Free call monitoring form
We have had a number of requests over the past few months for a call monitoring form to score call centre calls.
Here we provide you with a free Excel-based call scoring matrix that you can use to score calls and ensure compliance.
Jonathan Evans
The inspiration for the call monitoring form came from Jonathan Evans of TNT. Jonathan was involved with a global project to drive up the quality of calls so that they could deliver consistently high customer service over the phone. One of the first steps of this project was to record all incoming calls into the business and to monitor five calls per agent per month.
We would like to thank Jonathan for being able to provide us with a copy of the call scoring matrix. We have been able to add in the functionality to add up the totals at the bottom of the page.
How to use the call monitoring form
The call monitoring form is based on Microsoft Excel. It is not password protected, so that you are free to change it to fit in with your specific requirements. Most of the questions are generic and could apply to most contact centres. You would need to change the “Transaction information” section to fit in with the specific needs of your business.
To vote simply add an “x” into the appropriate column. The numbers of votes are added up at the bottom. The percentage score is the quality score and it represents the total number of Yes votes, compared to the total number of No votes.
It has been designed so that if a section is not applicable to a call (for example in the case of a transfer) then this does not have a negative impact on the quality score.
Click here to download the Call Monitoring Form.
We hope you get some benefit from this tool. If you adapt it, for example to add in weightings, please email us a copy so that we can share it with other members of the community.
This opens an interesting debate. I think forms that result in percentage scores like this are among the reasons that front line agents are suspicious of coaching and development. The bottom line is, what are you going to do with the “58%”. What does it mean? Once you establish that you are looking trends that can help with development and improve quality, these percentages are meaningless and negative. I would advise dropping the “score” part of the form entirely, and instead, use a “Commitment Box”. Give the agent the opportunity to commit to changing one behaviour, rather than punishing them with a mediocre score like “58%”.
Comment by Michael Muldoon — 4 Jun 2009 @ 12:29 pm
I would argue that a better solution would be to use fully automated customer surveys where callers score, rather than internal staff. The scores will be from the most important audience, save a lot of time and be more accurate. I would say this as we run such services (www.virtuatel.com) but time and again such services are proven to provide fast, accurate and valuable data, with recorded customer verbatim comments which are excellent for agent training.
If you are interested enough to download this form, you should look at automated surveys!
Comment by Alan Weaser — 6 Jun 2009 @ 10:43 am
Unfortunately, customers do not always “KNOW” if they got ‘good’ service when answering a post-call survey. Depends upon technical nature of call, though. On our helpdesk, analysts can tell a pretty tall tale that has nothing to do with the issue at hand or fixing the problem. They’re stalling while they try to figure it out. They sound so knowledgeable too …. unless you know the truth is they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. I, for one, don’t need my analysts blowing smoke up the customer’s skirts’, but focus on using the knowledgebase to fix the issue rather than finding band-aids, hoping they get someone else next time they call back.
Comment by Melissa — 14 Jan 2010 @ 4:06 am
I tend to disagree with some of the above statements – specifically that scores aren’t important. They help benchmark agents and set goals. They are a good gauge of where an agent is at in relation to that goal. If all agents are scored on precisely the same criteria, the ones who are doing a good job will meet or exceed the goal, while the ones who are missing some things will fall beneath it. Further, customer surveys add value, but only when used along with internal scoring. For example, it’s not an accurate reflection of service if the agent was polite and knowledgable, and gave the right information, but the caller was dissatisfied b/c they didn’t get the answer they wanted, and subsequently provides negative feedback. At the same time, you could have an agent who truly doesn’t provide good information or fix the problem, but the caller may have sensed otherwise and give positive feedback about the interaction. Without both being looked at, you are only getting one side of the picture.
Comment by J Wayne — 31 Mar 2010 @ 10:11 pm
Very very useful form, thanks a lot!
Comment by Karine — 26 May 2010 @ 6:53 am
I agree with J Wayne in that internal scoring is still important for staff development and should be used alongside external feedback from customers.
First and foremost the customer’s ‘perception’ of the service is the true scoring factor for the business, so improving external feedback should be the overall target or goal, however I believe that using the areas highlighted by such feedback to customise your internal staff development is also vitally important.
To explain, if your customers are frequently stating that the greeting they get is unprofessional or rushed, then having a tick box score for staff saying, “Did the staff member say hello?” is not going to improve that aspect of the service. Instead the internal scoring should be tailored to mirror the requirements of YOUR customers. Perhaps instead of the above the internal scoring could state, “Did the caller speak clearly, at a sensible speed and provide all greeting information politely, adapting as appropriate?”…this then focuses on training staff to meet the specific needs of YOUR customers and not a generic customer or call.
My main constructive critism of this form is that it weights all the areas equally when your tenants may care more about one part of the service over another. To explain – a lot of industry surveys confirm that callers care more about HOW they are spoken to then WHAT they are told. As such if this is the case for YOUR customers, then the internal scoring should be weighted towards HOW the call was answered, and less about WHAT was said. I would strongly recommend adapting the downloadable form to allow drop down selections for the YES column to be scored out of 10 and for it to be broken down into 2 sections, knowledge skills and vocal skills. This way there is the possibility to weight the two elements based on feedback from YOUR customers and also provide more detailed areas for improvement for your staff (i.e. if they scored YES you may skip over training, but if they scored 3 in the yes column, they could still be targetted and coached to improve this element of the service they provide).
Sorry for the longwinded comment – I should write an article or blog really!! lol
Comment by Matthew Hedges — 26 May 2010 @ 11:23 am
I currently use this form, as I believe that it gives you an idea as to what level the agent you are monitoring is at. for instance, I currently lead a team of telesales, all at different levels of ability and therefore, require a different approach when it comes to providing them with the best possible training. This form allows you to highlight the areas of concern but also leaves you open to congratulate the agent on the area’s in which they have improved or are consistent with.
It isn’t perfect in terms of the layout, but thats not anything that can’t be deligated to sort out.
Comment by James Roscoe — 4 Jun 2010 @ 11:17 am
I think this form is excellent. It gives you a template that is perfectly open to being tailor made to suit your business needs.
Not every question on the form is relevant, so instead, I replaced them with questions that are.
I think the percentage score is ideal for quickly establishing a bench mark for the member of staff to work with. You can easily identify what needs improving and the whole process of improvement is a lot quicker as they can home in on exactly what specific areas need more focus.
Comment by T Davids — 23 Jul 2010 @ 11:43 am