BDC Success Hinges on Call Sampling - Part 1
It doesn't matter how high or low-tech your BDC operations may be, unless you have a standardized, documented call monitoring process you have an under-performing BDC. No matter how good results look on paper.
A formalized call monitoring process is the most influential tool you will use to deliver results from your Business Development Center (BDC). Managing BDC performance based on statistical results is like treating a cold with cough medicine; you can make the symptoms bearable, but you can't kill the virus. A formalized call monitoring process is your best chance to kill poor performance where it starts: in-call behavior. It’s also a foundational step of aligning your Appointment Coordinator's activities with their personal deliverables, and their deliverables with the goals of your organization.
If you don't already have a formal process or if you're wondering how to tweak your existing process, here's how to get started:
- Pick an owner. Someone in your organization must be directly responsible for monitoring on an agreed upon schedule, summarizing and reporting results and coaching your Appointment Coordinator(s).
- Standardize, then document what you're listening for and share copies with your Coordinator(s). In my next post I’ll explain some typical behaviors and categories of behaviors that you’ll probably want to listen for and how to get your team to buy in. This will be key to ensuring what your Coordinator does delivers the customer experience and results you want. A simple, generic example is available here.
- Decide on a numeric measure for how to summarize the in-call behavior you've heard.You’ll still need to take notes on what happened in the call but a numeric score is the most effective way to monitor progress and correlate the behavior you hear with the BDC performance you're reporting.
- Consider how often you will be monitoring. Depending on the size of your BDC team and the amount of time they spend doing BDC-related calling, I'd recommend 4 calls per full-time coordinator per month as a baseline target. Ideally 1 sample per week. That probably won’t give you a 'statistically significant' sample but you will get the observation and feedback you need to significantly impact results. New Coordinators or those who need to improve will need more samples and more coaching than that.
- Commit to giving Coordinators feedback as soon as reasonably possible. Preferably same-day while the details are fresh in both your minds.
If you're not currently doing these things, you have untapped potential in your BDC. If you’d like to talk over how to start or tweak your process feel free to contact me at bruce [dot] atkinson [at] dealermineservice [dot] com or comment below. I’m happy to help you get started.
