Has this ever been done before?
Why not?
Did it work?
Why not?
If it’s new and useful, what problem is it solving?
Why has the audience rejected similar innovations in the past?
One day, this market will change. What will cause that change to happen?
Finding your next great call center agent — someone who will help your contact center succeed— is no easy feat. Asking these call center interview questions will help you find the best agents to help the organization excel.
Hiring the wrong agents can be detrimental and costly. 27% of employers said that just one bad hire costs more than $50,000. Good contact center managers instinctively know this, especially since 95% of a manager’s success resides in selecting the right people.
It’s key to ask the right questions during the interview, ones that help determine whether a candidate possesses certain competencies. But not everyone understands which questions to ask, and more importantly, what answers to look for.
Types of Interview Question for Call Center Candidates:
We’ve split these job interview questions into three sections based on the type of interview question to make it easier for you to find what you need. Click to be taken to that section:
Personal Call Center Interview Questions
Practical and Skill-Based Call Center Interview Questions
Interview Questions for Call Center Supervisors
Closing Interview Questions for Call Center Candidates
Here are the top call center interview questions you should be asking to hire the best customer service representatives.
Our Best Call Center Interview Questions Are:
Tell me about yourself
What do you like to do for fun?
How would your previous team/manager describe you?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
What enticed you to apply?
Why are you leaving your current role?
What are the key factors that make a call center successful?
Tell me about a time when you had to handle an unreasonable or angry customer.
What procedure do you follow when a customer contacts you?
Tell me about a time when you received constructive criticism
Describe a time that you needed to know or learn something new and how you got that information.
Tell me about the toughest decision or biggest work challenge you had in the last six months?
What have you done to promote great customer service?
What achievement are you most proud of?
How do you handle working in a contact center?
How many people have you managed in the past?
Can you talk about a time when you escalated a call and how you handled it?
How do you go about onboarding a new employee?
Tell me about a time one of your call center agents was underperforming and how you addressed it.
Does this role still line up with your expectations based on the advert?
Do you have any questions for me?
Personal Interview Questions for Call Center Candidates
1. Tell me about yourself
Take a few minutes at the start of the interview to let the candidate talk about themselves. Instead of jumping right into questions, this approach gives the candidate a moment to relax and be at ease.
Let the candidate tell their story before jumping into all the specific questions. That helps to get the candidate comfortable, and it also gives you an overview of who they are. A good answer will explain why they left one organization to go to the next and what they learned from each venture.
2. What do you like to do for fun?
If they say things like “hanging out with friends and watching movies,” they probably aren’t the go-getter type you’re looking for. Great talents have a passion outside of the office.
Perhaps they like to cycle, play guitar in a band, or have a side gig — what better way to show a hard work ethic?
How to Effectively Set Goals with Your Call Center Team
In any event, while “hanging out with friends” is a good social trait, you should certainly look for the candidate that offers more to this answer.
3. How would your previous team/manager describe you?
The candidate should provide examples and situations that reflect their descriptions. See if they describe a good culture fit for your contact center.
4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Ideally, the person you hire can grow in your organization. If you’re hiring an agent and their goal is to be involved in management in the next five years, it shows you that they’re motivated to grow and lead. That is a great way to hold on to talent!
5. What enticed you to apply?
Now that you know a bit about them and their background, it is good to understand why they are interested in this particular role. Why are they excited about working for your call center?
Look out for specific keywords in their answer. Assuming this is a role for a contact center agent, responses like “customer-facing” or “problem-solving” might be great keywords for you. It also shows you how well they understand the role.
6. Why are you leaving your current role?
This question is crucial. The answer needs to demonstrate a good reason for the decision. The candidate should also remain positive and show what they learned in their last role.
If the candidate is currently employed, it’s important to understand why they are moving on. Answers like “I’d like to learn more” or “it’s time to spread my wings” are great, but not if they’ve only been at the job for a few months.
7 Things Great Call Center Managers Do Every Day
Watch how often the candidate jumps from job to job, as this can be a bad sign. If they quickly shame the company, this also shows a lack of loyalty and professionalism.
Practical Call Center Interview Questions
7. What are the key factors that make a call center successful?
This question helps identify candidates with great potential, even if they haven’t spent much time researching the company. Now it’s time to understand what they know about the contact center industry as a whole. It also gives you a chance to see what ideas they will put forward to make your contact center successful.
