SeBrook Growth

To script, or not to script? That is the question! https://www.sebrook.ca//20/2/20/to-script-or-not-to-script

Happy flag day everyone! Wherever you are in this beautiful country, I hope you are celebrating the unique, amazing culture of Canada!

WORTHY METRICS Most contact centres are looking at improving their efficiency and effectiveness through tracking data, but the problem is that most people who run these centres are confused about which data is most important. That’s ok! It takes a long time to figure out metrics when you are just starting out. The biggest mistake that is often made is looking in the wrong places. A lot of time, effort and money can be wasted by tracking unimportant information while the real difference makers are often ignored. Here is a look at some useless data to avoid: https://www.sebrook.ca/blog/2019/2/15/worth-metrics

The Definition of Insanity! Albert Einstein* famously said, The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This quote is so widely used today because it speaks to an important and fundamental mistake that almost everyone makes: Stop making the same mistakes! If you look at negative results (a loss in a quarter, lower sales numbers, disappointing customer favourability reports), the first step is to look back at what w...as done and see how things can be done differently to positively impact results. Here is an example using sales as the metric: Company A has seen modest growth over the past 3 years, but their sales numbers have seen a slight decline year over year for the past two quarters. To save money, Company A has decided to increase their salesforce by 10% in order to improve sales numbers. The issue with Company A’s actions is that it refuses to look at the causationof the problem, and is a reactionary move believing increasing salespeople will increase sales numbers. While increasing the salesforce is sometimes an effective strategy (more on that in a future post) it doesn’t look at what the fundamental issues are with the sales department. Why has their been only modest growth over 3 years, and why has that growth stopped? Is the sales process effective? How have the closing rates for the sales team trended YoY over the past 3 years? Is there enough investment in coaching for the current staff? Are top performers motivated enough to keep ahead of last year, and are lower performers showing constant improvement? Until you take a deep dive into the numbers, there is no way to know why the numbers are trending down. Simply keeping things the way they are and hoping for the best is definitely the definition of insanity, and needs to be weeded out. And once the weeds are gone, you can truly plant the seeds of growth! *Albert Einstein did not, in fact utter the famous quote attributed to him. Remember that in business, fact checking your data is part of improving your results!