Improving Your Contact Centre QA

Josh O’Farrell at Spearline explains that quality assurance (QA) is an important part of any call centre as it allows a business to identify and solve customer issues. QA is important in the quest of acquiring new customers but also helps with reducing churn.

If the customer has a bad experience, it is easy for them to move to another company; there is no lack of options for the consumer.

A great starting point for QA is to survey your customers. This could be done in a number of ways, such as having a short survey at the end of a call or just having a page on the business website to leave comments on the service.

There are multiple signs that a customer is considering moving to another company, such as mentioning competitor prices and services, or if the consumer has a clear dissatisfaction with the service. To try and solve this it’s suggested to use analytics. Analytics will provide insight that can help strengthen customer relations.

Listening to calls is important for QA for many reasons. Obviously, for most companies, it would be impossible to listen to every call that comes through, so it is suggested that you monitor any calls that strayed from the norm.

For instance, any calls that were very long, or short calls where the agent performed either well or poorly. Studying calls can lead to revelations about an agent who performed especially well, and in turn, the call could be used as training for other contact agents or new trainees.

It is also important to listen to the entire call as the reason for a bad customer experience might only take place in an isolated 10 seconds of the call.

When conducting QA it is vital that your agents are kept in the loop about what data is being recorded. Agents should be allowed to assess themselves and each other, and encourage feedback to be given openly. Don’t just focus on the negative feedback – if an agent has performed particularly well, inform them and use the example when training other agents. Promote publicly, punish privately!

Another great way of QA testing is to set benchmarks. Highlight the most effective problem-solving methods and take note of agents who perform consistently. Businesses should also see how they measure up against the competition. Ideally, compare your business to call centres of similar size and comparable activity.