How Call Center Management Should Use Quality Monitoring

How much monitoring activity goes on in your call center? Most of us would be hard-pressed to find an example of a call center interaction where we weren’t provided with the message that our call may be monitored for quality and training purposes. I called an insurance company this morning and was told my call would be recorded. Imagine my surprise when the agent who took my call seemed a little annoyed that she had to complete such a task.

For call center management, recording for training or quality purposes is important, whether the industry requires it or not. In the example of my call this morning, recording the call may have given some good insight for a supervisor. The beginning of the call wasn’t so great, yet this particular agent turned out to be very personable and helpful and I ended the call feeling like she cared about the outcome of our activities. I never would have guessed that would be the direction at the beginning of the call.

In this case, I did have frustrated patience enough to wait it out. I stuck with the call not because I thought it would get better, but because I had already waited on hold and needed to get the issue resolved. Does this insurance carrier lose customers because of first impressions? If I weren’t a current customer, it would have made me think about abandoning the call, especially if I had been frustrated enough to end the call before she provided value to the interaction.

Quality monitoring could identify such an issue and provide this agent with the coaching necessary to pay attention to how she comes across at the beginning of the call. Monet Software is one expert provider in this space, offering call center management a full range of tools to help improve overall performance. This blog in particular points to how management can use coaching opportunities to help agents improve areas where they are starting to shine and fix areas where they don’t even realize they’re struggling.

The ultimate goal is to provide encouragement and build an agent’s confidence so performance improvements come naturally. Call center management may be tempted to point out areas where the agent is failing and initiate activities to change the outcome. While it is important to address areas where an agent isn’t doing things the right way, coming at it from an engaging coaching strategy is much more effective than simple behavior correction.

One effective strategy is to play back a call and ask the agent for feedback based on their interaction with the caller. If the agent can identify areas where they would like to improve and the supervisor can praise the agent on areas they did really well, the positive atmosphere of the coaching session is felt across both camps. In the end, both agents and call center management will view coaching sessions as opportunities instead of negative interactions.