Call Center Intelligence

Every day, all across the nation, call centers provide customers with their first and sometimes last contact with their clients’ businesses. If your call center is top notch and providing quality services, you’ll promote the image of your client and even enhance it. If your call center isn't up to par, you will alienate or lose clients. Your quality assurance program should be fully integrated into every aspect of your call center to ensure the successful growth of your business. Call center intelligence is the term for achieving quality assurance.

Many call centers conduct monitoring, training, and reporting to some degree. They feel comfortable with their service as long as there are no major customer complaints. However, an absence of complaints does not mean a center provides superior service. Quality requires an ongoing initiative to make quality assurance a way of life at your call center. Then it will stand out from the crowd and attract more and better clients.

To accomplish this, first integrate quality into every aspect of hiring and training call center representatives. It can be tricky to select individuals with a knack for providing good customer service, but you can begin by designing screening tools based on the attributes of your current employees who excel at their job. Determine the skill sets they use and how they approach their work. You can also use this information as a basis for conducting interviews and screening applicants for their potential.

New representatives or agents should receive training in quality customer service from the first day. Intensive orientation and training allow the new hires to learn and practice good customer service skills from the start. Agents will not only understand what is expected of them, but also have the skills to accomplish it.

Some call centers require two weeks of intensive training for new hires, with role playing and practice with simulated calls before they are allowed to work on the floor. After an intensive orientation and practicing calls, new agents feel more confident in their ability to serve callers. They are also informed of the company’s resources and how to assist customers with questions. Some companies also require attendance at a refresher course every six months. Call centers that provide excellent training tend to win awards for the quality of their customer service.

Ideally, supervisors and managers can be recruited from among the call center associates. If not, those selected should undergo the same training as a new call center hire. Managers must be able to understand the call center agent’s position from within, and they should also learn the quality assurance representative’s position. Managers should be able to provide interim training and counseling for the call center associates and assess quality assurance issues.

At many call centers, production reports are reviewed daily or even weekly. Although these reports are useful, they don't address problems as they are happening. Some call centers use real-time reporting programs that identify problems quickly and avoid customer dissatisfaction. Statistics can be viewed continuously and those falling outside the norm can be quickly addressed. Taking too little time on calls can be as bad a sign as taking too much time. Good customer service doesn’t mean rushing customers and getting them off the phone as quickly as possible. Real-time reporting helps managers quickly identify good performers and assess their methods. By determining what makes them good, managers can strive to train other agents to duplicate their efforts.

Call monitoring will continue to be an important tool in any quality assurance program. You can add a program to your system that allows shadow monitoring, enabling you to see what the agent is typing while he or she is talking, thereby identifying problems with software and database usage.

Ensuring the highest quality service at your call center shouldn't be left entirely up to the quality assurance team. If you integrate quality assurance into all your processes, you’ll be able to watch client satisfaction skyrocket.



 

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