Get the Most out of Call Monitoring

No one goes into anything expecting to do a shoddy job. Even when resources are scarce, there's an urge to make the most of it, to succeed heroically under even the worst circumstances. A recent report suggests that there are some simple practices to follow to make the most of a call monitoring program.

Call monitoring can be a major help in developing better customer service, which means the customer is more likely to come back for future purchases. Taking incoming calls and routing these through analytics processes can mean substantial results as well, including spotting certain patterns in incoming calls that could be fixed by making small adjustments to internal policy.

First, consider what “success” means. It means different things to different companies; do you want first-call resolution? Shortest call times overall? Higher call volumes? With these things in mind, it will be clear what to watch for and how to consider success accomplished. This is likely to generate a lot of data, and that data can be valuable in its own right with proper analytics tools.

Second, make it clear that agent coaching, and thus improvement, is the ultimate goal. Agents commonly don't like to be watched; no one does, really. It feels too much like someone's setting up a “paper trail” in advance of mass layoffs.  If the agents know the ultimate purpose is to help the agent improve, then the agent is more likely to work with the process.

Third, don't just use a random sample in evaluation; use high-value calls as well. While random samples provide a fairly complete picture across an organization, high-value calls—like those involving large amounts or frequent customers—have, well, a particularly high value and are that much more important.

Finally, constantly reconsider the definition of success. If a business sets out to improve call volume, but the agents start every call with “Good morning” and end it with “Thank you for calling” just before hanging up, trimming each call to 15 seconds, this has solved nothing. It's met the metric, but to what end?

This is where call monitoring provides its greatest services. Not only is call monitoring helping to ensure that the content of a call is top notch, but it's also ensuring the overall quality of the call matches. What good does it do to have the best in customer service if the customer can't hear through static? Call monitoring isn't just about content; it's about quality overall.

From the second someone says hello to the wish for a good day, customers are judging companies on the quality and overall capability of their service. Thankfully, delivering the best in a phone call can be readily done with a few simple points.

Edited by Alicia Young

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