How to Use Agent Scorecard to Improve Your Call Center Quality?

Call centre technology has come a long way since those IVR call routings. Even though it is still very much in use, call centres focus on improving their technological assets. In fact, 44% of customers believe that businesses and brands should incorporate more technical resources to make CX smoother. 

Customers have many choices in the market in terms of brands, companies, and products. If you fail to satisfy your client, they will find someone else. 

A customer service agent is a bridge between a customer concern and customer relationship, which helps a company move. 

Indeed, your agents work hard under the heavy mountain of responsibility. But, if you aim to provide outstanding customer service, you need a proper performance scorecard.

In this scenario, agent scorecards play a pivotal role in improving call center quality. So, today’s topic of discussion is the very same objective: to find How to use an agent scorecard to improve your call center quality.

A. What is a call centre agent scorecard?

A call centre agent scorecard measures the performance of customer service representatives in a call centre or contact centre.

It typically includes metrics such as average handle time, customer satisfaction, first call resolution rate, call abandonment rate, and attendance. 

The scorecard allows call centre managers to track the progress of their agents and identify areas for improvement.

A call centre balanced agent scorecard typically provides a comprehensive overview of an agent’s performance and helps call centre QAs to identify areas for improvement.

Enthu.AI provides detailed scorecard reports that give you a comprehensive overview of agent performance over time. These reports can be customized to meet your specific needs.

So, what is a call center scorecard?

B. Importance of agent scorecard in a call centre

The call centre agent scorecard is an important tool for call centre managers as it helps to:

1. Monitor performance

By tracking key metrics such as average handle time, customer satisfaction, and first call resolution rate, call center managers can identify areas for improvement and ensure that agents are meeting performance expectations.

2. Drive improvements

 By identifying areas for improvement, the call centre agent scorecard helps call centre managers to set goals and implement processes to improve agent performance.

3. Provide feedback

The call center agent scorecard provides agents with clear, objective feedback on their performance, which can help to increase motivation and drive improvement.

4. Enhance customer satisfaction

 By monitoring and improving key performance metrics, call centre managers can ensure that agents are providing high-quality customer service, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction.

5. Make data-driven decisions

 By tracking performance metrics over time, call centre managers can make informed, data-driven decisions about staffing levels, training and coaching, and development technology investments.

C. Purpose of a scorecard in call centers

Here is how a call center scorecard is essential for your call center. 

1. Objective evaluation

Scorecards give your statistical data of an individual or the overall performance of your agents in a call center. This objective data is important to set objective goals. In objective evaluation, you do not use any prior knowledge. 

It is entirely numerical and statistical. It has different grounds, based on which you can assess an agent and provide him with necessary training. 

2. Defining different areas of evaluation

In call centers, you get people from various social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. In fact, agents have to deal with a lot of customers, each with different attributes. 

Scorecards help you define different areas of skills. There are various conversation intelligence software like Enthu.AI, which give an opportunity to evaluate your agents based on their soft skills, subject matter expertise, conflict-resolution skills, etc. 

For example, if you have a clear objectified list of goals, you would find someone lacking in something and others excelling at it. It isn’t always possible to monitor with bare eyes. But, scorecards give you a precise number that helps in evaluation. 

3. Regular training and coaching

It is linked to the evaluation we mentioned before and comes next- training. Say, for example, after a detailed assessment, you find most of your team members lack subject matter expertise. 

So, you can arrange regular training sessions to improve on what they lack. Similarly, individuals who lack conflict-resolution skills can benefit significantly from an individual training session. 

Coaching and training through Enthu.AI helps agent improve their overall performance and increase their productivity with honest feedback.

4. Promotion and firing decisions

After all these evaluations and training, and reevaluations, you will have a clear image of who’s improving and who is not. Sometimes, without a proper scorecard, many companies fire the wrong person.

Scorecards help you evaluate your employees based on objective results. Hence, it becomes apparent and transparent about whom you should promote and whom to fire. 

5. Motivating agents through constant appreciation

How do you feel when someone praises your accomplishments? Acknowledging someone for their achievements boost their morale. It increases their will to work as well as productivity. 

