Giving your employees the ability to work from anywhere has become essential to attracting the best talent, but you also have to focus on remote team quality assurance for this setup to work.
A recent study suggests that 50% of people didn’t return to jobs that required location-based work after COVID restrictions were lifted. This further corroborates the value of flexibility, the need for adequate quality assurance (QA) mechanism, and the challenges that come with scaling a team of online workers.
In this article, we’ll go over tips on how to successfully scale and evaluate remote teams. We’ll also share the definition of remote team quality assurance and share the advantages of this practice.
We’ve reached out to Ron Klausner, Chief Executive Officer and board member of Graduation Alliance, to collect tips about evaluating and scaling remote teams. Ron has spent more than three decades in the business solutions industry and has extensive experience growing as well as assessing the performance of remote team members, giving him unique insights into the elements needed to establish a great remote QA system.
What Is Remote Team Quality Assurance?
Before delving any deeper, let’s go over the definition of remote team quality assurance.
Simply put, quality assurance is the practice of assessing the performance of your team and overall contact center. The idea is to document your results, compare them to industry standards, and take steps to improve the performance of your agents.
The definition of remote team QA is similar, except for the fact that the evaluation team is not located in the same place as the agents. This poses a significant challenge that requires some adjustments to be successful. With the right strategy, remote QA team members should still be able to deliver feedback and contribute to agent development across all departments.
Every contact center wants to achieve sustained growth, so you need to ensure that your QA process is and remains scalable. If not, you run the risk of having to rejig your entire QA system once your team reaches a certain size.
How to Successfully Establish and Scale Remote Teams
Remote teams have been proven to reduce costs, improve agent satisfaction, and increase hiring rates. To fully enjoy these benefits, contact center leaders need to understand the nuances that come with establishing, growing, and upskilling a remote team.
According to Graduation Alliance’s CEO and board member, Ron Klausner, one of the biggest requirements is having a passionate team.
“The one consistency we find in agents that perform well is the notion of being student-centric. Our agents have an innate reflex to serve students. We actually have reps that articulate what they feel we do well and what can improve, so there is definitely a high level of passion involved and we are very proud of that,“ says Ron.
According to Mr. Klausner, other essential elements include:
1. Trust in Leaders and the Organizational Capacity to Support Them
“High-level leaders within the company or call center need to trust their front-line managers to get the right people on the bus and make the right decisions,” says Ron. “Executives need to ensure that team leaders share similar professional values and understand the communal goal,” he continues.
“For example, we have eight town hall business meetings every year. Some are alright, others are extremely effective, but I think they bring great value nonetheless. In the last one we organized, we had two of our team members make commencement speeches that were just wonderful. One of them was from our Chief Academic Officer who is a high-school dropout himself and this reminds us that we have to trust our team members and what they bring to the table”
2. Create an Environment Where Your Team Can Thrive
One of the reasons why employees of all levels like the idea of working from home is that this structure gives them back a lot of time.
The pandemic also demonstrated that, even though remote agents are likely to multitask at home, remote agents can be just as effective as representatives inside of a call center.
Call centers need to create an environment that empowers employees of all levels to achieve their professional goals while also catering to their personal needs.
“We do a lot of testing and try to accommodate our team members so that they have the highest chance of success. For example, the pandemic has had a regressive impact on women in the workplace. And, one of the leaders that reports to me just had a baby,” says Mr. Klausner.
“So, we let her know that she had the freedom to establish a work structure that suited her. And so, the baby is present during our calls, which in our eyes is absolutely fine because there needs to be a level of flexibility as well as adaptability.”
3. Keep Your Message Consistent
The fact that half of all professionals preferred to quit than return to a full-time in-person job means that remote work has become a must-have for businesses that can provide this.
One of the major mistakes that contact centers can commit is being unclear about their stance on remote work. Yes, revamping your contact center structure in order to adapt to a full-time remote setup may take time. The problem is that if you don’t, you run the risk of losing top talent.
“We are still working through the whole nature of having remote teams and working as a fragmented unit. But, at the end of the day, the vast majority of the people in our company want the flexibility to work from home. So, that’s exactly what we’re giving them,” says Ron. “You have to be consistent and stay committed to making sure that everyone understands this. But as long as you’re clear your agents should be pretty happy.”
