Customer Service Evaluation Questions – Issue Spotting Checklist

Do you mystery shop your employees?

Do you outsource any business processes? Do you monitor the quality of customer service provided by these outside contractors?

No? Click here

By what methods do you shop (in-person, phone, e-mail, online chat)?

For what purposes do you mystery shop?

Verify skills or to confirm adherence to script
For performance appraisals or incentive program
Training
Teach reps to overcome sales resistance

What is the typical scenario(s) for your mystery shops? What type of customer interactions are you sampling?

Do you have an alert service to handle service issues that deserve immediate attention (service recovery)?

Do you conduct long shops (sales training) or short shops (monitoring)?

Do you have transactions completed (e.g. reservation) and cancelled?

Do you maintain a separate web presence (cite, direct line, e-mail, live-chat) for each business location?

In how many locations do you conduct business?

Have you noticed an increase in business from the internet?

Do you combine customer service/satisfaction performance by your employees with any incentive program?

What market segments are you trying to attract and retain? Is your level of service appropriate to the market you wish to attract and satisfy?

How do you measure good service?

How do you test the individual initiative of your people on the frontlines?

How do you check that calls are routed properly to the appropriate specialists?

How do you check if employees are up-selling and cross-selling?

What tools do your managers have for coaching agents?

How many employees do you have?

Which categories of employees do you shop (front-line, call center, etc.)?

Do you shop both revenue and support centers?

Do you obtain employee monitoring consents?

How do you get real service evaluations of new trainees?

How do you ensure uniform service by your braches, franchisees?

How frequently do you schedule shops?

Do you offer 24/7 customer support accessible via Live Chat, email or telephone?

Do you have them conducted even during peak volume or challenging periods?

Do you shop all shifts?

Do you grade both systems and people?

How do you identify customer service weaknesses across interaction channels?

Do you employ an IVR or other automatic call distribution technology to correctly rout incoming calls to appropriate agents? Do you periodically test the system?

Do you have a customer support agent intranet so agents can search your company’s knowledge base for answers or problem resolution steps to provide quick responses to customers? Do you periodically test the agent’s abilities to find and quote the right answers?

Is everyone getting the results that should be? How do you monitor that they are actually using the data? How long do you want your employees to be able to access their results?

Have your mystery shopping efforts thus far positively affected your business?

Are your program drivers (overall motivation behind program) improving?

Are you satisfied with the level of redirective feedback you’re receiving?

Are you satisfied with the reporting format(s) being used?

Are you able to have friendly competitions between your braches, properties, locations, etc.?

How well is your current vendor performing?

How quick is the turnaround from your current vendor?

Do you have key contacts who you can call at any time?

Are you getting your results on as frequent a schedule as you would prefer?

Would you like results in some form other than what you’re currently receiving?

Are you getting suggestions for improvement in your results?

Do you periodically conduct an RFP or otherwise bid out this work?

If the price is the same, what will cause you to choose one vendor over another?

Can you freely make changes to the way your evaluation program is conducted? (e.g. reduce number of shops, change script, change time of shop, etc.)

What type of contingency do you have in place if something were to happen where you need service in an emergency?

Do you receive prompt reports of improper phone etiquette?

Do you receive prompt notice of any failure to connect to your representatives?

Do you need Spanish speaking shoppers?

Are you able to shop multiple departments (e.g. front desk, PBX, concierge, etc?) Revenue centers vs. support centers. Front of the house vs. back of the house.

Yes? Click here

NO:

How are you measuring the level of service quality among the various customer interaction channels you’re using? For example, do you have strict time frames for responding to customer e-mail inquires?

How are you handling effectiveness (not efficiency) evaluation of your contact centers and field offices?

Do you reward managers based on traditional efficiency-based measures (call handle time) or other business-related measures, such as: first time fix rates, meeting up-sell targets or increasing the percentage of promoter clients?

What is your ratio of Customer Service Representatives to customers?

Do you have service guidelines or a quality definitions document which governs your employees’ telephone interactions with customers? Do you have written interaction handling processes?

How do you ensure that the guidelines are being followed?

Do you record employee conversations?

No: Because you can’t justify the investment in a call recording system or for another reason?

Yes: What percentage of agent calls are sampled (average 1-4% per month)?

Are your managers and supervisors dedicating the time to appropriate monitor and use the recorded info?

Have you had any issues with objectivity or impartiality?

Have you yet had to change your monitoring software (due to changes in your LAN or otherwise)?

Is the software or other tools used sufficient to enable your managers to truly manage their teams?

How do you monitor your employees’ interactions with customers via the internet?

Do your managers and supervisors review customer e-mails and live chats?

Do you have automated or assisted response software for customer e-mails?

How do you ensure that the technology you’ve implemented is functioning effectively and efficiently?

Do you monitor response times?

Are you having employee training issues you would like to fix?

Do you have a need for any competitive information which could be obtained by mystery shopping your competitors?