Daniel De Vries, Switchboard of Miami - PowerPoint Presentation

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Daniel De Vries, Switchboard of Miami

Planting the Seed of Quality CultureSlide2

This session will examine the intention of quality assurance programs and methods that promote a quality culture at a grassroots level. Participants will explore ways to promote quality improvement and the systems and tools which involve managers and frontline staff alike. Switchboard of Miami will share about the evolution of their Quality Assurance Program and offer a design and approach to either create or expand a program of your own that will not only empower your

team,

but also increase quality.

WELCOMESlide3

About us

2-1-1

Miami2-1-1 Collier 2-1-1 MonroeSwitchboard counsels, connects and empowers people in need. Through our suicide prevention programs, information and referral contact center, and crisis counseling and wellness services, Switchboard serves as both a first point of assistance and a last resource for people in need.Slide4

Counseling & Wellness

Information and Referral

Suicide Prevention

Youth

Gang Hotline

The South Florida First Responders HELPline

Operation Helping Hands

LGBTQ HELPline

The KEYS HELPline

Human Trafficking Hotline

COPE Hotline

Cyber Civil Rights Initiative

AlphaNet

HELPline

HELPline

All That’s Therapeutic

A Safe Haven for Newborns

Douglas Gardens Crisis

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF)

Crisis Text Line (CTL)

Specialty LinesSlide5

Call monitoring was conducted on live calls by several Senior Counselors. Two I&R calls and one counseling calls evaluated monthly.

Call Monitors

Results

were given in a brief 1:1 format to agents immediately following call monitoring in order to be sure the agent could recollect the calls evaluated

Feedback

Call monitoring was not always consistent due to changes in staffing and scheduling Maintaining QA

The Evolution of Switchboard QA

A galaxy far, far away.Slide6

A new monitoring

form was developed based on this stakeholder’s criteria in secret shops

Form Revision

A quarterly secret shopper report was conducted and provided by Florida International University Metropolitan Center; a quality measure put in place by largest funder Secret Agent ManReports including how many calls were monitored/evaluated, number of agents who received monitoring, and number of agents receiving coaching/mentoring were provided to management. ReportingSlide7

The Florida International University Metropolitan Center renewed the implementation of quality assurance shops of 211 Switchboard/The Children’s Trust Helpline in July 2012. This fifth one-year assessment continues to examine the referral services provided by the Switchboard of Miami in order to make comparisons with the previous year across key issues influencing service satisfaction. The assessments simulate real-time customer experience by presenting the 211 call agents with inquiries and scenarios which they are likely to encounter in their daily work at the Switchboard

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The evaluation instrument was designed in collaboration with 211 Switchboard and the Children’s Trust staff, and covers basic customer service requirements as well as specific standards established by the Alliance of Information and

Referral Systems. In order to make meaningful comparisons across time, the evaluation instrument used in the second year of 211 secret shops includes the questions used previously. The Metropolitan Center, the 211 Switchboard and the Children’s Trust create scenarios simulating real resident experiences calling the 211 Switchboard. The scenarios include inquiries that are based on information that 211 agents have access to and are required to provide to Switchboard callers. The scenarios are updated frequently, as new information becomes available or as changes occur in the information on which 211 agents rely. For example, new scenarios are developed if the Children’s Trust embarks on a campaign, promoting specific services. New scenarios are also developed based on the time of the year and the type of inquiries which would be of interest to Miami-Dade’s residents at that time, e.g. summer schools at the end of the school year, after school programs before the beginning of a new school year etc. The executed secret shop calls are divided in two categories - informational calls requiring a quick answer and in-depth calls that require the agent and/or caller to follow up with an additional call. In-depth calls or follow-up calls are those that require the evaluator to be transferred or to call a number provided by the 211 attendant and assess the referral in terms of accuracy, i.e. whether the organization the caller was referred to provide the needed service, whether the contact information was correct etc. In addition, some in-depth calls require a second call to 211 to obtain a referral to another provider of requested services, if the first referral attempt was unsuccessful. Each month the research team conducts 50 calls, placing two calls per scenario. Fifty percent of them (25 calls a month) lead to in-depth assessments. Both the informational and in-depth calls are conducted on a monthly basis in English, Spanish and Creole, with a slight oversampling of Creole calls, as requested by the Children’s Trust. Calls are conducted in the morning, afternoon and evening hours, both during the work week and on weekends.The data compiled through the phone secret shops is analyzed at the end of each quarter with comparisons across the three months. Each quarterly report includes an executive summary, an analysis of the quarterly data based on frequencies of the different aspects of quality assurance as well as month-to-month comparisons. The report follows the organization of the survey instrument with sections on greeting, content of conversation, overall ratings and analysis of open-ended evaluator comments. MethodologySlide8

Our Top Five

99%

Agent provided information in a clear, comprehensible manner

96%

Agent had empathetic or pleasant tone

94%

Agent gave more than 100%

96%

Satisfied with courteousness, politeness and professionalism of agent.

94%

Satisfied with agents handling of the call

2

5

1

4

3

Y5Q2Slide9
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Monitoring

responsibility returned to

Senior Counselors. The Show Must Go On

A single QA staff was assigned to complete all monitoring and to develop a QA Program. Not entirely successful. Trial and ErrorManagement hired a Quality Assurance Program Coordinator to create a QA Program, and also hired a FT scheduler to optimize coverage and reduce hold times. New Beginning

2014

Developed

rapport with

Senior Counselors

by asking key

questions in

1:1 meetings (How has call monitoring been working out for you, what have been your biggest challenges? Which agents have you been monitoring and in your expert opinion, how would you say they are doing? Is the monitoring form working? Do you have any advice/what do you think would help?

