Q: Does my current monitoring form give me the information I need?

A: The impetus for collecting information is to correct problems and identify opportunities for process improvement – to bring about positive change in an organization.

To ensure you’re focused on making changes that align with business objectives, I recommend you review your monitoring form once per quarter. Every organization begins the year with a strategic plan and year-end goals, and you design your monitoring form to help your company meet its objectives. But market conditions shift, as do priorities, so you have to be somewhat flexible in your data collection. Certainly, you have to stay focused on improving performance, but the data you gather must also be relevant to the larger organization. Plus, keep in mind that customer needs and expectations change. A quarterly review of your monitoring form helps keep you listening through your customers’ ears, rather than getting attached to monitoring standards that out-of-date or meaningless to the people who matter most -- customers.

In general, create a good balance between internal and external demands. Your monitoring form should have criteria that reflect both the voice of the business and the voice of the customer. It’s not easy. We get so caught up in what’s going on around us that we tend to focus more on business needs than we do on the customer experience. But like any good resolution, it just takes effort and determination – plus a quarterly review. Fortunately, if given the opportunity, your customers/consumers won’t hesitate to provide feedback on the interaction they had with your agent. You can facilitate that feedback process by providing them with a variety of channels, including phone, web, and email, to offer comments. Make sure your monitoring form allows you to capture this data. It’s the best tool for measuring your agents’ performance and customer satisfaction.