Case Study - Telecommunication Provider
Case: Telecommunication provider uses Mystery Shopper Visits and Calls to assess how well the organization manages a service environment in which agents can perform well in that environment
Situation:
A telecom provider conducted a mystery shopper based assessment of call center service practices and customer service in service centre nationwide. The research highlights the opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitors by improving the quality service. This study is not about assessing agent performance, but it is about assessing how well the organization manages an environment in which agents can perform well via such management activities as: Appropriate staffing, provision workflow, training and coaching practices and design or organizational strategy.
Methodology:
A total of 350 mystery shopper visits and 80 mystery shopper calls, representing nearly 250 minutes of talking time, were made to leading telecommunication firm between January to March 2008. The 80 calls and 350 visits were made using the same scenario to ensure comparability of results: a non existing customer calling to inquire about a new mobile subscription. In all cases, the scenario was open-ended to allow the call centre agent the opportunity to demonstrate his or her skill and expertise in call handling. The calls are recorded for the purpose of evaluation.
Mystery shopping analyzes 2 key categories of performance: Accessibility and service agent performance.
Accessibility:
Mystery shopper calls: Accessibility reflects the ability to reach the call center and to reach the agent. The attributes reflect various technology options, such as the use or non use of an IVR and how delay announcements and music - on-hold services are structured. It also considers whether there is adequate technology in place, such as having enough phone lines for callers to get through. Worldwide, the average waiting time was 155 seconds across all calls.
Mystery shopper visits: Accessibility reflects the ability to reach the customer service. The attributes includes waiting time to be served and service time.
Overall Service Agent Quality
Overall service quality reflects how well the call center and customer service agents are managed and thus how well the agents perform during the call and face-to-face service. The attributes reflect various levels of skills and engagement exhibited by the agent during the call and face-to-face interaction; it should not be interpreted as an individual agent evaluation.
To follow the depth of analysis, the service quality results are reported as overall performance (which aggregates all attributes), as well as by three subcategories, namely:
Courtesy standards: Basic foundation skills, such as greetings, getting the customer's name, restating the inquiry and the closing.
Engagement standards: Finesse-based skills, such as probing, establishing rapport by using the customer's name and demonstrating attentive interest, controlling the call, providing complete and appropriate solutions on the first call, and providing a positive service encounter that is a positive role model for the customer contact industry.
Revenue-generation standards: up selling/cross-selling processes and the quality of up selling/ cross-selling.
