Call Center Management Featured Article
Automated Quality Management May Help Call Centers
Improving quality, particularly in the call center, can be a challenge. One major reason is that no one's entirely sure just what “quality” is. A new report from Monet Software (News - Alert), meanwhile, suggests that while figuring out just what quality actually is can be a bit of a challenge, there's every reason to do so, and automating quality management can be a big help.
For many companies, it's become quite clear that the old methods of quality management just aren't working out. Many companies are sticking to older methods that just don't have the same punch any more, like spreadsheets or legacy software systems. These tools often don't work because they don't reflect the modern call center environment; it's hard to measure the quality of a new car when all your quality metrics demand information like how many rods the vehicle goes per hogshead of kerosene.
This is where automated measures can be useful in call centers; since automated measures are comparatively new, these have often been updated accordingly to reflect more current quality metrics, things like first call resolution and the like. Include new features like voice analytics, call recording, and other such systems and all those calls become treasure troves of actionable insights dripping with patterns.
Plus, by automating the system from start to finish, there's a better chance that everything will go through. By leaving such systems in regular employees' hands, human error can slip through and render some points meaningless. Since automation tools are increasingly available, even the costs are coming down, and when a cost-benefit analysis is undertaken, the end result is positive for businesses.
Basically, by automating the system, it becomes easier for a business to incorporate all those rapidly-shifting points that come into play by using the clearly loaded word “quality”. Figuring out what it is is the kind of thing that changes every few months. It used to be, for example, that quality in call centers was measured by elapsed time of call. When even Dilbert strips started mocking this practice by featuring a call center employee who reduced his average call time by hanging up on every caller shortly after starting the call—the poor guy believed it was a mistake to do such a job while studying for the priesthood—and got a big bonus, it became clear that “total number served” really wasn't helping the company as a quality metric.
Between improvements in metric decision and measurement, automating call center quality processes can be a big help. It starts with proper decision making, but allowing the systems to spot the flaws can be just what a contact center needs to drive it forward.