It’s always good advice to begin with the end in mind. This is precisely why your company’s big-picture goals and the results you ultimately want to achieve are important factors to consider before creating a call monitoring strategy.
In addition, you’ll also want to consider your business infrastructure and available resources.
To simplify, consider the process of figuring out what’s for dinner …
You want a delicious meal to feed your family. This is the goal. The kind of food your family likes becomes the infrastructure, and the time and available ingredientresources will direct your strategy for getting a meal on the table.
Knowing this, you can plan ahead; adding the ingredients you need to your shopping list to ensure you have everything necessary to achieve your goal of a delicious meal.
Your call monitoring strategy is the same as planning ahead to ensure you have all the ingredients — in this case, all the data — required to achieve the desired results.
Before Creating a Call Monitoring Strategy, Consider Your Goals
Generally speaking, the goal of most call monitoring programs is to improve the quality of the customer experience your call center agents are providing.
In today’s marketplace, customers not only expect a good experience, they demand it. It is common practice for a customer to leave in favor of a competitor if they don’t feel as though they are receiving the quality of customer experience they expect and feel they deserve.
And let’s face it, without customers, there is no business.
Of course, if you have a different goal in mind, your call monitoring strategy can be designed to support whatever it is that you want to accomplish.
Consider the Infrastructure of Your Call Center Before Creating a Call Monitoring Strategy
In addition to your business goals, one of the factors to consider before creating a call monitoring strategy is the existing infrastructure of your operational center(s).
For example,
- How many agents/reps do you need to monitor?
- How many call centers do you need to monitor?
- How many calls per month per agent do you need to monitor?
- Do you have a call recording system in place?
- Do you have a reporting system in place?
Determine the Specific Data You Need to Collect
Once you have determined your goals and have a clear picture of your infrastructure, it’s time to think about exactly what data is needed to support your efforts. What key performance indicators (KPIs) do you want to track?
Consider monitoring KPIs such as:
- CSAT (customer satisfaction) score — how satisfied the customer is with the support they received.
- QA (quality assurance) score — the quality of the contact center agent’s performance, as graded by managers or designated reviewers.
- CES (customer effort score) — how much effort the customer had to exert to reach someone and get their issue resolved.
- AES (agent effort score) — how much effort the agent had to exert to resolve the customer’s issue.
- ASA (average speed of answer) — how long it takes agents to answer incoming calls.
- Average Talk Time — the time between when the agent answers the call and when they hang up.
- Wrap-Up Time — the time it takes after the call for the agent to fully resolve the issue and do the administrative follow-up activities.
- Missed and Declined Calls — the number of times a customer is sent back to the queue due to agents missing or declining calls.
- Total Resolution Time — the total time it takes for an agent to resolve a customer’s issue.
- Transfer Rate — the percentage of calls that agents transfer to another team member.
- Average Response Time — the time a customer has to wait to reach an agent.
- Average Hold Time — the time a customer spends on hold.
- Call Abandonment Rate — the number of customers who hang up while waiting to speak to an agent.
You may also have other data in mind that is unique to your business and necessary to collect in order to meet your specific goals. And that’s great!
Your call monitoring strategy can and should be tailored to support your business objectives.
Need Help Creating a Call Monitoring Strategy?
An effective call monitoring strategy can be complex, with a number of moving parts. But you don’t have to create your strategy all on your own.
Over the past 25+ years, we’ve helped many organizations create , implement, and utilize call monitoring strategies. And we can help you, too.
To get in touch, use this form to book a call or you can reach us directly at 1-800-397-3515. If you prefer email, you can connect with us at info@arcqs.com.