Highlights of what brands should be considering as they try to create greater alignment between their QA results and the customer experience.
Last week, as a part of our live, virtual event called CustomerCONNECT, we facilitated two Coffee Talk sessions. Essentially, a Coffee Talk session is a live, virtual roundtable discussion designed exclusively for a small group of corporate customer experience (CX) leaders at consumer-facing brands, providing a forum where participants can learn, share, network, and engage to innovate.
In one of the sessions, a group of CX professionals, who also happen to be Quality Assurance (QA) enthusiasts, met to discuss the current state of their QA programs. The conversation covered how brands are managing their QA programs, how QA data is being utilized, and the impact QA is having on the customer experience. Although Coffee Talk sessions are intentionally not recorded to allow for candid discussions, the ideas shared are worth noting.
Here are four key highlights from the discussion:
1. Connecting QA with the Customer Experience
During the discussion, about half of the participants felt their QA programs were directly correlated with, or actively helping to improve the overall customer experience. But the question quickly moved on to what the next evolution might look like for QA programs. On that point, a general consensus surfaced that identified that QA programs need to become more multifaceted by monitoring not only for agent behavior, but also analyzing for things like customer satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), compliance, and produce actionable business data and insights.
2. Understanding the Customer Experience by Analyzing What Matters Most
Key driver surveys were touched on as an indispensable tool for evaluating how customers are experiencing a particular brand. While some companies spend a lot of time and effort evaluating agent actions (were processes, procedures, and policies properly followed), companies need to ask themselves how important these things are to the customer. A key driver survey can help reframe the very purpose of a QA Program, shifting from something that simply monitors behavior to something that helps an organization tackle pain points, identify root causes, and boost resolution rates. Moreover, key driver surveys provide an analytical approach to capturing what matters most to customers. There’s no guesswork to what matters most to customers – they are telling an organization what matters most in the surveys. The end result — the top 5 or 6 things that matter most to customers should be reflected on the QA scorecard.
3. Scorecard Evolution
Key driver surveys are one way to influence the evolution of QA scorecards, but that’s not the end of the story. The evolution of QA program scorecards was a hot topic of discussion, and it was suggested that soft skills should be the backbone of the form. Ideally, QA scorecards would be adapted to the behaviors we want our agents to exhibit rather than trying to mold agent behavior to an existing scorecard. The point was made that it’s easier to hire based on soft skills and teach hard skills, versus the other way around. By hiring the right people, the QA program scorecard can shift from trying to change undesirable behavior to trying to identify systemic issues that prevent agents from maximizing the strong set of soft skills they were hired for in the first place.
4. Digital Evolution and Applying Automation of Quality Assurance Programs
Like everything else, QA programs must change with the times. Although they are not a hotbed of technology like self-service (think chatbots), there has been some recent innovations. Several participants were exploring ways to automate call evaluations by layering in voice analytics and other artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions. Other brands were already using automation on QA data to do things like call type and identify drivers for call duration. This information helps drive sound strategic decisions around things like policy and process. If done right, these insights can help reduce volumes which ultimately helps agents get more efficient and focused on more complex issues.
What This Coffee Talk Session Revealed
QA programs are evolving rapidly, and they have to. In today’s world, more is expected of every business unit and every program, and quality programs are rich with potential. Not only can QA data be used to create a better customer experience within the care organization, but this same approach can be used to reveal opportunities across the wider organization. Reinventing QA programs for a future state will take the right combination of strategy, customer focus, and technology to maximize value.
Are you a CX leader at a corporate brand and looking to participate in an in-depth CX roundtable discussion? Several Coffee Talk sessions are scheduled for our upcoming Virtual Customer Response Summit (CRS) on October 5-7. Take the first step and register for CRS today!
To Learn More About The Voice of the Customer: Register to watch CustomerCONNECT sessions on-demand
Interested in learning how you can sponsor and host a Coffee Talk with some of the industry’s top CX leaders? Contact Chad McDaniel in sales today at [email protected].
Blog post, written by: Execs In The Know
