This was the old process for giving employees feedback: meet with them once a month for an appraisal (or, maybe, just once a quarter) and tell them how they’re getting on… and that’s it. The problem with this is that it’s disconnected from their day-to-day and, often, misses the detail on what they’re doing well and where they need to improve.
Companies, such as Orbit Group, have found that sharing customer feedback with employees has had a significant positive impact on employee morale and absence rates. It’s also improved engagement and given employees a greater sense of ownership over the service they provide customers.
In this blog post, we share four of the ways that you can use real-time feedback to improve how you share information and feedback with your employees.
Introduce daily huddles to keep employees informed about what’s happening
Orbit Group holds two daily huddles within the Contact Centre - one in the morning for the team leaders and then another with each team during the day. During these huddles, they share customer feedback and set objectives for the day ahead.
Making this small change and giving the advisors a bit time away from the phone has had an unexpectedly positive impact on Orbit’s sickness rate. It wasn’t something that senior management anticipated; Contact Centre sickness rates are traditionally quite high. But it came down to employees actually seeing the positive comments that customers say about them, which was very motivating.
Keep customer feedback visible so employees can see it
Whether it’s positive or negative feedback, making your customer feedback visible to employees is a powerful motivator. It means that each and every person can see the impact that they’re having on customers. It reminds them, when speaking to customers, that they will see what they customer really thought and felt about the conversation.
By sharing this feedback in real-time, employees are constantly reminded of their objectives and are shown how their service directly impacts on customers.
Supplement formal reviews with informal real-time feedback
Nobody likes a review process that’s rigid, infrequent and formal. But, for better or worse, this is what is still happening in many organisations.
Often, in this instance, the feedback isn’t specific and it isn’t actionable. Instead, its broad and generic. After all, who really remembers what happened on that Tuesday in the middle of June? Without sharing feedback in real-time, it’s all too easy for it to become disjointed and lose its meaning.
This is why you should share feedback in the moment when employees are still working on their day-to-day tasks. This establishes context and helps to reinforce the underlying sentiment to your employees. It also means employees don’t need to wait until their next review to know what they’re doing well and where they need to make improvements.
Not only will these measures improve your employee feedback process, but they also improve the overall customer experience.
Having fulfilled and motivated employees will be sure to have a positive impact on the service they deliver. This will lead to more positive feedback, which will once again motivate your employees. This cycle of using real-time feedback, once started, will act as a rotating wheel, benefiting both your customers and your employees.
To help you engage your employees we've taken six of the most common complaints made by Contact Centre Agents and created tips to help you stay on top of your game!
