Dear Affy,

I’m the manager of QA for our three call centres. My team and I spend a lot of time debating and calibrating our QA measures with the front line, and we can’t even agree whether or not it’s making any real difference for improving our customer satisfaction scores. What is the function of QA for improving Customer Sat?

Frustrated in Fredericton

A-Dear F in F,

The QA program has been under scrutiny for years. As you are experiencing, QA programs are often contentious with much energy spent arguing about the minutiae of the interaction. In too many contact centres, it has become more about the process and less about the larger goal of creating a great customer experience.

Why does this occur?

QA is most effective as an “objective” measure of performance. It works well for yes/no activities (“did she say hello?”), for compliance (“he delivered the privacy statement”), and regulatory (“she filled in the field for account approval”).

It is very ineffective for measuring the “subjective” customer experience. This includes statements like “his greeting was warm and welcoming” or “she delivered an exceptional experience”. The reality is that the only subjective opinion that has merit belongs to the customer!

Your QA analysts create scores from their personal interpretation of how the customer FELT and whether the customer’s needs were met. This ongoing subjectivity sends reps mixed messages and they focus on “don’t get dinged” in their QA evaluation. Reps start worrying (and arguing) over low importance (to the customer) elements such as “too much dead air” or “did not use the customer’s name three times on the call”.

From the customer’s perspective, the real satisfaction elements such as “did you solve my issue” and “did you make me feel unique and important” are overlooked.

We have worked with many companies to create a successful role for QA and other stakeholders in collectively creating “WOW” calls. Following is a strategy for a successful QA team…

Reviewing objective call, email elements:
There are many elements of a great experience that can be objectively observed on a call or seen in email without debate.

Monitoring compliance:
It is important to measure reps delivery of necessary company objectives such as privacy and risk management, compliance to procedures, and providing accurate information.

Managing customer surveys:
Only the customers’ opinion matters on subjective criteria. If you don’t have this in place, internal debates may not add much value. Besides numeric scoring, it is also valuable to capture verbatim comments. QA should manage this process and merge objective QA data with customer survey data to produce a broad view of the experience.

Collecting and documenting skill gaps:
QA can provide much-needed insights into the knowledge and skill gaps of reps so the training team can prioritize training activities, and frontline leaders can target individual needs in side-by-side coaching. Too often, this is an overlooked role for QA but one of the most important if you want to make significant strides in your customer experience.

Being the best practice machine:
No team hears more calls and observes the great skills of the reps. Developing a consistent system where the best routines and techniques of reps is disseminated through coaches to other reps is a key role for the top QA teams.

F in F, you have an opportunity to turn your QA team into important strategic partners with the Operations team. Good luck making the changes!

Afshan Bye