From Red Zone to Green Zone: 5 Essentials to Rescue and Transform Your Customer Service Operation

Imagine the critical moment when your operation is under scrutiny during a pivotal business review. The dashboard lights up in red, signaling alarming downturns in key performance indicators. Tension fills the room, and the trust of your most valuable stakeholders is at risk. If you've faced this high-stakes scenario, you know the weight it carries. Now, more than ever, rescuing your operation is not just a goal—it's a necessity. In this article, we unveil the essentials to not only overcome challenges but to thrive, turning your operation from the brink to green status. Explore the five essentials that are key to rescuing your customer service operation, whether it's within a contact center or an internal team setting. Gain valuable insights and actionable advice to transform your operations.?

Whether you navigate the fast-paced world of contact centers or the dedicated environment of internal service teams, you've likely witnessed operations struggling with critical KPIs for an extended period. This struggle has far-reaching implications for the company’s business, affecting various aspects: strained stakeholder trust, drained employee morale, team growth disruption, financial impact, eroded competitive advantage, and the risk of losing business. Ultimately, it hinders the organization's ability to deliver exceptional service.?

Finding yourself in such a situation is undoubtedly a situation none of us desires. We aspire to turn things around swiftly, regain our stakeholders' trust, and secure our position on their good side. However, in the face of such challenges and a lack of a clear path to resolve performance issues, some companies turn to external consultants or deploy specialized internal teams. Alternatively, they may try to appease stakeholders by introducing new digital tools or reporting systems, presenting these efforts as strategic "investments" with compelling titles like "Innovation" or "Value Adds." While such initiatives may create a positive impression during business reviews, they often provide only temporary relief, drive up costs, and fall short of extricating the operation from its critical state.?

So, how can you approach this situation and rescue your operation? More often than not, these challenges don't stem from a singular issue but are rather a result of a combination of factors. Consequently, resolving them demands a strategic framework that targets various key aspects of your operations to identify and eliminate these hindrances. In the following sections, we'll delve into five essentials that will empower you to fortify your operation and steer it towards achieving a green status:?

1. The Right Team: Uncover the pivotal role of team composition and how it influences overall progress and agent morale.
2. Satisfied Employees: Delve into the critical aspects of employee engagement, including leadership, communication, teamwork, and the importance of recognition and rewards.
3. Strong Standard Operating Processes: Understand why the implementation of robust SOPs is paramount and how they go beyond mere definition to ensure consistent execution.
4. Data-Driven Decision Making: Explore the significance of making informed decisions based on well-defined KPIs, metrics, and a robust reporting structure. Discover practical insights through a real-world case scenario illustrating the power of data-driven strategies.
5. Continuous Improvement: Embrace the mindset of continual enhancement, exploring powerful tools like the 5 Whys method for root cause analysis and sustained success. Gain valuable insights through a real-world example showcasing the impact of Continuous Improvement on operational excellence.

The Right Team

In operations facing KPI challenges, the composition of your team plays a pivotal role, influencing not only the overall progress but also impacting agent morale. When key roles within the team hinder advancement, it manifests as low employee engagement, a lack of teamwork, and diminished productivity. Therefore, at the core of your strategic approach, ensuring that individuals in these crucial roles possess the right profile is essential. This involves team members having not only the requisite skills for their positions but also a positive attitude that fosters enthusiasm for meeting goals and striving for excellence.

This principle applies across the entire staff hierarchy, spanning Operations, Quality Assurance (QA), Training, and Workforce Management (WFM), from supervisors and beyond. Identifying team members who may be hindering progress and taking decisive action is crucial. Whether it involves developing their skills, repositioning them into roles where they can contribute more effectively, or, in the case of persistently underperforming individuals, making the difficult decision to remove them from the team.

It's surprising how many operations endure prolonged periods with misaligned or ineffective team elements, facing the negative impact of these shortcomings. Act swiftly to assemble the right team, while this task may prove easier said than done and won't happen overnight, achieving it will significantly ease your responsibilities and lay a solid foundation for steering your operation towards a successful turnaround.

Assembling the right team is a critical first step, but it's not the end of the journey. The success of your customer service operation hinges not just on any team but on a team of satisfied employees. Now, let's explore the pivotal role of employee satisfaction and engagement in steering your operation toward success.

Satisfied Employees

This essential might sound obvious, and you might assume that employee satisfaction is already addressed by the HR team or OPS managers through activities such as prize raffles for top performers and holiday events. However, it's crucial to validate and ensure that key aspects of employee engagement are comprehensively addressed. After all, without satisfied employees and your entire team backing you up, there is no way you achieve green status for your operation. Begin by conducting a meticulously crafted employee engagement survey, probing into challenges, opportunities for learning and growth, and other pivotal factors in employee engagement.

