7 Steps to Better Call Center Quality Monitoring

Editors Pick | 5 minute read

No great call center achieves success without implementing dozens of processes—especially when it comes to call center quality monitoring. Why does it matter? The main goal is to ensure your customers are receiving consistent, top-notch service and customer satisfaction (CSat) scores are high. After all, what is a contact center without happy customers? Staying on top of agent performance and keeping quality levels high across the board can feel overwhelming. But nailing down the right quality monitoring process for your business will make all the difference to your contact center.

What is Call Center Quality Monitoring?

Just as it sounds, call center quality monitoring is the act of tracking how well agents are leading and responding throughout their customer interactions. Monitoring the level of service on phone calls is just one piece of the puzzle. Quality monitoring should also involve every part of your party that leads to customer engagement; think online chat messages (live or automated), social media interactions, and emails.

Keeping tabs on customer interaction quality can help you determine where your business stands. Quality scores can help identify weaknesses in your training programs and management, and pinpoint areas of improvement for agents. Plus, consistently tracking call quality will give you further insights into why key performance indicators (KPIs) may be falling behind.

7 Steps to Developing the Perfect Quality Monitoring Process

 Building a successful quality monitoring process for your call center can seem stressful, but it’s easier to manage when you break it down. These seven steps can help you create the quality monitoring process that best suits the needs of your contact center.

1. Elect or hire a committee that’s dedicated to quality management

Depending on the size of your contact center, you may choose committee members who are already employees or hire a team of experts who have experience in quality monitoring. Either way, giving this task to one group will streamline your quality monitoring process from the get-go.

TIP:

Don’t underestimate the work it takes to prep, monitor, and assess the quality of your customer interactions. Quality assurance is not one of those simple tasks that adds an extra half-hour to someone’s week. The data collection and analysis involved take considerable time and effort.

2. Know your numbers—past and present

Thoroughly understanding your historical and current KPIs will help you create goals for the future. Some important metrics to keep in mind include:

CSat Scores: If your CSat scores are on the lower side, it may be an indication of poor customer service. Your CSat score should be the first KPI you analyze, and your guiding light throughout the quality monitoring process.

First Call Resolution: Knowing how efficiently customers’ queries are being resolved can help determine whether the quality is lagging.

Average Handle Time: Are your customer’s issues being resolved quickly? High AHTs generally point to low-quality interactions.

Average Wait Time: The time a customer waits in a queue or on hold doesn’t necessarily determine the quality of a call, but it can heavily impact the customer’s overall opinion of service. Once they finally connect with an agent, they’ll likely be less friendly, making it more difficult for your agents to provide quality service.

DID YOU KNOW:

Fonolo’s Voice Call-Back technology has saved customers about 77 years of hold time annually.

3. Determine what a quality call sounds like for your company

Before starting to monitor and analyze your agents’ interactions, it’s essential that your team unanimously decides what a high-quality call sounds like. Consider these attributes:

  • Quick call answer time
  • A friendly and warm greeting
  • Active listening by the agent
  • Clear communication
  • Effective questioning
  • Fast handling and resolution time
  • No or low transfers

4. Employ the right technology to collect and analyze data

 Depending on the size of your contact center, you might need to step up your tech game. If your team has just a few agents, you can simply analyze recorded calls, chats, and emails. Larger contact centers with hundreds of agents would benefit from an all-in-one quality monitoring software; a quick Google search will provide loads of options.

5. Set measurable goals based on your KPIs

 After combing through historical data and measuring your current KPIs, determine where you are now and decide where you want to be in a set period. Goals are only effective if they’re SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, your goal may read something like this:

  • Lower AHT by 1 minute over the next 3 months.
Contact center #goals are only effective if they’re SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, your goal may read something like this: “Lower AHT by 1 minute over the next 3 months.” #businesstips Click To Tweet

6. Develop a quality monitoring scorecard for your team

 Now that you’ve determined your goals, it’s time to gather them all into one handy scorecard. List the KPI you’d like to improve along with its current number, the goal number, and the date by which you’d like to reach that goal. It’s also important to indicate the steps your agents can take to hit those goals.

For example, while reviewing recorded calls, you may have noticed that many agents weren’t properly greeting their customers. This would be the first step in improving overall call quality.

After you’ve made a comprehensive list of goals, meet with your agents and present the information in a way that’s digestible and encouraging. Agent engagement not only leads to happier agents and less turnover, but it also helps to improve the quality of customer interactions.

Happy agents make for happier customers, so the benefits of getting agents excited about their goals will be felt by your customers, too. One way to entice agents to elevate their customer service is to offer incentives. You could offer small prizes for stand-out employees or team incentives like a pizza party or team activity.

7. Set up goal check-ins and encourage feedback

Ongoing training and regular check-ins will help keep your agents on track with their goals. Ask them if they’ve changed their approach. Have they noticed a difference in their customer interactions? What are they liking about the process? What isn’t working? Collecting feedback from your agents shows them that you appreciate their contributions. It will also help you streamline and improve your process over time.

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The Executive Guide to Improving 6 Call Center Metrics

Measuring and improving call center metrics can be a pain point for executives. Download our free guide to help you improve 6 key call center metrics.

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The Executive Guide to Improving 6 Call Center Metrics

The executive guide to improving 6 call center metrics
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The Executive Guide to Improving 6 Call Center Metrics

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