How can we ensure frontline staff consistently follow best practices and protocols?

Ensuring frontline staff consistently follow best practices is fundamentally concerned with controlling variation. However, most operations need a more structured approach to evaluating or understanding the extent of variation in their process execution. Having the right culture, tools, and oversight can make this much easier.

I recommend establishing clear communication, continuous skill-building, and robust performance management, including visibility of process variation.

Frontline staff will follow the example set by management and team leaders. Therefore, leadership must adhere to best management practices, which include understanding the causes of variation and eliminating them from the process.

Make “Variation” Central to Your Management Approach

Effective management of variation is central to controlling errors and missed opportunities. Yet, too many operations lack a minimal understanding of the variation in their processes.

Some variation is expected since your staff has unique skills and life experiences and interacts with diverse customers who face various challenges. However, excessive variation in key performance indicators (KPIs) indicates an operational challenge that needs to be addressed.

Typically, these sorts of challenges fall into one or more of several categories:

• No defined process
• Poorly designed process
• The process is not communicated
• Unmanaged adherence to the process
• Agents perceive benefits in not following the process

When you identify excessive variation in the output metrics or KPIs, you should ask yourself which categories can be ruled out as the source of variation. Start managing variation by:

• Establishing measures of variation such as process capability index (Cpk), standard deviation, or variance significance factor (VSF) to measure variation in the KPIs
  
  
• Setting thresholds for variation in each KPI for what the program will consider excessive
  
  
• Taking a “process-level” approach to identifying the root causes of variation
  
  • Is the problem one of definition, design, communication, management, or unintended consequences?
    
    
• Designing variation out of processes through error-proofing to address unclear processes and changing customer needs, provide oversight and address the unintended consequences of other business requirements.

These steps will help address gaps that cause poor adherence to best practices. Other strategic actions can improve the situation if they haven’t already been addressed in your organization.

Establish Clear Expectations and Standards

Ensure that processes are explicitly outlined and well-communicated.

• Clearly define what “best practices and protocols” entail for your operation. What is the expected behavior and communication style your organization wants to foster for customer interactions?
  
  
• Identify and communicate the level and scope of frontline staff’s authority for addressing customer requests.
  
  • Develop and share step-by-step process maps that are easily accessible to staff.
  • Recognize that it isn’t possible to anticipate every eventuality, prioritize agents acting within their scope of authority and adjust process maps as needed.
    
    
• Convey goals, expectations, and how success will be measured effectively. Ensure these messages are consistent across all levels of the organization.
  
  
• Brief new hires thoroughly during onboarding sessions and continuously update staff on protocol changes through multiple channels (e.g., emails, team meetings, and internal knowledgebase).

Foster a Culture of Empowerment and Improvement

Address unintended consequences early by involving frontline staff in identifying gaps and roadblocks that lead to deviations from best practice. This ensures agents understand the customer impact and helps determine if process redesigns are necessary when non-compliance benefits the agent.

• Encourage open communication by creating feedback loops where staff feel comfortable discussing challenges and suggesting improvements to existing protocols.
  
  • Pay attention to the results and take action to address barriers to best practice adoption. Be visible doing so.
    
    
• Conduct regular, informal check-ins to discuss performance, challenges, and development opportunities without micromanaging staff.

Build a Supportive Environment

Integrate the organization’s vision into every stage of the employee lifecycle. Ensure staff development reinforces this vision and the best practices. Provide and maintain the necessary tools and knowledge for high performance, and communicate the customer benefits and agent rewards of following best practices.

• Provide thorough onboarding training covering all the essentials and guidance on best practices established within your organization.
  
  
• Offer continuous learning opportunities through refresher courses, advanced training modules, and cross-training programs. Invest in agent continuous development.
  
  
• Implement structured coaching sessions focused on skill development and performance improvement. Pair new agents with experienced mentors who can provide guidance and support.
  
  
• Implement peer review systems where staff can learn from each other by reviewing calls and sharing feedback.
  
  
• Maintain an up-to-date and easily accessible knowledge base that includes all relevant information about products, services, and protocols, and rigorously monitor and manage its content to ensure its effectiveness and ease of utilization.

Conclusion

Consistent adherence to best practices in a contact center involves managing variation, establishing clear expectations, fostering a culture of empowerment, and building a supportive environment.

Focusing on process-level drivers of variation, providing continuous training, and ensuring effective performance management can enhance adherence to best practices, improve performance, and increase customer satisfaction. This approach leads to a more engaged and capable workforce ready to meet evolving customer needs.

Brent Jernigan, Director at COPC, brings over two decades of expertise in customer experience process improvement, specializing in performance improvement, quality systems and workforce management. Brent has led enhancement efforts across five continents, improving contact center performance in diverse industries such as technical support, hospitality, airlines and healthcare.

Noted for his ability to translate complex analytical concepts into everyday language, Brent is a highly sought-after training facilitator. His primary focus areas include contact center certification, business transformation and training.