While employee engagement encompasses several factors, some of the most critical ones are:

• Leadership &?Management: As the saying goes “Employees Don't Quit Their Jobs, They Quit Their Bosses”. If you've successfully assembled the right team, as covered in the previous section, this aspect should be well-addressed. Employees should have confidence in knowing they have a supportive leader who is responsive to their concerns, develops them, and acknowledges their hard work.
• Communication: Effective communication is vital. Not only should employees be aware of the company's mission, but they should also consistently be informed about changes and the overall performance. This fosters a sense of validation and inclusion. Establish a two-way communication channel, allowing feedback and ensuring actionable responses through methods like town hall meetings, newsletters, surveys, an open-door policy, and others.
• Teamwork: Building teamwork relies on trust, anchored in the right team with strong leadership. Foster trust with shared goals and encourage collaboration. Value feedback and implement changes based on it. Recognize and reward collaborative behavior to motivate your team to continue working cohesively.

And of course, Recognition and Rewards plays a pivotal role and should always be present. However, maintaining consistency can sometimes be challenging for the OPS and HR team, given their substantial workload. While many companies may neglect investing in this area, it is essential to have a dedicated resource or specialized team in charge of employee engagement, allowing other departments to focus on their core responsibilities.

Transitioning from a satisfied workforce, let's now explore another essential—implementing Strong Standard Operating Processes (SOPs).

Strong Standard Operating Processes

One of the paramount essentials for rescuing a customer service operation is the implementation of robust Standard Operating Processes (SOPs). It extends beyond merely having processes defined; it depends on ensuring consistent and flawless execution.

In well-established customer service settings, both in contact centers and internal teams, chances are SOPs are already in place, refined, and validated. However, the key is not just to have SOPs but to guarantee their unwavering execution. Establishing auditing processes and diligent follow-ups are imperative to ensure that the leadership team adheres to their assigned responsibilities.

Comprehensive SOPs should cover all aspects affecting your operation:

• Are new hires aligned with the right profiles?
• Does the training program yield knowledgeable graduates capable of performing within a reasonable learning curve?
• Is Quality Assurance (QA) conducting adequate monitors and providing timely feedback?
• Does a feedback loop exist for agents to enhance their performance and achieve their goals?
• Are there performance improvement plans to manage underperforming agents?

?And the list goes on.... But while the complete list may seem extensive, these processes have been well-established. Developing them won't be overly challenging. The key lies in customizing them to your customer service operation needs and consistent auditing and follow-ups to ensure ongoing compliance. With robust SOPs in place, the next essential step is leveraging the power of data and guiding Data-Driven Decision Making.

Data-Driven Decision Making

With your operations having well-defined critical KPIs and metrics, and a robust reporting structure for timely access to data, the next essential is to make decisions and develop strategies based on this information. This is where your Six Sigma experts or your own Six Sigma knowledge provide significant value. Data-Driven Decision Making is a vital part of your strategy to outperform, enabling you to work smart rather than hard.

If you encounter a seemingly unreachable KPI while another part of the operation or a competitor excels, and you can't figure out why, start collecting and analyzing all available data. Run statistical analyses to uncover patterns or insights through exploratory analysis. Once you identify opportunities for improvement, develop an action plan and execute it.

Here's a real-world success story illustrating an intervention based on data insights:

Case: A contact center support operation for a major telecom company lost its first-place position in the client’s vendor rank due to a consistent decrease in CSAT scores, the KPI with the highest weight. After meticulously analyzing available data and root causes, no obvious issues surfaced. The team had experienced and motivated supervisors, no recent increase in new hires, maintained a healthy population of experienced agents, and consistently executed critical SOPs. There were no external factors like seasonality or changes in products, services, or CSAT measurement. The impacts persisted for three months, causing unease in the leadership team.

Analysis: After collecting data, cross-referencing variables, and extensive statistical analysis, an intriguing correlation between daily time intervals and CSAT scores emerged. Scores were unusually higher before 4:00 PM. Deeper analysis revealed top performers predominantly occupied early shifts. The management team, in a well-intentioned effort to enhance employee engagement and motivate agents, had instituted a reward system allowing top performers to select their preferred schedules first from the weekly list. Gradually, this led to the majority of top performers opting for early shifts. While the initiative aimed to boost performance, it inadvertently impacted CSAT scores, given that a substantial portion of customer calls occurred after 6:00 PM.

Solution: Uncovering this data, we engaged top performers to support moving to later schedules. Given their spirit of collaboration and teamwork, most willingly adjusted their schedules, while others embraced complete shifts to the afternoon. Alternative rewards were identified. These changes resulted in immediate improvements in CSAT scores, restoring the top rank within two weeks.

Having established a foundation of Data-Driven Decision Making, we now turn our focus to the fifth essential—Continuous Improvement. Let's explore how this mindset is not just a part of your strategy but a catalyst for sustained success.

Continuous Improvement

While achieving the four previous essentials will likely pull your operations out of a critical state, the fifth essential not only expedites the process but elevates performance further. Embracing Continuous Improvement isn't a one-time meeting asking for suggestions; it's an ongoing mindset instilled throughout your team.

