Mystery calling at home and abroad

Depending on which country they’re based in and which they’re targeting, call centre managers have different concerns and callers have different expectations about how they want a conversation to proceed.

What are these variations, and how are mystery shopping programmes designed to address them?

Tim Ogle investigates by looking at five key countries - each of which uses mystery calling

In some ways, the US is the most mature mystery shopping market in the world. Americans invented the idea of sending someone into a shop pretending to be a normal customer in order to spy on workers. As time and technology expanded, so did the techniques used for mystery shopping, and now virtually all large call centres in North America receive mystery calls.

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Mystery calling data is used for a specific purpose in the US, though - compliance. Mystery calling is seen as a measurement tool, which evaluates whether agents are complying with specific standards. These may include answering each call within a certain number of rings, sticking to a script, and transferring calls to the correct person or department.
Hence, the purpose of mystery calls in the US is loss prevention, and to catch people out. These calls can result in penalties for agents who perform badly, and therefore are viewed negatively by staff. As a result, staff engagement in the process remains low - providing management with some serious cultural challenges.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

At the other end of the spectrum to the US, call centres in the UAE are using mystery calling for developing relationships with customers. Agents in the UAE are instructed that handling calls is a multifaceted process, and are empowered to create relationships with callers. This is accomplished by using little or no scripting, and through mystery calls that do not look at standards, but at attitudes and the outcome of the call.

The most important thing for a UAE call centre agent is that the customer is satisfied. The one exception may be cross-selling, which is very important in many Emirates call centres as so many of the country’s industries are owned by the royal family, which is keen to develop tourism and commerce as it looks ahead to diversification.
Mystery calling reports themselves are typically used for training and development, rather than as a direct carrot or stick. With competition coming in strong from both the East and West, Middle Eastern operators are investing heavily in both technology and training to empower staff with knowledge. So before they’ve even picked up the phone, operators are tested and aware of the very latest offers, tariffs, products and even the overall business strategy of their employers.
After a mystery call, the manager might typically sit with the agent, play back a digital recording of a call and show them a report from the caller discussing how they felt about it. This can help train staff in dealing with cultural differences between Western and Arab callers, and generally teach them how to be more personable on the phone.

UK

Both alphabetically and in mystery shopping terms, the UK is in the middle of the US and UAE. Mystery shopping is well established in the UK. However, it’s not only used to catch out employees who aren’t performing well; it’s also used as an incentive tool.

Whereas in the US employees may not even be aware a mystery calling programme is happening, in the UK employees are encouraged to participate in the programme and are taught the extended values of giving efficient, personable and knowledgeable service. They are shown the questionnaires that will be used, and are told that they will be rewarded for good evaluations.

In the UK, mystery calls are typically closely aligned with customer relationship management (CRM) programmes, and monitor compliance with company standards as well as relationship building, tone, inflection and the outcome of the call. This is much more qualitative than the US approach, but also more quantitative than in the UAE. Results can be used to penalise employees, and also for training, but are not so exclusive about these uses as in the other countries.

For UK operators, research consistently points to the importance of retaining a friendly voice on the end of the phone. UK call centre managers therefore spend a lot of time coaching teams around the tone of the call and in ensuring there’s always a satisfactory outcome to the call - measured by the customer’s satisfaction.

There is also a focus on educating teams around the benefits of customer retention and in the value of converting a ‘complaining customer’ in to a ‘brand advocate’, thus reinforcing the value in using the call centre as an important part of the CRM process.

To help achieve this, mystery callers in the UK tend to be genuine consumers. In this respect, they have a far better gauge of how it ‘feels’ to be the customer on the end of the line.

Australia

While the UK is between the US and UAE on the mystery calling spectrum, Australia is between the US and UK. This is partly because the programmes in Australia are far simpler than in other countries as the technology is not as advanced.

This is mainly due to a lack of advanced CRM systems in most call centres, and the fact that most centres are still using internal training and evaluation teams rather than outsourcing to independent agencies.

Most of the monitoring revolves around measuring performance standards, like in the US. In Australia there is even more pressure than in other countries to outsource to India as it is lower cost, so call speed is very important.

Mystery calling reports are used for penalising employees more than anything. However, unlike in the US, call outcome is critical in Australia. Whether the caller’s issue was resolved in an efficient and effective manner is the ultimate measure of Australian call centres.

India

The leading location for outsourced call centres, India is also the biggest market for mystery calling. As most of the calls are coming from other countries, there are many problems with language and cultural barriers in Indian call centres.

Additionally, agents - although typically highly educated - are poorly trained in dealing with calls and have extremely high turnover rates.

India now leads the way in call centre technology, but with a transient workforce and in some cases 75% staff attrition, retaining quality teams is a massive challenge. Therefore, even more than the US, mystery calling is used to penalise Indian call centre workers.

Many call centres have strict guidelines and if a worker receives a bad report they can be fired immediately. The mystery callers look at extremely specific, process-driven items, including call time, cross-selling and adherence to the script. Results aren’t used for training or motivation, but only to catch employees who aren’t strictly adhering to procedure.

Tim Ogle is marketing director at mystery shopping firm Retail Eyes (UK)
Tel: +44 1908 328000
Website: www.retaileyes.co.uk

The following comments have been posted relating to this article:

May I suggest that companies do a thorough due diligence while recruiting their people and base their selection on the VOC (voice of customer)and develop a functional Training program with a view to continuous improvement. The VOE (voice of employee) needs to be heard, else attrition and dissatifaction levels will continue to rise. Begin to look at this from an industry players oint of view and not just a key hole view of your individual companies performance to simply reduce costs alone. maslows law …will give you a pointer on this regardless of which nation or nationality.Of course, you ned to understand the many factors which effect people performance and why variations exist. This is the gap we need to close.
My views are without prejudice and I hope it will be benefit the reader. (posted by Rajeev)