BPA Featured Article

We all know by now that quality monitoring is a must in contact centers. Agents are often the first point of contact that customers have with an organization, so it’s important to make sure that each interaction goes well. The only way to really keep tabs on conversations is through quality monitoring, as it allows managers to record conversations and listen to them at a later date, or in real time. However, just because quality monitoring seems easy doesn’t necessarily mean that it is. Here are a couple best practices to keep in mind when implementing 3rd party remote call monitoring solutions into a contact center.

Listen to the entire call. According to an article from Ameyo, quality interactions should have a wonderful opening; facilitate a connection; ensure problem resolution; and handle the closing efficiently. There’s no way to tell if an agent hit all of those key points if managers are only listening in on the first five minutes or tuning in halfway through the call. Agents need to guide customers throughout the entire experience in order for it to be truly successful, and managers need to observe all these areas to gain an accurate picture of agent performance. By taking note of these key points, managers can provide agents with feedback on what they need to improve on and what they already do well.

Metrics are both a blessing and a curse. Metrics such as average call handle time are useful in that they provide agents with goals and give managers a general idea of how agents are performing. However, they can also intimidate agents and cause them to act rashly. By listening in on call recordings, managers can hear, for example, if an agent is rushing through a phone call in order to complete the session in a certain amount of time. This typically isn’t the best way to handle a customer’s problems, especially because it makes them feel devalued and often results in problems remaining unsolved. At the end of the day, helping customers resolve their issues is the whole point of the contact center. That goal is much more important than metrics and should be a priority for all agents and managers.