, Published 24 Aug 2018
What is Call Center Monitoring?
Call center monitoring, also called agent monitoring, call center agent monitoring, or call logging, is the process of continuously evaluating inbound and outbound calls and providing feedback to acknowledge best practices and address areas for improvement. Conducted by QA analysts using call center monitoring forms, call center monitoring can help maintain company profitability by aligning employees’ practices with that of the company’s overarching goals.
Call Center Quality Assurance Form
Use this Call Center Quality Assurance Form to help evaluate calls and observe if representatives followed standard call protocols. This will help check if call representatives understand customer concerns and offer the most appropriate solution. The form also covers the end-call behavior of call representatives. Conclude the evaluation by providing observations and recommendations on how representatives can improve the quality of service. Use SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) to generate and capture data reports and compare trends of failed responses through Analytics. You can also limit the editing permissions of your SafetyCulture users to make sure the QA templates are standard across the board.
In this article
- What are Call Center Monitoring Forms?
- Sample Call Center Quality Monitoring Form
- Who are QA Analysts or those in Quality Assurance Teams?
- When is the Best Time to Conduct Call Monitoring?
- Where is it Ideal to Conduct Call Quality Monitoring?
- Call Center Monitoring Steps
- Powerful Tool for Call Quality Monitoring
- Featured Call Center Monitoring Forms
What are Call Center Monitoring Forms?
Also called call center quality assurance forms, call center monitoring forms are tools used by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies and quality assurance teams to assess the calls of representatives and help set a benchmark to sustain the level of call quality and call handling across call centers.
Call quality monitoring forms help QA analysts by setting a standardized means of identifying areas for improvement, recognizing best practices, recording observations, and providing feedback that can help further improve the performance of call center representatives, enhance customer satisfaction, and boost customer experience.
Sample Call Center Quality Monitoring Form
This sample call center quality monitoring form was built with the general best practices of call centers in mind. Downloadable as a digital monitoring form or as PDF, this call monitoring form follows the natural flow of a call and is composed of the following sections:
- Opening spiel or greeting
- Understanding the customer’s need
- Providing solutions and service
- Closing the call
- QA analyst’s observations and recommendations
Who are QA Analysts or those in Quality Assurance Teams?
Usually, for call centers with in-house QA teams, the QA analysts are mostly from the same pool of talents who handled calls and were able to gain expertise over time on the products or services that call center agents are handling. They provide feedback to call center agents and work closely with team managers to help improve team performance and elevate the level of call quality.
When is the Best Time to Conduct Call Monitoring?
In the case of call recording, the best time to conduct call monitoring is soon after a call is made. The earlier that QA analysts provide feedback on areas for improvement, the sooner can call center agents have the opportunity to correct non-compliance.
Where is it Ideal to Conduct Call Quality Monitoring?
QA teams ideally have a dedicated area or room where call monitoring can be conducted without disruptive noise and where interruptions can be avoided. Whether the calls being monitored are recorded or live, it is crucial that the QA area helps the QA analysts stay alert and concentrate in order to properly capture everything and be accurate with documentation about the calls being monitored.
Call Center Monitoring Steps
With the number of calls customer services receive daily, it is important to follow a methodical approach in monitoring and evaluating them. Creating a standardized technique in call monitoring not only allows businesses to streamline their daily process but also helps them measure the quality, improvement, and success of calls more accurately. Start a call center monitoring plan with the following steps:
- Specify goals – To jumpstart a call monitoring plan, emphasize the purpose clearly and define the goals to be achieved. With that said, keep in mind to align set goals in accordance with the company’s objectives and general practices. This would ensure that everyone is on the same page and can ease the process of measuring results against initial ideas.
- Define assessment criteria – To help track the quality of calls, create a comprehensive scoring and evaluation form. An easily-measured form commonly includes sections that would evaluate call elements such as greeting, ways used to understand customer needs, ability to provide appropriate solutions, quality of customer service, as well as the manner of the closing segment.
- Gather the right people – To strengthen the monitoring process, involve the right people in collecting, reviewing, and analyzing the data. These stakeholders generally include industry experts and decision-makers like the executive management, managers, or agents.
- Select calls to monitor – To implement control measures in choosing the calls to be evaluated, develop pre-decided conditions that would help narrow them down. Some of the factors to consider can be along the lines of high-impact calls, high-value prospects, or particular agents.
- Analyze the data – To help make sense of the gathered details, create a different set of QA analysts that would sort and analyze the raw data. This could then be used to identify patterns, trends, and other observations that aim to recognize recurring pain points and improve the whole process.
- Ensure that employees are on board – To implement the monitoring plans smoothly, make sure that they are communicated properly to all involved parties. Give managers and employees a chance to provide comments and ask for clarifications. Also, emphasize the advantages of enforcing a streamlined call monitoring system to all key stakeholders.
- Choose the best tool – Lastly, to execute a comprehensive call monitoring procedure, employ the aid of appropriate tools. Using the right tools such as software or digital platforms can increase the consistency, efficiency, and accuracy of how calls are monitored and evaluated.
Powerful Tool for Call Quality Monitoring
SafetyCulture is a powerful mobile auditing app and call center solution that can help QA analysts and team managers capture observations during call monitoring and generate reports that would be needed during feedback sessions with call center agents. As a tool that can help benchmark virtual call center practices, any changes to call monitoring forms can be updated in the SafetyCulture software by the designated person and the changes will automatically update the QA team’s call monitoring forms.
We have prepared these free call center monitoring forms that you can use on the SafetyCulture app or download as PDF. You can use the forms as is or edit them in SafetyCulture without using Excel spreadsheets to better fit the needs of your call center.
Featured Call Center Monitoring Forms
Call Monitoring Form
Use this Call Monitoring Form to help QA specialists evaluate call representative’s service interaction with the customer. This will help check if call representative’s language accuracy, comprehension, reasoning skills, and customer rapport were: Exceptional, Effective, Below average, or Needs Improvement. Use SafetyCulture’s scoring feature to gain insights into how call representatives are performing over time. Determine frequently failed responses and know which to prioritize for action plans.
Comprehensive Sample Call Center Quality Monitoring Form
This Comprehensive Call Center Quality Monitoring template offers a more detailed assessment of employee call interaction with customers. Begin with the evaluation of how the call began, observe representative’s problem-solving methods, call etiquette, and script compliance. Note other observations and provide recommendations. SafetyCulture templates are fully customizable to suit your QA needs. Secure collected data via SafetyCulture’s cloud-based storage.
Call Center Employee Evaluation Template
This call center employee evaluation template consists of 13 essential questions to evaluate how calls were handled. Observe if agents adhered to company policies and determine if agents were able to address customers’ needs with the appropriate tone of voice. Use SafetyCulture to document significant data and share QA reports with your QA team.