For more than 50 years, Pulte Homes has been helping individuals, couples and families build a better life. Today, the Company's operations span more than 40 markets throughout the United States. Through its Del Webb brand, the Company is now the country's leading builder of Active Adult communities. In building more than 370,000 homes in its history, Pulte Homes has been honored as "America's Best Builder," and was named Builder of the Year 2002.

Pulte operates 4 contact centers with more than 500 seats, and in late 2002 made a strategic decision to automate their quality monitoring. The results are outstanding, according to an interview with Therese Smith, Manager, National Customer Communication.

TS: Quality control has always been important and an evolutionary process in our center. Five years ago we made our first quality commitment when we outsourced it to a company that conducted monthly mystery shops. Over time we found this ineffective. The shoppers were good, but the calls were staged and not valid assessments of actual customer calls. 

LH: What impact has quality monitoring had on your supervisory efficiencies?

TS: In the initial information-gathering portion of our calls, our agents were too tightly scripted. They sounded stiff.  Our core business is selling homes – the single largest investment most people will make in their lives. Our transactions are relationship-oriented and based on a foundation of trust.  It’s important for our agents to come across as genuine, caring people.   To overcome this problem, we developed a set of scoring guidelines for calls vs. tightening scripts.

TS: Absolutely!  We use a library of saved calls in role-playing with new hires. Once the new agent is on the floor, we record them and have them evaluate their own calls.   This gives them a greater appreciation for the process, and it is a great learning tool.

Since our supervisors meet monthly with each agent one-on-one for scoring review, we created a natural environment for ongoing training. With department trends readily identifiable we are able to conduct mini refresher classes at our monthly All Employee Meetings.

TS: Oh, sure.  The primary purpose of the system is agent evaluation.  At a micro-level, we have improved basic telephone etiquette (using the customer’s name, acknowledging need and thanking them) which translates to higher customer satisfaction.  

Departmentally we are also able to identify opportunities for process improvement -- policy & procedure updates that accommodate changing business needs, revised product information, and workflow refinement.

Hearing feedback directly from a customer’s point of view is very powerful. To help us build the call center’s credibility with other departments we have implemented global sharing of customer calls of particular interest to marketing managers, upper management etc.

TS: One of the primary objectives of our department is to capture prospect information and enter it into our sales force automation tool.  Having established guidelines for call flow and expectations has increased our capture rate from 47% to 64%!  Being able to market directly to these prospects who have expressed an interest in our product translates to more home sales for the Company.  We have also been able to identify opportunities for cross-selling.

TS: Yes, every month we compare scores, by evaluator, to identify any wide discrepancies.  At system rollout, we used a point system with categories worth from 1-4 points.   We have since changed format to a Yes/No value –  you either you got the point or you didn’t.  This scoring process is faster and eliminates some debate about discretionary points.  We also offer supervisor comment fields next to each score. Sometimes the agent will get the point, but the supervisor may still comment about how they could improve it next time.

We also have quarterly calibration meetings with a small group of supervisors and agents.  Each member of the calibration team evaluates the same three calls, and then meets to compare scores and discuss identified discrepancies. This has been an important process for achieving agent buy-in and fine tuning scoring forms.

TS: I can’t say that it’s had major impact.  We certainly inform job applicants that we will record and evaluate their calls, and they are expected to participate in review of those calls for learning purposes.  

For some of our more tenured staff it was a difficult adjustment. New hires just accept this as part of doing business.  The agent’s primary responsibility is communicating effectively with our customers and the best way to ensure improvement is to record and evaluate their calls.

TS: Our industry and Company is experiencing unprecedented growth. Our mantra is to “keep it simple”.  Technology needs to be consistent, reliable and easy to use, so we can focus on growing our business. Setting up the call recordings to happen automatically, saving the recordings by agent name, and built in scoring have helped us to develop a successful call recording & evaluating program.