Quality monitoring is a crucial aspect of call center operations. It is needed to ensure that customer interaction and overall satisfaction are on par with corporate expectations. However, monitoring team members’ conversations can begin to feel burdensome if not infused into the work process in a cohesive and balanced way. Many companies, unfortunately, make some mistakes when trying to ensure quality assurance, and they end up driving a wedge between the team and leadership. Therefore, be on the lookout for the following ten mistakes businesses make in quality monitoring and try to avoid or correct them.
1. Poor Delivery of Feedback
Effective communication is business 101, especially when it comes to working in a call center. However, while team members may be trained in effective customer communication, sometimes the leaders tasked with quality monitoring do not share the same tact when delivering feedback. Therefore, make sure that team leaders understand the necessity of balanced criticism. You do not only want to tell a team member of their failings. Have some balance, praise, and correction.
2. Checkbox Reviews
Quality monitoring often relies on inferior measurement methods. For example, checkbox reviews can lead to poor consumer interactions. When quality assurance is purely based on if a team member asked a question and not on how they asked it, then you end up with customer service representatives sounding robotic in their responses to clients, rather than attentive.
3. No Breaks After Difficult Calls
Another common mistake in call quality monitoring is not allowing team members to take a break after a difficult call. Emotions can transfer from one call to the next. When an individual is not provided an adequate break to gather their feelings, then they can perform poorly on their next call, reducing customer satisfaction.
4. Evaluations Based on Scales
Quality monitoring is not easy, but the use of sliding scales can make a quality assurance manager’s job even more difficult. When a company uses a scale of one to five to rate overall performance, it can lead to team member complacency. For example, if the company does correct behavior that is above four, then an employee can feel that reaching level five is unnecessary. Therefore, finding more personalized methods of monitoring and measuring quality is essential.
5. Team Member Burnout
Team member burnout is an enormous risk in call center quality monitoring. In a job that equates to low pay and unclear trajectory, it can be difficult for an employee to stay motivated and encouraged day in and day out. Therefore, it is necessary for call center leadership to focus energy on positives, like incentives and bonuses and career advancement.
6. Redundancies and Excessive Tools
During the advent of tech and software development, quality monitoring became more about tools than people. However, the progression of that same tech has led to redundancies and the excessive use of tools that analyze and collect the same data. Therefore, a better option is to reduce the use of multiple systems, finding one or two that work, and then returning to a people-focused system, including one-to-one and peer-to-peer mentorship.
7. Poor Concentration
In monitoring call center performance, it might become clear that most call centers are not set up for focus and concentration. In fact, most centers consist of a large room with rows of desks and the uncontrollable talking of several team members at once. Also, the spaces are typically drab, which adds to the inability to focus. Therefore, to improve focus, companies should consider ways to increase privacy and decrease noise.
8. Too Much Focus on Scorecards
Quality monitoring does tend to rely heavily on scorecards. Unfortunately, scorecards are not the most significant measure of a Team Member. Therefore, having individualized feedback is likely a better option for evaluating performance.
9. Lack of Training Material Retention
Training in a call center might seem obvious and straightforward to someone outside of the company, but any call center leader knows that there is a lot to take in. Therefore, providing training manuals and test runs, while all well and good, are not the best options for training materials. Perhaps the best way to train is through the use of interactive tools and mentorship.
10. Low Customer Satisfaction
If measuring quality assurance or team member satisfaction is lacking in any of the above areas, then a company risks receiving poor reviews from customers, and possibly even losing clients. Call centers are a vital part of a business, and if teams are not balanced, and leaders fail to lead, then customer experience will likely take a hit.
Quality monitoring is a challenging and essential part of any business’s call center. However, if you are struggling to find a system that works for you, then contact me , and let us help.