Managing your technical support team with a quota can help them maintain work quality and keep them focused on their work objectives. A quota system, however, might defeat its purpose if it is set outside realistic standards. To make your quota effective and attainable, it should be based on the following factors:
Working hours
A typical work day has eight hours, so work out a system that fits your employees’ office timeframe. Monitor the frequency of requests your representatives receive per hour or per day and then see what time the most number of calls comes. If service requests only start pouring in by Thursday, it may be impossible for your team to meet their quota before midweek. In settings like this, it is more advisable to assess the accomplishments at the end of the week instead of daily.
Size of the team
How many people make up your team? It may be unreasonable to impose a steep quota on a small staff, and conversely, expecting a very low turnout from a large group may be impractical. In structuring a quota system, keep in mind that the level of your quota should match the number of the people working for you.
Number of requests
Draw the average number of technical support requests your call center and other channels receive within a day, and that extracted figure can be divided by the size of your staff for you to come up with the preferable quota. Let’s say your 10-member team gets an average of 300 calls a day. Thus, each of your representatives should answer at least 30 calls within the allotted office hours.
Gravity of the tasks
Sorting the queries according to the level of seriousness can help you come up with the right quota system for each unit of your customer service department. Ideally, support representatives handling minor problems should have a higher quota, while those who fix more complex tech issues should work under a lower quota, as difficult tasks take a longer time to solve.
Quotas can help you gauge the productivity of your people and motivate your technical support team to perform well. Therefore, base your expectations on the elements that compose your employees’ workload to come up with a doable quota system.