Call Center Quality Assurance Performance Metrics You Should Track

February 11, 2021

Call Center Quality Assurance Performance Metrics You Should Track

We have spoken a lot about Quality Assurance in quite a lot of articles on our site. That is because it is such a vast subject that if we put it all in one section, it would be challenging to take in all at once.

However, what we would like to do in this article is to tell you about maintaining accuracy in call centers.

Maintaining accuracy for a call center manager is done by the process of QA. If you have read our article about outsourcing QA, then you will see how outsourcing is a better idea than in house QA.

Put simply; that is because companies such as ourselves dedicate ourselves to quality control and auditing. Therefore, we put all of our efforts into making your business run smoother.

That leaves us with the question: How do WE maintain accuracy in call centers for YOU?

Maintaining Accuracy For You

Maintaining accuracy for us is much like any other job for anyone else. You have to become proficient in doing your job before you can do it well.

For example; if you are an engineer, you have more than likely done a long course giving you a qualification or you have done it for so long that you become a “time served” engineer.

However, if you start a new job, you still need to take some time to get familiar with the machinery that you will be working on; otherwise, you may be guessing at what the problems are.

 

 

After you have seen some issues multiple times, you begin to learn what they are likely to be without going through all of the fault-finding that you have done previously.

The same principle stands for Quality Assurance in Call Centers. You may well start your own QA team, but there are going to be a lot of issues that need ironing out before you get significant results.

That leads to money loss and no productivity increase for quite a long time.

That is where Call Criteria can step in. We have been maintaining accuracy for some of the largest call centers in the world since we formed in 2012. That gives us seven years of experience in precisely what you are looking for.

There is no machinery change or teething problems as we also produce our software to use. So, the three main ways in which we maintain your accuracy are:

• Correct Software. 
• The Right People.
• Proper, Constant Training.

They are the three things that we are going to talk to you about next.

The Correct Software

When you are starting a Quality Assurance section of your own business, there will be many people selling you the latest and greatest software for you to use.

However, as we have said in previous articles, they too will have teething problems. And if you do not know what you are looking for, or what to do with it when you have it, you will find it very difficult.

After your investment of the software, the integration, and training, you are likely to find issues with controlling it yourself. The company that sold it to you may then be difficult to get hold of, and even more challenging to make them change it.

 

 

That is one of the aspects that Call Criteria does differently. We do not sell you the software; we use it for you. Not only do we use it for you, but we also plan it for your specific requirements based on all of the factors that you tell us in initial meetings and discussions.

As we have developed the software to enable us to use it with any call center issues, there is never a problem with us changing the software to perfectly suit your business needs. That is what makes our software different, the complete customizability.

The Right People

Having the right software for your business is one thing, but as I spoke about engineers earlier, you need the right staff to operate and maintain it.

Throwing people into the deep end of a program or system that they are not familiar with is only going to lead to issues.

The people that we employ only use our software, and when we hire new people, it is only that software for which they will need training.

Having the right people working for your business is a critical aspect of making the business run as smoothly and efficiently as absolutely possible. All of the agents that we have become dedicated to one job.

Therefore, they grow super familiar with the software, and just as proficient in using it.

Now that you know why the people that we employ are the right people for the job, you may ask yourself: How do you eliminate the human error aspect? Well, part of that is through training, and we will go through that next.

Training

As I am sure you are aware, a call center for a retail company and one for a University is going to be completely different. Therefore, you would expect the scoring to be changed, too. And they are.

Scorecards for each company are unique, and we produce them with a turnkey vision. Of course, that is going to lead to some differences in requirements for our staff.

However, if we go back to the machinery analogy, the software used for the scorecards is precisely the same; it is just the order and content of the questions that are different.

A lot of companies that provide call centers with Quality Assurance will use only voice technology and personnel who are trained to use it.

However, at Call Criteria, we use humans to score the calls based on certain factors on each specific scorecard. However, that fact will bring you back to the question: How do you eliminate the human error aspect?

As I have said, each scorecard is going to be different and produced to the requirements of the client. However, as we have the right people for the job, they already understand how to use the software.

But they need to know what they are listening to on each scorecard. That is where the training comes into play.

Ongoing Training

All of our auditors get training when they start their auditing positions, and then they have ongoing training throughout their with us. Each time a new scorecard comes in because of a new client, they receive some additional training.

First, all of our QA auditors have a day of classroom training for each new scorecard that they are required to audit. That provides them the chance to ask questions and iron out any issues that there may be.

Secondly, we provide them with a side-by-side training session with one of the scorecard planners. After the side-by-side training, they are tested and finally go through a rigorous certification process.

 

 

The ongoing training is very similar: twenty percent of all human-scored calls are also independently checked by our senior, secondary team of calibrators.

They do not check the original marking until they have finished marking it themselves, and then they check if all of the scores and points match up.

If accuracy is not maintained, then the scoring agent will go back to the classroom to go through the training process for extra coaching on that specific scorecard.

Conclusion

Even if you have the right equipment for the job that you are trying to do, you need to know how to use it, and effectively. That fact is true no matter what job you are performing.

It can be a very challenging thing to get right when you first start doing QA for yourself.

It is for that reason that we formed Call Criteria. We want to make it as easy for you to improve your accuracy and efficiency as possible.

You would not expect your plumber to fix your car, so why expect your agents to perform quality assurance?

Of course, you could train them, but that is a long and arduous task that will inevitably end up with problems. Through our knowledge, training, and background, we provide you with the right QA for your business.

In turn, that allows you to increase your effectiveness, keep your customers, and gain new customers in the process.

The only limitation that we have ever found in our system is the involvement of the client.

The more engaged the client is, the better the results they will see. Contact us to find out how we can improve your call center efficiency.