Concerned you’re handling every KPI fluctuation with a knee-jerk response, distracting your team and pulling your CX strategy from pillar to post in the process? It doesn’t have to be this way!
Drawing on 30+ years of experience in contact centres, Afshan Kinder explains her best-practice approach to handling outliers and anomalies in your metrics – so you can respond in a positive and proactive way, every time.
One Month, You’re Riding High, the Next There’s a Sudden Decline…
It has happened to all of us. One month, we’re riding high on a wave of success, meeting many KPIs, and then the next month we’re surprised to learn of a sudden decline in the same KPIs.
It leaves us scratching our heads, trying to figure out root cause. Was the decline due to poor performance of newly hired team members, or perhaps it was the impact of a change not welcomed by customers, or maybe it was a specific group of team members who dropped in performance?
Since the number of root causes could be endless, many contact centres find it quicker to adopt the traditional approach of identifying outliers for one KPI and coaching them to meet target.
It’s not a bad strategy but it’s reactive, can lead to short-term benefits that dissipate once this level of attention is reduced, and it doesn’t give leaders control to prevent future fluctuations in KPIs.
You also need to make sure your team leaders are focusing on the right metrics. For advice on this, read our article: Are Your Team Leaders Too Busy Chasing Metrics?
Be More Proactive With a KPI Fluctuation Management Framework
An alternative strategy to traditional outlier management is to install a KPI fluctuation management framework to help leaders be more proactive in driving continual improvement in performance.
This framework empowers leaders to use a balanced approach to identify outliers, has a diagnostic starter kit that matches skills to one or more KPIs, encourages leaders to design personalized action plans and, most importantly, holds all parties accountable for achieving goals. This framework is also a playbook for leaders to quickly mobilize when setbacks occur.
Playbooks are a great way to manage spikes in demand. Find out more in our article: Using Scheduling Playbooks to Manage Spikes in Service Demand
Here Are the Two Essential Building Blocks That Form the Foundation of This Framework:
Building Block 1: Incentivize on KPI Drivers Not Measures
To control KPI fluctuations, start by assessing the nature of the KPIs on scorecards for team members. Are these KPIs measures or are they drivers of a measure?
The way to know the difference is to remember that measures are high-level, holistic and reflect the overall contribution a team is making to the business. A driver is a specific action a team member takes to contribute to a measure.
This 4-step framework is built on rewarding team members based on KPI drivers rather than KPI measures, as it gives team members clarity on what to change and how to make the change.
It also stops leaders from coaching to numbers and focuses them to coach to specific skills that positively impact a targeted KPI.
As an example, some companies use total sales revenue per customer as a KPI. This is a measure as it is an outcome for the business.
An easier path for a team member is to be incentivized on the number of sales conversions per ten customers.
This is clear to the team member as to what to do, and a leader can coach to a contributing skill, such as closing the sale. It’s a win–win for everyone as higher conversions automatically contribute to the revenue target.
Building Block 2: Validate That KPI Targets Are Realistic
The second building block is to validate that the KPI target was set correctly. This is done by charting each team member’s performance against the target and visually seeing where the entire team clusters.
Any team clustering above or below the target means that the target was either set too high or too low. If the majority of the team clusters at the target, this validates that the target was accurately set.
Now that the target has been validated as being realistic and the scorecard KPIs are drivers and not measures, this 4-step framework can be implemented to improve overall performance including the performance of outliers.
Here Are the 4 “Easy to Implement” Steps to Give Control Over KPI Fluctuations:
Step 1: Be Strategic in Prioritizing Outliers
Has this ever happened in your organization? Top performers are celebrated for achieving high sales or customer satisfaction, and when focus shifts to reducing call handle time, suddenly these same high performers are now on the scrutiny list.
What was important is no longer important. It is confusing for team members when one KPI is emphasized, and it often leads to unintended consequences.
Here’s an example:
In this centre, Average Handle Time was heavily weighted on their scorecard, and as a result was a key focus for leaders.
This led to team members rushing through customer conversations, causing poor service and leading to repeat calls. The unintended consequence was an increase in repeat calls and a negative outcome for the business.
