ISO 18295-1 Customer-focused leadership

ISO 18295-1 Clause 5Customer-focused leadership

ISO 18295-1 Clause 5.1General

The CCC leadership shall take overall responsibility for implementing the requirements of this document and the customer experience strategy of the client. It shall establish customer-focused strategies that will result in positive experiences for customers when they interact with the CCC.

ISO 18295-1 Clause 5.2Customer experience design and delivery

The CCC leadership shall, in consultation with the client, determine the desired customer experience to be delivered by the CCC. The CCC leadership is responsible for delivering the desired experience through the CCC. The CCC leadership and the client shall agree relevant performance measures for the CCC to monitor its performance and support it in delivering the desired customer experience. It shall agree with the client review frequencies for these measures. The CCC should monitor performance against the metrics (KPIs) specified below to identify continuous improvement initiatives. These metrics may be measured by the CCC or the client. All metrics should be measured at determined intervals, e.g. 15 min, 30 min, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, annually. Metrics should be measured across all applicable interaction channels. All reporting is done across both inbound and outbound unless otherwise specified. Sampling of the data is crucial in measuring the matrices. A level of confidence should be ensured where either a statistically relevant sample or an entire population base is engaged (100% sampling). This should be agreed with the client.

The key matrices are: A.Customer experience (CX)

Definition/Formula: Customer’s perception of the degree to which their requirements have been fulfilled. Any direct contact with the customer to gather their feedback needs to be agreed with the client. There are numerous methods by which to measure CX, e.g. customer satisfaction, voice of the customer, customer effort score, sentiment analysis, social media data collection, customer feedback, speech analytics, complaints analysis, social networks feedback, customer recommendations.

• Recommended best practice: Use more than one method to measure.
• Recommended: Client and CCC specific.
• Recommended reporting: Inbound and outbound interaction, by Client, Business unit, Campaign, Channel, specific to the CCC.

B.Customer interaction quality

Definition/Formula: Customer interaction quality has two measurement areas to consider: factual accuracy and interaction handling.

Factual accuracy

Definition/Formula: The accuracy/completeness of information provided to the customer and the necessary tasks or steps to close the interaction according to process/procedure. The percentage of transactions monitored that have achieved the client-specific factual accuracy target.

• Recommended best practice/targets: Greater than 95 % compliance against factual accuracy criteria that are client-specific based.

Interaction handling

Definition/Formula: Measuring the customer interaction approach of the agent to achieve the required customer experience taking into account, for example, empathy, politeness, listening skills, attention to the individual, and appropriate response to the customer’s needs.

• Recommended best practice/targets: Minimum 85 % compliance against interaction quality accuracy criteria that are client-specific based.

To ensure a high quality output level from the CCC, each agent should be assessed using predetermined criteria and an unbiased sample agreed between the client and the CCC. All assessments should be conducted against set quality measurement criteria that are defined as two separate measurements for both factual accuracy and interaction handling. In order for assessments to be objective, calibration sessions shall take place around results using the calibration variance as the measurement criteria to determine objectivity and alignment on scoring.

• Recommended measurement frequency: Unbiased sample monthly.
• Recommended reporting: By campaign, by team, by agent for each interaction type.

C.First contact resolution (FCR)

Definition/Formula: Percentage of interactions resolved in the first contact from a customer’s perspective over a representative sample.

• Recommended: Client to specify target, dependent on process.
• Recommended reporting: Inbound interactions, by client, business unit, campaign, agent.

D.Service level (SL)

Definition/Formula: Total interactions offered that are answered/responded to by an agent before the threshold time, divided by total interactions offered. No exclusions to be factored in such as abandoned contacts under threshold. A measure to indicate the speed of service for interactions based on the customer’s waiting tolerance.

• Recommended: Client to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: Inbound interactions that are handled real-time (average speed of answer / response), by CCC, campaign or interaction channel / service line.

E.Abandonment rate

Definition/Formula: Percentage of all interactions that are dropped by a customer prior to an agent responding.

• Recommended: < 3% in any 24hour period.
• Recommended reporting: Real-time inbound interactions, by CCC, campaign, service line, interaction channel / service line.

F.Aborted call rate

Definition/Formula: Percentage of all interactions that are aborted by the dialler or customer prior to being connected to an agent.

• Recommended: Client to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: Outbound interactions, and CCC, campaign, service line, interaction channel.

