Using Quality Scorecards Effectively in Call Monitoring

Everyone wants to improve operations, but very few people are quite sure how to go about it. There's a comparatively simple way to do the job, however, and it starts with information. A recent report from BPA Quality draws on one field it knows well—quality scorecards—to start the process, but also calls on call monitoring systems to help flesh the picture out more thoroughly.

The BPA Quality report started with one central, and somewhat flawed, premise: what is the ideal scorecard? Figuring out just what the “ideal” was in terms of call monitoring or quality scorecards is almost a fool's errand; figuring out just what that “ideal” is for one company will be promptly shot down by the next company, for whom that first company's “ideal” is about as relevant as having a dog give investment advice.

Yet scorecards are necessary; who can tell just what progress is being made toward fixing problems or improving operations without scorecards to track progress and call monitoring to gather information about these problems? Some basic points are almost universal: most companies want to improve the customer experience, shorten average call lengths, achieve a first-call-resolution standard and the like, but beyond these most simple and basic points, every situation is different and must be resolved accordingly.

Perhaps more important than anything else in developing that “ideal” quality scorecard is to determine just what needs to be fixed, and how to address it. For those who want a better customer experience, start by looking at the calls made and received. Are agents rude or lacking knowledge? Is there a lot of passing around from one department to another? Could things be improved with the addition of customer relationship management (CRM) tools or the like to prevent a caller being asked for the same information several times? Knowing these points will allow a company to better know how to set up a quality scorecard to address the issues on hand.

Other measures to consider in that ideal quality scorecard are key performance indicators (KPIs) specifically relating to the industry, as well as what the competition is doing; while being unique can be useful, it's not always the right thing to do, especially if the market favors the competition's approach.

In the end, there is no “ideal” quality scorecard. There is only the quality scorecard that fits in with the organization's current needs and operations. Using call monitoring systems to help figure out where the company currently is and where it needs to be will be a part of the picture, and the quality scorecard in the end is just the map to reach that ideal destination. 

Edited by Alicia Young

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