Transitioning from Old QA to New Analytics-Enabled Quality Assurance

Transcription

1 Transitioning from Old QA to New Analytics-Enabled Quality Assurance Sponsored By: 1

2 Table of Contents Introduction...1 The New Analytics-Enabled QA Process...1 Benefits of Next-Generation QA Solutions...5 Why Managers Should Rapidly Adopt the New QA Approach...6 About VPI Best in Class Solutions for Analytics-Enabled QA...7 About DMG Consulting LLC DMG Consulting LLC - i - August 2010

3 Introduction Contact centers have performed quality assurance (QA) the same way for the past 30 years with little change in their approach to continuous improvement. They record, assess and evaluate a sample of agent calls (and possibly s) so that they can identify training opportunities and use this information to coach their staff. Some contact centers also ask their QA specialists to identify trends and challenges that may interest or impact managers in other parts of the enterprise. Over time, recording and QA solutions, known as workforce optimization (WFO) suites, were introduced to facilitate the selection of calls (and s) and to partially automate the agent evaluation process. However, this remains a highly labor-intensive exercise in most companies, where QA specialists still need to listen to a large number of recorded calls to find the interactions that provide agent coaching or recognition opportunities. But now there is a better, more effective way to use the QA process to improve agent productivity, quality and the customer experience. In the last few years, WFO vendors have introduced a new generation of QA solutions that use workflow automation and analytics to eliminate many of the manual steps previously required for QA. These new solutions can find specific calls or s that require supervisory attention with 60% to 80% less manual effort. They can also automate the process of tracking agent training needs, assign targeted coaching sessions, and identify, analyze and report on contact center and enterprise inquiry trends, empowering the organization to be more proactive. However, while the new generation of analytics-enabled QA applications makes the QA process and specialists substantially more effective and productive, they do not eliminate the need to listen to calls. The literal voice of the customer (VOC) will still be heard. The New Analytics-Enabled QA Process Figure 1 shows the analytics-enabled QA workflow that is supported by a new generation of WFO solutions. These enhanced QA suites are designed to automate low-value tasks that do not require human cognitive capabilities. In doing so, they free QA specialists and contact center supervisors to dedicate more of their time to helping customers and coaching agents DMG Consulting LLC August 2010

4 Figure 1: The New QA Process Source: DMG Consulting LLC, August 2010 Figure 2 compares the old and new way of doing QA, and the tactical benefits of an automation-enabled approach. The traditional method has been used since QA was first introduced into contact centers. Fundamentally, the steps for the new approach are the same, but in the past, almost all of the work was manual, while now more than 60% of these manual activities can be automated. Even better, the new analytics-enabled WFO solutions enable the tracking of contact center and agent trends, identify and kick off targeted, personalized training courses and then follow up to determine if agents took an assigned course. Closing the loop, the new QA solutions can evaluate the effectiveness of the recommended training and coaching by comparing past and current agent performance in any categories that require attention DMG Consulting LLC August 2010

