4 min
When COVID-19 first required a teleworking approach, most call centers were concerned with the basics: connecting remote agents to essential systems; redirect customers to digital channels to lighten the load on contact center agents; and try to offer a satisfactory experience under the circumstances.
Now that these elements are in place, the next step is to examine the quality control mechanisms that ensure an excellent customer experience. Businesses wonder if they have the right solution for the future: Can they deliver the same or better experiences compared to before COVID-19? Customer acquisition and loss are two key metrics that will define the response.
Identifying The Gaps In Quality Control
In call centers, quality is managed in two ways. Agents receive scripts, knowledge bases, and guidance on how to handle calls. And supervisors and team leaders are on the lookout, taking calls and offering advice to employees. These supervisors also listen to live and recorded calls for training and quality compliance purposes.
Because team leaders can only hear a small portion of calls, it is difficult to get a true picture of how each agent is performing and their potential difficulty in specific areas. Overheard calls can be outliers where agents have performed particularly well or poorly, however they do not represent their overall performance and productivity.
In many organizations, digital interactions, such as live chat or email, are not included in quality reviews. By missing key review channels, contact centers run the risk of not delivering a consistent experience to users. Multi-channel quality management is critical because customers use multiple channels in their interactions.
Strengthening A New Concept Of Quality
When agents switched to teleworking, traditional approaches to quality management changed. Supervisors were unable to offer on-site advice to remote agents. Therefore, the visibility of its performance, which was already relatively low, was reduced to almost nothing.
And, in a work environment where trainers and supervisors cannot see or physically assist agents, maintaining quality processes becomes more complicated and more important at the same time. Call centers must strictly control quality so as not to compromise the customer experience, diluting brand equity and customer loyalty.
How Can Technology Help?
The solution is to use smart technology to close these gaps and offer a quality process that analyzes work from anywhere. There are various technologies that can help manage and improve quality processes in contact centers:
1) Artificial intelligence (AI) And Data Analysis
With an AI-powered tool that uses voice recognition technology, supervisors can get information from 100% of calls. The same Artificial Intelligence technology can be applied to any digital interaction, be it email, chat, messaging, or even chatbots. Thus, analytics-driven quality means two things: Every conversation can be listened to without the human effort required to achieve key areas of improvement targeted at each agent. This can be evaluated on its merits and its total performance. This makes it easy to identify areas for improvement and reward the best.
An AI system can measure interactions objectively and provide information about behaviors. Some recent data analysis systems can even provide information on behaviors and skills such as empathy and flexibility. Scoring these interactions for accurate insights turns data into actionable and actionable insights.
2) Digital Twins
Interactions between humans and machines are becoming more and more common. Giving users realistic and compelling interaction with machines is key to delivering great bot-driven and self-service experiences.
Digital twins can provide real-time contextual guidance for agents, help them quickly adapt to new guidelines and policies, offer virtual training, collect relevant information for each call, and speed up call completion activities, including automated notes. This allows supervisors to ensure that agents are working in accordance with quality processes.
3) Analysis Of Workforce Management
By analyzing data, call center supervisors can determine which agents are most effective at what time of day, for example, and schedule them to work accordingly. Or they can schedule agents with the right person for the different types of users they will be dealing with.
The Role of Quality in Delivering Strong Customer Experiences
The most impactful competitive differentiator available to any organization is a positive and consistent customer experience. The only way to guarantee this is to establish strict quality controls. For example, by monitoring 100% of interactions, supervisors can see who is performing well and / or who needs training.
The need to bring call centers to remote work has created a large increase in the demand for staff in many of them. This means that people in your organization with other roles can be temporarily assigned to answer user calls. Quality control becomes even more important in these scenarios to help these new, often inexperienced agents deliver a strong customer experience.
In conclusion, with better technology, agents can be more productive, ultimately delivering a better customer experience. Managing the quality of remote agents is essential. With the right technology, quality can become a competitive differentiator.
Subscribe
Ask for a demo