Contact centers, aka call centers, are still an integral part of delivering customer service across many different industries and businesses. While the hype generated suggests AI may drastically change the way call centers operate, some types of businesses depend on human interactions to deliver top experiences and drive revenue. One of the challenges for call center leadership is maintaining call quality. Simply put, call quality is the measure of execution on each component of a call. Specific areas of quality may be more important to different businesses depending on the established goal of each interaction. Managers and supervisors who create and implement detailed call quality control strategies are in a better position to achieve set goals and maintain the even more challenging, high quality calls on a consistent basis.
Areas of Call Quality
There are several components to a successful customer telephone interaction and maintaining the quality of those calls is an operational priority for contact center leadership. By establishing specific goals for a call, quality assurance (QA) teams can identify areas of the call that are a priority and should be evaluated with more scrutiny. For example, if selling a product or service is a goal for the call, the introductory and closing statements would be considered to be a major part of call quality. Some other core areas of call quality are:
- Representative’s tonality
- Adherence to scripts
- Vocabulary use
- Call control and pacing
- Ability to overcome objection statements
Maintaining set standards for call quality is essential in meeting customer expectations consistently. Repeated positive experiences can increase customer loyalty and valuable word of mouth marketing. Assessing and defining call goals is crucial to establishing those set quality standards.
The Call Quality Control Playbook
The keys to successful call quality initiatives or organization and uniform application of set standards. Starting with defining call goals in detail, important call qualities can be identified within an evaluation type framework. Sometimes a simple Yes or No can finalize the evaluation but in other instances, more context is needed to provide an assessment. Scheduling events such as call sampling and individual engagement is critical to consistently applying those set quality standards. QA teams should utilize in-house documents as part of the quality strategy for defining expectations, evaluating calls and interacting with representatives when assessing call quality. Smaller operations may have floor managers and supervisors perform quality assurance tasks, benefiting from that layer’s direct connection to the frontline team. Ultimately, the success of quality control programs lie in organization, consistency and scheduled follow ups.
Deploying to the Frontline Team
The other important part of managing call quality is the frontline team that takes the calls and delivers customer service. Call quality expectations should be communicated early and often so that management and team are on the same page. Call reviews should be scheduled in advance and performed with frequency so the individual gets the feedback they need to improve or maintain call quality. The QA process requires listening to agent calls and a 2 or 3 call sample taken from various points of the day would generate a detailed evaluation on the individual’s call quality. Training opportunities would be addressed during the short interaction with the agent. Savvy contact center managers understand the importance of engaging individuals by explaining the whys behind call quality coaching, ensuring a better understanding from the agent. Real time listening is also a powerful tool in increasing and maintaining call quality. Mini – training and group huddles can deliver quick training concepts and methods for a faster pivot among the team.
The Bottom Line
The call center industry is a high pressure business that requires consistency in performance to achieve any measure of success. At an average of 1000 calls per week in the United States, maintaining high call quality consistently is a very big challenge for call center leadership but planning call quality strategies and executing on a regular basis can greatly impact that desired high quality consistency. Identifying specific call goals will establish measurable call quality control priorities and create a targeted plan for evaluation and maintenance. Focusing on upskilling and min-trainings can help individuals quickly pivot their calls, saving time off the phones and maximizing each customer opportunity. Call quality and consistency are major factors that directly influence experience and revenue generation for customer facing call centers.