G.Repeat contact ratio

Definition/Formula: Ratio of repeat customer interactions for the one and the same query divided by total number of interactions received in a given period of time (intervals). All repeat contacts should be tracked to assess the ratio of repeat contacts.

• Recommended: Client to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: Inbound interactions, by campaign, service line, interaction channel.

H.Complaint ratio

Definition/Formula: The volume of complaints as a percentage of total customer interactions.

• Recommended: CCC to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: Inbound and outbound interaction, by agent, campaign, service line, interaction channel, CCC.

I.Employee satisfaction/Engagement (ESE)

Definition/Formula: Employee satisfaction/engagement measures the employee’s perception of how engaged or satisfied they are with the CCC. There are numerous methods by which to measure ESE, e.g. staff satisfaction, employee effort, employee surveys.

• Recommended best practice/target: CCC to specify target, use more than one method to measure.
• Recommended reporting: By CCC, business unit.

J.Client satisfaction

Definition/Formula: Client perception of the degree to which their requirements have been fulfilled by the CCC. There are numerous methods by which to measure client satisfaction e.g. surveys, quarterly reviews, client complaints review.

• Recommended: CCC to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: By client, business unit.

K.Average handling time (AHT)

Definition/Formula: Total time spent by an agent handling the customer interaction including hold time and after interaction work (AIW), divided by the number of contacts handled.

• Recommended best practice: This metric should be aligned with the documented and tested average customer process handling time per interaction type.
• Recommended reporting: CCC, by business unit, service line/interaction channel specific.

L.Agent occupancy

Definition/Formula: Total interaction time plus after interaction work time, divided by total available plus interaction time plus after interaction work time.

• Recommended: CCC to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: By campaign, service line/interaction channel, team, agent.

M.Absenteeism

Definition/Formula: Percentage of unplanned absence against the schedule.

• Recommended: CCC to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: By CCC, campaign, service line/interaction channel, team, agent.

N.Attrition

Definition/Formula: Percentage of total number of agents exiting the CCC divided by total number of agents. All agents who exit the CCC whether internally (e.g. being promoted) or exit externally by choice or not.

• Recommended: CCC to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: By CCC, annualized basis, reported monthly.

O.Forecast accuracy

Definition/Formula: Percentage difference between the actual interaction arrival and the interaction arrival forecast.

• Recommended best practice/targets: Maximum 5 % variance above or below forecast, calculated per 30 min interval.
• Recommended reporting: By campaign, service line/interaction channel, interaction types, per interval.

P.Schedule accuracy

Definition/Formula: Percentage difference between the actual required agents and the scheduled agents.

• Recommended best practice/targets: Maximum 5 % variance above or below schedule.
• Recommended reporting: By campaign, service line/interaction channel, by interaction types, per interval.

Q.Schedule adherence

Definition/Formula: Expressed as a percentage of actual workforce adherence against scheduled.

• Recommended: CCC to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: By campaigns, service line/interaction channel, interaction types.

R.Contact back on time

Definition/Formula: Percentage of interactions made on time in response to a customer request/instruction (scheduled).

• Recommended: Client to specify target.
• Recommended reporting: By campaign, team, agent.

S.Opt-out rate

Definition/Formula: Percentage of prospect/customer records requesting the ‘Do not contact’ option against successful contacts (right party contacts).

• Recommended: No target
• Recommended reporting: Outbound interactions, campaign, service line/interaction channel.

T.Contactability (right party contact)

Definition/Formula: Percentage of customers that were successfully contacted against unique customer records.

• Recommended: No target.
• Recommended reporting: Outbound interactions, campaign list, campaign type and campaign.

U.Attempts per contact

Definition/Formula: Number of attempts per contact.

• Recommended: No target.
• Recommended reporting: By campaign list, campaign.

ISO 18295-1 Clause 5.3Employee satisfaction/engagement

Employee satisfaction/engagement directly impacts customer satisfaction, therefore the CCC leadership shall create a working environment which encourages high levels of employee engagement. The CCC shall equip its employees with the skills and resources needed to deliver the desired customer experience. The CCC shall integrate employee engagement in relevant CCC activities. It shall periodically measure employee satisfaction/engagement to understand employee needs and take action to improve as necessary. This shall focus on:

1. Overall employee satisfaction/engagement
2. Agent experience in handling customer interactions.