Quality assurance (QA) forms have long been regarded as a crucial tool for monitoring and improving customer interactions. However, it's not uncommon to hear frustrated call center managers and agents alike lamenting the shortcomings of their QA forms. 

Far from enhancing performance, these forms often backfire, leading to increased stress, inefficiencies, and even a decline in customer satisfaction. 

So, why does this happen, and how can we turn the tide? 

In this blog, we'll delve into the pitfalls of conventional QA forms, exploring why they frequently fail to deliver the desired results. 

We'll also uncover innovative ways to personalize and revamp your quality assurance game, ensuring they become a powerful asset in your quest for call center excellence. 

Get on a call to revamp your quality assurance game.

How to NOT Build a QA Form for Call Center Monitoring?

To build an effective QA form, approach it with patience, customization, and an openness to feedback. 

Ensure it aligns with your call center's objectives and the evolving needs of your team and customer accounts. Remember, a well-designed QA form is a valuable tool for ongoing improvement, not a static document.

1. Rushing the Process

Building a call center QA form isn't a sprint; it's a marathon. Rushing the process can result in a form that lacks thorough planning, clear objectives, or well-defined criteria. Take the time to strategize and design it thoughtfully.

2. Copy-Pasting

Every call center has its unique challenges, goals, and customer interactions. Simply copying another organization's QA form without considering your specific needs can lead to a form that's out of sync with your operation.

3. Too Many Questions

Long, exhaustive QA forms can be overwhelming for agents and lead to burnout. Avoid including excessive questions. Focus on the critical aspects that matter most to your call center's goals and customer experience.

4. Lack of Clarity

Vague or ambiguous questions can result in inconsistent evaluations. Ensure that each question in the QA form is unambiguous and clearly defines what's being assessed.

5. Ignoring Agent Feedback

Your frontline agents have valuable insights into customer interactions. Neglecting their feedback during the QA form creation process can lead to a form that doesn't reflect the real challenges they face.

6. No Flexibility

The call center environment is dynamic, with ever-changing customer demands and industry trends. Creating a rigid QA form that can't adapt to new situations can hinder your ability to stay competitive. 

7. Skipping Training

Assume that agents and supervisors know how to use the form without proper training, and you risk inconsistent evaluations and misinterpretations. Training is essential to ensure everyone understands the form's purpose and criteria.

8. Ignoring the Customer's Perspective

Ultimately, the quality of customer service is what matters most. Neglecting to include questions that assess the customer's experience can result in a one-sided evaluation that doesn't truly capture the service quality.

9. Set-and-Forget Mentality

A QA form should evolve with your call center's changing needs and goals. Treating it as a one-time project and not regularly reviewing and updating it can lead to stagnation and missed opportunities for improvement.

What is a Call Monitoring Form?

A call monitoring form is basically a tool that helps call centers keep tabs on the quality of their customer service calls. It's like a scorecard, or a checklist that call center supervisors or quality assurance folks use to evaluate how well their agents are doing on the phone.

Think of it as a way to measure if your call center agents are following the rules and delivering the kind of customer experience you want them to. It typically includes a list of criteria or questions that you can use to rate the calls, like how polite the agent was if they solved the customer's problem or if they followed the script.

Call Monitoring Form Template

Depicted below is the call monitoring form template that can be used in contact centers to assess and evaluate the performance of customer service representatives (CSRs) during customer interactions. 

It includes categories such as opening, soft skills, objection handling, parameters, and weightage. Contact center managers and supervisors use these forms to benefit in several ways. 

Firstly, they can identify areas where CSRs excel and where they may need improvement, which helps in targeted coaching and training. 

Secondly, it ensures consistency in service delivery by identifying deviations from established standards. 

Additionally, call monitoring forms allow for performance benchmarking, helping managers track progress over time and make data-driven decisions to enhance overall contact center efficiency and customer satisfaction. 

You can now download this template with respect to your relevant industry below.

What is Call Monitoring Used For?

1. Quality Control

One of the main gigs of call monitoring is keeping tabs on the quality of calls. It helps you check if your agents are doing things the way they're supposed to, following company policies, and treating customers right.

2. Training and Coaching

It's like having a coach for your call center team. You can use the feedback from call monitoring to train your agents and help them get better at their jobs. It's like game tape for basketball players; you review it, find the weak spots, and practice to improve.

3. Improving Customer Service

When you spot areas where your agents could do better, you can tweak your training or processes to up your customer service game. The goal is to make sure your customers are happier and keep coming back.

4. Compliance and Regulations

In some industries, there are rules and regulations about how customer interactions should go down. Call monitoring helps ensure you're following the law and any industry standards.

Read about the top call center compliance regulations in the U.S.

5. Performance Reviews

It's not just about catching mistakes; it's also about recognizing and rewarding good work. Call monitoring helps in performance evaluations, bonuses, and promotions.

6. Customer Insights

By listening in on calls, you can pick up on customer trends, common issues, and what customers really care about. This info can be pure gold for making business decisions.

Book a demo to get better customer insights

Essential Elements of a Contact Center QA Form

The elements make up the backbone of a good QA form. It's all about making sure your agents are not only doing their job but doing it well, being professional, and keeping things in line with both the company's goals and the law of the land. 

1. Soft skills

• Communication Skills: Check how well your agents communicate with customers. Are they friendly, clear, and empathetic?
• Active Listening: See if they're really tuning in to what customers are saying and showing that they care.
• Problem-Solving: Evaluate their ability to solve customer issues and whether they follow a structured problem-solving approach.

