One of the key performance indicators of a Call Center Agent is call quality. Call quality is measured and improved through call monitoring and coaching sessions. The measurement criteria of call quality may varies depending on the nature of the call center, i.e. pure inbound or outbound, or a mixture of both. Nevertheless, there are 3 essential elements which are vital to measure call quality. They are Call Courtesy, Call Accuracy and Call Management.

Call Courtesy measures the positive behavior of the Agent when handling a call. Some of the measurement standards are usage of standard greetings to welcome and delight the customers, sounding positively courteous and polite, no length silence and personalization by addressing the caller by name. Vocalic pauses such as “Emm…”, “Er...”, “Mmm...”, “Ar…” are not accepted, which can be a common challenge amongst many call center Agents in Malaysia.

The competency of the Agent is measured in Call Accuracy. Agent is required to be knowledgeable in providing information to the customers. The speed of accessing into the existing knowledgebase system in order to provide an instant answer is also vital. In addition, it is important that the right question technique is used to obtain accurate information in facilitating accurate data input into the CRM system.

Is being courteous and accurate sufficient to address an agitated or angry customers? Obviously the answer is “No”. As such Call Management plays a key role in measuring call quality. It evaluates on the Agent’s ability to display active listening, use relevant questions to probe for details, and ultimately control a call. This could be the toughest standards to achieve out of the three elements, as it requires high level of patience in the Agent.

Ultimately how can a call be classified as a quality call? A quality call is one which has met the target score based on the determined scoring and weightage of the defined call quality standards in the 3 measurement categories as elaborated above. Call Courtesy, Call Accuracy and Call Management are only the 3 fundamental call quality measurements. For specific contact center’s needs, other criteria can be built on to reflect the accuracy of measuring a quality call.