashboards, "heads-up" displays and other types of real-time (or near-rime) alerts.

10. If you've invested, make it work. Finally, don't lose sight of the fact that understanding customer satisfaction improves your contact center. You've spent the time and money to collect the data, now put it to work.

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