12 Nov Best Practices In Call Center Recording To Measure Quality Assurance
The benefits of using call recording software in call center environments are undisputed. Those benefits multiply ten-fold when the call recording software is applied to reviewing customer service representatives’ (CSR) performance during their first 45 days of employment.While we can’t speak for other call centers, Centrinex’s CSR training is an intensive weeklong or longer process that involves classroom instruction, listening to experienced CSRs on the floor, testing and more. Despite post training, CSRs can go down a rogue path once they’re out on their own; a path not necessarily aligned with your call center’s objectives.
Using call recording to evaluate new CSRs presents the opportunity to retrain immediately before undesirable behaviors become a habit. Once that new-hire window closes, it becomes more difficult to change habits if the CSR has been speaking incorrectly or employing poor tactics all along.
Call recording technology allows call center managers and trainers to pick the right words and phrases to listen in on. It also permits them to monitor CSR calls in three ways:
1. Listen to multiple recorded calls; one after the other throughout the day.
2. Listen to calls sitting side by side with the CSR.
3. Listen in silent monitoring mode from anywhere in the call center (requires a phone system with capacity for coaching, i.e. the CSR can hear coaching in one ear, but the customer cannot).
It’s good practice to spend 60%-70% of your QA resources on CSRs that have been with the company 45 days or less. Silent monitoring is especially effective since CSRs receive immediate feedback, which can often stop a call from escalating to an unrecoverable level.
Using call recording software, you and the new-hire CSR can track the entire customer experience. By sharing certain calls, the CSR can be involved in determining effectiveness and at a very base level: How would you feel after that call if you were a customer?
All the best practices, call recording techniques and quality assurance measures in the world won’t make a bit of difference without real and effective follow up. After reviewing calls, revisit the goals and talk to the CSR to make sure the retraining “stuck.”
And what if it didn’t? Chances are that you’ll find that out a lot sooner using these quality assurance techniques. Generally speaking, we’ve found that novice CSRs either make it or break it in their first 45 days. This initial time frame often determines whether or not a call center culture is the right job fit for them. And there’s no use in wasting either your or their time if there’s no long term fit. A call center job isn’t right for everyone. But for those that are a fit, there’s no better home than Centrinex!