8. Tell me about a time when you had to handle an unreasonable or angry customer
Every agent has experienced a negative phone call with a customer. How they handled it and what they learned is essential to career growth.
If they have any experience working with customers whatsoever, they will have a story to tell for this one. It’s important to see what kind of story they choose to share and how they handle tough customer questions.
Ideally, they’ll explain how they were the hero in terrible customer interaction. You want to hear that they could remain calm and go out of their way to make the customer happy even if they weren’t pleasant to work with. Ideally, their manager was thrilled with the outcome too.
9. What procedure do you follow when a customer contacts you?
The appropriate answer to this will vary depending on your contact center and industry. Still, any confident agent will be able to give you a rough outline of how to resolve common questions and problems. It should sound something like this:
Greet the customer and introduce yourself.
Ask the customer how you can help them.
LISTEN to the customer. EMPATHIZE. LISTEN.
Help the customer to find the best solution.
Check the customer is satisfied and if they need anything else.
10. Tell me about a time when you received constructive criticism
It’s always interesting to hear how people handle constructive criticism. This question is tough, but you can usually tell by how the candidate tells the story if the criticism was well received. If the candidate says something like, “I appreciated the feedback,” then it’s likely they don’t get defensive when given advice.
11. Describe a time that you needed to know or learn something new and how you got that information.
Any call center job requires agents to undergo intensive training in either the product or industry they’re working with. Your candidates must be not only comfortable learning but actively looking to learn more about the products they provide service for.
5 Creative Ways to Manage Agent Shortages in Your Contact Center
The best candidates will be happy to talk about the various times they’ve had to learn something new and will often go about this voluntarily. They should also be able to demonstrate an ability to take the initiative to find out answers for themselves.
12. Tell me about the toughest decision or biggest work challenge you had in the last six months?
This is a very challenging question, so make sure to give the candidate time to think it over.
There’s no right answer here. Just let the candidate tell their story, and hopefully, the challenge had some merit. It’s a good opportunity to gauge what the candidate considers a tough decision.
13. What have you done to promote great customer service?
Their answer about what makes a successful call center should have covered the importance of q
uality customer service, so let’s dig a bit deeper.
Get an understanding of specific actions that promote great customer service. Do they have a sense of what this means in practice? How have they incorporated that into their behavior and phone manner?
14. What achievement are you most proud of?
What a candidate is most proud of can tell you a lot about them as a person. Perhaps it was solving a difficult customer complaint – this shows they are passionate about helping people or say it was achieving an award – this shows they are motivated by recognition.
15. How do you handle working in a call center?
Working in a call center is a high-pressure, high-stress, fast-paced environment that can be monotonous at best and abusive at worst. You need to make sure your agents can handle the day-to-day stresses of life in the contact center.
Use this question to determine how your candidates deal with the relentless, often negative, emotional load they take on during customer calls.
Interview Questions for Call Center Supervisors
16. How many people have you managed in the past?
Whether they’ve managed a couple of employees or a large team of reps, they should be able to talk a little about that experience.
7 Tips for Success from Call Center Professionals
If necessary, prompt them to expand on the management techniques they’ve tried out in the past and how they have tried to hone their communication skills and management style through experience.
17. Can you talk about a time when you escalated a call and how you handled it?
The purpose of this question is to get the candidate to demonstrate that they were able to solve the problem and improve the customer experience at the same time.
Look for top candidates who talk about how they use these experiences to create teachable members for the rest of their team.
18. How do you go about onboarding a new employee?
Getting onboarding right is crucial for success. You want to make sure your call center’s new manager understands the importance of a good onboarding process and how to deliver one.
Look for candidates that highlight the importance of setting expectations, practical training, and creating ongoing opportunities for improvement.
19. Tell me about a time one of your call center agents was underperforming and how you addressed it.
Feedback and performance assessments are crucial for managing any business, particularly the call center. You want to know how this person delivers feedback and how they respond to a disengaged or struggling employee.
The best candidates to be your contact center manager will talk about how they spoke to the agent to get to the bottom of the issue and work with them to form a plan to resolve it.
Closing Call Center Interview Questions
20. Does this role align with your expectations based on the advert?
Writing a concise and accurate job description is hard. This question is your opportunity to ensure that your advert aligns with your expectations for the candidates. Are you putting out the right ad to entice the right people?
