Contact centers too often face what I have termed as the “CX (customer experience) Calculation Discrepancy” that exists between some contact center platforms. And it is also the last thing you want to hear when a contact center goes live on a new platform.
I recounted in Part 1 of this article, published in the October issue, my first encounter with this phenomenon in 1997 when I was a sales engineer with Interactive Intelligence (now Genesys).
This article will focus on some of the most common metric discrepancies between platforms in the hopes you might avoid their pitfalls the next time you perform a major upgrade or migrate to a new contact center platform.
Given the complexity of this issue, I’ve split the article into three parts. Part 1 explained what the discrepancy is and Part 2 discussed the most common offenders. Finally, Part 3 (this part) looks at first call/contact resolution (FCR), covers the differences between CX platforms that are voice-first versus digital-first with respect to their evolution of adding channels. And how you can win with CX reporting.
The FCR Trick Metric
But first we need to dive into FCR: and why I excluded it from the common metrics discussion in Part 2.
FCR is kind of a trick metric because I do not know of any CX platforms that provide an out-of-the-box (or cloud) report for first call/first contact resolution. Whenever I hear someone in a contact center mention they measure FCR, it is usually by their own definition.
When it comes to FCR, I am with Matt Dixon, author of “The Effortless Experience” where he discusses challenges with FCR in chapter 3 (spoiler alert: “The Worst Question a Service Rep can Ask” is the title of this chapter). He also has shared this LinkedIn Post pointing to an article – yes it is over five years old but is still valid today and going forward - that declares “FCR is necessary, but insufficient.”
Whenever I hear someone in a contact center mention they measure FCR, it is usually by their own definition.
In any case, if you ask, your CX vendor will likely tell you there are ways they can help you track or possibly triangulate FCR using some variety of data. I will not discuss any potential benefits or trade-offs, except to say here are some examples of data you might use to measure FCR.
- Agent disposition code “Wrap Up Code.” The agent selects from a pre-configured list a single classification and possibly a sub-classification of their impression of the purpose or outcome of the contact.
- Repeat callers/contacts. The center excludes repeat callers based on a time period such as 24 hours, seven days, etc.
- CSAT. FCR is determined by a question or a score measured by the CX platform’s native customer satisfaction surveying capability or a third-party CSAT tool.
- Speech analytics. FCR is determined by using the context of the actual agent/customer conversation, possibly using triggers on certain categories and keywords, and in more advanced solutions applying AI (artificial intelligence), to the full transcript, etc.
If you measure FCR today, make sure you understand exactly how it is calculated so you can review the data points used in the calculation with prospective vendors for your new CX platform.
Voice-Native Versus Digital-Native Migrations
Hare a few considerations depending on whether you are on - or moving to - a voice-native platform versus a digital-native CX platform.
In order to crush it with CX reporting after your next platform migration, you need to take control.
I will define a voice-native CX platform loosely as the industry incumbents who started with voice as the primary channel, or it was included with their initial channels they support. Digital-native-CX platforms such as case management, CRM, or other platforms are those that start out with digital channels such as chat, email, SMS, social, etc., and later add voice.
Using a very broad stroke:
Voice-native CX platforms...
- Do great with measuring voice conversations (obviously) in granular detail, provided they were built as contact center platforms. If you are considering a unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) or conferencing solution that bolted on an ACD, make sure to look closely at the data and reporting.
- When it comes to digital channels, especially chat and email, make sure they track the metrics you need, especially if you are moving from a digital-native CX platform.
- May or may not track all of their channels in a standard table or data model that easily allows you to report similar agent or queue metrics across all of your channels.
Digital-native CX platforms...
- Tend to do well measuring all the digital channels as you would expect.
- Might not measure voice conversations as well.
- Like the voice-native platforms, they may or may not track all of their channels in a standard table or data model that easily allows you to report similar agent or queue metrics across all of your channels.
Both types of platforms also might have grown through acquisition, such as a voice-first platform that acquired a chat company. Ask questions to understand if conversations from all supported channels are available in a single format or are spread across multiple data sources in different formats.
You will gain confidence that you will consistently measure performance in your center by understanding how you report in the current state across all your channels: and also by digging into the data for each channel with your prospective new CX platform vendor.
Winning with CX Reporting
In order to crush it with CX reporting after your next platform migration, you need to take control. As I’ve outlined in this article, even among vendors, consultants, and your contact center staff, few know of the challenges presented by the CX calculation discrepancy. If they do know, they might not know enough to articulate the details as I’ve laid out in this article.
If you really want to ensure you are measuring like for like outcomes after you migrate, then do the following:
1. Gather current state reporting requirements from the business and other key stakeholders.
- These might come in the format of anything from end-state reports, PDFs, Excel sheets, screenshots, stone tablets, or anything in between (I’ve seen them all).
- Force the business to identify the columns/metrics on the reports that they use to drive their business. Why? Because some reports might have dozens of metrics on them and in our experience, very few of these data are actually used.
- Identify the calculations used for all metrics. When nobody knows, dig into system documentation, the Excel formulas, the calculations in the Tableau workbook, etc., until you find the answer.
- Determine where that data comes from in your current CX platform and how it is defined in the documentation.
2. Create a “CX Metrics Catalog” of the metrics, data, and calculations used.
Pass it around for review. You’ll be surprised how much conversation and debate this sparks but believe me, it’s much easier to go through this pain on the front end than Day 1 of go live!
3. Share your CX Metrics Catalog as part of your RFP or other conversations with potential replacement CX platform vendors or their resellers.
Yes, this is a big chunk of work. I’ve seen customers who have had CX platforms in place for a decade or more and they practically faint at mention of an exercise like this. But it really is the only way to be sure you know what your data and reports mean in your new CX platform.
Unfortunately, very few customers are willing to take this effort on themselves. Equally unfortunate, few vendors or resellers of CX platforms will have the will or forethought to include a CX Metrics Catalog in their discovery: unless it’s a paid engagement and you specifically request it as part of the deliverable.
If your organization doesn’t have the bandwidth to build a CX Metrics Catalog, maybe consider outsourcing it? Having spent years earlier in my career as a consultant, building a CX Metrics Catalog is a pretty discreet piece of work. If you share this article with them, anyone reasonably familiar with CX reporting should be able to do the work.
You might also want to require your prospective vendors or resellers to participate in this exercise so you can be sure the work has been done before they provide their final proposals and pricing.
I mention this because no CX platform natively solves reporting for every customer. Depending on your use cases (recall the 80/20 rule we talked about in Part 1), you may or may not need some custom reporting or an add-on reporting solution.
Conclusion
If you made it this far, congratulations, you are a true CX reporting aficionado, or CX data geek as I like to refer to myself!
If your head hurts, that is also good news! Navigating a CX platform migration and getting reporting and analytics right from the start is no simple task.
Do your homework, ask the right questions of prospective CX platform vendors, and have a chance at making reporting less of an issue next time you migrate.
If you really nail it, you might even avoid the CX Calculation Discrepancy altogether!