For those of you that aren’t sure what quality assurance is when dealing with a call center, there is a prime example. When you make a phone call for support and you hear “This call may be recorded or monitored for quality and training purposes” then you know a lot about quality assurance already. Sure, as a customer it’s easy to ignore this message and carry on with your call, but have you ever actually paused and thought about how the interaction could help future agents, or even, future customers?
What is Call Center Quality Assurance?
Quality assurance call monitoring is one of the most essential factors in running a successful call center. All managers and QA specialists have made it their responsibility to monitor operations, ensure a positive customer experience, and facilitate support. Consistency is also a very important factor in quality assurance, and managing agents effectively can also provide the opportunity for agents to reduce costs.
If call centers constantly deliver poor service, then customers will be chased away and that center will risk a bad reputation. It is then the manager’s job to make sure that all customers are being treated well and supported. Quality assurance involves a trained human ear to pick out what parts of customer interactions aren’t successful and which are. Managers must make sure that each conversation includes courtesy, positivity, and professionalism, making for a quality call and outstanding service.
Using a Third Party To Measure Quality Assurance
Some companies reach out to a third-party company in order to gain a better understanding of how their agents are performing. These third-party companies will use their internal teams to test whether or not your agents are adhering to quality standards. By using this sort of company, you will be receiving input from people that have focused their careers on this type of skill set.
They will analyze all interactions that take place within the customer service department and identify any areas that might need work. Sometimes, the smaller things go undetected by unskilled managers, and by hiring a third party company, you will be able to get rid of all the imperfections in terms of customer service. Most third-party companies use updated data and software to test your agent’s progress, and that data will then be yours to improve on.
What Does Quality Monitoring Involve?
Quality assurance monitoring involves more than just listening to each agent’s calls and picking out what is wrong and what isn’t. This type of monitoring needs to be looked at from an overall standpoint, using consistency and total customer satisfaction from all agents in the call center. If agent training needs to be done in order to enhance their skills and deliver the best possible services, then managers will need to take action.
Developing Feedback and Plans of Action
Regardless of if you’re monitoring quality assurance in house, or hiring a third party to do it for you, what steps of action you and your business take next is imperative. By looking at all the data and analytics collected or received back, providing the agents with this feedback is crucial. If agents are provided with this feedback in a reasonable and positive manner, there will be more of a willingness to improve. Some feedback might be as simple as how they greet customers, handle complaints, or end their calls.
Feedback for every agent can play a pivotal role in enhancing the overall performance of all agents and your business. Being able to speak with quality assurance managers or third-party companies will allow your business to stay on top of its reputation, sales, and customer service. Of course, when you are working with the public, there will always be those that are unhappy, but if that is a common theme among all customers, there is something deeper going on.
It’s sometimes simple for call centers to fall into bad habits in terms of customer service, but by having a manager step up and make the needed improvements, your call center will improve in many ways. By building a culture of cooperation and trust, employees will want to put in the extra effort for quality interactions and wish to be more open to collaboration in the future for the betterment of your company.