CSAT measures - creating the right impactMost of the analysis and outputs from CSAT surveys are focused on what needs to change at the contact center. Whether it is an improvement in agent performance or what kind of training or which center needs to be “brought up” to the network average, the call center agents directly come under the microscope. However a quick analysis of the extent of problems/ poor customer experience will show that nearly 50% of the problems originate outside the contact center. In CSAT surveys the focus is more on the interaction than on what happened before the interaction and where the problem originated. In many cases the root cause of the CSAT problems emanate from product issues or features not as per customer expectations or price plans or a wrong bill or a change in a marketing program or a limited offer which fundamentally drive the CSAT even before the contact happens. So if an already dissatisfied customer ends up calling the contact center and the agent has little or no authority to make any changes that can help the customer, it only worsens the customer experience. While operational performance in the contact center comes under very heavy scrutiny the same level of scrutiny and actions are lesser implemented at the place where the problems originate.
And many times we hear frustrated contact center heads screaming that they have only a limited influence and senior executives comment about how it is too difficult an internal mess to address other departmental issues.
The best practice would be to measure the experience both pre-interaction and during the interaction and also isolate what can be controlled by the agent vis-à-vis what should be driven by the rest of the organisation. And if this practice is designed and managed statistically then it has a higher probability to enable right decisions. While most companies know this, few companies execute. One example of a company that measures it this way and executes is an European Telco. They have two measures of CSAT one for the agent and for the rest of the factors and they try to correlate these two measures. Byond the practice it is important to have a method through which this can be explained/ sold and even championed internally in order to create a true high quality customer experience. Only then CSAT surveys can make the right impact. |
