I have currently put quality assurance standards together for a company that we are outsourcing to, but this is only a pilot program. What standards are most important? Please let me know. Any help would be appreciated.

As far as a system to recommend, I can't help you, as my contact center is run by and for the company, bearing it's name and not <insert Parago, Convergys, etc here>.

I can however tell you most important things to consider on a scoring system:

Did the rep answer all inquiries to the best of their ability?

Did they warm transfer where necessary?

Did they show courtesy to the customer at all times? This includes stating an approximate hold length if putting them on hold.

Did they listen to the customer's problem and demonstrate understanding?

Did the rep offer a potential solution instead of excuse?

Did the rep communicate and/or explain the applicable policy pertaining to the refusal of the customer's request if a solution is not possible?

Did the rep point the finger at another department in your company, deflecting blame from their own, but at the same time, making your company look just as bad, instead of accepting responsibility/apologizing on behalf of the company and fixing the problem if it's within their power?

Did they offer a substitute if the requested item was not available? (if applicable)

Good customer service will make your company distinct. Unfortunately, when you contract out, often, you get a call center which has many accounts and teams of people rotating between which account they work for on a daily basis so they don't have one standard of customer service to operate by but many, depending on which account they are handling today. You can successfully keep your customers happy if you outsource but there are ways to protect yourself: insist on a dedicated team so they operate only by your customer service standards when they take calls for your customers.

Hello Andchj,

I think custrarelyright has highlighted most of the most important aspects. I want to specifically point out what he said about ending up with a call center which handles multiple accounts and rotating staff. That is something that happens very very often and the client company won't even know it.

It is important to specifically request for and make sure dedicated agents are available for your process at specific times. Otherwise, you might end up with "shared resources" who handle multiple queues simultaneously. On one hand, it would be difficult to expect them to stick to certain metrics because they are doing completely different things at the same time - and on the other hand, the quality of service provided by these "shared resources" will not necessarily be of a satisfactory level.

Once you have worked out your way through these specifics, you can be assured of quality customer service. But yes, you need to be very specific about what you need from an outsourced call center - that will save you a lot of time (and trouble) later on!

johnny

Hi Andchj,

The opinion is around the same but i do think that apart from the things mentioned by Cust and Johnny,

1) New company's update such as product capabilites, software, change of policies should be constantly provided. It is true that you outsource to lighten your burden as well as cost. However without clear instructions, the good programer would not be able to write out a workable program unless he can read your mind.

2) product retraining/test should be done on a quarterly basis to ensure that quality is still there.

3) you need to be a mystery shopper once in a while or get some friends to call in for genuine feedbacks.

4) An empowerment guide should be given on a basis.

5)KPI is a neccessity where holding time for a customer should not be x number of seconds etc. Within how many seconds should the phone be picked up.

I am actually an outsource customer service manager of a technicall helpdesk. Therefore i am just making a comment for both outsource and inhouse people.

I do hope that it helps in your future operations.

Regards
Asset