21. Do you have any questions for me?
This question is a good opportunity to see how much they know about your business. Maybe they’re asking about your client base or what the work environment is like – these are all great questions!
7 Things Great Call Center Managers Do Every Day
Bad questions would be jumping right into compensation or, worse, not having any questions prepared at all. The first shows you that they’re mainly interested in money and not the opportunity; the latter shows you they aren’t serious about the role.
Great Call Center Interview Questions Make Great Call Centers
Out of more than 6,000 hiring professionals worldwide, more than half said they had felt the effects of hiring someone who turned out to be a poor fit for the job or did not perform well.
A successful call center manager needs to understand that the first step to training the right agents is hiring. Remember the words of Steve Jobs,
“The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.”
The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world. – Steve Jobs #managemet #hiringClick To Tweet
As candidates prepare and practise their responses, interviewers too should be compiling critical questions and thinking about the best answers.
It is also important to have a mix of canned questions that are significant to the success of the role while leaving room for some conversational questions. If you can develop a dialogue in the interview, you’re more likely to build rapport, leading to faster decisions and better outcomes.
It’s also important to remember that employees need continuous nurturing. After hiring the candidate, make sure you devote time to ongoing relationship building. Have regular meetings to make sure they’re happy and are meeting their goals.
The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.
There is no denying the necessity of personalization in email marketing. Personalization increases open rates, and it shows your audience that you acknowledge and understand their wants and needs. It leads to more engaged readers driven toward action, and it’s pretty central to an effective lead nurture strategy. According to Epsilon’s research, 80% of consumers…
The post What Is Email Personalization and Why Is it So Powerful? appeared first on Benchmark Email.
What tools do you use to automate?
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I am the Customer Experience supervisor for a large dairy. Customer Experience is new to our organization and we’re just getting the department up and running. We’re at a place where we’re ready to get some feedback from customers and I’m curious what methods other organizations are using to survey. For example, do we start with our largest customers and take an 80/20 approach? Or do we make it more wide spread? What methods do we use for surveying? After call survey? In person interview? Email survey? I’ve setup ideation sessions with a core group from my organization but I’d like feedback from others with experience in this area since this is new to our organization. Please let me know if you have recommendations, suggestions etc. Thank you in advance!
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My friend Christina, who works in IT, called me last month thrilled about her new role: “I’m a Chief Happiness Officer”, she said. “Is that even a role, “I thought, but I promptly replied, “Congratulations, well done!”. I was confused. I had been led to believe that happiness is the fruit of success, not a…
The post What will corporate happiness look like in a hybrid work environment? appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.
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You may be familiar with the adage, “Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.” As much as we don’t want to think about the terrible things that can happen in business and life, negative occurrences are inevitable. Whether it’s a product defect that leads to a recall, a security breach that leaves our customer’s data vulnerable, or violence or disasters in the workplace, bad things are bound to happen at some point.
While it’s not the happiest of thoughts, it’s realistic. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of opting out from negative occurrences. Still, we do have the ability to plan ahead so that when the unthinkable happens, we’ve already thought of it, and have a plan in place to limit the damages.
If none of what you’ve read has you rocking in the corner, and you’re actually excited by the possibility of being the person a business turns to in times of crisis, you might be perfect for a career in Crisis Management. Throughout this piece, you’ll learn what a crisis manager does and how to be a great one, according to service experts.
Crisis Management
Crisis management is how organizations prevent, prepare for, and respond to events that could be detrimental to employees, customers, or the organization as a whole. This field helps identify uncertain conditions that could cause harm and mitigate the impact if you can’t prevent them. It is an essential aspect of any business and can save millions of dollars in fallout, not to mention saving a brand’s reputation.
Throughout this piece, you’ll learn what a crisis manager does and how to be a great one, according to service experts.
What is a Crisis Manager?
The job of a crisis manager is to be proactive, identify threats, and the process they’ll use to work through them before a crisis ever happens. A crisis manager is involved at every stage – before, during, and after a crisis.
While everyone in an organization may be involved in carrying out a crisis management plan, the crisis manager is responsible for devising this plan, making sure it runs smoothly, and communicating with employees, customers, shareholders, board members, and the public so the experience does not damage the organization’s reputation.
