E-Commerce News: Operations: The Case for Third-Party Monitoring of Customer Calls

Third-party remote call monitoring is essential for training and coaching within the call center. Agents can gain significant advantage from being able to listen to their own calls. It not only provides them with the ability to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, it also enables them to more closely listen to the customer and how she or he reacted to words, inflection, etc.

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Call centers for years have been using some sort of monitoring in order to measure performance and customer satisfaction. While there are as many methods of call monitoring as there are call centers, not all are effective for every organization.

As customer satisfaction has become more important in the eyes of the organization, call center monitoring has taken priority. One question that every call center manager must answer, however, is whether or not it is best to conduct the monitoring within the call center, or to turn to a third-party remote call monitoring solution.

Reasons to Look Outside

Let's examine the top five reasons why third-party remote call monitoring is a must for the call center to ensure efficiency and best practices.

1. Third-party remote call monitoring can be used to develop a strategy to reverse the trend of declining customer satisfaction.

To completely understand why customers have become dissatisfied, the call center has to be able to monitor and measure the interaction between the center and the customer. The third party providing the service is qualified to provide unbiased results of the call monitoring and how the center can translate the results to understand how to move forward with improvement.

2. Third-party remote call monitoring can be used to provide a level of precision in anticipating customer satisfaction.

The information that can be captured in a third-party remote monitoring situation provides the call center with valuable information. This information that is captured within the customer conversations provides the center with clues as to what services or products the customer would like to see, what resolution they expect and even their buying preferences. This information and more can be captured in the monitoring of the calls.

3. Third-party remote call monitoring is essential for training and coaching within the call center.

Agents can gain significant advantage from being able to listen to their own calls. It not only provides them with the ability to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, it also enables them to more closely listen to the customer and how she or he reacted to words, inflection, etc. Call center managers can gain valuable insight into areas of improvement for the agent and customize their training and coaching specifically for that agent.

Valuable Details

4. Third-party remote call monitoring is a valuable source for use in dispute resolution.

Whether the issue is internal or there is a situation with a frustrated customer, monitoring calls is an important tool to ensure that the proper processes are being followed, that specific items are being followed up, and that information is captured correctly.

5. Third-party remote call monitoring also provides valuable information for the call center to be able to measure its internal processes.

Such monitoring enables the center to measure the performance of its scripts, call forwarding, upsell opportunities and more. By evaluating the customer reaction within the calls, the call center can better assess which processes are working and what should be revamped to produce improved satisfaction.