A "Quick" Idea from an Industry Conference

I attended the Annual Call Center Conference and Exhibition in San Diego last month. Here's a summary of the highlights of it for me :

1. This was truly an international Expo. Delegates from 30 countries were present. I even bumped into two people from the UAE whom I had met last winter at the Middle East Call Center Conference. It truly is a small world.

2. The post-conference workshop that I delivered on the subject of: "It's not what you say, but how you say it, that counts", was really well received. Participants were each given a copy of my book, The Voice of Your Company, which includes  a chapter on the sound of your voice, on which this workshop was based.

3. I had an opportunity to present publicly at this conference, for the first time, a new model for quality monitoring, which I have been developing over the past couple of years. If you weren't able to be there, but would like a copy of the PowerPoint slides I used, and some accompanying notes, let me know via email and I'll send them to you. Write me at: cliff@careerimpact.net.

3. One of the most interesting presentations I attended was the concluding one. It was called "Sixty Ideas in Sixty Minutes." A group of four panelists took turns offering their best ideas about things to think about or do. And they had no more than sixty seconds to describe each idea and its importance. This ensured rapid-fire delivery. 

This panel got me thinking. What would be the single most valuable idea Ithat  could offer an audience of call center executives and managers if given only one minute to get my point across? After much mulling of it over, I decided it would be this....

Don't mistake common practices for best practices. Several consulting firms and publishers conduct a number of surveys in our industry. Their results carry a lot of authority. These surveys can go a long way towards helping harried managers feel that they are not alone in their practices.  "See? Everyone else is doing much the same thing, so our practices must be okay." But,  remember.... Just because everybody is doing it doesn't mean that it is a best practice. It is only a common practice.

For instance, common practices in quality monitoring are to observe 4 to 6 calls per agent per month. If you are thinking, "Well, then we'll do 8 calls per agent per month; that will make us best in class," you are mistaken. It won't. That's because no matter how many calls per agent you monitor, you will not get a reliable measure of how well the call center, as a whole is doing, unless and until you sample a random and statistically valid number of calls. That's one of the industry practices that I advocate re-thinking in this New Model for Getting Quality Right. Call or e-mail me if you want to talk about this more. 

Comments

[Susan Mazer]

Cliff, your comments about what is "common" is not necessarily what is "best" reveals the culture of averages. Further, you have identified the way in which "normal" is often defined. It has been my experience that excellence is achieved through intentional, stepping-up-and-out-of-the-ordinary action and practice. You are most insightful. I look forward to seeing you at National Fielding Session in January if you are there... again, so happy to connect here!

[Ted Hopton]

Right on target, Cliff, about the common practices being mistaken for best practices. That's one of my pet peeves! Thanks for making that point.