When you monitor calls for quality in your contact center, what perception do your employees have of the process? Do they feel nervous that they’ll be caught making a mistake? Are they scared they’ll do poorly just once and then lose their job because of it?

Part of an effective monitoring system is making sure that your workforce understands the reasoning behind the monitoring, as well as what will be done with the information gathered.  They also need to know exactly what is expected of them when they are being monitored, so that they can prepare. If all these elements are in place, monitoring can be a much less stressful experience for all involved.

So what can be done to improve your call quality monitoring system? Here are five helpful tips.

1. Put the information you gather to good use. You can monitor calls and record data all day every day, but if you don’t do anything with that data, it’s useless. It can be hard to make time to review the information, and then schedule customized training based on the results, but if you don’t, then why are you monitoring those calls in the first place?

2. Focus on the small things. It may seem minor, but monitoring calls to ensure that agents are using the proper greetings, adhering to the agreed-upon call structure, and inserting the desired positive phrases into the call will go a long way towards preventing any individual lapses that can eventually spread through the call center.

3. Solicit employee participation. In order for agents to feel less like Big Brother is watching, and more like a coach is there to help, ask for their input on call monitoring. What would they like to focus on? What would help them feel more confident about the process? What can they practice in order to be prepared?

4. Dedicate one position to monitoring and its follow-up. Supervisors have a lot on their plates already – add monitoring calls and giving feedback and training to the mix, and often, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. But if there is a person whose entire job is collecting the data, analyzing it, and then crafting individualized training and coaching plans for employees,  it will get done – and your contact center’s performance will improve.

5. Reward those who do well. Giving recognition or even a small reward to those who perform well during calls is a great incentive for everyone to do their best on every call. A reward will show employees that it is worthwhile to get that training done, so that their performance improves – their hard work will be recognized.

In order to streamline your call quality monitoring process, why not take a look at KOVA’s integrated Enterprise Workforce Optimization Solutions? With our Verint Media Recorder Quality Monitoring, you can easily record calls and then analyze the already organized data. And with our Verint Media Recorder eLearning and Coaching solutions, you can take that data and customize training for your workforce quickly and easily. Contact KOVA to see how we can help your contact center today.