Crisis Manager Tasks Before or Pre-Crisis
Identify risks
Establish early monitoring systems
Develop a crisis plan to minimize risks
Crisis Manager Tasks During a Crisis Response
Lead the crisis management team
Communicate with employees and shareholders, customers
Speak with the media to maintain a positive public reputation
Crisis Manager Tasks After or Post-Crisis
Continue to lead the crisis management team
Review the response plan, identify what did and did not work, and make any necessary changes
How Much Does a Crisis Manager Make?
Before we dive into what it takes to land a job as a crisis manager, you might wonder what an average crisis manager’s salary is. While compensation can vary based on experience, geographic area, the company you work for, and many other factors, the average salary for a crisis manager is $56,359, according to Indeed.com. For example, in Los Angeles, CA, Zip Recruiter shows a range from $24,882 up to $158,820 and determined an average of $63,110.
How to Become a Crisis Manager
Before we dive into education and certification, let’s look at what personality characteristics you must have to be a great crisis manager.
In order to excel in this field, you’ll need to be:
Calm under pressure
A great communicator
Solution-focused
Able to think clearly and act quickly
Able to handle stress
Proactive
Concerned for the wellbeing of the organization and your team members
Critical thinking skills are essential, as are strong leadership and interpersonal skills. You will have to motivate employees to take action during difficult times and keep them calm enough to be effective.
Does this still sound like you? Perfect! Now, it’s time to determine what you need to do to make a career out of your passion and abilities.
While many careers have a very obvious path beginning with a specific college degree, Crisis management is slightly different. If you’re looking at becoming a crisis manager, there are very few job-specific degrees available. However, emergency management is a common educational path for crisis managers as-is business administration. You will also find a number of crisis management positions that look for a degree or experience in public relations with classes in crisis communication.
There is an Institute for Crisis Management (ICM) that offers certification and provides training in:
Identifying and preparing for a business crisis
Evaluating vulnerabilities
Gaining support from senior management
Essential communication tools
Preparing recovery plans
You can also look for communication courses and resources through organizations like the Institute for Public Relations (IPR).
Like it or not, every business will experience challenges, setbacks, and full-blown crises throughout its lifetime. As a crisis manager, you will be responsible for looking into the future to identify these challenges before they turn into major issues and creating a plan that will help minimize the damage these situations could cause.
You can be the difference between a business being destroyed by a crisis or surviving relatively unscathed.
Every year I create vague New Years resolutions, but this year I decided to try something different.
Using the SMART goal framework (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound), I reworded my 2022 goal from “read more books” to “read two books per month to hit my goal of reading 24 before the end of the year.”
The SMART framework is an effective strategy for creating more specific and attainable goals. Plus, it provides benchmarks against which you can measure your progress — if you have a larger, more daunting goal, smaller steps can help you remain motivated.
Here, let’s explore what SMART goals are, why they’re important, and how to make your own.
What are SMART Goals?
Why Are SMART Goals Important?
SMART Goal Examples
How to Make a SMART Goal
Download this Template for Free
In the working world, the influence of SMART goals continues to grow. The reason why successful marketing teams always hit their numbers is that they also set SMART goals. Use the template above to follow along and create your own SMART goals.
What are SMART goals?
SMART goals are concrete targets that you aim to hit over a certain period. These goals should be carefully drafted by a manager and their direct report to set them up for success. “SMART” is an acronym that describes the most important characteristics of each goal.
The “SMART” acronym stands for “specific,” “measurable,” “attainable,” “relevant,” and “time-bound.” Each SMART goal should have these five characteristics to ensure the goal can be reached and benefits the employee. Find out what each characteristic means below, and how to write a SMART goal that exemplifies them.
Why are SMART goals important?
SMART goals are important to set as they:
Help you work with clear intentions, not broad or vague goals
Provide a method to gauge your success by setting benchmarks to meet
Give sensible objectives that are realistic and achievable
Cut out unnecessary or irrelevant work that could take away from what’s important
Set a clear beginning and end to adhere to in reaching your goals
When you make goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, you’re increasing your odds for success by verifying that the goal is achievable, identifying the metrics that define success, and creating a roadmap to reach those metrics.
If your goals are abstract, if you don’t know what it will take to achieve success, or if you don’t give yourself a deadline to complete steps, you may lose focus and fall short of what you want to accomplish.