5 Figure 2: Comparison of Traditional and New QA Activity Traditional Method New Approach Benefits of New Approach Select calls/ s Listen/monitor calls/ s Survey people who called or sent s Complete agent QA evaluation Coach agents Record 100% or a sample of calls. Sample can be random or based on predefined criteria such as an event, agent, call direction, time of day, call length, program, etc. QA specialist listens to calls or reviews s and finds the ones that are either really good or really bad. Ask a sample of people calling or ing call center if they will participate in a survey. Manually complete all fields in QA form. After completing evaluation, QA specialist checks paper records or Excel spreadsheets (if they exist) to see how an agent performed in prior months. If there are any performance trends, the QA specialist talks to the agent s supervisor or directly to the agent and assigns training or coaching sessions. Record 100% of calls. Analytics application identifies calls that meet predefined business criteria and merit the attention of QA specialist/supervisor. Analytics application finds the calls/ s that merit attention. QA specialist listens to/monitors only transactions that are flagged. Invite people whose call or meets the criteria for QA evaluation if they will participate in a survey. System fills in all informational fields. QA specialist completes the agent assessment fields that require their judgment. System compares agent s current and past performance against departmental goals to identify coaching/training opportunities. System identifies appropriate coaching/training courses. It then accesses the workforce management solution to find the best time to assign coaching/training. The system follows the agent s progress. It checks to see if the agent completed the assigned materials and reminds agent, if necessary. The system also checks to see if the coaching/training was effective by comparing the agent s QA score from the prior period to the current one. If necessary, the system sends additional coaching/training. The system also keeps the QA specialist, Can target certain transaction types and agent or customer issues. 60% to 80% reduction in time that QA specialist spends listening to calls or reviewing s, just to find the ones that require attention. Ensures that the VOC is incorporated into the QA process. This provides internal and external views for calls/ s evaluated. 15% to 20% time savings. QA specialists dedicate their time to high-value activities. Provides timely and targeted coaching/training to agents. Ensures that the right materials are assigned. Automates process of following agent improvements, leading to skill development and job mastery. Eliminates the need for paper or Excel spreadsheets. Schedules coaching/training at an appropriate time. Automates the follow-up process to review impact of training, and identifies when agent performance requires management attention DMG Consulting LLC August 2010

6 Figure 2: Comparison of Traditional and New QA Activity Traditional Method New Approach Benefits of New Approach Compile reports/scorecards on call center and enterprise trends and agent performance Identify contact center and enterprise behaviors, policies and product issues that require management attention Share issues with the relevant constituents and department managers throughout the enterprise Review and enhance the QA cycle The system creates standard reports and delivers the information using scorecards and dashboards. Contact center and enterprise issues are identified in reports. Contact center supervisors and managers use reports to identify agents and enterprise issues that require attention. Contact center managers then attempt to communicate this information to relevant department managers. Review QA evaluation form and all criteria. Enhance or modify, as appropriate. Source: DMG Consulting LLC, August 2010 supervisor and trainer in the loop and notifies them when the coaching/training is not effective so that they can get involved. Users can customize key performance indicators (KPIs) and deliver dashboards to appropriate supervisors and managers throughout the enterprise. Dashboards are personalized according to roles and delivered on a timely basis. Contact center and enterprise issues are identified in dashboards. Recipients can drill down from the dashboard to the underlying transactions. Contact center and enterprise managers receive alerts and dashboards on a timely basis. The data presented makes it obvious what issues need to be addressed. Calls or s that represent the VOC for each issue are linked to each topic for playback, making it easy for managers to verify the findings. Review QA evaluation form and all criteria. Enhance or modify, as appropriate. Dashboards are customized using KPIs that are relevant and actionable for each department or work group. Data is actionable and comes with proof points. This eliminates the need for contact center managers to continuously share negative news. QA findings are applied outside of the contact center. Sharing of information is objective, automated and timely. N/A 2010 DMG Consulting LLC August 2010

7 Benefits of Next-Generation QA Solutions Quality assurance is considered mission-critical in a large and growing percentage of contact centers of all sizes because it yields a high and rapid payback by improving agent productivity, quality and the customer experience. In addition to providing traditional benefits with significantly less manual effort, the new generation of QA solutions delivers incremental benefits by integrating coaching and automated follow-up into the process. See Figure 3. Figure 3: The Incremental Contributions from Analytics in the QA Process Analytically-Oriented QA Automatically classifies calls and ranks customer issues Proactive Precision monitoring Eliminates subjective analysis Provides timely and actionable feedback to operations Uses customer experience monitoring to evaluate end-toend relationships IDs new revenue opportunities IDs at-risk customers Traditional QA Evaluates agent adherence to internal policies and procedures Monitors script adherence IDs agent productivity opportunities IDs agent training needs Source: DMG Consulting LLC, August 2010 The first time a QA solution is implemented in a contact center, it has the potential to reduce agent average handle time (AHT) by 20% to 40%. QA solutions are designed to help management measure and evaluate how well agents adhere to policies and procedures. In general, agents who are in adherence are more productive and have lower AHTs than agents who do not follow corporate or departmental guidelines DMG Consulting LLC August 2010

