Quality analysis in the call center is an essential process to ensure customer service meets desired standards. To achieve satisfied customers and excellent service, it is necessary to implement a cycle of data collection, analysis, training, and continuous improvement, known as quality assurance.
An effective quality control program in the call center involves active participation of agents in all stages, from development and implementation to calibration and continuous improvement. Constantly measuring operational and organizational effectiveness is crucial for optimal results.
This article provides best practices for establishing or enhancing quality control in a call center. Its aim is to help keep the customer service team up to date and performing at its best. If you are looking to establish or improve the quality control process in your call center, this article will be of great assistance.
Best practices for quality analysis in the call center
Appoint a responsible person
It is important to designate a quality control leader in the call center to oversee the entire quality analysis process. This leader, whether an analyst, manager, or quality control auditor, is responsible for evaluating calls and regularly analyzing agent performance. Their role is crucial in ensuring quality in the call center and ensuring that established standards are met.
Hiring a call center quality control specialist, either as an external consultant or as part of the staff, will provide a dedicated and expert approach to service quality in the call center.
Establish clear quality standards
It is essential to set clear expectations and quality standards in the call center to ensure optimal performance. This is achieved through effective communication methods such as onboarding programs, announcements and reminders, learning management systems, and aids such as scripts and standard operating procedures. Before implementing or updating the quality control system, it is crucial to clearly define the objectives to establish a solid foundation.
Listen to all calls
After establishing the foundation and expectations of the quality control process, it is crucial to implement the plan. The technical aspect of quality analysis focuses on monitoring, using technology to record and listen to calls. It is essential to examine calls in their entirety to gain a complete context and use the best examples of high-quality calls as training materials.
Conducting quality control consistently throughout the month and close to the completion of an interaction ensures that positive feedback or constructive criticism is more relevant and actionable for the agents.
Monitor all channels
To ensure quality in a call center, it is essential to provide consistent service across all communication channels. This involves evaluating and monitoring omnichannel communication, which encompasses phone calls, chat, emails, text messages, and social media. By evaluating all these channels, a quality and consistent experience is maintained for customers.
Provide comprehensive support to auditors
It is crucial to provide clear and actionable job aids to call center auditors that reflect specific quality standards. This involves creating resources such as scripts, call flows, standard operating procedures, and reference sheets that support the established standards. Working collaboratively with the knowledge base manager is crucial to ensure the integrity and completeness of these resources.
Empower the agents
It is crucial to ensure that call center agents have easy access to the necessary job aids. A centralized center that brings together all resources allows agents to quickly find the needed help guides and follow step-by-step instructions, reducing the possibility of errors and meeting quality control standards.
Furthermore, involving agents in evaluation sessions and periodically seeking their feedback to improve the evaluation form is important. This allows agents to self-correct and enables leaders to leverage dashboard reports. Facilitating agents to question an evaluation or score generates positive conversations about how to improve performance.
On the other hand, motivating agents’ commitment and loyalty through gamification tactics and performance recognition is essential. It is important to ensure that quality control does not impact agents’ productivity and is not perceived as punitive.
Create dashboards
To assess and improve quality in the call center, it is recommended to create a quality control dashboard that encompasses both calls and other omnichannel interactions. This dashboard helps define quality standards and allows for tracking agent performance and progress. A performance evaluation can be developed to measure agent performance, identifying strengths and weaknesses to provide constructive feedback.
The quality control dashboard can include actions, behaviors, and skills to evaluate, such as customer greeting, identity verification, expression of empathy, adherence to procedures, active listening skills, invitation to take surveys, and completion of post-call tasks. Assigning different weights to each section of the dashboard allows for prioritizing specific skills or actions.
Identify common errors and provide learning opportunities
During quality control evaluations in a call center, it is essential to identify patterns and areas for improvement in agent performance. Individualized training and personalized development are key tools to address common errors and improve specific skills.
Establishing a regular schedule of evaluations ensures consistent feedback and sets clear expectations for continuous improvement. Sharing positive feedback and providing constructive criticism is crucial for effective agent development. Using quality control scores as part of regular evaluations allows agents to have a transparent view of their performance. This provides agents with the necessary metrics to consistently improve their performance.
Hire the right employees
Employee turnover is common in call centers, which involves a significant amount of time dedicated to training new hires. Therefore, it is advisable to hire individuals who are deemed suitable for the role and can quickly master the training to become high-quality agents. During the hiring process, it is helpful to utilize personality tests, aptitude assessments, and self-evaluations to evaluate candidates and determine if they will be a valuable addition to the call center.
Obtain customer feedback
A surefire way to provide excellent service is simply by asking customers what they want. However, reaching out to customers for their opinion (without offering added value) can be challenging. One of the most common approaches is to provide a brief and efficient survey after each interaction, highlighting areas where improvement may be needed.
Conduct benchmarking
It is important to regularly conduct benchmarking with other call centers to assess how your business is positioned. This involves comparing yourself to centers of similar size and activity, focusing on key performance indicators, and also observing top-performing call centers in the industry.
Benchmarking is an ongoing process, as continuous improvement in different areas is necessary. However, for some companies, conducting this evaluation and maintaining quality can be challenging, and it can be helpful to hire an external quality control consultant to maintain objectivity in the process.
Utilize tools to optimize quality analysis
There are numerous software applications available to track and analyze quality control in a call center. These tools include features such as automatic call recording, call and voice analysis, performance metric tracking, and automated surveys. These tools play a crucial role in improving agent performance and helping the team achieve quality control standards.
When choosing call analysis software, it is crucial to consider features such as process automation, ease of use, scalability, security, and costs. Seamless integration with existing infrastructure, such as customer relationship management systems, is also essential. The implementation of artificial intelligence can have a revolutionary impact by enabling the analysis of large volumes of call data, identifying patterns and emerging trends, and personalizing the customer service experience.
Upbe is a quality analysis tool that meets all these necessary characteristics in call software. Its transcription engine is specifically designed for the call center environment, improving the quality and accuracy of transcriptions. Powered by AI and machine learning, Upbe provides valuable insights into agent performance and customer interactions, enabling continuous improvement and maintaining competitiveness in a dynamic market.
Are you ready to take the quality of calls in your call center to the next level? Contact us and discover how Upbe can help optimize your quality audits.
Evaluating the quality of a call center involves considering several factors. It is crucial to measure customer satisfaction through surveys and feedback. Additionally, one must evaluate service efficiency, agent performance, call monitoring and documentation, staff training and development, the technology used, and a culture of continuous improvement.
A call center quality analyst plays a crucial role in assessing and improving service quality. Their primary responsibility is to monitor and evaluate interactions between customer service agents and customers, using metrics such as customer satisfaction, resolution time, and efficiency in service. They also review call recordings and documentation, identify areas for improvement, and provide feedback to agents and the management team. The quality analyst ensures adherence to protocols and best practices while identifying opportunities for staff training and development.
To control the quality of customer service in call centers, it is important to establish clear standards and measure key performance indicators (KPIs). Thorough call tracking should be conducted, utilizing call recordings and reviews to identify areas for improvement and provide feedback to staff. The use of AI-based quality analysis tools can also be helpful. Additionally, ongoing training should be provided to agents, and a culture of continuous improvement based on customer feedback should be fostered.
The key performance indicators (KPIs) of a call center vary based on the company’s objectives and needs, but some common ones include customer satisfaction, response time, resolution time, first-contact resolution rate, wait time, call abandonment rate, and call quality. These KPIs are used to assess service quality and call center performance, providing key metrics to measure success and drive continuous improvements.