Do SMART goals actually work?
In short — yes, if done correctly.
For instance, one study found 76% of participants who wrote down their goals, made a list of goal-driven actions, and provided weekly progress reports to a friend achieved their goals — which is 33% higher than those with unwritten goals.
Additionally, I polled roughly 300 participants in the U.S. and found 52% believe SMART goals help them achieve their goals more often than if they didn’t use a SMART framework.
Setting unrealistic goals and trying to measure them without consideration of previous performance, overly short time frames, or including too many variables will lead you off course.
However, these goals work only if formulated properly and if they take into account the motive and cadence of those working on them. Additionally, your SMART goals can only succeed when the employees working towards them have the means to achieve them.
Let’s take a look at some realistic examples of SMART goals to paint a clearer picture of what they are.
1. Blog Traffic Goal
Specific: I want to boost our blog’s traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five to eight times a week. Our two bloggers will increase their workload from writing two posts a week to three posts a week, and our editor will increase her workload from writing one post a week to two posts a week.
Measurable: Our goal is an 8% increase in traffic.
Attainable: Our blog traffic increased by 5% last month when we increased our weekly publishing frequency from three to five times a week.
Relevant: By increasing blog traffic, we’ll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.
Time-Bound: End of this month
SMART Goal: At the end of this month, our blog will see an 8% lift in traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five posts per week to eight posts per week.
2. Facebook Video Views Goal
Specific: I want to boost our average views per native video by cutting our video content mix from eight topics to our five most popular topics.
Measurable: Our goal is a 25% increase in views.
Attainable: When we cut down our video content mix on Facebook from 10 topics to our eight most popular topics, our average views per native video increased by 20%.
Relevant: By increasing average views per native video on Facebook, we’ll boost our social media following and brand awareness, reaching more potential customers with our video content.
Time-Bound: In six months
SMART Goal: In six months, we’ll see a 25% increase in average video views per native video on Facebook by cutting our video content mix from eight topics to our five most popular topics.
3. Email Subscription Goal
Specific: I want to boost the number of email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on blog posts that historically acquire the most email subscribers.
Measurable: Our goal is a 50% increase in subscribers.
Attainable: Since we started using this tactic three months ago, our email blog subscriptions have increased by 40%.
Relevant: By increasing the number of email blog subscribers, our blog will drive more traffic, boost brand awareness, and drive more leads to our sales team.
Time-Bound: In three months
SMART Goal: In three months, we’ll see a 50% increase in the number of email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on posts that historically acquire the most blog subscribers.
4. Webinar Sign-Up Goal
Specific: I want to increase the number of sign-ups for our Facebook Messenger webinar by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook Messenger.
Measurable: Our goal is a 15% increase in sign-ups.
Attainable: Our last Facebook messenger webinar saw a 10% increase in sign-ups when we only promoted it through social, email, and our blog.
Relevant: When our webinars generate more leads, sales have more opportunities to close.
Time-Bound: By April 10, the day of the webinar
SMART Goal: By April 10, the day of our webinar, we’ll see a 15% increase in sign-ups by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook messenger.
5. Landing Page Performance Goal
Specific: I want our landing pages to generate more leads by switching from a one-column form to a two-column form.
Measurable: My goal is a 30% increase in lead generation.
Attainable: When we A/B tested our traditional one-column form versus a two-column form on our highest-traffic landing pages, we discovered that two-column forms convert 27% better than our traditional one-column forms, at a 99% significance level.
Relevant: If we generate more content leads, sales can close more customers.
Time-Bound: One year from now
SMART Goal: One year from now, our landing pages will generate 30% more leads by switching their forms from one column to two columns.
6. Link-Building Strategy Goal
Specific: I want to increase our website’s organic traffic by developing a link-building strategy that gets other publishers to link to our website. This increases our ranking in search engine results, allowing us to generate more organic traffic.
Measurable: Our goal is 40 backlinks to our company homepage.
Attainable: According to our SEO analysis tool, there are currently 500 low-quality links directing to our homepage from elsewhere on the internet. Given the number of partnerships we currently have with other businesses, and that we generate 10 new inbound links per month without any outreach on our part, an additional 40 inbound links from a single link-building campaign is a significant but feasible target.