4. Take Additional Responsibility to Keep the Culture Alive
Agents can be more productive when working remotely, but there is no denying that there are also potential distractions that need to be taken into consideration.
A strong company culture is essential to maintaining your team focused and productive. The problem is that it’s more difficult to keep the company culture alive when your team members are in different locations. Mr. Klausner tells us that “this is the new reality, companies have more responsibility to establish a strong culture and keep that foundation alive.”
“You have to find the right people to start with, but you also have to remind them that your call center isn’t in charge of selling fridge magnets or bumper stickers. Let them know what value you bring to customers and they will understand their role in maintaining that culture intact.”
5. Correct Misalignments Within the Company
“The biggest challenge I’ve had as a leader is misalignment with the board of directors. The misalignment doesn’t even have to be with the board, it can be with any other part of an organization. The problem is that misalignments greatly reduce the odds of being successful because the team doesn’t have a common foundation to rely on,” says Mr. Klausner.
“I’ve worked at organizations that, if you analyze their financials, you would say they are successful. But, misalignments within them were so deep-rooted that I just had to part ways with them. In one of them, I wasn’t aligned with the CEO of the company so we had to discuss an exit. On the other hand, at Graduation Alliance, an organization I’m fully aligned with, we managed to grow our graduates from 150 in 2015 to 4500 last year.”
6. Create a Company Strategy that Focuses on Quality
What do n-boarding the right prospects, focusing on the customer, and establishing a strong company culture have in common? They are all quality-centric actions you need to complete in order to build a scalable team.
Your team leaders should understand the value of creating a quality experience and instill this knowledge in their agents. Whether it’s small-scale or more significant choices, quality should be the main variable that decision-makers consider above all else in every scenario.
What does this look like in a remote call center environment? If team leaders or QA experts notice that agents are using a new closing technique that creates a potentially unpleasant feeling in customers, it’s best to address this behavior and discourage it early on.
7. Instill a Sense of Accountability in Your Team Members
“My approach to leadership is predicated, in large measure, on the values and principles that my mother taught her three boys, which includes a whole lot of accountability,” explains Mr. Klausner.
“Every time we would get in trouble, whether it was for a good or bad reason, she would tell us that it’s our responsibility. And so, I learned the impact of my actions and I try to make sure that all my remote team members feel the same way.”
When call center agents feel high levels of accountability they are more likely to adhere to regulations, focus on quality, and generate much better results.
8. Collect, Deliver, and Act On Feedback in Real-Time
While collecting feedback is essential, not all call centers transform it into actionable information. By using Autopilot Reviews, Mr. Klausner has managed to interpret and utilize customer feedback in real-time.
“If you have a great tool like Autopilot Reviews, the question is, how are you going to use the feedback? The feedback that customers share is for both agents and the call center or organization. So, we encourage agents to act on it as soon as they receive it and ensure that our QA people have access to this data in order to provide good feedback later on.”
9. Learn from Isolated Incidents
“Most of the feedback we get is good, in large part because we have a team of long-term agents that know what they are doing. But, we also get a bad review every now and again. We never let them slide in the sense that we always analyze them to determine if it’s an isolated incident or a trend? Trends reveal a lot of information because, at that point, it means that the incident has spread. But, isolated incidents can also be very telling,” says Ron.
Isolated incidents may be exactly that, events that only occur seldomly. But, it’s important to understand each event and figure out if it was due to a one-time error, lack of training, poor onboarding, or another reason.
10. Develop a Strong Training and Onboarding Program
“There are two key notions that contact centers should always keep in mind: building success and continuous improvement. Even if you attract top-performing agents from other contact centers, these guys won’t be superstars in your team right away. You need to provide extensive training, allow them to get enough repetitions to understand your process, and create a smooth onboarding experience,” continues Ron.
“If you truly want to scale your remote team, you’ll find ways to help your agents achieve success faster. You’ll also find ways to reinvent yourself and become a better version of yourself through a robust upskilling and development program.”
Advantages of Quality-Controlling Your Remote Team
The QA process brings a variety of benefits because it sets up agents, and contact centers as a whole, for success.
The only way to get consistent results is to develop and hone a step-by-step process that can be replicated by remote QA agents and team leaders alike.
As long as it’s set up properly, your remote team QA process can bring benefits like:
Collect and Understand Customer Feedback
According to a recent Microsoft report, half of all consumers believe that customer service is very important when choosing a brand. The same report highlights that 9 out of 10 individuals at least consider customer service before choosing a company.