8 The new generation of analytics-enabled QA solutions takes QA to the next level by automating many supervisory tasks. These solutions automatically identify, classify and rank calls that require management attention. They also identify and classify operational issues caused by other front- and back-office departments such as sales, marketing, credit, billing, statement rendering, payment processing, manufacturing, product design, packaging, etc. These findings, along with links to supporting calls/ s, can be presented in customized dashboards and rapidly delivered to managers inside and outside of contact centers. As a result, issues are identified on a timely basis, which allows managers to be proactive in resolving them. This enhances the customer experience and agent satisfaction, while enriching the jobs of QA specialists by giving them tools to improve their productivity by 15% to 20%. It also gives QA specialists, supervisors and trainers more time to dedicate to helping agents and customers. Why Managers Should Rapidly Adopt the New QA Approach Quality assurance is a proven process for improving contact center productivity and quality. Traditional QA solutions turned this process into a mission-critical requirement for most contact centers around the world. While it has limitations, QA gives managers valuable insight into agent performance and call trends, enabling them to take actions to correct performance issues. This process has remained largely manual and time-consuming, as it takes a great deal of effort to listen to or review hundreds of calls and s to find the few generally 10% to 20% -- that require additional attention. Analytics-enabled QA solutions use workflow and analytics to automate and eliminate many low-value activities. These new solutions free QA specialists from labor-intensive and tedious tasks that have traditionally been necessary components of the process. With these enhanced solutions, QA specialists can more rapidly identify training and operational issues, and perform the follow-up that is necessary to get problems resolved on a timely basis. QA will always require supervisors to monitor calls and s, but with the new generation of solutions, the specialists assigned to the function can dedicate more of their time to resolving problems instead of just finding them DMG Consulting LLC August 2010

9 About VPI Best in Class Solutions for Analytics-Enabled QA VPI is leading the transition from old to new analytics-enabled QA the with its award-winning VPI QUALITY PRO solution. VPI QUALITY PRO, part of the modular VPI EMPOWER suite, identifies interactions that require attention and sends them to the right person for inspection along with the appropriate evaluation forms automating the entire QA process. It compiles actionable measures on quality pertaining to agent skills, and more importantly, helps organizations examine specific processes that are important to their business, such as customer churn events, first contact resolution and sales conversions. The cornerstone of VPI s QA technology is VPI Fact Finder - a powerful desktop analytics tool that automatically detects events and data directly from application screens and fields entered by agents and tags them to appropriate points within recorded interactions, all without the need for back-end integration to business systems that display or collect the information. This enables managers to quickly identify information like Customer ID Number, Case ID Number, Account ID, sales order value and collections values in associated call recordings even before playing anything back. VPI Fact Finder can also use data collectors or APIs to pull critical data from any number of business systems. VPI QUALITY PRO uses this gathered data to automatically classify all calls so that evaluation and analysis efforts can focus upon the most valuable calls such as those from high value customers, high value transactions, costly repeat calls, missed upsell opportunities, long hold and handle times, multiple transfers or escalations, calls with a specific product focus or product issues. VPI has been providing proven technology and superior service to more than 1,500 customers in 50 countries worldwide since To learn more, about how VPI can help you, visit or call About DMG Consulting LLC DMG Consulting is the leading provider of contact center and analytics research, market analysis and consulting services. DMG s mission is to help end users build world-class, differentiated contact centers and assist vendors in developing high-value solutions for the market. DMG devotes more than 10,000 hours annually to researching various segments of the contact center market, including vendors, solutions, technologies, best practices, and the benefits and ROI for end users. DMG is an independent firm that provides information and consulting services to contact center management, the financial and investment community, and vendors in the market. More information about DMG Consulting can be found at DMG Consulting LLC August 2010