A Look at Performance Metrics for Home-Based Agents
1 May, 2007
By: Mary BartlettQuestion:
We recently began implementing a home-based agent program internally, but wonder how the veterans of this industry manage performance metrics and improve agent results. How can we be sure our agents stay motivated and perform to the best of their ability without direct supervision?
--Home-Bound in Houston
Answer:
Dear Home-Bound: You’re not alone in wanting to maximize the benefits of a home-based agent program. Whether you decide to hire employees at home or partner with a vendor who can provide a pool of agents for your specific needs, you will reap the many benefits of this growing trend. These include greater flexibility in scheduling, decreased costs, more satisfied and motivated agents and, most important, happier customers.
You raise a great question, though, about how to gauge efficiency and keep agents motivated from a remote location. This is critical in the success of a home-agent program, and one that we have based our own business model around.
Once you have thoroughly screened and trained agents ready to provide service to your customers, it is important to monitor and communicate their performance regularly. This is not much more difficult from supervision tactics used in bricks-and-mortar call centers as technology can provide a number of tools for managing virtual talent. For instance, monitoring calls and maintaining chat applications with managers helps agents to stay connected and on target, all for the customer’s benefit.
Create a Performance Scorecard
Using performance metrics can help determine which of your agents are giving you – and in turn, your customers – the best service. These can include the application of quality assurance standards through call monitoring as well as commitment adherence percentages and attainment of service level agreements. Apply a point-based system for these categories, and score each agent based on a minimum standard of performance.
For quality assurance scores, calls that are monitored can be graded on a 100 percent scale that determines if the service on a call exceeded, met or was below the expectation set by the client. The same scoring system applies to schedule adherence, which enforces commitment and punctuality for remote agents. Even a minute of lost routing time to a particular agent can affect your customer wait time, so virtual agents (we refer to them as Certified Professionals) learn to understand how critical this standard is in maintaining superior customer service.
With point values assigned to these standards and measured at the end of a defined period, each agent is accountable for his or her individual service levels as well as progress over a period of time. In other words, a newer agent has the opportunity to improve his or her service score over time.
To enforce these standards, agents need to be informed ahead of time about expectations. These can be fairly rigorous, so agents typically take these requirements seriously. It is imperative to present a high standard from the get-go, and your agents will in turn perform accordingly – if they are the agents you want representing your company. With such strict parameters, agents learn to take their commitment to service very seriously. This is true for both home-based agents and for those based in a bricks-and-mortar contact center.
Motivate With Incentives
Motivating agents, on the other hand, can be as simple as modifying your pay structure. Depending on the type of product or service you provide, you can offer incentives to agents with high sales or call resolution rates. A pay-for-performance model has been found to work well in keeping agents motivated because they are responsible for their own success. However, if your business involves longer service calls, an hourly wage with different incentives may suit your agents.
To further motivate home-based agents, you can implement a system that enables agents to select their own hours of service. Using each agent’s performance metrics, such as commitment adherence, you can bestow priority selection upon the top-performing agents. This offers a constant point of motivation for agents to obtain more freedom in their work hours. You would be surprised how much the freedom of making one’s own schedule can motivate an agent – in fact – it’s one of the main reasons agents decide to work from home. Ultimately, this also leads to happier agents and, in turn, satisfied customers.
So, Home-Bound in Houston, you will find that by laying out expectations and setting your agents up for success, overall performance will improve and your customers will see the end result. Good luck!
