Technology Does Not a QA Program Make

Technology Does Not a QA Program Make

Quality Assessment in today’s call centers and businesses is an interesting phenomenon because it’s a discipline that emerged out of available technology. In the past decade, technology has made it relatively simple for businesses of all shapes and sizes to capture and monitor the phone calls and computer screens of their Customer Service Representatives. The way it was sometimes stated, the technology promised efficiency and productivity for businesses that utilized it.

Then companies installed the technology and began recording phone calls and computer screens. More than one client called to tell us that our services would no longer be required because they now had the technology to do it themselves. In each case we graciously and sincerely thanked them for their business and told them to call if we could help them in any way.

Typically, the call came twelve to eighteen months later.

In certain cases our clients spent a year or more doing it themselves only to reach a point where they were so embroiled with internal fighting over methodology that the technology was not getting used to effectively train and coach the CSRs. In other cases our clients pieced together QA programs, but they were unhappy with the results. The time and resources expended had not resulted in the productivity and quality improvements they expected. While they were doing it themselves, they knew that they weren’t doing it well. Other companies ended up getting distracted by the demands of the queue and the tyranny of the urgent. They have the technology and still swear that they will use it someday when they have more time.

Today, we’ve assisted several clients in utilizing their QA technology productively. In a few cases, clients have found that it is cheaper to hire us to do call analysis and call coaching for them. In other cases, we’re still available to help when they get around to actually using their QA technology.

The lesson is this. Having the technology does not mean you have immediate knowledge or expertise for how to utilize it effectively. It’s okay to ask for help.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Rutty.