Call scoring is like an NFL game, where your sales agents are players and you’re the coach. Like linebackers or wide receivers, each agent has a unique role to play in winning the game; you are the coach that helps your team grow and function well together.
Like Vince Lombardi coaching the Green Bay Packers at half time, you need to gauge the performance interactions of your own team members in order to facilitate proper call center management. Don’t drop the ball!
What is Call Scoring, Exactly?
Call scoring lets you manage standards for customer service and sales reps in your organization. Like athletes in any sports game, your team members have one shared goal: Success. However, they need to abide by the rules and meet performance standards.
Call scoring lets you evaluate call data in your organization to find out the following information about your team, whether agents are:
- Abiding by internal standards.
- Complying with data governance legislation.
- Making enough sales based on internal criteria/previous performance standards.
- Following call scripts.
- Following through on sales opportunities.
- Portraying the right “call center etiquette.”
A good call scoring system will let you ascertain which agents are providing the most value, and which ones require more training. You can also identify ineffective call handling procedures across the board and make changes that benefit your operations.
Call handling provides you with deep insights into agent performance and you can use all of this information to:
- Save money.
- Save time.
- Identify problems.
- Enhance training.
- Boost agent efficiency.
- Improve lead quality.
- Improve call scripts.
Many of the world’s largest companies have incorporated call scoring into their customer service and sales models, and this is something that could transform the way you manage your call center.
How Does It Work?
Call scoring involves recording agents’ calls and evaluating conversations based on a set of pre-determined criteria. You can either listen to conversations in real-time (something called “live call monitoring”) or at a later date via playback. You can also transcribe calls if you require a written record of conversations.
Depending on the size and scope of your organization, you can listen to and evaluate calls yourself or hire a quality assurance manager (or team) to do this for you.
Some software will be able to carry out call scores for you. Automated call scores identify pre-determined metrics such as conversation pauses or certain keywords. At the end of calls, the software calculates an agent’s performance and generates a score.
What are Scoring Factors?
“Scoring factors” are the criteria that you will mark your agents against. You will need to determine these factors because you start call scoring in order to maintain a consistent approach. Most managers will assess all agents based on the same criteria, but this all depends on the agent’s responsibilities.
There are far too many scoring factors to list here, but you should categorize elements of calls to make it easier to assess agent performance. For example:
Greetings
You could assess agents on how well they use the correct greetings at the beginning and end of calls. This might include using the customer’s name, introducing themselves properly, or reading your greetings script.
Data governance
Data governance is more important than ever, and you could face hefty fines if agents don’t verify customers’ identities. You could assess agents on whether they confirm the right information with customers, such as names, addresses, and email addresses.
Call handling
You could assess agents on how well they follow call handling protocols, such as searching for information, answering questions, escalating calls, quoting the right prices, upsell products, and more.
Record-keeping
You could assess agents on how well they keep records during and after calls, such as updating CRM systems with new contact details or adding information to a customer’s account.
Call scoring metrics shouldn’t be “set in stone.” You can change them on a regular basis.
Tip: It’s important that you let your agents know you are recording and evaluating their calls. You should also tell them about your scoring system and why you have chosen particular metrics. This will help agents improve their calls in the future.
What to Do With Call Scoring Data
Call scoring is just part of a long-term approach to better call management. It’s important you analyze call scoring data with the latest metrics in order to find the agents that provide you with the most value. You can also use metrics to determine whether particular agents need some extra training.
Your call scoring system will likely evolve based on changing policies and new trends. However, the latest analytics will ensure you get value from your call scoring initiatives and bridge the gap between quality assurance and management.
Just like in the NFL, where the most valuable player becomes “MVP,” you could use call scoring to award the best-performing agents in your organization. For example, give out a prize — free lunch, work-from-home flexibility, or another agent incentivization method — to the agent who receives the highest score.
Like football, call scoring is a group effort. Your entire team will need to work together in order for it to be a success.
Final Word
Call scoring lets you measure the performance of your agents — just like a football coach would do during half-time. This method ensures agents adhere to internal standards and data governance laws, follow call scripts, jump on lead generation and sales opportunities, and represent your organization in a professional way. However, in order to facilitate call scoring, you will need to be transparent with agents.
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