Brenda is a manager at a call center. She faces the daily grind of dealing with escalated tickets, irate customers, and analysing piles of data to make concrete action plans. But she also ensures that none of these issues get in the way of achieving her vision: the ideal customer support center. One where agents quickly respond to issues and are never overloaded with tickets, where high-quality help articles are published on a regular basis, and customer satisfaction levels are optimum. What does Brenda do to ensure that her team provides great customer service?
Tackling escalated tickets immediately.
Working on emergencies can be very taxing, especially first thing in the morning, after dealing with a bland breakfast and overcrowded trains. Brenda knows that accomplishing such tasks successfully can lead to a sense of relief. Focusing on other minor issues can be easier if the difficult ones are finished first. To stay sane and effective, she looks at the escalated tickets, checks whether any of the available agents can handle them, then assigns them. If needed, she jumps directly into the action and saves the day.
Having a command center.
Brenda was losing her patience while searching for individual reports that she needed to analyse regularly, such as ticket traffic, agent availability and happiness ratings. To alleviate her aggravation, she began keeping reports in a single place so that they'd never escape her watchful eye. She observes the traffic in various ticket channels and looks at the availability of agents while pondering factors that make customers unhappy. She steps in when conversations seem to drag on without solutions. With the essential metrics in one place, she can do all of this and much more.
Staying updated.
While a good manager ensures that the job is done, a better manager keeps track of everything that makes it happen. Brenda maintains a tab on accounts that help resolve tickets, and updates the tasks performed on a ticket. Through her feed, she finds out when her help is needed on a ticket, and steps in to save the day.
'Timely' intervention.
A lot of catastrophes can be averted by acting at the right time. Brenda knows that quick responses can create a favorable impression on discerning customers. She analyzes the First Response Time, dissects factors that keep the average response and resolution times low, and sifts out elements that impede fast responses. By deconstructing the patterns, she paves the way for better customer service.
Checking solutions.
For every problem, there's a solution. Behind every solution, there's an evaluation. Brenda evaluates the utility of her help guides because she knows that articles empower the customer to solve simple issues, thus reducing ticket load. By checking the help guide's rating and reference usage, as well as how successful customers' keyword searches are, she can discover new topics and ensure that relevant articles are written immediately. As a bonus, she finds trending issues and can notify the other teams so that they can work on them.
Remaining introspective.
In addition to everything else, Brenda allocates time to view her Agent Scorecard to scrutinize her own performance. By working on her shortcomings, she can improve upon her performance. After all, nothing works like self-improvement.
When Brenda started out, she faced the same struggles that all managers do. However, with the right tools, she can not only handle data like a pro, but also make decisions that boost the overall performance, helping her achieve her vision of an ideal customer support center.
Be like Brenda. Go the extra mile.
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