What is a Call Center Quality Assurance Form?
A call center quality assurance form is an assessment tool that Quality Assurance (QA) analysts use to evaluate an agent’s
adherence to the service standards. It gives them insight into how agents handle customer calls based on the set guidelines.
The criteria vary from department to department, but the most common are:
- Greeting – did the agent introduce his name and the company properly? Did he mention that the call is being recorded?
- Account Verification – did they ask appropriate questions to verify the account?
- Problem-Solving Abilities – did the agent ask relevant questions to identify the problem? Were they able to give the most appropriate solution?
- Adherence to Protocol – was the information they provided the customer accurate? Did they update the customer’s contact information in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM?)
- Call Handling Skills – did they stick to procedures when they transfered the call or put the customer on hold? How did they escalate the call to their supervisor?
- Customer Service Quality – did they summarize the customer’s issue before providing the solution? Did they answer all questions correctly?
- Etiquette – how was their tone of voice? Did they use their active listening skills?
- Script Compliance – were they able to adapt the call script when necessary?
- Closing – did they ask the customer if they need further assistance?
- Follow-Up – did they contact the customer within the agreed time frame?
Call monitoring forms are instrumental to improving employee performances and the call center quality assurance process. Through them, management will be able to identify training needs, how to reduce costs, and how to improve the customer service experience.
What are the Quality Assurance Metrics?
QA metrics are the data used to measure performance. These benchmarks vary by industry. For example, the metrics for a tech company can measure average costs and production cycles while a construction company tracks materials costs and product failures.
Before you can improve your QA metrics, identify the goal or purpose of your QA program. What do you want to improve — performance management, customer satisfaction?
Once your objectives are clear, establish the metrics that will help you reach that goal. Create call monitoring forms that will boost your quality assurance program.
Some of the important QA metrics are:
First Call Resolution
It is a customer-centric metric that tracks whether agents resolved the customer problems on the first call or if a follow-up is necessary. Failing to resolve an issue the first time results in customer callbacks and agent backlogs.
On the other hand, a customer who gets an answer during the first call will most likely become a repeat customer. Furthermore, first-call resolution fosters trust and customer loyalty.
Average Answering Speed
This metric focuses on the average time it takes an agent to answer an incoming call.
There is nothing more frustrating to a customer than to wait for minutes on end and listen to a recorded message. If you cannot answer fast enough, you’ll have more disgruntled customers waiting for you.
Customer Satisfaction Score
The customer satisfaction score (CSAT) measures the customer’s degree of satisfaction with his contact center interaction.
Average Handle Time
Again, this is a customer-centric metric that tracks the average time of a successfully completed transaction. However, the goal is not a low average handling time. It should go hand in hand with high customer satisfaction.
Net Promoter Score
The net promoter score (NPS) gauges customer loyalty and customer relationships. For example, how likely will a customer recommend you to a friend?
Customer Effort Score
The customer effort score (CES) is an important metric because it tracks the effort a customer exerts during the interaction. The goal here is to reduce customer effort as you work to resolve their problem.
For example, a customer takes the time out of their day to speak to an agent because of deficiencies in call routing. If you want to improve your CES, you have to reduce their waiting time.
Meanwhile, an agent who causes customers to exert more effort should be tracked and retrained.
What are the Best Practices for Quality Assurance?
Best practices ensure that your QA process and call monitoring forms work effectively. Here are a few of the best practices:
Assign a dedicated QA Professional
Most QA processes fail because many perceive it to be just another process. But having a dedicated QA professional onboard sends a message that continuous improvement is an essential part of the process.
Involve Colleagues in Creating Your QA Program
Giving your colleagues a predetermined set of rules and procedures might make the job expectations unclear. But if you involve them in the creation process, they will take ownership of your QA program.
Ensure that Your Evaluators are on the Same Page
People have different perceptions of the same thing. The same goes with your evaluators — they might have different interpretations of the items on your call center quality assurance form. It can result in the agents thinking they aren’t being treated fairly. To avoid this, schedule sessions that will clarify and iron out differences and inconsistencies.
Turn Data into a Positive Actionable Insight
Data from your call center quality monitoring form provides valuable insight. However, they are often presented negatively because they highlight agent mistakes and errors. Turn the practice around by focusing on their achievements and providing coaching in areas that need improvement.
Highlight the Best Interactions
Gold standard interactions can become examples to highlight successful techniques. You can use it to train new recruits, improve agent skills, and encourage others to become better.
Why should a digital checklist be used for Call Center Quality Assurance?
Successful companies, regardless of their product or service, focus on quality. Promoting quality also means investing in the right quality assurance resources to consistently deliver high-level results. For quality assurance checklists, means saying goodbye to pen and paper and investing in a digital solution.
By using Lumiform as a versatile mobile app and desktop software for inspections and audits, your organization can achieve and maintain the quality of its products and services by taking advantage of the following features:
- Easily create quality assurance checklists with the form builder,
and customize them at any time with drag-and-drop ease. - Access an extensive selection of templates in the template library
and start using them right away. - Select answer types such as multiple-choice, checkbox, yes/no, or long and short text answers in the quality assurance checklist to ensure you get the data you need and filter out the rest.
- Add photos and annotations during an audit
to make your results more descriptive. - Assign corrective actions with priority levels from the app,
so incidents are addressed and fixed in order of urgency. You can also set automatic assignments to be triggered when certain conditions are met. - Automatically generate reports
so you can immediately share information with relevant stakeholders and employees, improving visibility across the organization. - Perform extensive analysis to identify areas that need your attention early and continuously optimize processes.