If your data goes directly to the reporting platform from collection without survey calibration then expect your final Voice of the Customer (VoC) program to be riddled with erroneous information. Every post-call IVR survey needs to be evaluated in a survey calibration process because there are always occurrences of the customer not answering the questions correctly or a different agent being evaluated than the one to which the survey is attached. Across the programs we administer, there are hundreds of surveys each month that need to be adjusted to ensure the results are accurate. “I know you want me to review agent A, but I’m actually upset with agent B so I want to tell you about what he said to me when I called last week.” If one inaccurate survey makes it onto an agent’s report card, it’s easy to see how the trust in the feedback program will be undermined.
Survey calibration is critical because it’s really not fair to have incorrect information attached to the wrong agent. How would you feel if your job performance was based on something negative someone said about you when the scores were intended for someone else? You would be pretty upset, and rightfully so. This is a frequent occurrence in many customer experience measurement programs.
Recently, we began working with a new client that had previously attempted their own VoC program without survey calibration and the results were atrocious. Their call center had experienced heavy churn for years with low agent morale and the contact center leaders didn’t understand why. When we dug deep into the customer comments and reviewed the data, it was shocking to see how much of the feedback was attributed to the wrong agents and how many surveys included customer scoring errors. It is quite scary to think about how many agents had been reviewed, rewarded, and many times terminated based on wrongful information. Whenever looking at individual agent performance, like in this example, it is imperative that the information is validated.
So we all can agree that capturing post-call customer feedback is critical to your business. It allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of the customer, uncover problem products, agent issues, service faults and organizational barriers. Additionally, it reveals the positive in what is working, which agents are performing at high levels and quantifies how the customer experience translates into customer satisfaction and loyalty. But, we must always take one step further and guarantee the validity of the customer feedback so that the foundation of our customer programs is strong.
Customer experience data is powerful if you know how to unlock its valuable insights and make it actionable for your VoC programs. If your company wants to improve employee engagement and create customer-centric environments, then it’s critical to use a strict survey calibration process in your VoC programs to ensure your data are as accurate as it can be. For more information on some of the common pitfalls companies make with survey calibration, how to overcome them, and why the entire process is critical to your post-call IVR survey and VoC program success please download this free ebook, 25 Common CX Voice of the Customer Mistakes ebook with Self-Assessment
