Metric Nazi Management

I'm going to veer off my GOPHER coaching and feedback path on this blog entry.  I'd like to share my recent experience with a BPO in Central America I visited a few weeks ago.

My company has been using this company to help us with some of our call volume.  It had been about 9 months since we started operations there.  At the start up phase I stayed behind at our main facility as some of my trainers and I.T. gurus went down to kick off this endeavor.  We had not been back since.  

Despite the great start there were some not so surprising bumps between us and our new partner.  We had done all the right things to kick off our long distance romance.  We called each other a lot during the day.  We brought one of their best trainers up to our house to learn and understand how and why we did things the way we did.  It wasn't enough that we calibrated our Q.A. departments and shared coaching and feedback processes via email and phone but we added a Skype room so we could put a face to our new friends.

Every Thursday we had a formal business presentation via Webex where our new friends told us how attrition, AHT, Quality, Legal Compliance, Occupancy, and other metrics were doing week after week in their house.

I was happy at how well they said they were doing  But I was confounded by my quality teams call audits of their agents over the past few months.  They were way off.  My team had consistently scored them much lower.

Time to take a trip.  

I sing "Come Fly With Me" better than Sinatra

I wanted to see how the sausage was being made.  It sure tasted okay but I was wondering if I was going to be repulsed by how it was produced.  Maybe that is too strong of an analogy but I had my doubts.  Preconceived notions and my experiences on "this side of the business" made me think I was going to be disappointed.  Those notions were still prevalent even after leaving a well known BPO over 12 years ago.

In 1999 this BPO I worked for really did not have any coaching and feedback system or recognition program.  Their Quality department was extremely rigid and their accountability was almost non-existent - they were the Untouchables.  Topping it off was a center Director who was one of the most selfish and wrongly driven men I have ever had the misfortune of working for.  Actually I'm extremely glad I experienced working for him because it solidified how I would never treat another human being.  

Back then we were very rigid with our metrics.  We may have had a very demanding client but handle times, service levels, hold rates, quality, after work times, and average talk times were set in stone.  It didn't matter how close our agents came to making their numbers.  It didn't matter that some of our agents were trending positive improvements with metrics they struggled with in a short amount of time.

We were Metric Nazis back then.  I'm wondering if this BPO is doing the same thing.  

After the first 2 days I'm writing a lot of things down - things I'm sharing with their Site Director, HR manager, QA manager and Project Manager.  Processes to be put in place immediately and others to be put in action after I leave.  I'm ecstatic that they are so quick in getting some of these things done while I'm there and it's already showing some quality improvements.  I'm not so happy with where they moved my project - from the fourth floor with a panoramic view of the mountains to the cramped quarters on the first floor with no windows. 

I'll have one on ones with all of the Supervisors and Agents on my project.  It will take a few days but I'll get the real story on this company.  I wonder if BPOs haven't changed that much in their tactics since 1999.

I've got a set of questions I start asking in my one on one sessions with the Supervisors and Agents.  

What would ya say ya do here?

"How is the company treating you?"  
"Do you feel like you're getting the support from your company?"
"Do you like your work environment?"
"Are you receiving adequate coaching and feedback?"

I expected responses to be varied - some love the company, some tolerate the company.  I thought most would say the training was mediocre or incomplete or that the trainer didn't know a lot of things.  Maybe the coaching and feedback was all Metric Nazi because I didn't see any coaching going on.  I was preparing to really rip into somebody about something.  It had the appearance of my 1999 experience.

After 2 days of these meetings I was convinced we had a Metric Nazi in the house.

It was me.  

Almost every issue that this company was dealing with was due to something I did or didn't do.  Below would be the consensus of the responses collected over those two days. 

How's your company treating you?  
Great - we are working with what we have.  We don't like that they moved us from the fourth floor to the first floor. 
How I deciphered that:
The BPO was tired of waiting for us to forecast FTE so they had to make room for another client who made that commitment.  They are now on the fourth floor with the great view.

Do you feel like you're getting support from your company?
Yes they treat us very well.  This is a great paying job and it's easy - see most of us have banking or I.T. tech support call center backgrounds.  We were wondering if we would see anybody from your company.  The other projects around us are always getting products and visits.
How I deciphered that:
9 month absence.  Shameful. 

Do you like your work environment?
It's OK because we know we'll move out of the first floor as we grow.  But the call volume is extremely high and for 8 hours there's just no break.
How I deciphered that:
I didn't think about the culture of the call center down here.  These guys are used to spending time between calls doing after call work or just haven't experienced such a high occupancy rate.  My North American group deals with this fairly easily.  This also might explain the higher attrition rate here too.

Are you receiving adequate coaching and feedback?
Yes but our Supervisors are not able to play our calls back so it's hard to reference areas of improvement.  The Supervisors also are confused about the Quality reporting format.  They seem very objective and it's difficult for them to coach to that.
How I deciphered that:
Lack of calibration between us and them.  We relied too much on the initial training we did so long ago.  We need to make sure we send a QA team member down here on a quarterly basis and revamp our QA monitor process.  Hell, we had Skype what else do we need?

The bottom line - I was the leader and head facilitator of the Metric Nazi Management initiative and didn't even know it.  I expected a lot because I thought I had everything covered.  The mistake was assuming that because this company specializes in being an outsource call center I should be able to give them my metric expectations and leave the rest to them.  A few phone calls each week should suffice to make sure things are on track.

Despite being thousands of miles away these people are part of my business family and I haven't been treating them as such.  They are a partner and they deserve more than one visit every 9 months from us.  I came back and made some positive changes in processes and protocol.  Some of those I implemented while I was down there.

I highly recommend doing the "Not So Undercover Boss" trips regularly if you have any outsourcing done domestically, near shore or off shore.  Just be prepared to see your previously unseen part in the sausage making process.

Still learning lessons and loving it!