2. Process

• Adherence to Scripts: If your call center uses scripts, make sure agents are sticking to them. No freelancing, but also no sounding like robots.
• Efficiency: Look at how efficiently they handle calls. Is the call time reasonable, or are they dragging it out?
• Workflow Compliance: Check if they're following all the steps and processes you've set in place. It's like making sure they're driving on the right road.

3. Compliance

• Legal Compliance: Ensure your agents are following all the laws and regulations that apply to your industry. This is vital, as violations can lead to trouble.
• Company Policies: Make sure they're following your internal company policies and procedures. It's like sticking to the rules of the house.
• Data Protection: If you're handling sensitive info, like customer data, verify that they're handling it securely and following data protection rules.

4. Outcomes

• Customer Satisfaction: Measure the impact of agent performance on customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Agent Performance Improvement: Track agent performance individually based on feedback and coaching.
• Operational Efficiency: Evaluate the impact of QA on contact center efficiency and resource allocation.
• Compliance Confidence: Assess the level of confidence in your contact center's compliance with rules and regulations.
• Decision-Making Insights: Utilize data and insights from QA assessments to inform strategic decisions.
• Consistency Across Agents: Ensure that all agents are held to the same standards, promoting consistency in service quality.

Benefits of Call Monitoring Form

Call monitoring forms, when used effectively, offer several benefits for call centers and organizations. Here are some of the key advantages:

1. Enhanced Service Quality

Call monitoring forms serve as a quality control tool, ensuring that every customer interaction meets your standards.  

They help identify areas where agents excel and where improvement is needed, leading to consistently better service. When customers receive top-notch service every time they call, their satisfaction and loyalty increase.

2. Continuous Agent Improvement

By regularly evaluating agent performance through monitoring forms, you create a culture of ongoing improvement. 

Agents receive constructive feedback based on specific criteria, enabling them to refine their skills. This not only benefits individual agents but also elevates the overall competency of your customer service teams.

3. Consistency Across the Board

Call centers often have multiple agents handling diverse customer queries. Monitoring forms ensure that all agents adhere to the same service standards, maintaining a uniform customer experience. This consistency is crucial for building trust and meeting customer expectations.

4. Compliance and Risk Mitigation

In highly regulated industries, call monitoring forms help ensure that agents comply with legal requirements and company policies. This reduces the risk of legal issues, fines, or reputational damage due to non-compliance. It's like having a safety net for your operations.

5. Operational Efficiency

Monitoring forms shed light on the efficiency of call-handling processes. By identifying bottlenecks, unnecessary steps, or time-consuming practices, you can make data-driven improvements. 

This not only reduces call durations but also optimizes resource allocation, leading to cost savings and a more streamlined operation.

Call Monitoring Feedback Examples

Here are some examples of call monitoring feedback that you can use as templates or adapt to specific situations:

1. Positive Feedback

"Great job on the call! You maintained a friendly and professional tone throughout the conversation. Your active listening skills were excellent, and you addressed the customer's concerns effectively. Keep up the good work!"

2. Communication Skills

"Your communication skills were on point during the call. You explained the process clearly and used simple language, which the customer appreciated. However, remember to maintain a slightly slower pace to ensure the customer can follow along smoothly."

3. Problem-Solving

"You did a good job identifying the customer's issue and proposing the most appropriate solution. However, there was a brief pause during the call when you were looking up information. Try to minimize such pauses to maintain a smooth flow in future interactions."

4. Script Adherence

"You followed the script well, ensuring that you covered all the necessary points. However, remember to sound more natural and less scripted. Customers prefer a conversational tone."

5. Call Efficiency

"The call duration was longer than expected for this type of query. It's essential to ensure efficient call handling without compromising service quality. Consider strategies to reduce call duration while meeting customer needs."

6. Compliance

"You demonstrated excellent compliance with legal requirements and company policies. Keep up the diligence in ensuring data security. It's crucial to maintain our standards in this area."

7. Areas for Improvement

"While your overall performance was satisfactory, there's room for improvement in active listening. Make sure to fully address the customer's concerns before proceeding. This will lead to more satisfied customers."

8. Overall Assessment

"Your performance on this call was satisfactory. Keep working on your communication and problem-solving skills to reach the 'good' or 'excellent' level consistently."

Upgrade Your Call Monitoring Form With Convin

Call center monitoring is evolving, and it's high time we bid farewell to the outdated QA forms that have been causing more harm than good. 

As we've explored in this blog, personalized, flexible, and efficient call monitoring forms are the way forward, and they can make a world of difference in agent performance, customer satisfaction, and overall call center success. 

By embracing innovative solutions like Convin, you can take your call monitoring to the next level, streamline processes, and help your agents enhance customer satisfaction. 

It's time to upgrade your call monitoring form and join the ranks of call centers that are revolutionizing customer service. Don't miss out on this opportunity to transform your operations and elevate your call center to new heights of excellence.

Sign up to upgrade your call monitoring form.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I create a QA form?

Identify your goals, involve relevant stakeholders, define evaluation criteria, design the form, pilot-test it, and gather feedback for refinement.

2. What is contact center monitoring?

Contact center monitoring involves the systematic assessment of customer interactions, typically phone calls, to evaluate agent performance, ensure compliance, and improve customer service.

3. What are some call monitoring questions?

Sample call monitoring questions can include assessing communication skills, problem-solving abilities, adherence to scripts, call efficiency, and compliance with legal and company policies.