The importance of the queen

At our quarterly Quality Special Interest Group, which we host with our friends at the CCMA, I said to the assembled quality experts that I really think their teams can be like the queen on a chess board.

Why do I think the Quality Team within a contact centre is like the queen on a chess board? In chess, if you lose your queen you’ll probably lose the game. A king may be the most important piece on the board, but the queen is the most powerful. She can perform more moves than any other piece.

There are many different functions that operate within a contact centre and the relationships between those functions can be very linear. In many cases, some departments don’t even interact.

We believe there is real value in the quality team moving to all areas of the contact centre (or the chess board) and interacting with each team. Our Chief Customer Officer, Andrew Mutch, attributed the phrase ‘sphere of influence’ to this kind of progressive thinking.

Marketing and product teams should be picking the brains of the Quality Team. Who understands customers better than the team responsible for listening to those interactions and analysing them? Who monitors and hears how new services, scripts, products and teams are received by your customers?

Training and L&D teams should be closely involved with the QA team. Who understands your front-line team members and how they interact with your customers better than the team monitoring their interactions and providing feedback and insight to make those interactions better? Who hears, over and over again, the same mistakes new starters make?

Using QA thoughts in this area can hugely improve your recruitment (HR Teams should use QA too) and induction programmes.

The challenge that we and QA teams face, and need to overcome, is that they are not currently viewed as the key piece (the queen) on the board. Every team & function in your contact centre would benefit from considering your quality team as experts.

Start utilising these experts and turn your QA team into the queen on the chessboard.