HIGHLIGHTS

• Call center operators in São Paulo, Brazil, often provide incorrect, incomplete, or unclear information to constituents, which can lead to negative consequences.
• Low-touch behavioral interventions show promise in improving communication, response accuracy, equity, and constituent satisfaction.

The Challenge

Call center operators in São Paulo, Brazil, often provide incorrect, incomplete, or unclear information to constituents. For example, 34% of 52 callers interviewed said they received the wrong information, and 12% did not receive any information or successfully submit their request. These interactions can lead to negative consequences, such as excluding lower-income residents who rely on the call center, dissatisfaction with municipal services, apprehension to use public services again, and wasted public resources.

Our Approach

We partnered with the City of São Paulo to design and test behavioral interventions aimed at enhancing the clarity, completeness, and accuracy of information provided by city call operators to constituents regarding services.

We identified six barriers that affect the clarity, completeness, and correctness of information communicated by city call operators to constituents. These barriers include:

• Overconfidence in their ability to understand callers’ needs
• Multitasking and dividing their attention
• Confusion with the platform interface
• Over-reliance on scripted language
• Prioritizing call duration over communication quality
• Lack of awareness of suboptimal communication

We used two channels for behavioral interventions to improve communication quality: the scripts used by operators and communication quality training for operators. Redesigned scripts employed design principles such as formatting, reducing effort, and guidance. The additional training suggestions focused on building empathy, fostering a growth mindset and motivation, and providing materials to reinforce learnings.

Results

We conducted a small pilot test with 12 call center operators to assess the potential of the behaviorally designed script for improving communication quality. The results showed that while the control and treatment groups struggled with identifying correct information, the behaviorally designed scripts led to more correct and complete information sharing, reduced incorrect mentions of unrelated services, and increased engagement with callers to ensure mutual understanding and clarity. Additionally, operators preferred the behaviorally designed scripts over the existing ones, finding them better at helping them find relevant information and answering constituents’ questions.

Takeaway

Low-touch behavioral interventions show promise in improving communication, response accuracy, equity, and constituent satisfaction. However, further changes and research are needed to further improve the quality of communications with constituents.

Interested in learning more about this work applying behavioral science to a crucial social problem? Reach out to us at info@ideas42.org or tweet at @ideas42 to join the conversation.