Verint Best Practices – Instructional Text 

Transcript

Matthew: First of all, welcome. I hope you're having a wonderful afternoon. I think the best thing to do is just jump right into it. We've decided to make today's sessions really short, so uh you're just jam-packed full of information and content, and what we're going to be having these every few weeks. I and today's session is just a best practice that we've seen in Verint that doesn't get used very often about instructional text, and so today we have Amanda, welcome Amanda. You're on mute there, so just go ahead and unmute yourself, and um and she's going to be demoing that solution and answering questions uh. We also have Eric Masson. Hey Eric, welcome. Alright, so you know what, before we jump right into it. If you're not familiar about Group Elite, uh maybe I see a lot of names here on the call that you know we've known you for quite some time, but if you're new um, we're a Verint strategic partner uh we do a lot of services for Verint solutions, from we've done you know hundreds of different implementations a lot of upgrades and training and consulting packages um all of that to say is that the services that Group Elite offers before we get into this are things like this. You know they're best practices whether it's a new implementation or an upgrade or maybe it's just I just need help and best practices there are a lot of different ways that Group Elite can help. I don't want to spend too much time here going over the the Group Elite pitch, or this you know make it all salesy, but I just wanted to introduce you about who Group Elite is and and what we do and what consultants like Amanda's team do. So without further ado let's jump into this topic Amanda I'm gonna turn it over to you and we'll take it from there and I'll stop sharing.

Amanda: Awesome, thank you Matt! So, how many times have you heard your agents you're giving them feedback you're in that calibration with them they just had an evaluation completed, how many times have you heard them say, I mean I didn't know that I needed to do that that and that to get those points, or I totally forgot to do that one thing gosh there's so many things to remember how am I supposed to remember it all. Well truth be told most customers of quality they have a rubric or guidelines that stand separate from their actual forms, these two documents don't talk to each other but they really do go hand in hand, and maybe that rubric is on a sharepoint it's in a binder somewhere with dust all over it, or it's maybe on a shared drive but the best part about using instructional text is it marries the two together. So that standalone rubric and your quality form become one so it's combining both documents into one single source of truth. Instructional text is going to help ensure that all of the users of the forms we're talking your agents, your leaders, your evaluators are all on the same page they're all calibrated and they know exactly what behaviors are needed to earn points within those evaluations and assessments by listing out those criteria. So it's just a huge best practice it really is one of the most underutilized quality features within Verint, and grouply has helped many many customers not only marry these two together but taking a step back we see that the disputes that agents are raising that leaders are raising on how that form was evaluated are plummeting down, because everybody is being held accountable. So these customers have been able to repurpose that time and effort that they would spend working on those disputes they get to hold additional calibrations. They even get to increase their monthly quotas, so if every agent today is getting three evaluations done you take all of that time from disputes and you repurpose it and now your agents are getting four evaluations, five evaluations a month. And or they're also able to repurpose that time to give those much needed underperforming agents or even the newer agents some TLC and some extra attention. So as Matt said as I said it is really one of the most underutilized areas within form designer, and it's a really easy and simple user-friendly way to incorporate it into a quality program. So instructional text you don't need to buy anything it's automatically there within your forms and your evaluation it comes standard within form designer, just waiting to be used. And the best part it can be used with any question type, yes no questions, ranked list, numeric ranges , any question type that's available in form designer you can apply this methodology to. So let's walk through adding some instructional text within a new evaluation so give me just one second let me go ahead and share my screen.

Matthew: So no so no more three ring binders, no more documents on sharepoint sites, I mean that's what we did and everybody went and then it wasn't updated all the time so yeah.

Amanda: You touch a great point in not being updated all the time. Using instructional text guarantees that the version of the form you're using has the most updated instructional text within it, only form designers which should be a very few and select users have the ability to update that information so it's very secure it's one place and you can even use hyperlinks within the instructional text that link back to other documents if you need.

Matthew: Good so while you pull that up Amanda, just to remind everybody to use the q a box or the chat and just send me questions along the way, and I'll be interrupting Amanda and I'll be putting in the questions as we go along so uh that the lines aren't live audio-wise but just put your information there in the Q&A and and we'll be able to we'll go from there so I'm gonna go ahead and make you a presenter Amanda and then you'll be ready to share. Great all right I see some questions coming in so we're going to get to those just as soon as we we jump right into here, so uh Amanda back over to you.

