Top 3 Tech-Savvy Strategies for Call Center Quality Monitoring

Quality monitoring call centers is essential for many reasons.

To make sure agents are doing their job effectively.

To better understand customer needs.

To identify issues with call equipment.

And much more.

The classic phrase, “This call may be recorded or monitored, for quality and training purposes” refers to quality monitoring call centers.

We’re going to provide 3 technologies every call center needs to conduct effective quality monitoring.

Top 3 Tech-Savvy Strategies for Call Center Quality Monitoring

1. Setup an ACD System

An ACD system is one of the most important technologies a call center can have.

It gathers data on customer and agent interactions, like handle time, hold time, call volume, and so on.

But first and foremost, it helps connect customers to the right agents.

If a manager’s goal is to increase quality in the call center, then this feature needs to be maximized.

It’s called skills-based call routing, and it works like this:

• A call comes in.
• The caller is greeted by the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.
• The caller inputs any data at the request of the IVR.
• The IVR transfers that information to the ACD which then transfers the caller to the agent who is best suited to solve their issue.

If the caller needs to speak with someone in the billing department, they would’ve entered that option on the IVR and then the ACD would transfer them to that department.

Similarly, if the caller’s number was from Mexico and the caller chose the Spanish option on the IVR, the ACD system would transfer them to an agent who speaks Spanish.

And ACD’s go one step further to guarantee higher quality calls by integrating with CRM’s like Salesforce and helpdesks like Helpscout.

Meaning, an agent will have all of the customers’ information at their fingertips, resulting in better calls and faster first call resolution.

And on top of all of that…

An ACD system allows managers to jump on the call if and when they’re needed to serve the customer when the agent can’t.

2. Pay Attention to Key Call Center KPIs

Managers can’t reliably conduct call center quality monitoring if they don’t have KPIs they’re holding agents accountable to.

Without them, managers can’t know how well or poorly agents are performing.

So here are a handful of call center KPIs managers should measure to improve quality.

Absenteeism – the number of times agents are absent. An increase in this number is a major red flag and may signal a problem with capacity planning, meaning too few agents are scheduled and handling too many calls, leading to burnout. It may signal other problems, too. Nevertheless, this KPI alone can dramatically affect the quality of any call center.

Schedule adherence – the time agents are working when they’re supposed to be working. Agents arriving late, leaving early, taking longer than usual breaks, etc. need to be closely tracked to ensure maximum productivity.

Handle time – a measurement of the time agents spend on the phone with customers. Longer than average handle times may indicate the agent needs more training in handling customers, or the customer was routed to the wrong agent, or the customer’s problem is complex.

First call resolution – without a doubt, agents handling a customer problem quickly without putting them on hold, transferring them, or calling them back is a clear sign of quality (or the lack of it) in a call center. The higher the first call resolution rates are, the better.

These KPIs just scratch the surface of data, business intelligence and KPIs for better performance. Check out our freshly updated Ultimate Blog to Using Call Center KPIs to Improve Agent Performance.

3. Record and Analyze all Calls

The most obvious strategy for quality monitoring call centers is recording every single call agents take.

Of course, managers can’t be expected to listen to every single call.

Which is why the call recording software they use should include the ability to search the transcripts for keywords and other relevant information.

Managers should also consciously choose which recordings to listen to and which ones to ignore.

For example, they may listen to a batch of calls from new agents to see where they succeed and fail.

They may also listen to calls with VIP customers or high-value prospects.

And they may even listen to calls conducted by veteran agents to compare and contrast with the beginners’ calls.

They should definitely listen to calls with angry customers who end up churning along with angry customers who the agent was able to convince to stay.

How to Get These Technologies and More for Quality Monitoring Call Centers

Many managers assume that each of the technologies we just listed needs to be provided by 3 separate companies.

Nope.

Managers can get all 3 of those technologies plus quite a few more in a complete bundle.

Plus, call centers who do use these technologies experiences:

• A 94% reduction in the likelihood of live callers disconnecting during answering machine detection.
• A 75% reduction in abandonment rates (with reduced wait times).
• An increase of 188% for RPC’s per hour with a blended inbound and outbound tool.
• A 50% reduction in hold times.

And much more.

So how can managers get all of these technologies in one place?

Right here at TCN.

Find out more in our free report on how TCN can increase your profit margins today!