'Call Quality Practices 2008' Research Conducted During Early 2007 Sought to Better...

'Call Quality Practices 2008' Research Conducted During Early 2007 Sought to Better Understand How Companies Are Monitoring Call Quality and Other Customer Transactions

DUBLIN, Ireland--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c87893) has announced the
addition of Call Quality Practices 2008 to their offering.

This research report will deliver the results of our 5th annual
research on call quality programs. The author conducted research
during the first quarter of 2008 to better understand how companies
are monitoring call quality and other customer transactions. We asked
companies to share their call monitoring experiences to help us
identify the practices that make or break a quality monitoring
process. We also asked them to provide their plans moving forward as
well as lessons learned along the way.

Detailed case studies featuring companies examine current
monitoring practices, lessons learned, challenges overcome, plans for
the future, and business practices that have led to "big wins".

The report also profiles the monitoring technology that is in
place within these companies; provides an analysis of monitoring
approaches, including frequency, quantity of calls, monitoring
objectives, responsibilities for monitoring/feedback, timing of
feedback, communication techniques, calibration approaches. For those
companies with dedicated Quality Assurance groups, we look at how time
is spent, ways to improve credibility, skill requirements, and
feedback techniques. We also take a look at how coaches are selected
and trained, how coaching performance is measured, and coaching
certification programs. Finally, we explore the successes achieved as
a result of our participant's call monitoring efforts.

The research also examines ways to improve Quality Assurance
program credibility, takes a look at QA analyst skill requirements,
and techniques to improve QA feedback. As an added bonus, this report
also examines how coaches are selected and trained, coaching
performance measurement, and coaching certification programs.

Sample:

Call quality monitoring is one of the most effective methods for
improving the level of service you provide to your customers. Not only
can it improve the customer experience, it can also improve overall
call center performance, reduce callbacks, focus training efforts,
identify process improvement opportunities, and facilitate employee
development. Call quality monitoring refers to the process of
listening to or observing an agent's phone conversations or other
multi-media contacts with customers.

Over the past few years, the industry has witnessed a
proliferation of call-monitoring technology, as companies from search
for ways to make the call monitoring process more efficient. The
growth in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is also opening new
doors. Industry consolidation has reconfigured vendor offerings and
combined technologies to provide more robust solutions. Recent
incarnations include technologies that mine call data for keywords and
others that interpret speech patterns and evaluate calls without human
intervention. More and more features are being incorporated into
technology solutions for call monitoring, making these systems more
attractive to call center management and more challenging to
implement.

Many companies have created specialized Quality Assurance groups
to monitoring agent performance, in an effort to supplement
supervisory effort or offload some of the burden. There are advantages
and disadvantages that must be understood.

New technology and dedicated QA groups have made it possible to
conduct more monitoring sessions per month per employee than were
possible in the past. Has this led to higher customer satisfaction,
improved call center performance, or more effective agents? Our survey
of sixty companies reveals that there are no guarantees. Some
companies have experienced great success while others are struggling.
As most have found, call quality assurance is a highly complex
process--from both a people and technology standpoint.

Resistance to the call quality program by front-line
representatives or supervisors and call evaluation credibility are the
most frequently reported challenge to the Quality Monitoring process.
The second most challenging issue is the difficulty in designing and
modifying the evaluation criteria. Finding the time and resources to
conduct the quality program is the third biggest challenge reported by
participants. Achieving calibration among monitors and/or supervisors
is reported as the fourth biggest challenge. Finally, a lack of
coaching skills or expertise was mentioned as the fifth biggest hurdle
to an effective call monitoring process.

Study Findings & Observations

The author's research conducted during early 2007 sought to better
understand how companies are monitoring call quality and other
customer transactions. We asked companies to share their call
monitoring experiences to help us identify the practices that make or
break a quality monitoring process. We also asked them to provide
their plans moving forward as well as lessons learned along the way.
The results of this research are contained in our newly published
report, Call Quality Practices 2007.

Companies who have implemented call quality programs have realized
significant improvement in call quality, customer satisfaction,
employee performance, and overall call center performance. Companies
report specific improvement in call quality ranging from
six-to-fifteen percent. Attributed gains in customer satisfaction
ranged from four to ten percent. Some report significant reduction in
failure rates, handle time, and callbacks. Other improvements
mentioned included: higher first call resolution, fewer customer
complaints, fewer errors, improved overall call quality, improved
service level, and higher employee morale.

Measure the Customer Experience

Call quality monitoring must be reflective of customer value and
expectations--it must truly measure the customer experience. Measuring
the customer experience is the primary purpose of a call quality
monitoring process. Do you know what your customers' expect? If you
don't then find out though customer research--interviews, focus
groups, expectations surveys, or even calibration sessions--take the
time and spend the money to understand how customers' want to be
served. Keep in mind that expectations vary from segment to segment
and that expectations change over time. Calibrating your call quality
program with customer expectations is an ongoing effort.

Call quality monitoring is a performance measurement tool. Like
any measurement tool, you have to be careful about what you are
measuring. While the measurement process in and of itself produces
change, you'll also want to make sure you're measuring the right
behaviors.

What are the right behaviors?

If call quality is intended to measure the customer experience,
make sure your evaluation measures represent your customers'
expectations, not what you think is important to your customers. This
is one of the biggest mistakes made. Measuring call quality through
call monitoring is a labor-intensive process; it's also high risk, in
terms of human factors. Call monitoring is a key determinant of stress
in call centers--especially if it's perceived as being inaccurate,
untimely, too frequent, or too intense. So in other words, if you're
not truly measuring what customers' value then you might just be
wasting your time (and money) and placing your agents under undue
stress.

continued...

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c87893

Research and Markets
Laura Wood
Senior Manager
Fax: +353 1 4100 980
press@researchandmarkets.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008