How can you better promote accountability in your contact center?

When you take ownership and accountability for your actions, you’re much more likely to produce higher quality service.

For managers, inspiring this level of accountability within your contact center is a key step on the path to success. Employees that feel a level of ownership over meeting company goals or achieving critical objectives are more invested and engaged in their work.

It’s no surprise, then, that over 90 percent of leaders rank improving the ability to hold others accountable in an effective way as one of the top development needs of their organization, according to a report by Partners in Leadership. Despite this desire, 82 percent of respondents readily admit that they have limited to no ability to actually hold their reports accountable.

So how can you better promote accountability in your contact center?

1. Set clear expectations

You can’t expect your agents to be accountable if they don’t know what you need them to be accountable for. Taking ownership of tasks starts with setting clear expectations. Let each of your employees know what your desired outcomes are, what metrics they need to work within to reach these goals, as well as the consequences of not achieving them. Setting these expectations ensures you and your team are on the same page about what is required.

2. Give clear feedback

Honest and ongoing feedback is critical to accountability. Your agents need to know if they are meeting expectations and if they’re not, feedback sessions are the perfect opportunity to realign their paths. With clear measurements and pre-determined goals, these conversations can be fact-based and simple. These meetings are also a great opportunity for your employees to give you feedback on processes to help keep you accountable as well.

3. Build clear consequences

If you have made an effort at all of the above steps, there is no reason your agents shouldn’t be holding themselves accountable. At this point, you have three options: repeat, release or reward. If they are meeting outcomes and hitting metrics, reward them for their successes. If you think you haven’t explained yourself well, repeat the above process. If they’re continuously missing goals, it is most likely time to release them from the role. Make it clear that these are the consequences of a lack of ownership for their roles – as this failure ultimately affects the quality of your organization’s services.

Interested in learning more? 

Accountability is just one aspect of a larger theme: Quality Management. When you control the quality of the service you’re delivering to your customers, you can optimize the productivity of your agents, increase customer satisfaction rates, and maximize your bottom line.

Call Design offers a two-day course that covers the essentials of quality management, including taking ownership for goals and tasks. To learn more about how you can get started, download our Quality Management Essentials brochure or reach out to the Call Design team today!