Relevant: Organic traffic is our top source of new leads, and backlinks are one of the biggest ranking factors on search engines like Google. If we build links from high-quality publications, our organic ranking increases, boosting our traffic and leads as a result.
Time-Bound: four months from now
SMART Goal: Over the next four months, I will build 40 additional backlinks that direct to www.ourcompany.com. To do so, I will collaborate with Ellie and Andrew from our PR department to connect with publishers and develop an effective outreach strategy.
7. Reducing Churn Rate Goal
Specific: I want to reduce customer churn by 5% for my company because every customer loss is a reflection of our service’s quality and perception.
Measurable: Contact 30 at-risk customers per week and provide customer support daily for five new customers during their onboarding process.
Attainable: Our product offering has just improved and we have the means to invest more into our customer support team, and could potentially have five at-risk customers to upscale monthly.
Relevant: We can set up a customer knowledge base to track customers’ progression in the buyer’s journey, and prevent churn by contacting them before they lose interest.
Time-Bound: In 24 weeks
SMART Goal: In 24 weeks, I will reduce the churn rate by 5% for my company. To do so, we will contact 30 at-risk customers per week and provide/invest in customer support to assist five new customers during onboarding daily and track their progress through a customer knowledge base.
8. Brand Affinity Goal
Specific: I want to increase our podcast listener count as we are trying to establish ourselves as thought leaders in our market.
Measurable: A 40% increase in listeners is our goal.
Attainable: We can increase our current budget and level our podcaster’s cadence, to have the means to hold insightful conversations for our listeners to tune into.
Relevant: We created a podcast and have dedicated a team to source interesting guests, sound mixing, and eye-catching thumbnails to get it started.
Time-Bound: In four months
SMART Goal: In four months, we’ll see a 40% increase in average listener count in Apple Podcasts by providing our team the budget and cadence to make insightful podcasts with quality sound mixing and eye-catching thumbnails.
9. Podcast Listener Count Goal
Specific: I want to boost our podcast’s listener count by promoting our podcast across social channels. We will post four quotes related to new podcast episodes throughout the month on our Twitter account, and we will post six short videos of our podcast conversations with guests on our Instagram account throughout the month.
Measurable: Our goal is an 20% increase in podcast listeners.
Attainable: Our podcast listener count increased by 5% last month when we published two short videos of our podcast conversation on Instagram.
Relevant: By increasing podcast listener count, we’ll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.
Time-Bound: End of this month
SMART Goal: At the end of this month, our podcast will see an 20% increase in listeners by increasing our social media promotions from two Instagram posts to four Twitter posts and six Instagram posts.
10. In-Person Event Attendee Goal
Specific: I want to boost attendance at our upcoming in-person event by 50% by sending out three email reminders to our subscriber lists each week before the event.
Measurable: Our goal is an 50% increase in attendees.
Attainable: Our attendee number increased by 20% last year when we sent out one email reminder to our subscriber lists.
Relevant: By increasing attendee count, we’ll increase brand loyalty by providing value to our existing customers, and generate more leads.
Time-Bound: August 30
SMART Goal: By the time of our event on August 30th, our attendee number will increase by 50% from where it’s at now (250 attendees), by sending out three email reminders to our subscribers lists.
Now that you’ve seen examples of SMART goals, let’s dive into how to make your own.
1. Use specific wording.
When writing SMART goals, keep in mind that they are “specific” in that there’s a hard and fast destination the employee is trying to reach. “Get better at my job,” isn’t a SMART goal because it isn’t specific. Instead, ask yourself: What are you getting better at? How much better do you want to get?
If you’re a marketing professional, your job probably revolves around key performance indicators or KPIs. Therefore, you might choose a particular KPI or metric that you want to improve on — like visitors, leads, or customers. You should also identify the team members working toward this goal, the resources they have, and their plan of action.
In practice, a specific SMART goal might say, “Clifford and Braden will increase the blog’s traffic from email …” You know exactly who’s involved and what you’re trying to improve on.
Common SMART Goal Mistake: Vagueness
While you may need to keep some goals more open-ended, you should avoid vagueness that could confuse your team later on. For example, instead of saying, “Clifford will boost email marketing experiences,” say “Clifford will boost email marketing click rates by 10%.”
