Evaluating your call center operations to find the specific areas that need improvement can be daunting. Especially in call centers today where agents and their software are working simultaneously at the speed of light to close sales. Operating a successful call center means agents are performing at optimal levels and sales goals are being achieved. These two areas of your call center go hand in hand. Properly trained agents close sales calls and drive revenue in a timely manner without making costly mistakes.

Therefore, the success of your call center begins and ends with your sales agents. These valuable team members provide customers with the first human interaction to your company, product and brand. Your agents are a core part of your business and must be knowledgeable, customer service oriented and patient. They have a golden opportunity to provide either a positive or negative experience to your customers. This first impression on your brand reflects your company, your product and your reputation. Customers must be presented with a positive experience from the moment the call begins. Therefore, your agents are the heart of your call center and training them properly should top priority. When agents are trained effectively, you take full advantage of their potential to maximize sales and drive profits to reach your overall business goals. Once agents are initially trained on how to properly conduct campaign calls, shift your focus to monitoring them to ensure they are consistently utilizing their skills to close sales and positively reflect your company.

Evaluating agent performance can be done using a tool inside your call center software called, Quality Assurance Scorecard. This key functionality enables you to monitor agent performance by creating questions and scoring based on the unique needs of your company’s policies and standards. Essentially this valuable function is a coaching tool. Our client, Blue Sky Healthcare Solutions, has adopted our call center software and taken advantage of the Quality Assurance Scorecard. They use it to track their agent’s daily performance and campaign sales level. BlueSky credits their success to the real-time reports that track sales and performance levels. When this valuable information is assessed by managers immediately, action can be taken quickly to correct any mistakes.

Quality Assurance Scorecards can be customized within your call center software to meet your specific needs. In BlueSky’s case, their managers adjusted the scorecards with one goal in mind, to increase sales. This high level of customization can be brought to as many campaigns as you want within your call center. When your agents are following the customer service steps they are trained, your agents will be more efficient on calls and sales will increase. Remember, these agents are the first line of communication to your brand. Agents should be compassionate, knowledgeable, and experienced in all areas of the campaign. Throughout this blog we will discuss how to evaluate your agents’ performance level by customizing your Quality Assurance Scorecard, properly rate your scorecard and finally we will review the overall benefits.

  

Customizing the Scorecards

The ability to customize your scorecard is critical to monitoring your agents. The real-time data pulled from these scorecards will tell you where your agents need improvement to increase their sales. You can ensure they are accurately representing your company. Since all call center campaigns are different, the standards in which you need to evaluate agents will change. Therefore, having this service standard (at no additional cost) within your call center software is invaluable. For example, these three options below are the top ways in which managers can drill down to look at agents from a detailed view and rate their Quality Assurance Scorecard.

  1. Call Opening: Agents are given a script to the campaign. This script should be followed precisely to set the call up for success. In a scorecard, managers can set questions to ensure agents are meeting expectations.
  2. Customizable Questions: When managers are listening to their agents calls and evaluating their success, the questions they use to measure effectiveness should be specific to that campaign. For example, did the agent follow the steps to address a customer’s concern or did the agent provide the most valuable information about the product or service.
  3. Call Closing: Before the call ends, there is information agents must gather from the customer to make the sale. The scorecard allows managers to see if this information is properly gathered.

Scoring Your Scorecard

When you customize your scorecard, you can set your rating. For example, you can set the scale to rate agent performance as either 1-5 or 1-10 (note: this is an example, and your rating may differ depending on your preference). You can determine the passing score as well. So, agents can pass at 50% or 80%, whichever you prefer. Additionally, there is an option to include auto fail as a choice. If there is one extremely important question the agents fail, then they automatically fail the entire scorecard. If the agent’s tone is below company standards or if their response to customer questions is inaccurate, they can auto fail. Bonus questions can also be incorporated to further identify your agents’ weaknesses and strengths.

Benefits to the Quality Assurance Scorecard

  1. Agent Coaching Tool: New agents should be evaluated using a Quality Assurance Scorecard. This will provide them the feedback required to improve performance. Also, well-seasoned agents should be monitored to ensure they are holding company standards and growing to their fullest potential.

 

  1. Reporting: Once the agents scorecards are completed, reporting is available. These highly valuable reports provide the data needed to identify ways to improve agent performance. Reports may show a better approach is needed or they may provide a window into trends that agents are encountering through the entire campaign. All of this data reflects how to improve your bottom line via your agent’s success rate.

 

  1. Quality Assurance: Call center agents are conducting business in a heavily regulated industry. Monitoring agents using a Quality Assurance Scorecard provides an extra layer of assurance to managers that agents are properly reading disclosures and following TCPA regulations.

 

  1. Increased Sales: If you are coaching properly, you are teaching agents how to close the call and make the sale. The option to customize these scorecards is where you can have the capability to teach your agents properly on the specific campaign.

 

  1. Agent Retention: Quality Assurance Scorecards can also be an effective tool at increasing agent retention rates. The time that managers spend on training agents is valuable and directly affects the bottom line if you are constantly hiring and training new agents. Scorecards allow you to identify your agents’ strengths and weaknesses. You can use the data gathered to develop incentive programs and training tools.

 

Dive deeper into your call center software and develop your Quality Assurance Scorecard to increase agent performance. This one small tool can be used as a coaching tool that can have huge rewards on your bottom line. The life of your call center campaign, the reputation of your brand and the longevity of your business depends on the success of your agents. Train them well, continuously monitor their performance and your business will thrive. To learn more about how Quality Assurance Scorecards can help you train and coach your agents, contact us today or request a demo!