Amanda: Thank you, so can everybody see my screen, perfect so I have just a simple generic form that I started yesterday, um and I want to go through just a couple of question types to show you guys how easy and user-friendly it is to add that instructional text. So the first question is just a simple yes or no, it's black and white. Did the agent fully authenticate the caller yes gets one point no gets zero points, if you scroll down with inform designer you have this real estate down here that says instructions. This is where you can simply add the hyperlink, whatever rubric or guidelines whatever you need for the agent to knock that question out of the park you just simply type here. You are limited to 1 000 characters so being clear and concise is definitely a rule of thumb, and that's one of the things that Group Elite our consultant team is really really good at. We're really good at taking really long forms, shrieking them down so that they're easily digestible for agents leaders and evaluators. But I simply type the criteria for my question the agent must verify full name date of birth address including the zip code, and the last four digits of the caller social security number. And that's my instructional text for that question. My next question is a little bit more of a subjective question, please rank the agent's tone and pitch to the mood of the call. So as you can see this is a five ranked list we have five different options each option carrying a different point criteria. So if you have this blank on the form, the agent's like oh my gosh what do I do what's the difference between a five and a two, or a one and a four, what does each of those mean and how do I get those points? Well you simply scroll down and you type in your instructional text, excellent the agent matched the tone and pace of the caller which built a strong rapport with the caller offered caring responses and displayed empathy. For good they matched the tone in the pace of the call and built professional report with the caller. For average they matched either the tone or the pace of the caller there wasn't really any of that empathy any of that building of the rapport, but they matched the toner the pace. Fair they didn't match the toner of the piece but they displayed empathy and or used caring responses. And for poor they kind of just went through the call just to check it off to go to the next call they really didn't attempt to build any type of rapport with the customer. So using this and having this visible on that form, versus a standalone document is gonna really hold everybody accountable. And when we say everybody we mean your evaluator as they're scoring this question this text is going to be right there for them to use as a crutch or a guideline on what they need to do to score it correctly. When your agents get that completed evaluation, they're going to know exactly what they missed and what they need to do to get those points, and then best but not last your leaders are going to be able to swoop in and be heroes and reinforce those best practices and behaviors so that they can up their increase in their call quality scores. So it just really no Matter what way you look at it it's a win-win-win from everybody using a form. So we've talked about how it looks here in form designer let's take a look at the live thing. So we are going to come over here to Verint, and you guys can see I have my evaluation up, I'm going to complete a virtual evaluation commander.

Matthew: Amanda, share your other screen we're just seeing the forum designer for right now, all good thank you.

Amanda: Thank you. So we're gonna do a virtual evaluation which means there's no call attached to this evaluation for Jared triggers, and you guys can see my form is right here did the agent fully authenticate the caller. Sorry Jared you did not get the full address including zip code. So right there as an evaluator I'm watching his screen I'm seeing what he's doing and I've I can see here feel he did not get that full zip code, so we know that's a no. If we don't have that instructional text, there's really no guideline other than using an external document that says what does it mean to fully authenticate the caller. So you can see the vast difference in having no text, versus having that text there. Especially for a subjective question such as the second one that we talked about, please rank the agent's tone and pitch to the mood of the call. well if I do excellent and I click on that down arrow I can see every single thing that's needed for that agent to get excellent. If I did average, I could say only matched pace. But that's how you can see that instructional text from an evaluator perspective. So we're going to go ahead.

Matthew: We had our first question come in is that so when you have instructional text in there and you print a form like if you were going to sit down with somebody, is the instructional text there when you print the form? or is it not?

Amanda: It is, but we want to use the system to the fullest, so we're going to work in one of our future sessions is all about getting the evaluations to the end users, and we're going to work on not printing those forms in a future session. We're going to really leverage the system leverage flags and leverage coaching sessions in a future session that's all about that topic. 

Matthew: Okay we've got one more question here, um ashley's asking is there a way to control the instructions to always show versus collapse so that they're always visible.

Amanda: So that is a great question and unfortunately right now that is not something that has been put out there, but if you go to Verint connect Verint community and you thumbs up that that feedback that we provided 

Matthew: Oh it's out there.

Amanda: Hopefully, we can get enough traction and you guys can help us put it into a new release or a hot fix.

Matthew: All right everybody go vote for Ashley's idea. Very good and then um all right so keep on going Amanda.

Amanda: Okay perfect. So this is how the evaluator sees it so we're just going to quickly submit this evaluation, and let's now put on the hat of an agent, and or a leader. So what we're going to do is we're going to search for this evaluation, and actually have it right here, so we're just going to do a quick search find that evaluation and then I'm going to double click on the evaluation so now we have the glasses or the hat of a leader or an agent, and this is what they're going to see. So I'm Jared this is his evaluation I look at this and I say did the agent fully authenticate the caller, well I didn't get the full address including zip code. Jared can't say I didn't know nobody told me that's what I needed because it's right here on the evaluation form. Um the same is true with this he only got an average well now he's asking himself what do I need to do to get an excellent or good score. Expand that and it actually lays the criteria out for him. The best part about this is from a dispute perspective if Jared's supervisor if Jared comes to a supervisor and says hey Matt I did verify the zip code it says I didn't but I did. Matt has the opportunity to review that call and say hey you kind of didn't you only got like the last two of the zip code or maybe the first one you didn't get the full zip code and that's what it actually says for the instructional text is you have to have the full zip code. So that's how the supervisors can help control these and then by the time the quality team gets a dispute, if they get any more, they're going to be true disputes that really are going to need a couple people to look at. But again all of that time that you were spending on disputes, is no longer spent on disputes, your quality people can be out there evaluating doing what they do best grading and scoring those calls to give more feedback to leaders and agents. So it really is a win-win win for all, just such a best practice that's underutilized and we really hope that after today's session you guys take a step back and really think about how you can incorporate that instructional text within your forms.

