Quality monitoring in 2004
Lessons and best practices

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Module 2 - Who, what and how often

The Call Center Learning Center is excited to announce its 2004 series on Quality Monitoring. This series will pull from our most recent benchmarking findings and the Quality Monitoring Toolkit to illustrate best practices in quality monitoring. Module 1 introduces the series and provides some highlights from the 2004 report. Module 2 examines the nuts-and-bolts of quality monitoring - who is doing it, how often and using what method. Module 3 discusses the categories participants used to evaluate their agents and how to design your quality monitoring scorecard. Module 4 looks at improvement initiatives and the biggest changes centers are making to their programs. Module 5 concludes the series with tips for implementing or improving your own quality monitoring program.

Which methods are centers using

The majority of call centers used silent monitoring or recording devices for call monitoring (see Figure A).

Figure A - Monitoring methods

Who is monitoring the call?

Supervisors or a quality assurance team most frequently monitored calls (see Figure B).

Figure B - Who is monitoring calls

Monitoring frequency

As illustrated in Figure C, over 75% of participants stated that they monitor their agents less than ten times per month, with most of them monitoring agents only one to two times per month. These results are consistent with the data from the 1999 and 2001 studies.

Figure C - Contacts monitored per month

Voice only or voice and system monitored

Responses were split as to whether both voice and systems interactions were captured (see Figure D), with a slight majority capturing voice only.

Figure D - Do you capture both voice and system interactions?

Selecting the appropriate method for your center

Recall that in the spectrum of quality monitoring, there are a variety of methods used in quality monitoring. Each method has particular benefits and issues based on that particular method. You may choose to use several methods of quality monitoring as part of your program. This decision will be based on what you are trying to learn and monitor with your system.

When you are selecting your method, remember that each method has particular benefits and issues that will make it fit with, or not fit with, the requirements of your program. The table below summarizes some of the qualities of the different monitoring methods. The Quality Monitoring Toolkit includes complete descriptions, pros and cons for each method.

Be sure that the method you choose is right for your call center and the quality monitoring program you choose. Also remember that you may want to use a combination of methods in your own program. The use of several methods will allow you to meet several different demands placed on your call center by your organization.

The Quality Monitoring Toolkit provides complete guidelines for selecting and designing you quality monitoring program. The toolkit includes complete descriptions, pros and cons, and implementation issues for all of the monitoring methods.

Recommended Resources:

Buy the complete 2004 Call Center Benchmarking report for $189 - the new 2004 edition of the report includes a special new section on outsourcing and highlights of the biggest changes in call center management and most important changes planned in the future.

Quality Monitoring Toolkit - The Quality Monitoring Toolkit is the most comprehensive guide available for quality monitoring. Whether you are just starting a new program for monitoring contacts or need to overhaul your current call monitoring process, this toolkit provides definitive guidelines and templates for both phone and multi-media contact monitoring. Using research data from more than 400 call centers, the toolkit includes benchmarking results that will make your quality monitoring program a success. The toolkit includes:

• Methods for quality monitoring
• Benefits of quality monitoring
• Perception and legality
• The complete Quality Monitoring Lifecycle
• Survey criteria
• Scorecard content - with a sample based on best practices research
• Implementation and improvement guidelines

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