What Is Call Center Quality Assurance & How To Improve It? 

Did you know that only 5% of the call centers achieve world-class CSAT scores of 85% or more?

It means that the rest fall somewhere between 70% – 80% or even lower. The lower the CSAT score of your call center, the more risk of losing loyal customers. 

Why do you think this happens? 

One of the primary reasons is support reps’ inability to resolve customer queries adequately. This disrupts customers’ trust and, in the long run, a business’s product and service sales. 

That is why a concrete contact center quality assurance mechanism is critical, as it helps to analyze the performance gap and identify solutions to improve call quality standards.

What is Quality Assurance in a Call Center, and Why is it Important?

Quality assurance in call centers is the process of ensuring that the performance of services matches the company’s standards. This is achieved by outlining performance metrics and monitoring the team based on these KPIs.

One thing that you should ensure while setting the KPIs is that it should align with your business goals. Every business is unique so are its vision and goals. Instead of comparing your objectives with others, identify goals that boost your customer experience and satisfaction.

Some of the most important call center quality assurance metrics to track are:

• First Call Resolution (FCR)
• Average Handling Time (ATH)
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• QA Score
• Agent Availability
• Call Abandonment rate
• Call Transfer Rate
• Compliance Metrics

You can do contact center quality assurance by setting in-house QA team, hiring external experts, or delegating QA work to supervisors and managers.

These QA managers use various techniques to evaluate the quality standards. Some of these techniques are: 

• Call monitoring
• Call scoring
• Customer feedback
• Call quality
• Customer interactions

These methods help quality assurance managers to identify performance gaps and coach agents to improve customer service quality.

Other reasons why quality assurance in a call center is important are:

• Pinpoints performance gaps
• Monitors call agents closely
• Increases operational efficiency
• Ensures consistent service quality
• Improves coaching efficiency
• Enables agents to improve their call quality
• Boosts customer retention
• Builds healthy agent experiences

Overall, the purpose of call center quality assurance is to avoid loopholes and coach agents to become the representatives of your company’s standards and values.

5 Challenges Faced While Maintaining Call Center Quality Assurance

call center quality assurance is promising only if you implement it the right way. Here are some call center quality monitoring challenges that you should be aware of.

1. Misinterpretation of Data and Reports

Your QA software will provide you with vast amounts of data and insightful reports. These help your team to monitor and evaluate performance.

However, sometimes, this data can be overwhelming for your team to interpret accurately. This results in incorrect conclusions and ineffective solutions.

2. Pushback From Agents

Introducing a new QA framework might not go well for some agents. They might feel that their privacy is violated. Also, some might take it as a suffocating work culture where they are micromanaged.

3. Demanding Job Profile

Quality assurance management is a demanding role. If you don’t hire the right people for the job, you won’t get the results you expect.

4. Outdated Systems and Metrics

Is your call center stuck in outdated systems?

One of the biggest challenges in call center quality monitoring is its age-old systems and metrics. These are often not aligned with current business goals and are ineffective.

Outdated technology overburdens your QA team with work that can be easily automated or simplified, like data collection and analysis with new technologies.

5. Lack of Training Resources

A lack of proper training resources in call centers challenges maintaining Quality Assurance (QA). 

Inconsistent performance, incomplete skill development, outdated knowledge, and an inability to adapt to changes impacts agent performance. This may lead to high turnover, difficulty identifying issues, and a demotivated workforce, hindering effective QA processes. 

5 Ways To Improve Call Center Quality Assurance?

Creating an effective call center quality assurance framework is a difficult task. It requires critical thinking and precision to build a framework aligned with your business goals and customer needs.

Here are 5 ways you can improve your call center’s quality assurance:

1. Streamline Monitoring Process

A streamlined QA workflow helps managers to monitor effectively, increasing their productivity and efficiency.

Here are a few tips to create a structured QA workflow.

• Outline key metrics for monitoring and evaluation
• Create a standard QA process to track these metrics
• Establish proper systems in place for the team to collect and assess data easily
• Modify & enhance ongoing call agent training based on QA data to improve call quality

2. Choose the Best Call Center Quality Monitoring Setup

One solution doesn’t fit everyone. That is why you should focus on finding the monitoring system that works best for your business’s interests.

When identifying call center QA software, it’s essential to consider parameters like:

• Scalability 
• User-friendliness 
• Integrations
• Customizations
• Automation 
• Ease of implementation
• Customizable scorecards and grading systems
• Reporting and analytics

3. Prioritize Agent Training

Imagine you have the perfect call center QA in place. Plus, you are efficiently analyzing data and monitoring performance.

But how will you use your QA reports to improve the quality further?

For this, you need to focus on training your agents regularly and identify the areas where they need improvement.

You should also analyze the practices that need to be incorporated and which should stop immediately.

Most importantly, you should focus on the data points to curate a coaching plan for agents. This will help them in the long run.

4. Promote an Engaging Work Culture

Call center quality assurance is for the betterment of both call agents and customers. It is to help agents improve their efficiency and meet customer expectations.

So, while you are focused on setting up an effective QA framework, consider ways to increase employee satisfaction and participation.

Here are some ways to establish a positive work culture in your call center.

• Create an encouraging work culture in your call center.
• Focus on favorable performance insights.
• Help underperforming agents with proper training to improve their performance  
• Don’t forget to praise the team regularly for their efforts.
• Reward the best employees to boost their morale.

5. Use the Latest Tools

In the tech-driven era, empower your call center QA with the latest tools for better results.

Advanced tools help you with:

• Automation: Streamlines QA tasks for efficient evaluation.
• Speech Analytics: Analyzes audio for sentiment, keywords, and real-time insights.
• Voice Recognition: Transcribes and analyzes conversations, improving accuracy.
• Screen Recording: Captures and analyzes screen activity for process adherence.
• Real-time Monitoring: Enables live supervision and intervention for adherence to QA standards.
• CRM Integration: Provides a holistic view of customer interactions aligned with business goals.
• Feedback Platforms: Offers timely, targeted feedback and personalized coaching.
• Data Analytics: Transforms QA data into actionable insights for ongoing improvements.
• AI for Predictive Analysis: Proactively addresses trends and potential issues based on historical data.
• Multi-Channel Evaluation: Supports QA across diverse communication channels for a comprehensive approach.

How does Knowmax Help Improve Call Center Quality Assurance?

Knowmax is a CX-first knowledge management system that improves your call center quality assurance by delivering guided knowledge to agents within their workflow. 

Knowmax’s decision tree based knowledge base guides your agents with the next best action steps throughout the customer interaction. This empowers them to deliver faster & mistake-proof customer service as they have the right knowledge to take the right customer inputs and deliver accurate solutions. 

Interactive decision tree workflows ensure consistency of responses even if a customer contacts another agent at another time for a problem. This also minimizes the dependence of new agents on their supervisors or peers for guidance and thus reduces the time to proficiency.  

Learn how Jupiter Money – a leading digital banking startup, leverages Knowmax’s decision trees to improve quality adherence and deliver outstanding CX.