It’s also essential to note that this trend is observed on both fronts. Almost 60% of customers stop doing business with companies that provide negative customer service.
Transforming the feedback into actionable data is challenging in almost all scenarios and your calls are no exception. The good news is that you have a great QA mechanism in place you’ll be able to collect and, most importantly, interpret customer feedback more effectively. Just remember to look at the tools you have at your disposal and create a stack that allows effective call and feedback monitoring.
Evaluate Agent Performance
The main responsibility of your QA team is to evaluate the performance of your frontline agents. QA team members assess the quality of the service provided and the overall knowledge of your agents by tracking key performance indicators or KPIs.
The metrics tracked by a QA team vary depending on the type of call center and goals. That said, these statistics usually revolve around customer experience and agent efficiency in customer service departments. Sales agents, on the other hand, will likely be graded on sale volume, closing percentage, and so
In addition to evaluating the performance of every agent, your QA team is also responsible for providing direct feedback. QA team members should arrange individual feedback sessions and go over specific calls with each agent. This will give agents the support system they need to improve. Plus, it allows your QA team members to verify that your whole team is on the same page.
Complete Root Causes Analyses with More Ease
Every contact center has a limited number of team leaders and coaches. This means that call center agents support each other constantly while on the floor, which creates a collaborative environment. This is a positive phenomenon, but it may also contribute to the spread of poor internal practices.
Your QA team members listen to countless calls from dozens, if not hundreds of agents. They have a higher chance of identifying poor negative practices and similar patterns. Quality assurance specialists also have access to high-level reports where it’s easier to spot certain trends that appear when agents are not following best practices.
The QA team can actually zero in on the origin and inform team leaders so that they can correct these behaviors. This ensures that agents provide the right type of support to each other.
Create Development and Coaching Plans
It’s common for call center clients to change the services, products, and promotions they offer. Updating the resources that agents use is a good start, but call centers need to go the extra mile and deliver additional training whenever necessary.
The QA team plays a crucial role in both the initial training as well as additional upskilling sessions. QA specialists can help leaders decide which agents will receive new training first based on performance and feedback adoption. QA team members usually receive new training directly from the client. These specialists can also sit in during lessons and help answer questions in real-time.
Drive Internal Changes that Create a Better Customer Experience
The QA team works closely with the client, team leaders, sales and marketing teams, workforce employees, and the training department. In addition, the head of the QA department usually reports directly to operations managers. Because of this, the quality assurance department can actually drive internal improvements from a variety of fronts.
For instance, if the sales and marketing department is looking to build brand loyalty, QA can help them identify the elements that are discouraging clients.
Likewise, if you’re looking to boost your retention metrics, the QA team can guide you through the main reasons why customers cancel their services. Plus, you can even have your quality assurance specialists go through the retention calls to identify areas where agents can improve.
Track and Interpret Difficult Metrics
Tracking statistics may sound like a simple enough task. But, the reality is that collecting raw numbers is just a small step if you want to effectively track the right KPIs. You also have to learn how to interpret the numbers you see and draw parallels to determine what the metrics mean.
QA specialists can support the operations team by tracking and analyzing advanced metrics that measure intangibles like:
- Agent engagement
- Customer loyalty
- Elements that cause churn
- Call flow management
- Ease of collaboration
Ensure that Agents Adhere to Mandatory Regulations
Call centers and their representatives have to adhere to mandatory laws and regulations. This is the reason why most call centers inform their customers about the fact that calls are recorded. If an agent commits a transgression or infraction, it can result in significant fines for the contact center as well as the client.
Your QA team can verify that agents are following protocol and provide the appropriate support where necessary. This includes agent-level support as well as feedback for team leaders and managers to share with their representatives. Besides reducing the chances of receiving significant fines, this practice will also help improve overall team performance.
Ready to Build a Scalable Remote QA Process?
Having a QA team is a must for all contact centers, especially for organizations that rely on remote representatives. Monitoring agents that work from home poses a whole new set of challenges. We hope that the tips above help you understand these new obstacles, make the right adjustments, and build a QA process that brings value to your contact center.
At Autopilot Reviews, our goal is to help contact centers collect feedback and make it available to representatives in real-time. To learn more about implementing real-time feedback into your QA process, get in touch with us today.
