Most Contact Centres measure Agent performance. But not enough define it correctly.
This article is part of our Contact Centre Management Series — a collection of articles that bring together practical guidance and insights to help Contact Centres run better and deliver stronger results.
What is the Job of a Contact Centre Agent?
When we hire a Contact Centre Agent, we’re responsible for helping them succeed.
So a clear definition of the job is the right place to start.
The job of a Contact Centre Agent is to do the right things at the right time.
What’s great about this definition is that ‘doing the right things’ maps beautifully to Quality, while ‘at the right time’ maps well to Productivity.
Three Agent Outcomes Every Centre Wants
In Contact Centre training courses, we share three Agent outcomes that every Centre wants.
We want their:
- Productivity
Measurable and clearly defined - Quality
Measurable and clearly defined - Attitudes
Can be selected, defined and reinforced through culture and coaching
Let’s see how we can work to help our Agents achieve these outcomes.
Doing the Right Things = Quality
Let’s start with Quality.
Here are key management choices that improve Agent Quality performance.
Define a Compelling Service Delivery Vision
A familiar truth applies here: when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. That’s an important reminder when you’re defining what great service looks like for your Customers.
Every organisation has its own purpose, brand and customers.
So by design, it should have its own kind of service too.
A well-crafted Service Delivery Vision helps everyone understand what kind of service we deliver around here.
Even better, ask Agents their opinion of what kind of Service we deliver around here and incorporate their voice into the Service Delivery Vision.
Wouldn’t it be great if every Agent could say:
I know exactly what kind of service we deliver here, I can explain it to others, and I know how to bring it to life in my work.
Select the Right Performance Standards and Train Them Well
Every channel — chat, email, voice — has its own behavioural practices that separate great conversations from average ones.
For example, in email, it’s important to write the way you speak and use the inverted-pyramid structure to present information.
First understand those behavioural practices by channel.
Then filter channel practices through your Service Delivery Vision so that all the behaviours align across channels.
Use separate monitoring forms per channel — though they don’t need to be wildly different from each other.
We find that the monitoring forms across channels are quite similar — with the key differences being the behaviors which are channel-specific.
And be sure to properly document the selected performance standards for each channel.
That helps ensure that everyone involved in Quality understands and uses the approved definitions and scoring logic.
Don’t Ask Agents to Practice on Customers
I regularly come across Centres that ask their Agents to practice on Customers.
For example:
- Email Agents with no formal training in email writing
- Chat Agents handling chats without understanding what separates average from great
- Voice Agents with only orientation/product training
Don’t assume a good heart equals good service.
That’s not just untrue, it’s unfair.
Human communication is far more nuanced than some Contact Centre leaders realize.
If you have any doubts about that, just search for ‘human communication’ online and you’ll see what I mean.
Quality Assurance (QA) and Team Leaders should be enablers, helping Agents learn how to have great conversations with Customers.
Not act as barrier makers or demotivators.
The work of a Contact Centre Agent is hard enough already without leaders making it harder.
Wouldn’t it be great if each Agent could say:
I know the specific ‘why’ behind the Service Delivery Vision and the Performance Standards my organization chose to guide and measure quality.
Implement Proper Transaction Coaching
Effective Transaction Coaching functions best when it is developmental in nature.
It’s not just about a score.
It’s about both what went well and what can be improved.
Agents who only hear what they did wrong understandably disengage and dislike coaching sessions.
While Agents who hear differing opinions from different coaches understandably lose faith in the process — especially when scores are involved.
Wouldn’t it be great if each Agent could say:
My Team Leader has high standards and believes in my potential. I receive regular and helpful feedback about my quality performance which helps me understand where I do well and where I can improve.
At the Right Time = Productivity
Now let’s look at Productivity.
More than almost anything else, the key to Agent productivity is to understand what Agent productivity is — and what it isn’t.
Let’s start with what it isn’t:
It Isn’t Average Handling Time (AHT)
The significant drivers of AHT don’t lie in the control of Agents.
AHT’s main drivers are processes, technology, and contact complexity — not individual Agents.
Use AHT to spot outliers for root-cause analysis and for forecasting/staff planning, but give it low weighting on an individual scorecard.
It Isn’t Number of Calls Handled
For Service-Level channels (voice/live chat/face-to-face), Agents don’t control the volume they handle. So don’t set quantity targets.