A simple way to avoid sending mixed messages is to use a KPI Matrix tool which identifies true outliers.
It can easily be designed by taking two “North Star” KPIs. In this example, the two KPIs are Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Average Handle time (AHT). AHT is displayed on the X axis and CSAT on the Y axis.
Here is an example of a KPI Matrix tool:
The ideal quadrant to target is low Average Handle Time combined with high Customer Satisfaction. Prioritize quality over efficiency by focusing on outliers who have low AHT and low CSAT, followed by high AHT and low CSAT, and finally addressing high AHT and high CSAT.
The KPI Matrix tool can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify true top performers and outliers. Data can be populated monthly to track ongoing progress. The simplicity of this tool sends a clear message of what’s important to the organization.
Step 2: Build a Skill Diagnostic Starter Kit
Now that the order of who to coach first has been determined, it’s crucial to make the most of coaching time to bring about the quickest changes in behaviour.
Since coaching to a number is ineffective, it’s essential for leaders to understand the skill drivers of each KPI. This can be a daunting task, and the most effective way to build this capability is by providing leaders with a root cause starter kit of known drivers.
Your root cause starter kit includes a set of skills that positively impact your organization’s set of KPIs. Each skill is matched to one or more KPI. The key to designing an effective starter kit is to ensure that the skill is simple for team members to implement and easy for leaders to observe.
For example, many leaders know that active listening is a skill that, when done well, enhances customer satisfaction.
If a team member is coached to active listening, it is difficult for an agent to understand specifically what needs to change.
Some leaders will tell their team members just to remember more of what the customer said. This is ineffective and poor coaching.
Effective coaching is when a leader can share the simpler skills that contribute to active listening – such as note-taking, acknowledgement, paraphrasing, and clarifying questions.
This enables the leader and the team member to work together to identify which of these skills are in need of improvement.
If you are looking for advice on identifying skills gaps and building an effective coaching plan for your agents, read our article: How to Conduct a Skills Audit and Coaching Plan
Step 3: Train Leaders to Be Effective Coaches
Working with outliers can be challenging as they may be resistant to changing for a number of reasons. To break through resistance, leaders should know how to have this conversation without your team member feeling like they are failing.
An effective coaching session starts with a leader who has a positive mindset believing that their outlier team members come to work to do a good job. If they aren’t doing a good job, it is most likely because they lack clarity on what exactly needs to change.
Good coaches build a team member’s self-awareness through self-discovery. For example, instead of telling a team member that they are an outlier, present the KPI Matrix tool to show where they stand against others.
Use a question such as “What story does this tell you?” This is a good way to put your team member in the role of an observer instead of making them feel accused or a failure.
For advice on finding a coaching model that works for your agents, read our article: Contact Centre Coaching Models: Which Is Best for Your Coaching Sessions?
Step 4: Hold Both Parties Accountable
Reviewing and discussing performance at the end of the month should not come as a surprise to a team member. Keeping the team member informed or, better still, self-directed in actively monitoring their performance, gives them accountability for improvement.
For any leader, it is better to know early in the month that the KPI trend is going south. It allows a leader to be proactive by having a discovery session with their team member to understand what is happening and to brainstorm a strategy to reverse this negative trend.
Lastly, coaching is not a one and done session where the full accountability is on the shoulders of the team member. The leader needs to follow up and positively reinforce any small improvement or change that was observed.
Happy Team Members Lead to Happy Customers!
Manage fluctuating KPI trends by implementing two key building blocks and adopting this 4-step framework.
This approach will drive higher engagement with your teams and especially your outlier team members. And as we all know, happy team members lead to happy customers!
Written by: Afshan Kinder, ICMI Thought Leader and co-author of three books – including ‘Call Centers for Dummies’
If you are looking for more articles on contact centre KPIs, read these next:
- The Top 5 Agent Performance Metrics
- 32 Call Centre KPIs That You Need to Track (And Why!)
- Top 10 Customer Experience KPIs
Author: Afshan Kinder
Reviewed by: Megan Jones
Published On: 3rd Mar 2025 - Last modified: 5th Mar 2025
Read more about - Call Centre Management, Afshan Kinder, Agent Performance, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Metrics, Team Management, Top Story
