Call Center Call Monitoring: How to Get the Most Out of Agents & Stay Compliant

Call quality monitoring is one of the best ways to ensure every agent is performing to expectations. But a key challenge is managing scale — how do you monitor so many calls with a limited team of managers?

Then there’s the issue of compliance: call center call monitoring is strictly regulated in most geographies. Being even slightly on the wrong side of the law has ramifications, not to mention the bad look it gives your business. So, how do you navigate this?

These are all valid questions, and we’ve got answers.

First, what does “call quality” mean?

Call quality is the measure of how agents perform on calls. Call quality monitoring is the approach to measuring this performance.

Call Monitoring

Indirect call quality metrics

These are metrics that don’t directly evaluate the quality of a conversation but give an overview of agent or team performance on calls. Think of these as “generalized” call quality indicators.

• Average handling time (AHT):, the time it takes for an agent to handle a query.
• First call resolution (FCR): how many queries are resolved on the first call itself.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): how satisfied a customer was with the resolution as indicated on a rating systems
• Customer Effort Score (CES): how much effort the customer had to put in to get a resolution.

Direct call quality metrics

These are metrics that go deep into elements of the actual conversation. Think of these as “granular” call quality indicators. Some of these metrics include:

• Dead air time, i.e., the amount of time there’s silence on the call. This silence could be an indicator of agents not knowing what to say next, accidentally pressing the mute button, dealing with glitchy software, or the customer taking time to continue a conversation.
• Talk-to-listen ratio, i.e., how much time an agent spends talking vs time spent listening. Usually, a high talk-to-listen ratio could be an indicator of an agent not being a good listener, though this is heavily dependent on the nature of the call.
• Talking speed, i.e., the number of words an agent speaks per minute. This is an especially useful metric if you’re making/receiving international calls, where speaking slowly may be helpful in overcoming language barriers.

Typically, these metrics are calculated by AI systems that look at call transcripts and recordings to create a call quality score. More advanced systems can also assess call quality on live calls.

What call quality monitoring approaches can you take?

You can monitor call quality in one of two ways: live (when the call is happening) or post-facto (after the call has happened). Usually, call center call monitoring is a combination of the two.

Live call quality monitoring

Live calls can be monitored manually or via call monitoring software.

• With manual live call quality monitoring, i.e., sitting next to agents as they make calls, you can share feedback instantly and help the agent improve over the next set of calls. The downside is that agents may get nervous when being monitored, leading to errors and giving you a false impression of their performance.
• With call monitoring software (which comes built into automated sales dialers), you can silently observe calls from your dashboard and take notes without disturbing agents. This is a more accessible and agent-friendly approach compared to manual call quality monitoring.

Post-call quality monitoring

Post-call quality assessment can be done by reviewing call recordings and transcripts, and generating call ratings for every agent.

• Call recording: This can be done either by setting up a call recording system (free tools like OBS Studio could be helpful), or by using the call recording feature built into your dialer software.
• Call transcripts: Call recordings can be easily and quickly transcribed by AI. If you don’t have a dialer system with automatic transcriptions, you can always use a free tool like Revoldiv.
• Call scoring: This can be done manually by assessing every call against a set of quality parameters. The faster and more scalable way is to let AI score calls based on a wide range of call quality metrics like dead air time, monologue duration, talking speed, call mannerisms, etc.

Call quality monitoring best practices to remember

Your goal is to get every agent to a point where they can perform well on every call without constant supervision. Call quality monitoring is one step to getting there, but there’s more you can do in this direction.

1. Set up a quality assurance team

Creating a panel of quality assurance managers is a great way to standardize key processes and metrics, and assign ownership. You could also rope in a few top-performing agents, so managers are in touch with what’s happening on the ground.

2. Take agent feedback when setting KPIs

3. Turn recordings into case studies

Suppose an agent has done everything right on a call. The right step would be to record and save that call on the cloud. When you coach agents, use these actual calls as case studies to explain their expectations and where they are going wrong.

4. Automate what you can

Call center call monitoring is the strongest way to strengthen your team of agents.

But it’s a time-consuming process, especially when you take into account post-review training hours. To cut down on monitoring and review hours, get help from AI.

AI can take transcriptions, summaries, and call scoring off your plate, automating these processes and saving you crucial hours to review more vital calls or manage your team.

Last but not least, stay compliant

Call quality monitoring can be super helpful in strengthening your team, but don’t forget about the compliance requirements it comes with. Here are some tips on managing this.

• Stay in the know: Brush up on local and federal regulations around call recording and consent. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in the US is a good example, which requires you to disclose call recording or monitoring as soon as the recipient picks up.
• Be transparent: Let your customers know upfront about call recording. A simple announcement at the call’s start or a clear consent disclaimer works wonders.
• Ensure security: Make sure recorded calls are securely stored, with access limited to authorized personnel only. Regular backups and encryption are your friends here. Ideally, choose software that comes with these security features.
• Have a data retention plan: Develop a clear policy for how long you keep call recordings. Industry regulations might have a say, so check those too. Once retention is up, have a secure disposal process in place.

Call quality monitoring is perfectly legal in most geographies, provided customers are in the loop (as they deserve to be) and their data is protected. Keep this in mind when setting up your quality assurance processes.