Matthew: So Amanda we have another question in here sure they said is it true less is more or does the form get really busy if you do you know like 999 words or characters, uh what would you say to that person uh that they're asking is you know do you just I mean do you write an essay about what empathy means for the empathy question or or what?

Amanda: That's a great question so that is really the um the conundrum that comes with instructional text. You don't want to put every single variation of what they could say, you want to kind of give them the meat and potatoes of the instructional text that they need. When in doubt I would say included but not limited to and then whatever example you think is like encompasses like 80% of your examples and then you can always type in that hyperlink so when I bring up this form the hyperlink will be right here I can click on it and it's going to open that document for me. So that's another really good way to kind of take that balance of do I include so much text I'm only limited remember to a thousand characters, so do I type all a thousand use all of my real estate or do I put the 80% of what's gonna take 80% of the questions away and then put the hyperlink in there.

Matthew: Gotcha.

Amanda: Definitely is a delicate balance though.

Matthew: It is, it is, and so and uh Corey asks how does an agent review the questions in the instructional text before an evaluation has submitted for them. Ss there a way for them to see it somewhere before they actually have an evaluation done on them?

Amanda: That's a really great question. And what I would recommend is maybe doing a calibration with them I'm uh with all the different hats that I've worn in the different contact center experiences that I've had, I I think um transparency and openness is always the best so I would always encourage my agents to have a blank evaluation form that they had access to either it's on a shared drive or it's in here that it's a calibration evaluation, something that they can always refer back to. Because it is if you have a really long form which a lot of our customers do because they're having heavily regulated with compliance, they need a lot of questions and it's really hard for an agent to remember what goes with what question, what they need to do to get the points so that they can pass. So I think it's a really good idea to just be as transparent as possible and give agents access to a blank evaluation some way shape or form.

Matthew: Yeah and get it to them in training, because whenever I was in the call center you know usually the agents were given our trainees were given a copy of an old form like the trainer had a forum from a year and a half ago, and um you know at least it it keeps it up to date it keeps it up to date yeah.

Amanda: One of the best practices that I've seen with incorporating the quality into training is playing a couple of different calls during training, and giving the agents access to that form and having them actually like score it and talk through it with the trainer during the call. It works really well if you can do that because then you get the conversation open, people feel comfortable they're asking questions, and then they have first experience and exposure to seeing the form and filling it out for someone else. They don't feel like they're in the hot seat because they're brand new.

Matthew: Absolutely absolutely. So I you know I'm going to wrap up. Hopefully this is the shortest webinar that you've been on this week, but um Group Elite does quick wins where we target specific things like form design, maybe it's AQM, self-service adoption compliance. We call them quick wins and they're usually very short engagements that just last a couple weeks and then they have huge ROI. One of the things that we do and we have examples across all different industries is one of the things we'd like to offer everybody on this call is that the first three people that respond to Eric's email we’ll offer a QM form review. It's just someone like Amanda or someone on her team, and these people have you know most of them have a decade or more of experience doing QM and and writing forms designing form, and leading calibration sessions, and doing reporting. Um this this health check as we call it for your Verint system is a one-on-one session with somebody, uh we'll review the questions and the scores and the formats and the formatting. We'll look at subjectivity versus objectivity in your questions. Also an assessment if you're ready for AQM or not you know many times people are looking for AQM but they're you know I don't know if my form now would could I you know enable it with with speech analytics and things like that in the future. So um you're gonna get an email from Eric, um and uh Eric we just you just will you just answer a few questions with them and then we can just set them up with one of our consultants.

Eric: Absolutely, I'm waiting for them and the first three ones to answer we'll do it for free.

Matthew: Okay very good. Last but not least, we want you to join again next time. You may be on the QM team so you're gonna get this invite again for the next one coming up in November. But the next what topic is going to be workforce management, so if you're not the WFM person when you get those invites forward them on to all the WFM analysts. Because we're going to be talking about again a little 20 minute best practices session where we're going to talk about requesting time off and how you can automate, that so it just reduces the time for some of these things that that are taking a lot of time in WFM. So that's you know the overall session so I'm going to uh I'm gonna pull back out of the session here for a second just double check and make sure we have uh got a couple questions about you know if this session will be recorded. And it is being recorded, we'll share it out to folks, we'll send you the link as well. And again make sure that you uh just reply to Eric's email that will probably come in the next uh two or three minutes, and just let them know if you'd like a a QM form assessment review. So uh that's all the questions that I have, let me just double check all right. uh Amanda, thank you so much for your time, I like being thorough in 20 minutes that's awesome. We'll see you again next time on Verint best practices session, and we hope everyone has a wonderful day. Thanks again Amanda, thanks Eric.