Call centers face a lot of competition from companies around the world. Reaching and maintaining an excellent level of service has become increasingly difficult now that so many agents work remotely. Leveraging the benefits of live call monitoring, however, could help you surpass your previous KPIs.
What Is Live Call Monitoring?
Live call monitoring gives managers and trainers the ability to listen to call as they happen without letting employees know. It lets you hear both sides of the conversation. In many cases, call monitoring solutions also have features like:
- Call statistics that let managers see the performance of individuals and teams.
- Call barging that lets managers interrupt calls to talk to the agent and customer.
- Whisper coaching that lets training managers give agents advice so they can get better results.
Popular Benefits of Live Call Monitoring
The specific benefits that you get depend on the software you choose.
Call centers have used call monitoring solutions for decades. Today, live call monitoring software is an essential aspect of running a successful business. Until medical researchers find a vaccine for COVID-19, many agents work from home. Live call monitoring lets your managers maintain control over employees even when they’re working miles from each other.
Identify Agent Proficiency
You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your call agents. Live call monitoring lets you listen to each person’s performance so you can develop personalized training plans.
You may discover that many people working for you have a common weakness. If you notice that, then you can make it an important part of upcoming training seminars. Without live call monitoring, you would never know that your team needs additional training.
You will often find that individual agents excel at some parts of the job while they struggle with other aspects. A custom training plan can identify those points for overall improvement. As you continue monitoring performance, you can tweak the training to reach specific goals.
Implement Goal Setting
Call statistics are important when it comes to setting goals and making sure agents hit their KPIs. Your monitoring software may collect data about topics like:
- The average amount of time an agent spends on calls.
- How often an agent deviates from the script.
- Whether the agent meets the customer’s needs by finalizing a sale or solving a problem.
Goal setting needs to evolve over time. Most new agents will struggle to reach their goals. As they become more comfortable, they should improve. Managers should review new and experience call agents often, though, to make sure they reach their goals.
Monitor Progress
What do you do when call agents can’t reach their goals? Monitoring progress tells you more than just whether people meet their KPIs. Listening to their conversations also helps you develop strategies for long-term improvement.
When you monitor the progress of your call agents, you can make frequent adjustments that keep them moving in the right direction. Given enough time, you will have an expert who knows how to adapt to each customer’s needs and exceed expectations.
Assess Team Development
Live call monitoring can reveal weaknesses throughout a team. Perhaps an incoming group of call agents never learning an important skill. Listening to individuals will eventually show you that your team has a common problem. Statistics can also help show you weaknesses at every level of your call center.
You need to know about your team’s faults before you can develop a training plan that helps them achieve excellence.
Live call monitoring can also help you see how your team excels. Use that information to encourage them. The next time you need to correct a behavior, you can mention how much you appreciate the person’s strengths to keep them motivated.
You may also find that live call monitoring helps you determine where you should place certain agents. Someone assigned to customer service may do better in sales. If you think they have the right skills, try moving them to a different team to see how they perform.
Improve Customer Experience
Call centers need to improve customer experiences above everything else. Call center agents can fill a lot of jobs. Your agency may have teams that offer general customer service, billing service, and technical help. You may also have a sales department.
All of these areas of your business need unique training to improve the customer’s experience. By leveraging live call monitoring, you can learn the nuances that each team’s job. The more you understand the customer and the agent, the more detailed your training can become.
Improve Employee Training
Achieving excellence at a call center usually relies on training more than any other factor. People need the right training before they can do their jobs well. No one sits down to a terminal knowing exactly how to handle every situation.
Don’t assume that your veteran call center agents will stay fresh, though. They need training, too, as your customer demographics evolve, people adopt new technologies, and consumers expect new services.
The fact is that training never ends. By choosing an excellent live call monitoring solution, you can stay on top of the latest trends and make sure your agents know how to do their jobs. Whether they work from a company terminal or they answer calls from a home computer, your agents need live call monitoring. Some of them may feel that monitoring is invasive. Without it, though, you cannot ensure that your call center will excel.
Conclusion
Do you want to learn more about how leveraging live call monitoring to achieve excellence within your call center? Schedule a demonstration with CallTools so you can see how the right software puts you in control.
