The first element in the Total Quality Service (TQS) Model is Market and Customer Research. This element plays an important role in determining customer value and expectation when interacting with a contact center. In this aspect, contact centers must constantly and continuously obtain feedback from customers. Periodical Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSS) should be carried out to gather, analyze and assess the quality of the customer experience. Another approach to discover important customer perceptions and obtain new perspectives on customer value is through Focus Group Interviews.

Based on the findings from Market and Customer Research, the subsequent step is to Formulate the Service Strategy. The criterias for Service Strategy Formulation in a contact center are Concrete and Action-oriented. This is to convey a mission that contact center professionals are able to execute, to benefit the customers, to create distinct differentiation compared to the organization’s competitors. The Service Strategy has to be simple, unified and easily explained to customers. The breakaway Service Strategy ultimately outlines why a customer should perform business with an organization as opposed to another.

The primary objective of the Education, Training and Communication component is empowering contact center people with knowledge. A customer-centered contact center should aim to make every contact center professional a quality strategist. This implies that contact center professionals are able to take ownership of customer problems or operational issues and have the capability and freedom of action to solve them. To achieve this, they must be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude. The message which a contact center leadership team should convey to their people is, “We value you as assets, as human capital, and as participants, whose ideas, opinions and feedback are valuable to the success of the contact center operations.” It is also important that defined Vision, Mission and Values are communicated to all contact center professionals, this ensures that they are able to be internalized.

In the Process Improvement phase, a contact center strives towards delivering distinct customer experiences by aligning operations system, procedures and processes. Quality-critical processes could be an area to start with, as these processes have a primary impact on the customer’s experience. Some examples of quality-critical processes in a contact center are Handling Customer Complaints, Internal and External Escalation, Recruitment Process and etc. The three approaches that can be undertaken are Process Re-Engineering, Process Re-Design and Process Elimination. A dedicated Quality Service Action Team (QSAT) can be formed to undertake this quality improvement initiative. Contact Centers should also consider inviting their customers to participate as members of a quality committee as an initiative to include the voice of their customers into the center of their business.

To complete the TQS cycle, contact centers need to Assess, Measure and Obtain Feedback on its performance. On the Technology aspect, there are systems and solutions, which are able to perform contact center performance assessments and measurements. This is complemented by the People and Process components, which translate the measurements into feedback, and ultimately action plans to address the critical areas for improvement.

World-class contact centers that focus on customer value and exceeding customer delight should consider applying the concept of the Total Quality Service Model. To implement it, the key challenge will be managing change in contact center operations. A contact center which is able to utilize and implement this model successfully will set the standards for other contact centers within the same industry.

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This article is inspired by “The Only Thing That Matters”, by Karl Albrecht