Years ago, we hired our dream employee. We believed they would perform above and beyond the expectations of a usual call center agent.
But after a year, this employee wasn’t performing as well as we hoped. We sat them down to discuss their performance and found that we were largely in agreement with how they were performing in their role.
But their performance didn’t change, and we had to fire that dream employee.
We know what went wrong, and it was our fault: we didn’t know how to properly approach quality assurance in customer service. Now we do.
This article will discuss why quality assurance is important for BPOs to get right and how ClearSource BPO is revolutionizing the QA process.
What Is Quality Assurance in Customer Service?
When customer service is concerned, BPOs want to offer the best possible customer experience. But how can you ensure agents are doing their best to create that experience? Through quality assurance.
In the context of customer service, quality assurance means identifying the pain points and shortcomings of a call center agent and training them to help improve their performance. This process is often broken down into the following four steps:
- Reviewing a call center agent’s performance
- Determining whether their performance meets minimum standards
- Reaffirming manager expectations
- Implementing changes to help improve the agent’s performance
Why Is Quality Assurance Important in Customer Service?
Quality assurance is so important for BPOs to get right because it establishes expectations and standards of quality. From that, quality assurance in customer service can offer:
- A stronger culture of care and quality within the organization
- The ability to identify flaws within the organization
- A more consistent customer experience for clients
- A chance to improve individual agent performance
Why ClearSource Doesn’t Need a QA Department (and Neither Do You)
Now that we know what quality assurance in customer service is and why it’s important, it’s time to discuss how to implement it into your organization.
Many call centers and BPOs will tell you to hire a QA team to take care of performance reviews and training. We’re here to tell you there’s a better way.
ClearSource BPO does not use a QA department for our quality assurance, yet we still maintain some of the highest customer satisfaction percentages in the industry. We also maintain high employee satisfaction and low attrition rates, something that’s historically difficult for the industry.
How do we manage these feats that so many in our industry struggle with? By using a more personalized, 1-on-1 approach to QA. Here’s the breakdown:
Agents Meet with Their Managers Directly
A big problem with QA departments is that they aren’t familiar with the daily lives of their agents—they aren’t intimately familiar with the agent’s interests or what their life away from work is like.
Meanwhile, the agent’s manager is aware of these variables (at least they should be). As such, they can foster a more personal relationship so both the manager and the agent can be honest with one another.
Real-Time Performance Reviews
At ClearSource, our managers meet with each of their agents weekly to review the agent’s performance. During this review, the manager will sit in during a customer call. After the call is completed, the manager and the agent will discuss how it went, covering three key questions:
- Was the agent truthful with the caller?
- Did the agent create an emotional connection with the caller?
- Did the agent minimize the caller’s path to success?
Both the manager and the agent will give an honest response to these answers and discuss what went well and what could be improved. Afterward, the manager and agent identify immediate action items for improvement.
Regular Follow-Ups
The following week, the action items they decided on are revisited to see how the agent has implemented them.
ClearSource Assures Quality
For those looking for high-quality customer service outsourcing, quality assurance is never better guaranteed than at ClearSource BPO. Contact us today to find out how our agents can launch your customer satisfaction rates to new heights.
