Sales Agent Best Practices

I conducted a project just like this – we looked at all the measures you just named, plus a few more that were specific to our business.  Guess what – none of them were significant -  turned out to be the intangibles (are you a people person, ability to small talk, are you innately likeable, etc.)
So we moved to interviewing the successful people on what do they do that makes them successful – interviewed their managers also.  Then designed new training and a paired mentor program, where the successful were paired up as coach with the low-end producers.  Worked very well.
Your results may vary.

This is initially more a classical industrial psychological analysis in that you are distinguishing the following:
1. Selection – what skills are difficult to train that are important for call center reps: This will depend on the complexity of the call taken. The attached article outlines the critical skills for entry level reps as opposed to supervisors. The focus of the project was reduced attrition, but the selection also helped in ensuring high levels of performance in terms of handle time, resolution, courtesy and knowledge. The key skills we identified in large scale studies are: following policies and procedures, versatility/flexibility, effective decision-making, coping with stress.
2. Training: I/O psychologists like to observe and interview high vs. low performing call reps. The challenge is that supervisors often do not really understand how customers perceive the services. In another study, we found that high performing reps had very problem oriented diagnostic techniques using effective open and closed-ended questions. The focus on the problem at hand. In addition, high performing reps handled the emotional side before they handled the issue. This reduces the handle time dramatically and reduces escalations. Thus a call process was established that was linked to the call quality review system: 1. Greet the customer by clearly giving the reps name, 2. Identify the customer (who, account # etc.), then identify the issue; IF there is irratenes, deal with the irateness first, then move the discussion to the resolution of the issue. Identify the issue, resolve the issue, clearly communicate the solution back to the customer and close the call.
3. Call Center reps expectations and behaviors change after about 6 months. In the initial 3 months they expect a trusting relationship with their supervisors and focus on becoming effective in learning the system. Then they become proficient. After 6 months they typically look for further opportunities in the company. If after 12 months they don’t see promotion opportunities, they will typically leave. Thus attrition is highest during training, during the first three months and again after 12 months.
4. As JimH mentions, the coaching and mentoring is important. The best way is to establish the quality monitoring system to identify if the rep follows policies and procedures and federal and state laws etc. Then create a coaching/mentoring system in order to improve the skill set.
In essence, you need an integrated system of selection (you cannot train someone on stress handling through a 3 hour training module!), then effectively train them on a call process, the systems, the policies and other key process inputs. Finally, gear the performance review process by braking out quality monitoring from coaching and mentoring.
You should see results in: reduced attrition rates, shorter handle times, higher resolution rate, improved service quality and satisfaction and ultimately retention and your ability to cross-sell new products. Finally, make sure that the IVR system is effective! The first irateness comes from having an issue. This is compounded by not being able to reach the rep. If the rep is not effective in handling emotions, the whole experience will decrease satisfaction with value.
Finally, effective problem resolution actually increases satisfaction with value (pay vs. service). We monitored charts where we plotted issues against effective resolution and value satisfaction and the increase was quite nice. However, it then tapers off and the reduction in the first defect becomes the issue. I know this is a long e-mail, but I spent years researching call center reps and this is what I found. These findings were generalizable across various industries, nations (India vs. US) and call centers.
Your benchmarks should be as followed:
IVR – Bank of America
Reps empowerment and professionalism – American Express
Call Center selection, training, and coaching – First Data Corporation (this company does not emphasize empowerment because Visa and Mastercard processes are so rigid. That is why you will get consistently lower services for Visa and Master Card than for American Express).
Bank of America has caught up quite dramatically over the past 5 years. I did several competitor analyses, and BoA and American Express outperformed their competitors by about 10% in the top ratings of satisfaction, value satisfaction and recommendation.

Eric,
Any ideas as to journals that would be interested in this kind of case study?

Eric,
I wasn’t aware of a conference that ties sales, marketing and six sigma together. That’s one of the key areas that I have been working on, but I haven’t thought about publishing in it … as you know you get so caught up in working projects that it takes some downtime to even look into this. It looks like there might still be a somewhat brighter future for Six Sigma beyond the stale discussion if lean and six sigma are integrated or not :-). Again, thanks!
P.S. another area of interest is the tying of satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty measures into operational improvement projects, and how to use these metrics to guide change initiatives. Unfortunately, marketing and operations know very little of each other and really could benefit. Marketing because six sigma allows for translating findings into actions, and Six Sigma because it can utilize market driven information to tie its operations to market demands. VOC is a starting point, but a little weak compared with what insightes six sigma could get from state-of-the-art marketing research. Thanks again!

Katharine,
In examining your call center agent’s processes, you did not mention if they were taking inbound calls, or if they are making outbound cold calls. 
If they are taking inbound calls, what drives those calls? if it is advertizements or promotions, for example, the timing and nature of those promotions can make a huge difference. It could be like working a comission sales job in a department store: if there are not enough customers in the store on a given day, you aren’t going to make your quota no matter what you do.  The probem might reside in the market, or with the advertizing and promotion, orwith its offers/products.
Likewise, if you are making outbound calls, it can be a mistake to assume that all prospects are alike. 
It is important to realize that the customers may have widely varying characteristics. If, for some reason, some of the agents generally get a less qualified type of prosepct on the phone (perhaps that happens on the night shift, or perhaps various geographys have a lower income, or are less educated). If the “raw material,” in the form of prospects they talk to on the phone, is not homogeneous it will skew the results. To use a manufacturing analogy, it would be like measuring the performance of drill presses without realizing that some of them are drilling into metal that is harder than others.
You can possibly get some of that demographic information, or have the agents begin asking some profiling questions to analyze along with the other factors you are considering. The specific “x’s” you are interested in will depend, of course, on what you might be selling.
Also, I have seen some projects where simply providing measurement data to the parties in volved caused results to shift, kind of like the Hawthorne effect, except that the results stuck, because it was information that changed people’s motivation (i.e., it was really a process change rather than just a temporary effect).  
Michael WebbMwebb@salesperformance.com