Are your post-call surveys used for business intelligence or to beat up call center agents?

Are your post-call surveys considered to be business intelligence?  Let’s be honest, are we always ready for that honesty?  Or are you asking in such a way that you only get positive comments? Or to just beat up call center agents? 

What we’ve found is that most programs are destructive or met with apathy. The objective you want is to encourage the good, the bad and the ugly – this strategy will help you react to and solve issues with  your products and services.  For instance, a recent case was the discovery of a supply issue – not enough product to go around – which in turn was causing some negative online conversation surrounding the product.  The call center knew about the problem long before consumers started tweeting about it, but did not have a good process to disseminate the information.  Given how quickly people can express themselves online these days it becomes even more important to have a proactive process in place to not only deal with issues, but to equip your agents with the tools they need to address the consumers concerns about supply on the phone. Our client certainly does this now.  You hear, and you need to share your customer intelligence:

“I love this product and went to the local store to buy one for my friend and they were sold out.   The store manager told me they couldn’t get more in for 10 weeks!  What is that?  Every time I turn around there’s another commercial for your product but they aren’t stocked anywhere?  What gives?”

“When I ordered your product it arrived damaged.  I went to return it at my local department store because I thought that would be quicker than shipping it back, but when I went to the store they told me it was sold out and it was going to take more than three months for them to get more in.  I ended up shipping it back to get another but my time was kind of wasted.  You should work on supply and demand.”

“I shouldn’t have to work so hard to give you my money.  Why can’t I find this in a store?  I want to be a customer, or at least I did.  I’m not so sure now.”

These are business intelligence types of insights and when applied properly can benefits everyone. Now, so let me ask again…do your five questions about agent performance in your post-call surveys drive customers or call center agents away?  I say both!