Do you remember the scene in Jurassic Park when Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) tries explaining complexity theory? He says something like, "A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can determine the severity of a snowstorm in Kansas." It seems pretty far-fetched. But the principle illustrated by the oft-told butterfly story is not so far-fetched at all.
Here's how it plays out in call centers.
The following experience happened to me just last week. As you read about it, ask yourself, "What was the root cause of this incident?"
What Happened
Here's my situation.... I fly a lot, on about half-a-dozen airlines. This means I earn frequent flier awards from various carriers from time-to-time. I have enough points right now to take a free trip with one of those airlines, one which brags about the quality of its frequent flier program. Problem is, I haven't been able to redeem those points. It seems that they allot very few seats to award travel; and charge premium award points for most of those. When they do have seats available, the routing is not very direct. I find this annoying.
But I don't give up. After all, I have earned those points and want to redeem them before they expire. So, I called last week for a third try. A simple request. I wanted to fly from Maine to Baltimore three months from now. I was told they could do that via a two-hour layover in Chicago... if I took a 6:00 a.m. flight. Ugh!
I told the rep that this was not what I was looking for. I continued, "I know that this is not your doing, but will you please pass along to your management that I--as a customer--am increasingly frustrated with how difficult it is to redeem miles on your airline?" The rep agreed that he would pass this along. Then he said, "Of course, that's one person's opinion."
"Of course, that's one person's opinion...."
He ought not to have said that. it was inappropriate and dismissive. If you had been monitoring that call, surely you would have cringed. You would rightly have marked him with a low score in some category such as professionalism, rapport, or courtesy. I am sure that this airline does not want its reps talking that way to customers, and that it probably has some form of call monitoring in place.
But, still, it happened. And that got me thinking. What's going on here? is this rep simply a "bad apple?" Was he poorly trained? Was he deliberately trying to be insulting? I doubt it.
What Should Be Done?
Should he be pulled off the phones and sent home without pay? Given an oral or written warning? Would that prevent other reps from repeating the same? I doubt it.
This brings us back to the butterfly effect. One of the precepts of systems theory is that outcomes in a complex system are highly dependent upon starting conditions. This means, let's not be too quick to place all the blame on the rep for his rudeness.
If, as call center professionals, our goal is to improve quality through call monitoring, then we must pay attention to starting conditions. What do you suppose were the starting conditions for this rep a the time of my call? I don't know, but can conjecture.
What Were the Starting Conditions?
First, since I was in queue for more than two minutes, do you think it is likely that this rep has been taking call after call without a breather? I'd say it is very likely.
Is it likely that I was the first customer that day to complain about the difficulty of redeeming awards? Unlikely. (Theirs was exclusively an award redemption reservation line.)
Is it likely that this rep has been through training and has been subjected to varoius sorts of company propaganda about how splendid their frequent flier program is... even when such training directly contradicts his own experiences with customers? Probably.
Do you think that this incongruence created some level of cognitive dissonance within him that added to his stress? Probably.
Do you think that he consciously, deliberately, intended to respond to me the way he did? I doubt it.
I am willing to bet that he said what he said simply because he was stressed out by being caught between a rock and a hard place all day long, day after day.
Looking in the Mirror
So, if management's goal is to improve quality through monitoring, what should be the primary outcome of evaluating that call? I argue that the primary outcome ought to be for management to look in the mirror and ask themselves, what can we do to improve the initial starting conditions of this and of similar calls in the future?
Feedback to the rep should be very much secondary. Also, think carefully about how that feedback should be given. Ask yourself, if that feedback is one-way, or comes across as punitive, what good will it serve? Do you think that this rep will feel motivated to "do better next time" if called on the carpet this time? I doubt it. Do you think that he will be grateful to his supervisor for jumping up from the monitoring booth, striding a beeline to his cubicle, and giving him immediate feedback on this call? I don't think so. I think he will feel, "Gotcha!" One more whammy in an already rough day.
Then, why is feedback so often given this way? It is because, as an industry, we don't "get" the power of starting conditions, nor do we fully comprehend the value of root cause analysis. We aren't in the habit of "looking first in the mirror" at the systems we create or the processes and policies we invoke. But isn't this exactly where we should start when we implement a call monitoring practice?
One Piece of the Puzzle
These are just a few of the points I will be making when I introduce a new model of call monitoring to the industry at the ACCE Conference next month. The topic of my talk is: "Getting Quality Right."
This new model re-defines the purpose of call monitoring in our industry. It creates an opportunity to make real, measurable improvements through QA. It encourages agent buy-in to those things that they, themselves, can do to improve the quality of their calls, and it gives management the data needed to make meaningful decisions about quality improvement. If you are able to attend ACCE, please join me for this presentation. For details, and to register for the ACCE Conference, visit: www.ACCEicmi.com.
If you cannot make the conference, let me know if you are interested in receiving a series of white papers afterwards that summarize the key points of this new model.
Do You Want to be on the Leading Edge?
Since this is a brand new concept, if you would like to nominate your call center to be one of the first in the industry to adopt this new model in its entirety, please let me know. I am looking right now to identify and select three client partners who want to be among the first to pioneer this new approach to getting quality right. To talk about this, call me at: 207-499-0141 or e-mail to: cliff@careerimpact.net.
Cliff