Imagine the strides possible when you and your team consistently seek ways to enhance processes rather than following routine procedures simply because they've always been in place.

The Continuous Improvement mindset should be active throughout your day-to-day operations—during meetings, KPI reviews, coaching sessions, email correspondence, and strategizing. Always be on the lookout for areas that can be refined.

One powerful questioning method is the 5 Whys, developed by Sakichi Toyoda, a highly effective tool for root cause analysis in Lean management. While designed for uncovering root causes, applying the 5 Whys method aids in your Continuous Improvement journey.

For instance, if you ask, “Why is this report generated?” and find out it's not being utilized, you can consider eliminating it to reduce workload.

As you go about your daily tasks, consider these questions:

• Does this process add value? Is it necessary, or can it be eliminated without consequences?
• Why is the process executed this way? If the answer is, "We've been doing it this way for years," a thorough review for improvement opportunities is essential.
• How efficient is this process? Explore steps that can be removed, combined, or enhanced to make the process faster or increase output value.
• Can we automate the process or part of it? Investigate existing technology or tools for potential automation.
• Who else has a similar process that we can learn from? Look within your company; often, refined processes already exist.

Here's another real-world success illustrating the effectiveness of the Continuous Improvement mindset:?

Case: A major Fintech operation struggled with QA in its Disputes department for over a year and a half, a critical KPI due to regulatory compliance importance. The QA score lingered at 75%, below the 85% target. Initial discussions hinted at numerous processes and changes affecting QA scores, as we were told. However, the shared information left room for doubt, and there was a lack of conviction that these were the true root causes. The team had taken various actions, including implementing a gamification solution to teach correct QA processes. While aimed at promoting microlearning and continuous learning, the gamification platform fell short of delivering desired results.

Analysis: The initial question we posed was, “Why aren’t we meeting the QA scores?” To find an answer, our first stop was a meeting with the QA manager. During this session, the QA manager demonstrated a keen understanding of the impacts of QA scores, with insights regularly shared during meetings and communicated to supervisors and agents through emails and the gamification platform. However, the challenge persisted – agents were not complying. With solid SOPs and consistent execution, the subsequent question arose: "Why are agents not following the processes?" A deeper investigation uncovered communication issues. Despite the delivery of information, it lacked clarity and engagement, resulting in ineffective coaching. Communication pieces were occasionally confusing or overly extensive, lacking the necessary appeal. Agents sometimes struggled to comprehend or retain what they were coached on. Notably, we didn’t need to delve into a third question for answers; the reason behind the overall process inefficacy became evident.

Solution: Collaborating with the QA manager, we revamped communications for high-impact attributes. Clear, engaging titles were used, for example “Assigned Transaction Type for Pending Transactions” was changed to “How to increase your performance bonus $$ with this easy step”. Communications included error details, impact on scores and performance bonuses, examples, calls to action, and motivational sentences. Bold fonts, colors, and emoticons enhanced appeal. Communications continued through emails and the gamification platform, but now we were seeing the benefits of each. We also tasked floor managers to conduct audits to ensure agent understanding. Within weeks, QA scores began to ascend to victory, finally conquering the long-sought target within three months—a breakthrough unseen in over a year and a half. Scores kept rising and reached an unprecedented 92% after six months of implementation.

To instill this way of working, lead by example. As you consistently pose improvement questions in meetings, your team will witness positive impacts and adopt the Continuous Improvement mindset. Encourage them to carry this attitude at all times, teach their teams to do the same, and foster a culture of Continuous Improvement.

Embracing a Continuous Improvement mindset unlocks enhanced efficiency and performance. The 5 Whys method guides the journey, unraveling root causes and paving the way for constructive change. Fostering this culture not only addresses current challenges but also instills an attitude propelling operations towards lasting success.

Conclusion

In conclusion, rescuing a customer service operation from critical challenges requires a comprehensive strategy that addresses the five essentials we've explored. From building the right team to fostering satisfied employees, implementing strong SOPs, making data-driven decisions, and embracing Continuous Improvement, each essential plays a crucial role in achieving a green status.

As you navigate the complexities of the contact center and customer service industry, remember that success is not a singular achievement but a journey. Apply the insights gained from this article to your operations, and witness the positive changes unfold.

Our community thrives on shared knowledge, and your voice matters. Have you faced challenges similar to those discussed? What strategies worked for you, and what valuable lessons did you learn in the process? How does your team embrace the Continuous Improvement mindset? Have you implemented any of the essentials, and if so, what positive outcomes have you observed? Your success stories can inspire and guide others facing similar challenges.

Share your thoughts, questions, and experiences in the comments below and let's help others enhance their customer service operations. Here's to the future of customer service operations, where challenges are met with strategic solutions and operations thrive in a landscape of Continuous Improvement.