Learning and Development KPI's guidance in Customer Service industry.

1. Assignment
Daniel Cheksan

3. If you are to lead and guide the Training and
Development team, what are your strategies and
development plan to achieve the following KPI’s?

4. Agents to strike and maintain each required attribute score at 90%.
Agents should have full training and everyday support available to them at all
times when they are on duty. An initial assessment of each operator should be
made, and then appraisals (informal) each day and formal appraisals each
month.
Daily appraisals are by simple observation, monitoring and keeping close
track of performance.
Formal appraisals would be by group meetings once a month (or more often if
required) to discuss any general issues which arise, and by individual
meetings as and when required to ensure that a low-performer has all the
encouragement and training available to increase their performance.
Achieving KPIs

5. Ensure both inbound and chat teams are equipped with excellent soft skills
Initial assessment of each agent should test their conversational language
skills, their ability to listen correctly (similar to an IELTS test) and their
ability to respond in a clear, concise and timely manner. Those who fall below
an acceptable standard would be given intensive training which would
concentrate on the areas where they fail, and they should be able to improve
within a short time. Those agents who consistently fall short of required
standards should be removed from teams and given other duties or replaced.
All agents should be completely familiar with the hardware they use and able
to demonstrate a quick response time, a consistently short and fully effective
time dealing with each contact. Those who require assistance to reach
familiarity with their hardware should be given refresher courses and tested
on their increased ability to react efficiently and effectively with calls.
Achieving KPIs

6. Training

7. New agents are well trained and educated all training requirements
A strong training programme should be developed to ensure that all new
agents are fully trained in the shortest and most effective time, with ongoing
tests of speed, knowledge and accuracy. This will ensure that all agents are
trained to the highest – and equal – standards, so incoming calls are dealt with
in the best possible way in the shortest times. Qualities such as language use,
politeness, appreciation of cultural or religious differences would also be
important in training new agents to give the best service.
Training

8. Existing agents hard skills (product knowledge and process wise)
are as of expected and nil complaint/feedback
Existing agents should be assessed and compared to their rates of success and
the expected rates of success. Additional training must be provided as soon as
a new product or an update is introduced so that agents can react as soon as
possible to new enquiries.
All agents should be regularly examined or tested on their knowledge of the
whole system and their place in it, their need to react and maintain high
speeds and efficient reactions to customers.
Support material should be developed, including streamlined guidance which
would be quick to reference and easy to understand, and include flow charts of
processes which could be easily accessed on the fly.
Training

9. All weekly/monthly updates are delivered to all agents effectively within a
suitable timeframe
Updated information should be delivered as soon as it is available; and a weekly
day should be nominated when agents will receive information relevant to their
work. Agents should be able to rely on their information being given on the same
day each week/month so they can react to it, change and improve and note that
those above them are also doing their very best to work efficiently and
diligently. Information supplied must be clear, concise and easy to understand,
fair and balanced and should provide motivational suggestions for
improvements. Any negative information should be balanced by solutions and
encouragement to improve rather than just being negative. Morale is increased
when staff can appreciate that supervisors are there to encourage and not only
to be negative.
Negative management lowers morale and causes staff to work at a less
efficient rate.
Training

10. How do you plan to coach and lead your
trainers and QAs to maximize their
capabilities, skills and attitudes?

11. Anyone in a supervisory role must be completely sure of their knowledge and
their ability to give information effectively and efficiently to other staff. As QA
Supervisor, I would be certain to have all the product, process, hardware and
training knowledge necessary to ensure that staff are able to reply fully on my
judgement and ability. A strong leader is essential to give confidence to staff
that they have a supervisor who knows what they do, how they do it and how
to fix problems.
I would coach trainers by finding out and telling them exactly what the staff
need to know, and include anything I need to know too. I would make sure are
aware themselves of any product enhancements or development, or new
products and any changes in the processes. If they are not I would make sure
they get that knowledge before they are allowed to assess any staff.
Coaching

12. As ongoing training, I would implement monthly assessments for trainers and
QAs to ensure that they are all up to speed, following all appropriate
procedures and fully aware of the capabilities of agents.
I would also encourage trainers to become aware of the personalities of agents
and how to respond to their differences in attitude, how to deal with failing
agents and how to encourage those who perform at varying rates month-by-
month.
Trainers and QAs who are already performing well can be encouraged to
improve their skills by following online advice, training courses and being
proactive in their approach to developing their skills.
Coaching

13. If trainers are unable to respond to the training needs of staff, they would be
sent on refresher courses to improve their skills and their knowledge and to
make sure they are able to train and guide as efficiently as possible. These
courses could also be completed online or in their own time if necessary.
To maximise the skills of trainers and QAs, I would identify their strengths
and then place them in an area of work appropriate to those strengths. That
should make sure that all areas of work are covered, with each individual
having slightly different abilities and strengths. If they lack some skills, or
need to re-train, then they would be given courses to enhance their existing
skills and increase new ones.
Coaching

14. It is natural in all workplaces that some people have a poor attitude. Those
people need encouraging through positive reinforcement, through allowing
them to excel in the areas where they feel they can do the best job and to show
them that they can do better. By giving them the chance to do the best they
can, they should be more happy at work and increase their performance
accordingly. However, some people will not improve or change their attitudes
and need to be removed and replaced. This is because a negative person in
charge of others will share that bad attitude with the staff and bring them all
down, lowering morale and also lowering performance and efficiency.
Coaching

15. For those who have a positive attitude, they should be rewarded in some way
(according to company policies) or at the very least, told in front of others
that they are doing a great job and ‘well done’. This sounds a bit simple, but
those sort of encouragements keep people more happy and they feel they are
part of an organisation that cares about them and how they are doing.
Coaching