When you put all other considerations aside and look at your service desk from the customer's point of view, one thing stands out more than everything else in the customer's mind. What the customer remembers is the quality of the service desk agent's performance. Attentive, knowledgeable, helpful, and professional agents give your service desk and company the reputation you want them to have, which will be reflected in your customer satisfaction metrics. Improving agent performance as well as process and technology is one of the most important steps you can take to enhance your overall service support operations. Improving the performance of any employee or team depends on using best practices that HR professionals have identified over the years. Implementing these practices can motivate, foster loyalty, and build trust and morale among advisors, thereby enhancing the customer experience. This article summarizes several of these high-impact steps. 1.
Set SMART goals for your team Managers can develop a SMART approach to build structure in assisting agents in setting goals and objectives. The SMART abbreviations are explained as follows: Be specific – the goal needs to be clear and easy to understand. "Reduce the cost per contact by 5% by June 30" is clear and specific. Measurable - Goals must be measurable by agents so they can track industry mailing list progress towards success. Achievable – Goals should not require more than is reasonably possible to achieve, otherwise it demotivates advisors and may lead them to ask, “Why try? It can’t be done.” Relevance – Agents should understand why goals are being established by looking at how they relate to their day-to-day work. Using the example above, "Reduce the cost per contact by 5% by June 30," management can set incentives for agents who achieve that goal. Timely – Goals must have deadlines or success cannot be measured.
The goals you and your team set should be discussed frequently and then written down so they are not misunderstood. 2. Provide frequent feedback Every manager should realize that feedback given to advisors accomplishes two things. If the feedback is positive, it's an incentive to encourage more of the same behavior. If negative, it allows the agent to make mid-course corrections and adjustments to its work habits. Feedback needs to be clear, understandable, honest, and ready for the agent to act. Giving feedback should be an ongoing activity. Reserving feedback for quarterly or annual reviews misses the opportunity to continuously improve operations. At the same time, don't let giving feedback become a format for micromanaging your agency. No one wants to be micromanaged, and when that happens, advisors start to feel that management doesn't trust their skills and abilities. This can lead to unhealthy service desk operations, resulting in decreased attendance and increased staff turnover. Managers need motivation, which can only come from learning people management skills.