Good Call Monitoring Means a Better Call Center

Technological data and statistics can tell us a lot about how a call center is running.  We can get fairly comprehensive data from metrics and technological sources as opposed to information provided by human sources – how quickly calls are resolved, for example, is easily tracked through technological means.  However, the information and statistics gathered in this way does not tell you everything you need to know, both on a day-to-day basis, and on the basis of improving a call center.

In order to fully understand how a call center agent performs, there has to be a certain amount of real-world observation, in addition to keeping an eye on the numbers.  That being said, call monitoring can be effective or drastically ineffective depending on how it is done.  Essentially, there are certainly ways of conducting call monitoring that are more efficient and beneficial in both the long and short term.  Below are examples of some of those ways.

Give Equal Attention to Good and Bad Calls

Changing what is not working is always a safe bet, but focusing only on what needs work – what is not going right – can be very demoralizing for the call centre agent that is receiving your feedback.  Instead of only drawing attention to the calls that are not perfect, be sure to draw attention to a balanced mix of good and bad calls, so the bad calls and mistakes can be drawn in direct comparison to what the call centre agent is doing right and should continue to do.  In addition to improving the quality of calls overall, this method makes call monitoring and feedback in general less stressful for call centre agents to receive.

Encourage Agents to Involve Themselves in Monitoring

If you get your agents to be a part of call monitoring as well as conducting their own management, two things are bound to happen.  First, it is highly likely that the call centre agent will start thinking more critically about their own conduct and calling process over the phone.  Secondly, it will teach both the monitoring agent and the agent being monitored to use the best methods possible by emphasizing the good and bad aspects of previous calls.   Peer evaluation can be an invaluable learning tool, and also a great way to evenly distribute the workload of call monitoring.

Use of Technology in Call Monitoring

There are some things humans can pick up on and handle better than a machine ever could, but it is best to have a balance between people power and the power of technology.  In the past, only a small part of calls could be monitored. However, technological advancements have enabled things like speech analyzing programs that can pick up key words within very high numbers of calls and can also flag certain keywords for review at a later time.

If your method f call monitoring is only pulling its data from a random selection of calls, that sample size is nowhere big enough to get to the real meat of the issues that need addressing.  Be sure to find the right balance of technology and human involvement for your business.

In the end, there are many different methods to improve the way a service conducts itself, and you need to stay on top of all recent developments that can help you achieve your goals.  The better your call center runs, the more efficient, helpful, and successful your business will be.