For Response-Time channels (email/correspondence), volume targets can be appropriate because the environment is mathematically different.
This mistake — treating Number of Calls as a valid productivity metric — is among the most damaging in the industry.
Not to mention the damage created to Customer Satisfaction, Employee Engagement and the opportunity for Agents to develop a powerful communications voice and style of their own.
It Isn’t Occupancy
Agents don’t control how busy they are when they are signed in handling Service Level-based contacts.
Management is the ultimate driver of Occupancy through decisions that include setting Service Level objectives, Forecasting & Staffing and Managing Service Level in Real-Time.
We’re here to talk about measures that Agents can actually influence — and Occupancy isn’t one of them.
Mathematical realities such as the Pooling Principle further highlight how wrong it is to target Agents on personal Occupancy rates.
It’s not so great when your Agent says:
My Centre wants me to achieve both productivity and quality, but when these two dimensions compete with each other, I’m never sure if I am supposed to be fast or if I am supposed to be good.
It is Adherence to Schedule
We turn back to our definition of the job of a Contact Centre Agent.
The job of a Contact Centre Agent is to do the right things at the right time.
At the right time is best expressed through Adherence to Schedule.
Simply put, when your Agent adheres to the schedule they’re given — particularly on an interval basis — your Centre Service Level improves and stabilises. That’s a great thing.
Adherence to Schedule is at the heart of Contact Centre Agent performance for Productivity. And it makes intuitive sense.
When you’re short by even a small number of Agents, your Service Level goes down and all sorts of important KPIs go awry.
When you’re overstaffed by any number of Agents, your Service Level barely improves — and resources have been misapplied.
Scheduling the right people in the right place at the right time is not just a mantra.
It’s how Contact Centres manage Frontline resources efficiently.
You Can Weight Metrics
When it comes to Agents, choose the right measures for productivity.
Then combine your selected Productivity metrics into a ‘basket’ and consider a specific weighting to each metric to come up with an overall Productivity score.
For example, you may decide to give Adherence to Schedule a higher weightage to reflect its impact on Service Level performance.
You can apply the same approach to Quality as well.
Combine your selected Quality metrics into a ‘basket’ and assign a specific weighting to each metric to come up with an overall Quality score.
Keep in mind that different Centres may legitimately select and weight Productivity and Quality metrics differently depending on their operating model.
To me it’s like a recipe.
We’re using the right ingredients but we still prepare the recipe to our organization’s taste, weighting up some elements while we weight down others.
Wouldn’t it be great if your Agent could say:
I work in a Centre that has defined Productivity and Quality very clearly for me. I can achieve both without sacrificing one for the other.
Productivity & Quality Together
One of the powerful aspects of this Productivity (P) and Quality (Q) approach is that P & Q don’t contradict each other.
Never frame them as opposing forces that need to be balanced.
Your people can — and should — achieve both.
Attitudes: Bring Clarity
Now and then a Manager will say, “I think my Agent has an attitude problem.”
But is this a fair assessment?
I don’t think so.
There’s really no such thing as a generic ‘attitude problem’ because there are simply so many different attitudes at play in any job role.
In my former VP of Operations career, if a Manager came into my office and said their Agent had an attitude problem, I’d ask them to tell me specifically which attitude was the problem.
If they couldn’t, I’d suggest that we figure it out so that we could do something about it.
Every job, from the top on down, requires a certain set of specific attitudes to succeed.
It’s our job as leaders to know the attitude requirements for any job role we manage – in this case the Contact Centre Agent.
Examples of attitudes I come across regularly for Agents include:
- Ownership
- Adaptability
- Curiosity
- Professionalism
- Resilience
Often I find out which attitudes matter by looking at the Agent job description or the performance review template.
Specific attitudes may already be listed and even measured there.
Be very clear on the definitions of those attitudes that matter where you work. Come up with some practical examples people can understand.
Then talk about them with your people.
In Closing
Great Contact Centre performance doesn’t happen because people work harder.
It happens because leadership clearly defines success in line with sound Contact Centre management practices and equips people to achieve it.
When Agents improve their Productivity, Quality, and Attitudes, everyone wins — Customers, Agents, their Colleagues, the Organisation.
Now that’s something to celebrate.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this article resonated with you, I’d be pleased to stay connected.
Feel free to get in touch anytime, or explore more of our work below.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
