Online Training Classes

Available from The Call Center School

Note:  QATC Members Receive One Free Online Training Per Year

Building a Quality Monitoring Form – Part I   

Quality monitoring forms enable supervisors to measure an agent’s performance on actual calls against performance standards. Having an effective monitoring form can make the difference between having data that allows you to objectively evaluate agent skills and data that is nit-picky and subjective. In addition, a good evaluation form lets agents know what is expected of them throughout the call and what is necessary for a successful customer interaction. In this session you’ll learn how to create a quality  monitoring form that is relevant to your business, objective,  user-friendly, and an effective coaching tool.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Identify common mistakes made on quality forms and how to avoid them.
  • Align monitoring form objectives with company and call center goals.
  • Identify behaviors that are objective and measurable.
  • Organize your form for ease of evaluation and reporting.
  • Identify skill sections and behaviors unique to three call center industries.

Building a Quality Monitoring Form – Part II  

Having well defined quality criteria is just the beginning of creating an effective performance management tool. The next step is to apply weighting and scoring that promotes essential call behaviors.  In this session, you will learn various answer and scoring schemes for evaluating your call center’s quality standards.  In addition, we will explore the pro’s and con’s of “auto-fail” and how best to use alternative scoring methods such as bonus points to reward agents who go above and beyond service expectations.  This session also provides suggestions on how to facilitate the discussion with your quality team to come up with the “right” point values for your quality standards.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Identify the benefits to implementing a scoring methodology to quality evaluation criteria.
  • Apply section-based weighting to emphasize skills groups most important to a call’s success.
  • Identify various scoring schemes and understand the pros and cons of each style.
  • Apply a scoring structure that recognizes skill priorities and awards most important critical behaviors.
  • Validate your quality evaluation criteria and create a project plan for rolling-out your quality program.

Defining Call Standards: What a Call Should Sound Like

It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.  The customer’s overall impression of a call is based not just on the right words, but the overall “feel” of the call which is heavily influenced by vocal techniques and mannerisms. Unfortunately, these vocal elements like voice tone, call control, and demonstration of emotions like empathy or enthusiasm are harder to define and measure. This session tackles defining these “soft skill” standards to enable more objective and effective call reviews.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Identify vocal behavior descriptions that are objective and measurable.
  • Describe ways to define vocal delivery elements such as rapport building or call control.
  • Define challenging call standards like voice tone, quality, and empathy.
  • Assemble a coaching session planning guide.
  • Incorporate definitions into a comprehensive Quality Standards document.

Calibration Corner: Best Practices in Calibrating and Standardizing Scoring 

Measuring quality through monitoring is an ongoing commitment that requires a calibration plan, a process, and the setting of realistic, attainable calibration goals.  This session with help you develop a calibration program that includes all the right people and gives structure to your calibration meetings.  You will learn to set realistic standard deviation goals that will move you toward better calibration among supervisors, quality analysts and others involved in monitoring and providing agents with call feedback.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Identify the benefits of quality calibration and standardizing evaluation scores.
  • Describe the components needed for effective calibration meetings.
    • Design an effective quality calibration process.
    • Calculate standard deviation and set realistic deviation goals.
    • List the five critical factors for facilitating a productive calibration meeting.

Basics of Call Coaching: Techniques for Shaping Call Behaviors

Call center supervisors and quality coaches have multiple opportunities in a variety of settings to communicate with staff about their call-handling performance. In this session you will learn about recommended practices for doing both recorded call and side-by-side coaching for improved performance, including tips on providing positive and negative feedback.  We begin with an overview of performance management, and discuss the importance of reinforcement to influence frontline agent behaviors. You will also learn communication techniques that promote discussion and lead to agent buy-in.  Hear about three call coaching approaches to use to celebrate, clarify and correct agent behaviors.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Identify the benefits of effective call coaching.
  • Follow a five-step performance diagnosis and coaching process.
  • Coach to celebrate great calls by reinforcing behaviors.
  • Coach to clarify on calls where agents almost have it right.
  • Coach to correct poor call performance in a way that encourages agent participation and buy-in.

Making the Most of Quality Monitoring: Creating a Comprehensive QA Program

This call may be monitored to ensure quality – is one of the most familiar phrases associated with call centers today. Indeed, most businesses are monitoring calls to ensure the correct message is being delivered and the majority of centers utilize some sort of automated monitoring system to facilitate the process.  In this session, you’ll learn how to align your business practices to make the most of your monitoring efforts. Hear the most common mistakes made when implementing a monitoring program, as well as ideas for ensuring the process will be met with employee acceptance.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Identify the most common mistakes in implementing a quality monitoring program.
  • Identify four goals of an effective monitoring program.
  • Develop a call recording strategy for gathering sample interactions.
  • Define processes to ensure consistency and fairness in the monitoring process.
  • Incorporate best practices to leverage quality monitoring  to drive performance improvement in the center.

Satisfaction Guaranteed:  Performing a Call Center Satisfaction Audit

While internal performance measures demonstrate how efficiently a call center is using its resources, it’s important to focus on external measures of performance to determine how effectively the call center is using resources to meet customer demands. In this session, we’ll discuss ways to do satisfaction studies with different types of customers. You’ll learn ways to survey them about the call center operation specifically instead of the center being just one of many questions on the company’s overall customer satisfaction questionnaire.  The session will outline the steps of planning a successful customer survey project, including what questions to ask and how to analyze and act on results.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Identify the various types of surveys and when to use each one.
  • Describe issues to consider in developing the survey instrument, including how to write good questions.
  • Outline the advantages and disadvantages of various survey administration methods.
  • Describe considerations and calculations to include in the sampling and analysis process.
  • Identify supporting tools and processes to assist in the survey process.
  • Outline ways to communicate the results of your findings to customers, management, and employees.

Voice of the Customer: Developing a Systematic Listening/Feedback System

A call center agent will interact with more customers in a singe week than most employees will touch in their entire career.  Therefore, who could be better to listen to the customer's input, assimilate it and feed it back to the rest of the enterprise?  The challenge is to effectively listen to the customer, not just about the contact issue at hand, but also product likes/dislikes, wish lists, competitive data, etc.  Then it must be collated into useful reports that can be shared with the appropriate departments throughout the enterprise in a way that is accepted and not viewed as "finger pointing" when it is negative.  Acting upon the needs and desires of customers is a critical factor in competitive success.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Identify benefits of a customer complaint and quantify the immediate and long-term value of a customer interaction.
  • Explore the opportunities to become a conduit for the “voice of the customer” to your entire enterprise.
  • Identify methods to improve your business through quality monitoring.
  • Identify methods that will enable constructive feedback without “finger pointing.”
  • Identify the metrics and measures to put in place to ensure effectiveness as well as efficiency.

Email Quality Monitoring: Writing the Right Way

Call centers have evolved into contact centers as frontline staff respond not just to telephone calls but to written communications as well. And, just as it’s important to monitor telephone calls to ensure quality and service, it’s also critical to monitor emails to ensure that your written communications get the same attention to quality. This seminar will take a look at the world of email communications, including customer expectations and their biggest complaints about email correspondence. Learn about elements of an email monitoring policy, monitoring approaches, and the most common writing mistakes to address with those agents handling written communications.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

  • Define the desirable elements of an email from a customer perspective.
  • Outline the components of an email monitoring policy.
  • Identify what written communications standards need to be defined at a minimum.
  • Describe best practices for use of standard email templates versus customization.
  • Identify the most common business writing mistakes.