Welcome to the inaugural issue of Human Tech Tips -- Tip #1. How do we take your customer service and kick it up a notch?

This is a big question so where do we begin?

As an overview, it's a given that the answer is three-fold: People, Process, and Technology. Let me say right from the start, my bias is on the people side.

My questions for you to ponder are:

1) Do you collect and measure any data? After all, what gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets better.

2) Do you have customer satisfaction statistics? And if yes, how and where are you getting them?

3) Do you have ongoing training in place - not sales training - not product training - not protocol or rules and regulations training but true relationship building skills training?

Let's address the first question. Just because your system has metrics available to you doesn't mean you need to use all of them.

My advice is to start at the end. What are you trying to achieve and what measurement would absolutely reflect that achievement? Then that's what you want to measure. The first time you measure gives you a baseline, a benchmark, to use for charting your progress 1 month, 3 months, 6 months down the line. You're not comparing yourself to any one but yourself so it's fairly accurate. Yes, there are environmental or economic or seasonal issues, but you're getting a pretty truthful snapshot.

As an example, lots of companies measure length of call. Yes, this is a useful statistic. But if you are committed to customer service, then I would suggest first call resolution is more important than length of call. Southwest Airlines is committed to quality customer service and they don't even calculate length of call.

We'll cover question #2 in the next Tip and so on.

If you have questions or tips you'd like covered, please feel free to email me at rosanne@HumanTechTips.com. To receive your own copy, email subscribe@HumanTechTips.com.

ROSANNE D'AUSILIO, Ph.D., industrial psychologist, President of Human Technologies Global, Inc., specializes in human performance management for contact centers, providing needs analyses, instructional design, and customized, live, world class customer service skills trainings. Also offered: agent/facilitator certification through Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality.

Known as 'the practical champion of the human, she authors the best-sellers, Wake Up Your Call Center: Humanize Your Interaction Hub, 4th edition (hot off the press), and Customer Service and The Human Experience and soon to be released, Lay Your Cards on the Table: 52 Ways to Stack You Personal Deck.. Reach her at Rosanne@human-technologies.com, sign up for her complimentary monthly e-newsletter in its 7th year, and check out her new virtual store. Sign up for her newest endeavor Tips at http://www.HumanTechTips.com. This is not the same newsletter as at http://www.human-technologies.com.