2. Include measurable goals.
SMART goals should be “measurable” in that you can track and quantify the goal’s progress. “Increase the blog’s traffic from email,” by itself, isn’t a SMART goal because you can’t measure the increase. Instead, ask yourself: How much email marketing traffic should you strive for?
If you want to gauge your team’s progress, you need to quantify your goals, like achieving an X-percentage increase in visitors, leads, or customers.
Let’s build on the SMART goal we started three paragraphs above. Now, our measurable SMART goal might say, “Clifford and Braden will increase the blog’s traffic from email by 25% more sessions per month … ” You know what you’re increasing, and by how much.
Common SMART Goal Mistake: No KPIs
This is in the same light of avoiding vagueness. While you might need qualitative or open-ended evidence to prove your success, you should still come up with a quantifiable KPI. For example, instead of saying, “Customer service will improve customer happiness,” say, “We want the average call satisfaction score from customers to be a seven out of ten or higher.”
3. Aim for realistically attainable goals.
An “attainable” SMART goal considers the employee’s ability to achieve it. Make sure that X-percentage increase is rooted in reality. If your blog traffic increased by 5% last month, try to increase it by 8-10% this month, rather than a lofty 25%.
It’s crucial to base your goals on your own analytics, not industry benchmarks, or else you might bite off more than you can chew. So, let’s add some “attainability” to the SMART goal we created earlier in this blog post: “Clifford and Braden will increase the blog’s traffic from email by 8-10% more sessions per month … ” This way, you’re not setting yourself up to fail.
Common SMART Goal Mistake: Unattainable Goals
Yes. You should always aim to improve. But reaching for completely unattainable goals may knock you off course and make it harder to track progress. Rather than saying, “We want to make 10,000% of what we made in 2021,” consider something more attainable, like, “We want to increase sales by 150% this year,” or “We have a quarterly goal to reach a 20% year-over-year sales increase.”
4. Pick relevant goals that relate to your business.
SMART goals that are “relevant” relate to your company’s overall business goals and account for current trends in your industry. For instance, will growing your traffic from email lead to more revenue? And, is it actually possible for you to significantly boost your blog’s email traffic given your current email marketing campaigns?
If you’re aware of these factors, you’re more likely to set goals that benefit your company — not just you or your department.
So, what does that do to our SMART goal? It might encourage you to adjust the metric you’re using to track the goal’s progress. For example, maybe your business has historically relied on organic traffic for generating leads and revenue, and research suggests you can generate more qualified leads this way.
Our SMART goal might instead say, “Clifford and Braden will increase the blog’s organic traffic by 8-10% more sessions per month.” This way, your traffic increase is aligned with the business’s revenue stream.
Common SMART Goal Mistake: Losing Sight of the Company
When your company is doing well, it can be easy to say you want to pivot or grow in another direction. While companies can successfully do this, you don’t want your team to lose sight of how the core of your business works.
Rather than saying, “We want to start a new B2B business on top of our B2C business,” say something like, “We want to continue increasing B2C sales while researching the impact our products could have on the B2B space in the next year.”
5. Make goals time-bound by including a timeframe and deadline information.
A “time-bound” SMART goal keeps you on schedule. Improving on a goal is great, but not if it takes too long. Attaching deadlines to your goals puts a healthy dose of pressure on your team to accomplish them. This helps you make consistent and significant progress in the long term.
For example, which would you prefer: increasing organic traffic by 5% every month, leading to a 30-35% increase in half a year? Or trying to increase traffic by 15% with no deadline and achieving that goal in the same timeframe? If you picked the former, you’re right.
So, what does our SMART goal look like once we bound it to a timeframe? “Over the next three months, Clifford and Braden will work to increase the blog’s organic traffic by 8-10%, reaching a total of 50,000 organic sessions by the end of August.”
Common SMART Goal Mistake: No Time Frame
Having no timeframe or a really broad span of time noted in your goal will cause the effort to get reprioritized or make it hard for you to see if your team is on track. Rather than saying. “This year, we want to launch a major campaign,” say, “In quarter one, we will focus on campaign production in order to launch the campaign in quarter two.”
Make Your SMART Goals SMART-er
Now that you know what a SMART goal is, why it’s important, and the framework to create one, it’s time to put that information into practice. Whether you’re setting goals for a personal achievement or as part of hitting important marketing milestones, it’s good to start with what you want to achieve and then reverse-engineer it into a concrete SMART goal.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.