RespectSlide11

Spent first few weeks sitting

with agents on live calls. “I’d like to sit with you and listen in on your calls. I’m not scoring any calls, but I want to learn from you and see how they are going”.

Trust

Formed CQI Department to expand reach to the entire organization. Hired a Suicide Prevention QA Specialist and a part time monitor for chat and text services. Continuous Quality Improvement

2014

Now

Created

a QA

Work plan

and worked with scheduler and IT to

have monthly

60 minute

consultations

with all

staff

PlanningSlide12
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New Ideas, New Growth

Experimenting & Piloting

Peer Review

AIRS Challenge 2014

QA Orientation

Language Line Graduation

Counselor of the Month

“New

ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along

!”

-Arthur C. ClarkeSlide15
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Switchboard determines service levels for each call type and records a percentage of each queue you answer. Not all calls are recorded, and for this reason automated phone greetings state that “This call may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes”. For example, 25% of all 2-1-1 calls in English may be recorded. The percentages of calls recorded for each individual queue are determined by the need for monitoring, quality improvement and training.

Helpline Counselors can expect to have at least three calls selected for evaluation. Selected calls are to fall within 30 days from the date of the evaluation. The types of calls selected may vary but will generally include the following:

- Two (2) Information& Referral Calls

- One (1) Counseling/Crisis CallSelecting CallsSlide19

During a QA session, Helpline Counselors will listen to recorded calls with a QA Specialist in order to collaboratively analyze all aspects of a call from general customer service and vocal qualities to assessing needs and making appropriate referrals. Helpline Counselors should also understand that calls may be monitored live from remote locations by either a QA Specialist or Contact Center Managers. These activities are performed routinely to help ensure quality services by reinforcing strengths and identifying areas for improvement.

Listening & MonitoringSlide20

Helpline Counselors will participate in the evaluation of their calls and will receive individual scores for each call as well as an averaged score of all calls evaluated during each session. A call monitoring form outlines service standards and will be used to calculate all scores (see Appendix A). Scores will be shared with supervisors and should improve continuously as a counselor becomes more experienced.

Call EvaluationSlide21

QA sessions are designed to not only evaluate quality of services, but also to identify goals to help each counselor increase their skill level. After evaluating calls, areas needing improvement will be defined and together the Helpline Counselor and QA Specialist will create goals to achieve even greater results. Some counselors may wish to challenge themselves by identifying goals that go above and beyond set standards, and this is strongly encouraged.

Identifying GoalsSlide22

In addition to individual QA scores, strengths and areas to improve upon will be shared with Contact Center Managers. The purpose for this is to focus coaching, mentoring, and training needs in order to achieve the best results. Similarly, managers may disclose actions and/or specific goals for individual Helpline Counselors with the QA Specialist. This allows QA and Management to work in tandem and provide consistent feedback and results.

Sharing ActionsSlide23

In the last step of the QA process, progress is reviewed and new evaluations are completed in the next QA session. During this process, past goals will be reviewed and new goals will be identified as the cycle repeats itself. In the event that a goal has been set because a particular standard is not being met and no progress has been made, then the goal may continue. When this continues and no improvements are observed, the QA Specialist will recommend the counselor be placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) by their immediate supervisor. On the contrary, Helpline Counselors who continuously improve and surpass performance standards will receive the highest ratings and recommendations for available promotions, counselor of the month award, etc.

Follow UpSlide24

The quality culture approach differs from more traditional quality management strategies, shifting attention to more development oriented and value based aspects. It demands the involvement of internal and external stakeholders, underlining the fact that a quality culture cannot be implemented from above, yet on the other hand ambivalently stating that strong leadership may be necessary for starting and promoting the process in the first place. It is not the specialized quality assurance unit that produces quality, but various other participants (agents, managers, schedulers, IT and Resource Specialists) working to achieve specific standards. All of these players should be involved in the development of the quality culture. Quality assurance should not be seen only as an over-arching aspiration. QA needs to permeate the fabric of all aspects of service delivery and assessment.

Lueger

, Manfred, &

Vettori

, Oliver (2007)

The role of quality standards within a participative quality

culture.

EAU Case Studies

. Retrieved from URLSlide25

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



How Can I Launch a Quality Culture?Slide26

Things To Have In Order

Increased trust in each

others

quality assurance systems will result in

increased quality

of

services

in our network.

Management’s

time and willingness to take the evaluation process and

recommendations

seriously.

Well

organized feedback to ensure it is well reflected and well-received. Some feedback may not need to be shared with everyone.

Reserve

time and resources to implement

recommendations.

Frequency

of quality assurance cycle: too frequent may not always be more effective.Slide27

Readiness

to invest time and effort to improve one’s performance where need for improvement is

identified

Trust in the benefit of the evaluationWillingness to expose one’s weaknesses

Individual LevelSlide28

What

is the current standard practice your organization utilizes for quality

assurance, and what challenges is your organization facing in maintaining or improving quality?

Question #1Slide29

Who

are the outcomes of these activities shared with and how?

And…What

are the attitudes and beliefs your agents have towards call monitoring/QA?Question #2Slide30

Given

your current QA practices, is the quality of your services

improving? What new activity might help your organization improve even more?

Question #3Slide31

Questions?Slide32

Thank you

Daniel De Vries

Switchboard of Miami305.358.1640 (ext.1161)

ddevries@switchboardmiami.org