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Today any call centre of repute uses call distribution statistics to show the quantity of the calls handled, along with electronic monitoring to keep a tab on the quality. Usually there is a separate performance sheet for every agent, which is maintained by his or her respective team leader (or supervisor, or manager) and provides an overall analytical view on the performance of each and every call centre agent.
“There's a lot of need in call centres to be able to drill down into individual agent performance”, says Tom Pringle, a technology analyst from Datamonitor. It improves the overall quality of the organisation. As the employees are aware that they can be monitored any moment, they always put in their best performance.
This should mean better service to the customers. It also helps in the all-round development of the employees because the team leaders should be aware of the problem areas of every individual and can them. It even helps the top management to oversee the entire operations of the company. Management can segregate the ‘outperformers’ from the performers, and the performers from the losers.
However, electronic monitoring is having a negative effect on the call centre employees. Frequent monitoring is resulting in a decline in the quality and the customer service, along with an increase in their stress levels. A study by D. DiTecco, a senior consultant, Bell Canada, was carried out to gauge the relation between stress and monitoring. All the agents questioned for the study were monitored for the length of their call, as well as for the quality of the service provided. Fifty five percent respondents revealed that any sort of monitoring added to their level of stress at work.
The knowledge that they can be monitored any moment is a major factor in causing stress. Amosha Lyngdoh (27), an ex-call centre employee, and Naresh Shekhawat (30), a supervisor with a U.K. call centre based in Hyderabad, India, associated electronic monitoring to increasing amounts of stress, declining job satisfaction, feelings of social isolation and insecurity, and a belief that quantity is more important than quality. It also gives birth to the notion among the employees that the employers don’t trust them. This feeling of lack of mutual trust has an adverse affect on productivity, thereby hampering the growth of the organisation. As revealed by Naresh in the course of the interview, “…Stress levels and job dissatisfaction increase when workers feel they have no control over their jobs and when there is a lack of trust in the work environment”.
And the present global scenario magnifies the need, as stiff competition and high attrition rates are giving the management a tough time. It is not like monitoring individual performance has just begun; rather the call monitoring of the call centre agents has been in vogue for some time. It’s just that presently the need for call quality monitoring is being experienced more urgently.
Frequent call monitoring, better known as Sporadic Quality Monitoring (SQM), was much appreciated initially as it was regarded as the benchmark for quality consciousness. Management promptly implemented SQM, and took it for granted that the customers were getting quality service. But at the same time, the call centre agents failed to deliver quality service. Obviously, the stress induced by SQM, along with the various work related problems, having its toll. The whole process of building customer relationships got neglected enroute.
The crux of the matter is that mere implementation of Sporadic Quality Monitoring is not enough. It’s the way it is implemented that makes the difference. It is true that in order to keep a tab on quality, each and every call needs to be recorded and analysed. But a blind implementation of the monitoring process can create problems equally for management and employees.
In the words of Gaurav Punj (23), a call centre agent in one of the leading call centres of India, “Call centres would be a better place if they were unionised, the working conditions were improved, and the oppressive environment was changed”. Dattani (21), alias Colin Lynch (for his clients), working with Daksh e-Services, also voices similar feelings. According to Dattani, “Stress, call monitoring, the pressures of 7 day a week, 24 hour rosters, career paths, and flexibility for families are issues the industry has to face up to; A national award would go some way towards addressing these issues for the employees in a fair way.”
Providing quality customer service is not child’s play. It is virtually impossible to define fixed parameters to adjudge the level of service provided, but a consensus should be reached. In today’s customer-driven market, we all expect the services to get better, quicker, and more effective. And it is for the call centres to reach the level of the expectations, but not at the cost of their employees.
The management has to realise that their organisation cannot make the customers happy as long as their employees remain unhappy. And the sooner the management wakes up to the importance of this symbiotic relationship, the better it is. Those companies who won’t, will be losing out on their business and profits in a matter of time.
Thus, call quality monitoring is an essential part of the call centre industry and can’t be done away with. But it has to be carried out on a positive note. Also, there needs to be adequate employee-management interaction to mitigate the negative effects, if any.
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