No contact center can afford to neglect its quality assurance (QA) process

We all know what’s it’s like to be put on hold for several minutes, wondering how much longer we’ll have to wait before someone finally answers the phone. The best contact centers work hard to accommodate large volumes of calls and minimize the amount of time you spend in a queue, but sometimes even a brief delay is unavoidable.

One thing most of us will recognize from this experience is the following line: “this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes”.

This implies the agent and their managers pay close attention to customer interactions, but how many centers actually follow through on the promise of ‘assuring quality’?

In a world where customer service is increasingly important to a company’s success, no contact center can afford to neglect its quality assurance (QA) process. A good QA program (revolving around analyzing and improving agent performance) should lead to the following benefits:

Increased customer satisfaction
Streamlined customer service
Engaged, high-performing agents
Improved first-contact resolution (FCR) statistics
Identifying ways to boost your bottom line

Sounds complex? Quality assurance software is an effective way to streamline the QA process, with a simple, user-friendly design ensuring it’s accessible to employees at all levels.

With that in mind, here are 8 QA software best practices for your contact center.

#1. Focus on agent coaching and training

The first of our QA software best practices is the most important.

One sign of an excellent quality assurance program is an emphasis on agent coaching to avoid an ‘us versus them’ mentality. A schism between your workforce and management can be counter-productive, wasting precious time and energy.

Playvox’s intuitive training program empowers contact centers to create personalized coaching sessions and focus on overcoming each employee’s individual weaknesses, improving the overall workforce’s performance one person at a time.

A good training program empowers new agents and gives them a stronger knowledge-base down the line, as analysis helps to plug common knowledge gaps. While regular coaching sessions are vital, you must tailor them to each employee to increase engagement.

Over time, you’ll create an environment in which consistent feedback helps agents feel more confident and equipped to deliver customer service of an increasingly-high standard.

#2. Monitor across multiple channels

The next of our QA software best practices applies to contact centers of all sizes.

Omnichannel service is critical today: 67 percent of consumers utilize multiple platforms before committing to a purchase, and 64 percent expect real-time assistance across any channel they’re using.

Furthermore, 37 percent want to engage with the same agent on all channels.

While that last point is difficult to achieve, these stats demonstrate just how important omnichannel service is to the modern consumer. You must perform quality assurance on each channel to maximize the level of service they receive every single time.

Your QA software should enable you to find interactions quickly and easily regardless of the channel they took place on. This saves time and speeds up the overall QA process.

#3. Detailed call monitoring and performance checks

The contact center industry is a wealth of information: overwhelming amounts of client data is collected on a daily basis, through hundreds of agent-customer interactions.

Tackling this mountain of data to train staff and enhance processes is intimidating in some centers, but the best QA software offers extensive filtering options to streamline the task.

You can schedule regular performance checks and keep all agents’ customer-service skills in check. Referring to real statistics about your employees’ competence ensures metrics are being met, making this process one of the most effective QA software best practices.

Call monitoring offers managers the chance to analyze calls and use them as valuable examples for solving problems, making it easier to provide impeccable customer service. Agents get an opportunity to learn how to deliver perfect customer interactions and build long-term relationships.

Such regular performance checks help agents receive feedback faster and adjust the ways in which they handle individual customer interactions, working towards a higher standard of service consistently.

#4. Efficient quality process

Implementing a quality assurance program is vital, but is it time-consuming? How long does it take you to gather statistics on teams’ or individual agents’ performance?

To evaluate your agents at a faster rate and obtain quality statistical data on their performance, you MUST stop using multiple spreadsheets and software. Too many different tools and resources can actually leave your QA analysts overwhelmed, making it difficult to keep track of essential information.

Instead, the best QA software enables you to centralize your data and access crucial stats from one dashboard. Utilizing a cutting-edge platform streamlines the overall QA process and boosts team productivity by offering agents faster feedback / data, helping them achieve goals more effectively.

#5. Build custom scorecards for the most relevant QA

The humble scorecard plays a powerful part in a transformative quality assurance process.

This allows you to evaluate customer interactions according to multiple metrics, gathering data on agents’ performance at a glance. By grading various aspects of a conversation on a scale of 1 – 10 or a percentage, your QA analysts and managers can gain a deep insight into strengths and weaknesses.

Playvox lets you build custom scorecards that reflect your company goals and values, targeting the exact KPIs that matter most.

Although relying on generic metrics may seem easier, but you could be short-changing both your agents and customers.

Creating custom scorecards is one of our QA software best practices because it’s so simple, and facilitates a more bespoke quality assurance process. Investing in great quality assurance software empowers you to prioritize those areas of each interaction that define the customer experience, according to your company’s criteria.

Spend time considering what your metrics should be, and don’t be afraid to change them over time to reflect discoveries made during the QA process. Don’t just keep them the same for months or years when you could be learning more about your customer experience.

#6. Hear your customers

A good quality assurance program involves extensive feedback — and that includes the customers too.

You must pay attention to your customers’ experience and hear what they have to say. Monitoring agent performance is crucial, but failing to offer consumers a chance to share their thoughts and feelings on your service is a big mistake.

Present customers with a simple question at the end of an interaction, such as ‘on a scale of 1 – 10, how likely would you be to recommend this service to others’ or ‘how satisfied are you with the help you received today?’.

Your audience can share their views and provide you with powerful data within just a second or two. It imposes no inconvenience and allows them to have their say in your overall service.

#7. Improve employee engagement through targeted rewards

66 percent of employees claim they would leave a role if they felt unappreciated.

Not to mention, employee turnover is time-consuming and costly. Think about the time needed to find the right candidate, the time dedicated to training, and the learning curve needed for onboarding staff. By undervaluing employees, you could be risking your highest-achievers and most capable staff.

A key aspect of job satisfaction is feeling rewarded, and the best quality assurance software incorporates a system to show agents how much you appreciate their efforts through tangible ‘prizes’.

Companies can offer staff incentives to go above and beyond for more than just their standard salary or to hear the customer say ‘thank you’. Instead, allow staff to claim real-world bonuses for those doing their best. Gift cards are just one example of employee rewards, but the possibilities are endless. A morning off, a flexible shift, a restaurant or store gift card, cash, — the harder the effort, the higher the reward!

Integrating rewards also helps boost employee engagement in the entire QA program. If they know they stand to earn extra paid days off or tickets to a show, they will be more open to training and feedback. Their improvements will be sincere and effective, rather than simply another thing they feel they’re being forced into.

#8. Allow agents to take part and offer suggestions

The last of our QA software best practices follows on from the previous one: allowing agents to take more of an active role in the quality assurance process, to boost their engagement and sense of value.

They will feel as if the company values their thoughts and respects them as individuals, rather than viewing them as mindless drones. Some of your agents could have strong ideas on how to improve customer service and achieve goals, but you’ll be missing out on their potential if you’re not asking to hear them.

Invite agents to listen to their own feedback and assess their own performance. Ask them where they think they could improve? What could enhance the customer experience?

Playvox QA software lets staff collaborate and chat in real-time, while sharing ideas and knowledge without ever having to get up from their desks. This helps you build a stronger team and cultivates self-development, two things which can only help your contact center improve.

Follow these 8 QA software best practices and you too will be able to enhance the quality of your service and customer satisfaction.

What positive results have you seen from incorporating QA software into your contact center? Are there any other QA software best practices that you would add to the list?