After a thorough assessment through a high-quality call center scorecard, you get to see who is excelling. Praise your player based on that, and he will put more effort. 

D. Parameters in a scorecard: quality assurance metrics

When you start preparing a scorecard, you would want to evaluate two types of parameters: hard skills and soft skills. This data-based evaluation is essential to score your team or an individual to improve overall quality. 

Here are the quality assurance metrics that you need to include in your call center scorecard. 

1. Hard skills

a) Number of calls

The number of calls your call center receives or an individual attends every day dramatically impacts a scorecard. If the numbers are less, there’s more room for quality and vice-versa.

b) Average speed of answering (ASA)

It means the average time an agent takes to respond to a call. It is very coherent to the number of calls they receive. The ASA will be higher if your call center is flooded with calls. 

The higher the ASA, the lower the quality, and if seen from a customer’s POV (point of view), it is more frustrating. So, your objective should be to reduce the ASA as much as possible. 

c) Average handling time (AHT)

AHT or average handling time tracks how long an agent takes to complete a transaction. However, it does not mean that lower AHT means better performance. The objective should be lower AHT with higher customer satisfaction. 

d) Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

Have you ever encountered customer service agents asking to rate them based on their service at the end of a call? Mostly, this number ranges between 1-10- higher denotes better satisfaction and vice-versa. 

A lower AHT and higher CSAT is an objective of a quality service provider. If your agent(s) can achieve this, then only your call center will be able to provide the best service to your customers. 

e) Knowledge of subject

This hard skill is essential. Sometimes you would find your customer service agent unable to answer a particular query regarding a product. 

Knowledge of the subject is necessary, especially when dealing with a confused customer. You wouldn’t want to make it more confusing.

f) Customer effort score (CES)

Although new, a lot of customer services are now using this metric to determine the quality of the call. Here, instead of asking how satisfied your customers are, you ask how much effort they had to put in. The objective should be less CES. 

2. Soft skills

a) Language

Language plays a pivotal role in verbal communication. In call centers, your agents speak with a customer. Hence, confidence over language smoothens communication. In fact, a grasp over language also helps gain better control over the call. 

b) Accent

There is a term called “accent prejudice.” It costs a lot of people their job. People tend to judge a person by their accent. However, as a business owner, you have to focus on your growth. 

Call center executives should sound smart and modern overcalls. Conventional accent training would help your employees learn accents quickly.  

c) Call opening/closing

Greetings are an important part of human interaction. When a customer calls, we must remember that this person may or may not have had a great day. A kind greeting freshens the mood, giving way to better acceptability. 

Similarly, assessment on how an executive closes a call also showcases his/her talent in communication. The objective is to be polite and kind and make your customer feel comfortable after hanging up. 

d) Empathy

Empathy is a vital parameter in customer satisfaction. 68% of customers expect an executive to be empathetic during a conversation. 

Showing compassion and empathy makes the consumer more comfortable during the calls. It makes them listen to the solutions carefully, increasing customer satisfaction. 

E. Making scorecard automated

After the detailed discussion, one can easily conclude the importance of a scorecard in the quality evaluation of call center agents.

So, what is the alternative to a better scorecard generation and assessment?

A lot of companies are now introducing AI in call centers. For example, Enthu.AI is one outstanding software that automatically does most of the work. 

It generates automatic scorecards based on the objectives set. Moreover, the assessment is flawless. It monitors every call record, listens to all conversations, analyses speech and sentiment to provide better and more accurate scoring.

Thus, it not only saves time and money but also increases productivity by making the results transparent. You can then quickly determine your actions based on the reports and provide individual or group training, to promote or fire your employees. 

Conclusion

AI in call centers is dominating the industry heavily. In fact, call centers have always been the first to implement technology for better customer satisfaction. A lot of customers believe that a company should provide strong customer support. 

If you want your call center to excel in this present scenario, you have to focus on your team. A quality team consisting of few members can be more productive than a large group. 

Agent scorecards help you assess your employees, provide them training, and fix your objectives for a better quality service. 

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