How to Measure and Improve your Internal Quality Score (IQS)

Your agents are taking hundreds of calls a week. But how do you know if they’re actually doing a good job?

Customer complaints don’t tell the whole story. Neither do CSAT scores. You need something more reliable. Something that shows you what’s working—and what’s not—before it affects your bottom line.

That’s where the Internal Quality Score (IQS) comes in. It’s your quality compass. It tells you how your team is performing, where the gaps are, and how to fix them.

In this article, you’ll learn what IQS really means, how to calculate it, what goes into a scorecard, and how to use it to coach better and perform stronger.

A. What is the internal quality score IQS?

Internal Quality Score (IQS) is a score that shows how well your agents are following your call center’s quality standards. 

It’s based on how they handle customer calls—tone, compliance, process, and overall effectiveness.

IQS isn’t about guessing.

It’s about measuring. You use a scorecard to grade each call on specific parameters. 

That could include things like how well the agent greeted the customer, how clearly they explained a solution, or whether they followed compliance steps.

Why does this matter? Because quality isn’t just about speed or resolution. It’s about how the call felt to the customer. It’s also about protecting your company—especially if you’re in a regulated industry like finance or healthcare.

IQS is the foundation of a high-performing call center. Without it, you’re flying blind.

B. How is IQS calculated?

If you’re wondering how to turn all those call details into a clear performance score, it’s actually pretty simple once you know the formula.

IQS is built on a scoring rubric, where each call is rated based on specific factors. Think of these factors as the building blocks of an agent’s performance. These elements get weighted based on how important they are to your business goals.

1. The scoring rubric

Here’s a quick look at common areas you’ll see in a call scorecard:

• Compliance: Did the agent stick to required scripts, legal regulations, and other rules?
• Empathy: How well did the agent handle customer emotions? Did they make the customer feel heard?
• Accuracy: Did the agent provide the right solution or information?
• Call Handling: How smoothly did the agent run the conversation? Was the call clear and concise?
  

2. Weighting the categories

Each of these areas gets a certain percentage, depending on how critical it is to your operation.

For example:

• Compliance might account for 40% of the score, since it’s crucial to stay within the rules.
• Empathy could be 20%, ensuring agents make customers feel valued.
• Accuracy might be 20%, reflecting how important it is to solve customer problems correctly.
• Call Handling could be 20%, measuring communication clarity and efficiency.

These percentages help you prioritize what matters most.

For Enthu.AI users, this entire process is automated. The system does all the heavy lifting, calculating scores and generating detailed reports for you, so you can focus on coaching and improving performance without the manual work.

C. What a QA form look like?

A QA form is where the magic happens. It’s the backbone of any Internal Quality Score (IQS) because it breaks down everything you need to evaluate on a call. Think of it as a detailed checklist for quality control.

So, what goes into these forms? Here’s what you’ll typically find:

1. Audit parameters

The audit parameters are the specific things you’re looking for during each call. They can include:

• Greeting & Tone: Did the agent greet the customer professionally? Was their tone friendly and appropriate throughout?
• Compliance: Did the agent follow the correct script, provide the required disclosures, and adhere to any legal regulations?
• Issue Resolution: Did the agent resolve the customer’s issue effectively and accurately?
• Empathy & Customer Experience: Was the agent understanding and empathetic? Did they make the customer feel heard?
• Call Closure: Did the agent close the call properly, ensuring all issues were addressed and the customer was satisfied?

2. Tips for customizing QA forms

Not all calls are the same. A sales call and a support call need different things. 

Here’s how you can represent the difference between Sales Calls and Support Calls in a table format:

D. How to improve internal quality score across teams?

Did you know that call centers with a structured quality improvement program see a 25% increase in agent performance? 

But how do you ensure that your team consistently improves their Internal Quality Scores (IQS)? It’s all about effective coaching, consistent calibration, actionable feedback, and the right tech.

Improving IQS isn’t a one-time task—it’s an ongoing journey. Here’s how you can drive meaningful improvements across your teams:

1. Coaching strategies

Coaching is the foundation of performance improvement. 

In fact, research from Gallup shows that employees who receive regular feedback are 3.5 times more likely to be engaged. 

So, how can you make your coaching sessions more effective?

• Actionable insights: Offer clear, specific examples of what went well and areas to improve. For instance, instead of saying “You need to be more empathetic,” say, “In the third minute of the call, you could have acknowledged the customer’s frustration more directly by saying, ‘I understand how this might be frustrating for you.’”
• Role-playing: Role-playing helps agents practice real scenarios they might face, ensuring they’re better prepared. 70% of learning happens through experience, so giving your agents the chance to practice makes all the difference.
  

2. Calibrations between QA and operations (Ops)

Consistency is key when assessing performance. 

Without calibration, different evaluators may have varying opinions on what constitutes a good call. 

In fact, a study from IQPC found that 50% of call centers see discrepancies between QA and ops teams when calibration isn’t done regularly.

To avoid this, scheduling regular calibration sessions between QA and ops is crucial. These sessions help:

• Standardize evaluation criteria: Both teams should agree on the parameters for scoring, ensuring uniformity in how calls are rated.
• Reflect what’s important for operations: Calibration helps ensure that the scoring rubric matches what ops considers important for performance, like call handling time or first-call resolution.
• Maintain consistency: Regular calibrations keep the evaluation process consistent, ensuring that all agents are rated fairly.
  

3. Feedback best practices

Effective feedback is the key to performance improvement. Here’s how to do it right:

• Timely: Research shows that 90% of employees prefer to receive feedback in real-time. Offering feedback soon after the call is important for keeping it relevant and actionable.
• Specific: General feedback isn’t helpful. Instead of saying, “You need to be more engaging,” point out specific moments in the call, like, “When the customer asked for more details, you could have explained the features more clearly.”
• Two-Way: Feedback should be a two-way street. Encourage agents to share their thoughts on the call handling process. This creates a more open, constructive conversation and helps identify opportunities to improve the training program.

4. Leveraging speech analytics & QA software

To scale improvements across your team, technology is your best ally. 

In fact, a study by Gartner found that 70% of high-performing call centers use speech analytics to enhance their QA process.

With tools like Enthu.AI, you can automate and streamline your IQS evaluation:

• Automated analysis: Enthu.AI automatically analyzes calls, providing instant feedback on compliance, empathy, and other key metrics.
• AI-powered insights: The AI tracks patterns in agent performance and highlights areas for improvement, saving your QA team time and effort in manual evaluations.
• Scalability: As your team grows, auto QA makes it easy to maintain consistent quality across hundreds of agents, ensuring every agent gets the feedback they need to succeed.

E. IQS vs. CSAT vs. NPS: what’s the difference?

These three scores often get mixed up. But they measure very different things. And each one plays a unique role in your call center’s success.

Let’s break it down:

Smart teams track all three. But IQS is the one you can control and act on immediately — especially when backed by the right QA tools.

F. Improve IQS with Enthu.AI

Improving Internal Quality Score requires consistency and actionable insights. Enthu.AI makes this easy by automating call evaluations and scoring 100% of calls.

For example, if an agent struggles with compliance or empathy, Enthu.AI automatically flags these areas, making it easy to identify patterns. You can pull up specific call snippets and provide targeted coaching where it’s needed most.

With Enthu.AI, you gain better visibility, faster feedback, and a more efficient way to boost IQS across your team.

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