Call center quality assurance metrics evaluate how your calls are going from both a call center representative and customer perspective. By reviewing your quality assurance metrics, you can determine whether drastic changes are needed in your call center training or current workflows.
Most teams look through a few calls for an overall analysis of their call center, but is that enough? If your call center has a high call volume, you won't get a comprehensive view by focusing on a few dozen calls. So how can you ensure your quality assurance is compliant?
We'll show you exactly how call center quality assurance works and is measured. Plus, we can walk you through using your AI assistant to facilitate your quality assurance.
Interested in upgrading your call center quality assurance metrics? Book a demo with us, and our qualified representatives can examine your workflow and show you exactly how Hooked can upgrade your calls.
What is Call Center Quality Assurance?
Call center quality assurance measures a call's quality based on the call center representative and customer sentiment. Quality assurance (QA) in call centers is an important metric to track since it changes your workflows. Most managers will track compliance and security statements, call duration, call quality, customer satisfaction, and more when reviewing call center quality assurance metrics.
Quality Assurance vs Quality Control vs Quality Management
Call center QA is an important part of workforce engagement management, alongside a few other metrics. Some companies use the terms interchangeably, but there are slight differences between the three. Here's how you can know the differences:
- Quality Assurance (QA): Used to detect errors and mistakes before they reach customers.
- Quality Control (QC): A reactive approach to adjusting your customers' calls.
- Quality Management (QM): Focuses on the quality of the employee's performance.
Call Center QA vs Contact Center QA
Call center QA primarily focuses on calls only, while contact center QA is more omnichannel. That means it will take into account all forms of communication rather than focusing only on calls. What your company focuses on depends on the type of contact center you are.
If you're strictly a call center, you will want to record call center QA. However, if you are contacting your clients via SMS, email, social media, or more, you will want to invest in contact center QA. Before purchasing a CRM, you should evaluate how it measures QA and whether it matches your workflows.
Why Quality Assurance Matters
Quality assurance matters because it will enhance all your customer relationships. If you're considering the customer journey map, quality assurance will be one of your priorities. Here are just a few of the ways call center QA can upgrade your customer experience:
- Resolution: The number of calls that lead to a disposition will increase.
- Retention: Calls will become more efficient, and customer engagement will increase.
- Compliance: Ensuring your call representatives remain compliant with your company standards and the law is important.
- Ramp Time: Decrease the time required to reach the call's objective (sales, appointments made, etc.).
How to Build a Call Center QA Scorecard
When you set up your call center QA, you should determine how you will evaluate each call. Here are some of the steps you can follow to build your own call center QA scorecard:
| Step | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Choosing Criteria | Determine which criteria you'll be prioritizing for your quality assurance metrics. Our recommendation is to pick one or two metrics to track per quarter and work on improving them. |
| Weighting | Each metric you track should be given a different level of importance, so when you are picking criteria to prioritize, decide which ones will become your priority. |
| Scoring | Throughout the quarter (or whichever period of time you decide), track each of the metrics and score them appropriately. |
| Evaluation | Once the scoring period is over, it's time to review the numbers and adjust your workflow to anticipate your customers' needs. |
How Many Calls Should You Actually Review?
The number of calls you should review will depend on how many calls you receive. We recommend you review at least five calls per call representative. Depending on how many agents you have, it could be a simple task. However, for larger agencies, it's almost impossible to get to every rep.
Here's how each method works:
Manual Sampling
With manual sampling, you'll be choosing specific call representatives to evaluate. We recommend that you review every employee within your organization for a comprehensive view. However, if you're unable to do that, considering a wide variety of skill levels is a good substitute in the short term.
Eventually, you will want to review every call, but with new calls coming in, it's almost impossible to listen and adjust your process. That's why we recommend employing an AI agent to review calls.
AI Scoring
AI assistants can help expedite your call center quality assurance with greater accuracy than most human agents can. And they can go through every call without wasting time. Depending on the AI agent you use, it can listen to calls from all your agents, provide a detailed transcript, and uncover customer sentiment based on their tone.
This creates workflows that provide data-driven context for your future conversations. At Hooked, we strongly recommend finding an AI that can handle the preliminary steps of call center quality assurance. Always ask what is available to you when you book a demo with the company's representative.
Call Center QA Metrics That Matter
There are a few call center metrics you should be tracking when measuring quality assurance. Here are just a few that you should consider when evaluating your call center QA:
- QA Score: This is based on the scorecard you created.
- Compliance Rate: Determines the number of times your agents comply with company standards.
- Auto-fail Rate: Measures the percentage of calls that end due to a critical violation.
- Customer Sentiment: Uses transcripts and tone to evaluate customer intent.
Turning Scores Into Coaching
Once you have your scores, you can pinpoint exactly what needs to be adjusted in your workflow. You just need to look at the scores you'd like to improve and determine what in your process should be changed.
For example, if your agents recite the security and compliance statements on the call, you can adjust your call center training to emphasize their necessity. If you're losing clients because you're not offering more communication methods, it's time to invest in an omnichannel contact center.
Common QA Mistakes
Making mistakes in your QA checks can be detrimental to your business, so identifying the most common ones will help you avoid them. Here are some you should consider when building out your workflow:
| Mistake | How to Improve |
|---|---|
| Scoring Just to Fill Out a Scorecard | If you're filling out a scorecard just to fill it out, you should review the fields that you're prioritizing and make changes accordingly. |
| Punitive QA | Being too critical in your QA checks will cause you to find issues in every part of your workflow. To avoid spreading yourself out too thin, focus on a few metrics to start. |
| No Calibration | Not every metric or situation is created equal. When creating your scorecard, ensure you're giving the appropriate amount of weight to each metric. |
| Stale Criteria | If you've been tracking the same statistic for a while, it might be irrelevant to your field. It's always important to audit your QA metrics to ensure you're prioritizing relevant information. |
| Focusing on Calling Only | If you're strictly a call center, you might be ignoring other modes of communication. Unfortunately, not every client will want to be contacted via calls, so you should include other forms of contact for QA. |
Of course, these are just a few mistakes you can make in quality assurance, so you should ensure that your representatives log all information in your CRM for review.
AI and Automated QA
You should use AI to automate the tedious parts of your workflow, including quality assurance checks. With an AI agent, you can comb through hundreds of calls in just an hour. Meanwhile, manually going through each call to find valuable information will take days or weeks.
Of course, using AI to take over quality assurance checks can be tricky depending on how sophisticated the AI agent is, so we do recommend a blend of AI and manual quality assurance checks. Essentially, your AI agent will analyze each call, identify the most significant ones, and send them to your quality assurance manager for manual review of the call and the AI-written notes.
Compliance & Consent
If you work in sales or insurance, you need a secure environment for all your clients' information. If there are any holes in your security, there can be significant consequences depending on your industry. That's why compliance and consent should be cornerstones for your quality assurance checks.
Your call representatives should always recite proper disclaimers guaranteeing your bases are covered and that you remain compliant with state and federal laws. Your quality assurance manager or AI agent should check if they are making those statements and receiving consent from clients.
How Hooked Helps Your Quality Assurance
Hooked CRM is an all-in-one program that includes a dialer, CRM, and AI assistant. Because it combines all the features you need in a dialer, it is the perfect system for call center quality assurance. When calls come in, the CRM logs all the information, and the AI assistant flags the call log for further analysis by your quality assurance manager.
If you're interested in upgrading your call center, book a demo with us today. One of our qualified representatives will walk through your current workflow and determine where Hooked can help your process.
