5 Examples Of Quality Assurance Call Center Checklist Metrics

Quality assurance is vital for any call center aiming to be the best. Your agents have various responsibilities depending on the type of calls your office processes. These may include handling customer queries, closing sales, resolving problems, returning calls, receiving complaints, and more.

Regardless of the call’s nature, customers should always be left feeling satisfied. Even if they don’t get the exact outcome they hoped for, they must at least be impressed by your agents’ efficiency, professionalism and overall quality of service.

Quality assurance software like Playvox gives you the tools you need to monitor your agents’ performance and achieve stronger results over time. You can create custom scorecards featuring your own call center quality assurance metrics, enabling you to identify the strengths and weaknesses that matter to you most.

Which customer service quality assurance metrics should you include in your scorecards?

Below, our customer service quality assurance call center checklist explores the most effective options.

1. The Power Of The First Call Resolution

Never doubt the power of the first call resolution (FCR). This is the most important metric in this quality assurance call center checklist.

The best-performing call centers deliver the most efficient first call resolution, and you should always aim to ensure your agents solve customers’ problems before that initial interaction ends.

Failing to resolve calls the first time will lead to more repeat callers and customers demanding a callback when the agent knows how to fix the issue at hand.

This increases the risk of your agents being bogged down by backlogs, ultimately affecting their ability to work to the best of their abilities. They will feel more satisfied and confident in their performance if they can grow their own first call resolution rates too.

Customers who experience first call resolution have a higher chance of feeling pleased, increasing their likelihood to come back. Retaining customers is more cost-effective than attracting new ones, and nothing does that better than outstanding service.

Resolving a call may not come in the first instance, but if an agent is resolving no first calls over time, it could be a sign they need more training.

2. Productivity

Your agents have to be as productive as possible to handle the highest rate of calls on any day.

However, if your team works unchecked during their shifts, how will you know if they’re taking as many calls as they can or taking liberties?

Real-time monitoring and feedback enable you to see how productive agents are and let them know if they need to pick up the pace. You can monitor call data to see how long average interactions last and see what they may do that make calls last longer than they should.

Add a productivity metric to your scorecard and you’ll be able to identify elements that waste time. This is one of the most crucial metrics in this customer service quality assurance call center checklist.

3. Response Times

No quality assurance call center checklist would be complete without covering response times. This is a major pain point for customers contacting call centers.

There are few things that are so frustrating as being put on hold for minutes on end, listening to the same music or message about your call being “important.” You have an issue you want to discuss and the call center is failing to provide you with the customer experience you expect.

Long response times are an indication that your center isn’t operating quite as efficiently as it could.

Adding a metric for response times to your scorecard will help you understand whether customers are likely to feel irritated and under-valued by the time they finally speak to an agent.

Disgruntled callers will be harder to satisfy and your agents’ job will be more of a challenge. When taking inspiration from this customer service quality assurance call center checklist, make response times a key one.

4. Agents’ Attitude

An agent’s attitude will dictate the customer’s experience. If they greet the caller in a polite, pleasant manner, the customer is likely to feel more at ease for the interaction’s duration.

If the agent seems short-tempered, uninterested or unwilling to resolve the customer’s issue, satisfaction rates are certain to drop.

Trained agents must handle calls of all kinds in the most professional, accommodating manner possible. If they cannot do so, they could damage the entire reputation of your call center — and cost you big money.

Your scorecard based on this quality assurance call center checklist should include a metric for agent’s attitudes. Did they greet the caller politely by introducing themselves and apologizing for any wait times? Did they appear sympathetic when the customer addressed their pain point? Were they calm and professional under pressure?

Never underestimate the importance of a good attitude.

5. Customer effort and input

Every quality assurance call center checklist has to take this factor into account.

A good agent will take control of a call and direct it toward resolving the customer’s problem, smoothly and efficiently. The caller will provide their details and state what they need, and the agent will take over from there.

However, not every agent will be so assertive and capable. Some may sound lackluster and cannot be as effective in their work as they should. In cases like these, the customer will no doubt have to put in more effort to get the outcome they want.

This might involve having to repeat their name, explain their problem or query multiple times, or even call back if the connection breaks. None of these are desirable and can leave the customer with a negative perspective of your call center.

Agents who cause customers to put in more effort than they would like need to be monitored and retrained.

Including a metric that covers customer effort and an agent’s competency will help you identify where it needs more focus. As a result, you’ll have what you need to boost overall performance.

Playvox’s Learning Management System features targeted training, ideal for providing straightforward resources on an agent-by-agent basis. This is a more interactive, bespoke approach to improving agents’ performance and productivity.

This brings our customer service quality assurance call center checklist to a close!

Getting your scorecards right can have a transformative effect on your call center and help you achieve better results. Which metrics would you add to your ideal quality assurance call center checklist? Share your own ideas and experiences below!