QA, CSAT and Stats

I was in a jeepney once, when I heard a woman told her companion. “Si Jonathan ang swerte, nasa call center.  Madali na ang trabaho, malaki pa kita.”( Jonathan is so lucky, he works in a call center, he earns a good salary and the work is not that hard).  I almost laugh at what she said.  Clearly these people doesn’t know what does being a call center agent is all about.

It’s not all that easy, but if you know what your supposed to do, then you’ll survive to have a career.  But there’s a little thing called stress, that can really get to you, specially to us call center agents.

It’s not just taking calls all nigh (or day), 1 phone call to be considered a good call has to follow certain parameters:

The Opening Spiel – You have to say the opening spiel, as perky and as lively as you can. ( Thank you for calling Jollibee, how can I help you today?)  You have to have a “voice with a smile”.(what ever that is….)

The Investigation – as a technical support representative; I have to know what the cause of the problem is for me to be able to fix the problem.  I have to ask the right questions, otherwise I won’t solve the problem as quickly as possible.

The Resolution – Let’s say you ask the correct questions, then you’ll know the cause of the problem.  So the next thing to do is solve it.  You have to follow a standard procedure in solving the problem.  You just can’t tell the customer to do this and that, you have to do it step-by-step.  You have to do it logically, otherwise you may have solve the problem now, but it will return in a few days.  One call resolution is the key.

The closing spiel – So let’s say you resolve the issue, what now?  You just can’t hang-up on the customer, you have to close the call properly. (Thank you for call Jollibee, have a great day!)

Sounds easy right?  Wrong!  There’s more to it, assuming you follow the guidelines above, then the next thing to do is wait.  That call will be graded by QA agents (Quality Assurance agents).  They are the people who listen to the calls and evaluate them.  They will determine if you really did follow the guidelines above. Apart from that they will evaluate the tone of your voice, do you sound boring? angry? impatient?  As I said there’s more to it, than just saying “hello”.

Now let’s say you passed the QA, what’s next?  CSAT or Customer Satisfaction Survey.  Even if you passed the QA, the CSAT in my opinion is the most important of all.  You will be graded by the customer.  He or she will determine, your work is satisfactory, did the problem return?  It’s always a teeth-chattering experience for me, while I wait for the results return the next day.

Some companies rely on QA to keep an agent employed, while there are others who takes CSAT, and then there are some who requires their agents to have a balance of both. 

But here’s the thing, you can control your call to have a good evaluation from QA, but you can never control CSAT.  I remember I had a customer that was so happy of the job that I did for him.  QA’s in the bag!  But when my CSAT returned, I failed.  Not becausethe customer is not happy with my work, but because he doesn’t like the problem, returning over and over again.  CSAT’s can go either way.  It’s just a matter of luck sometimes.

Apart from QA and CSAT there’s AHT or Average Handling Time.  That means, you can’t waste your day, in just  one phone call.  You have to finish the call in a prescribed duration.  That means you have to finish the call in an average of minutes.  In my case it’s 13 minutes or lower.  There are some who have 10  minutes, and I there are agents who are required to have a 2 minute handling time each day.  Of course that’s not always the case.  So one has to control the call.  Make sure you actually know what your telling the customer so that things will run smoothly Logical trouble shooting is the key.

There are many more things needed to be a successful Call center agent.  The one I describe above are the ones needed to have a good call.  There are other things, that you need to stay in the job.  Those are productivity, the length of time you stay on the phones in a day.  Absenteeism – do you always report for work, or do you call in sick every time.  Then there’s tardiness, you report for work, but are you on time?  There’s also over breaks,  you have 2 15 minute breaks and 1 60 minute break.  Do you return to the phones in time?  And of course Adherence, so you follow your schedule as strictly as possible?

I told you there’s more to it, than just taking calls, apart from above there is also the danger of going to work in un-Godly hours.  Some agents can’t handle it and gets sick.  So you must also be healthy to handle the pressure and work time.

Hope this can help aspiring agents out there.  Remember, preparation is the best way to have a successful career, whether in a call center or not.