What Are the Biggest Challenges in Managing the Quality of a Call Center?

There is no shortage of tools on the market that can help drive quality management (QM) efficiency in a contact center. But without a correct strategy and a broad understanding of the business objectives to be met by the QM program, these tools may not achieve the stated goals.

Before a call center can achieve its intended quality management program, it is important to first assess the customer service center’s existing QM practices, taking into account the specific areas in which it is excelling and those in which there is room for improvement.

What Are the Biggest Challenges in Managing the Quality of a Call Center, Based on the Interactions Collected from Communication with the Customer?

1) Quality Control is Low on the Priority List

This only happens if the quality management program has not been properly prepared. In this regard, it is necessary to think about the customer experience (CX) when developing the QM program and to attract the right business units and stakeholders to participate in the creation of the strategy.

It is also essential to ensure that you have buy-in from top-level management and that quality objectives are closely aligned with those of the company.

If you are monitoring, evaluating and measuring the correct metrics and KPIs, quality assurance will always be an important process that is necessary for the success of the company.

2) Not Having Enough Time to Analyze the Data

The amount of data generated from many different systems can be overwhelming. Sometimes call centers collect data from multiple CRMs due to structural issues or because organizational growth has spawned multiple systems. These are often isolated and do not communicate with each other, forcing the analyst to collect the information manually.

Anything that can be done to minimize those data silos -whether it’s automating the reporting process and making it accessible to everyone- will ensure that data drives productivity.

3) Have Untrained Analysts

Consistency in the way agents are monitored is important. It is also important to remember that quality is not a one-time process. A Quality Assurance team must continually evaluate the program and make changes when appropriate.

This means hiring the right people and taking the time to train them properly. Creating and maintaining a quality standards definition document, as well as holding evaluation sessions on a routine basis, can also help build a successful quality management program.

4) Not Evaluating the Evolution of the QM Program Frequently Enough

Most companies do not sufficiently evaluate their demands for quality. In fact, most contact centers evaluate only 1-2% of the calls they receive, which is not enough to give them a clear conclusion of the breadth of challenges their professionals face.

When looking to improve performance in a call center, it is important to ensure that enough calls are being evaluated each month to produce a statistically significant sample. This is a major challenge for most call centers, as increasing agent evaluations means increasing the number of people assigned to evaluate them.

This is also where targeted evaluations and tools like analytics can help automate the quality process and keep you focused on evaluating the most relevant contacts.

5) Not Having Enough Time to Train Agents

Supervisors and managers know that ongoing training has a direct impact on agent performance. Therefore, training is essential to ensure that agents remain motivated and engaged. However, finding the time to proactively train agents, combining it with normal daily tasks, is a challenge for most contact centers.

For this reason, if supervisors schedule time with agents for training sessions, the benefits will begin to show. In addition, the opportunities for coaching and real-time feedback are just as important as the sessions themselves.

It is also necessary to allow time for agents to conduct training and self-training in order to grade several of their own calls each week and calibrate the results with their colleagues or a supervisor.

In conclusion, with the right tools in place, taking into account that each of them serves the overall quality management strategy, call centers are trained to offer unparalleled support to customers in every interaction.