To Get Control, You have to Give Control

For the company and its strategic financial interest, a lot is riding on the skills and abilities of each and every rep in the front.

So, the most common people-management strategy is to minimize the risk by keeping a very tight rein on everything, including companies mandating the exact words each rep must use in all interactions, looking at Average Handle Time(AHT), employing checklists for Quality Assurance (QA) and dictating their every move.

But these strategies of yesterday’s successful companies are fast becoming antiquated and are. no longer sufficient and even actively harmful.

The fourth pillar in creating a world-class customer experience is that low-effort service organisations run their operations very differently and manage their people very differently.

In a low-effort service org, reps determine for themselves how best to handle the unique issue being experienced by this unique person.

80.5% of service orgs say their rep performance has not improved noticeably over the past couple of years. The main questions here are-

• How can companies position their reps for success in today’s world?
• If we want to deliver a low-effort experience, what skills matter most?

The List of skills clustered into four statistically defined categories –

IQ Advanced Problem Solving	Curious Creative Capable of Critical Thinking Experimental	3.6 % improvement in CSAT or in Net Promoter Score
Basic Skills and Behaviors	Demonstrates Product Knowledge Demonstrates Technological experience Communicates confidently, clearly Asks good questions Capable of multi-tasking	5.1% better performance
EQ Emotional Intelligence	Has customer service ethic Extroverted Advocates for the customer Persuasive	5.4% performance boost
CQ Control Quotient	Resilient Able to handle high-pressure situations Takes responsibility of own actions Responds well to constructive criticism by managers Able to concentrate on tasks over extended periods of time	11.2% increase in Rep’s performance!

The impact of CQ is abundantly clear. It is what it takes not just to engage with one customer, but to be able to disengage immediately afterward to be fully effective with the next person. Quit Taking It Personally!

Boosting CQ

It’s not the training. It’s not the people. It’s the work environment those people are subjected to on a daily basis that enables higher rep performance, a lower-effort customer experience, and ultimately loyalty benefits for the company.

3 distinct keys to unlocking CQ

“CQ isn’t learned, it is enabled.“

Most reps already have moderate to high CQ potential. The problem is that most companies inhibit it due to an environment of strict adherence- Judgement and Control are not welcomed in these environments.

“Give control to get control of the front line.“