The document discusses quality assurance (QA) within call centers and identifies common issues that prevent QA from being effective. It notes that QA is often seen as a compliance exercise rather than a way to develop skills. Other issues include a lack of alignment on standards, variances across languages and customer types, and QA not focusing on customer needs. The document provides recommendations for improving QA, such as ensuring stakeholders understand standards, evaluating soft skills, and using QA to enhance processes, benchmark, and provide coaching. It suggests outsourcing QA may help gain independent feedback and reduce costs.

1. Presented by Old Mutual and BYC

2. • Typical findings of QA within our industry
• When QA does and doesn’t work
• Debra De Graaf – Old Mutual Case Study
• Processes for QA effectiveness
• Alternative thinking on QA – Outsource
• Technologies – the barriers/challenges and
value
• Who QA relates to within the company
• Something to think about!

4. Compliance driven
‘Big Brother’
Tell mentality rather than pro-active skills development
Lack of alignment internally on ‘desired standards’
Variances in QA done by languages
Variances in QA done by customer contact
Use team managers to do QA – not core competence
Use good agents to do QA – ‘only know your business, not holistic
customer needs, customer demographics, coaching skills
Lack of customer orientation in QA evaluations; focus on process, not
brand, customer, retention, propensity to cancel, etc
Various volumes completed consistently throughout the contact
centre
Manual processes between QA and coaching – cumbersome
Reports don’t add value – talk to volume done rather than what’s
working and what isn’t
QA for operations only

5. Choose short calls due to time constraints
Choose assessors first language calls assuming
delivery same in all languages
Seen as task rather than value add to the
organisation
Demographic doesn’t understand different
customer needs across generations
QA doesn’t pick up on process opportunities to
improve customer and organisational cost
savings

6. Soft skills – questioning, relationship building
Communication skills – all elements
Sales skills – objection handling – features and
benefits
Product skills
Retention skills
Propensity to cancel – risk to business model
Compliance if applicable
First time resolution
Brand protection

7. Acknowledge good performance
Coaching of front line
Training material focus/reviews
Incentive leverage
Analysis – what’s working – what isn’t
Process enhancement opportunities
Benchmark against external customer surveys
Benchmark against competitors
Change to ensure meeting customer needs

10. 165 years old
1,000’s of employees
Tons of customers
100’s of products
Constantly changing
Decision making
Stakeholders
Objectives
Targets
Customers

12. Ensure everyone understands desired standards
Involve key stakeholders in what will be measured and what won’t
Change your QA in line with your customer behaviour & changing
business needs
Have equal balance between
Soft skills/sales skills/communication skills
Product information
Compliance (if applicable)
Ensure reports add value to relevant functions
Ensure equal volumes evaluated per agent
Ensure objectivity in your call/written evaluations
Ensure coaching regular and effective on findings
Ensure aligned to external customer feedback
Ensure effective analysis and feedback of results

13. Play to your strengths
If you don’t have
systems/processes or
skills internally get
help
Outsource some or all
of your QA
Gain objective and
independent feedback
Change mindset of
QA from ‘big brother’
to developmental
BYC?

14. Qnique
Nice
Verint
QPS
Ocular
Remedy
HPL
Excel
To name but a
few........
Expensive to purchase
Time to implement
Skills to build &
change & manage?
Multiple
environments – no
single view
Costly upgrades
What do you want
from it?
Can you get it easily?

15. Recruitment – right people right skills
Training – right focus on training investments
Operations – coaching/management effectiveness
Marketing – product/campaign assumptions
correct
Finance – business model assumptions correct on
sales ratios
Board of directors – strategic aims of the contact
centre fulfilled
Customers – your ability to change in line with
their needs/demands/desires

17. QA - key skill to obtain
optimum results
Objectivity imperative
especially when financial
impact
Customer experience is
your only differentiator
Customer retention critical
to business models
Our QA model more
competitive than internal
(35% cost saving)

18. Email: Jackie@Byc.co.za
Tel: 0215319949
Cell: 0825533576
Web: www.byc.co.za