Last Updated on June 8, 2023

Businesses running call recording software have taken the first step to improve the performance of their sales, customer service and call center teams. The task of extracting and analyzing recorded call data may initially appear overwhelming when businesses first setup call recording. However, the benefits are worth the effort for any company that develops a plan and strategy to unlock the full potential of their call recording program. Where does a company start? What metrics matter the most? How often should managers review calls?

This article discusses the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), how to coach a call center team and what activity metrics to monitor to get the most out of your call recording software.

Which calls should be monitored?

Recorded call monitoring requires time. Managers will not be able to listen to every single call a business makes and receives. Managers must choose to listen to the calls that make the most sense and develop a strategy to identify those calls. It is best to focus on the call recordings that will provide the highest impact within the company.

Pay attention to the agent. Low performing agents and new employees will require more training and direction than experienced and high performing agents. Focus on the strengths and weaknesses the low performing agents and new employees have and work out a plan for improvement with them. There’s always room for improvement even with high performing employees. Monitor the calls from high performing employees less frequently and continue to provide direction for improvement.

Monitor high impact departments. Customer service interacts with company clients and directly impacts the business reputation. Sales teams directly impact revenue generation. Prioritize customer service, sales teams and departments with the highest impact to the company.

What are Call Recording KPIs?

Call recordings have numerous KPIs available to be tracked. Managers must focus on the right KPIs to be effective and they can vary depending on departments.

Customer service departments focus on efficiency. The objective is to provide service to customers as quickly as possible while maintaining positive customer satisfaction. The primary call recording KPIs to follow in customer service departments are:

• First Call Resolution (FCR) measures the success of resolving customer issues on the initial call. Managers can provide scripts, resolutions workflows and knowledge bases to assist customer service agents in resolving issues effectively.
• Average Resolution Time (ART) measures the average time it takes for a customer service agent to resolve an issue for customers.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) measures the average score customers give to assess their satisfaction with the call interaction.
• Customer Resolution Rate measures the volume of resolved issues by the customer service agent by their total calls.

Monitor these KPIs and review the calls from the agents with lower scores.

Improve customer service KPIs by developing Soft Skills.

Customer service managers analyze KPIs and identify agents on their team that require improvement. They can work with the agents to improve their KPIs by developing their soft skills. Soft skills are interpersonal skills used to communicate effectively with others. Customer service managers can identify the specific soft skill that needs improvement for each agent when they listen and analyze their recorded calls. These soft skills may include:

• Active Listening involves understanding the customer’s issues and determining how to resolve the problem.
• Attentiveness requires paying close attention to what the customer is saying and what they are not directly saying.
• Clear Communication from the customer service agent involves providing detailed information without ambiguity to avoid a misunderstanding.
• Patience is crucial for customers who become frustrated and requires someone to listen and help alleviate the frustration.
• Empathy is necessary to understand the customer’s emotional state.
• Positive Attitude allows agents to deliver information while highlighting the best out of any situation.

Review the Improve Customer Service KPIs through Call Monitoring article to learn more about improving KPIs and improving soft skills.

Improve sales KPIs by monitoring Sales Activity Metrics

Sales teams have similar KPIs to customer service. Sales managers analyze KPIs and identify agents on their team that require improvement. They work with sales agents to improve their KPIs by monitoring their Sales Activity Metrics. These are metrics that measure the activity a sales agent is performing. These metrics are measurable, trackable and allow the managers to understand what their agents are doing every day. These activity metrics may include:

• Number of outbound calls made – will vary depending upon the objective and metrics of the call from calls made vs answered, calls answered vs hang up, and calls answered vs converted.
• Number of follow-ups – includes various types of follow ups such as live conversation vs voicemail.
• Response time – how quickly a sales agent responds back to a customer is an essential metric because the probability of successful contact decreases over time.
• Closing ratio – indicates how effective the sales agent is by measuring the number of submitted proposals that turn into paying customers.

Monitoring and optimizing towards these sales activity metrics can lead to improved agent performance and support the team to meet their sales goals. Review the Improve your Inside Sales Agent Performance through Sales Activity Monitoring article to learn more about improving sales team performance.

How often should call recordings be analyzed?

Business managers must make call monitoring and call recording analysis a regular part of their process. This will improve the quality service of the customer service and improve sales for them company. Focus on reviewing the KPIs that are critical for improvement and establish development plans for the soft skills or activity metrics for the agent when a regular cadence is established. Establish goals, review progress and determine if goals have been met from the previous meeting for each interaction.

Take advantage of the call recording software features

A powerful tool for liability control, incident recreation and workforce optimization such as Versadial contains built in call analysis features such as:

• Flagging – allows managers to quickly find calls that need to be reviewed.
• Notes/Comments – enables users to quickly search for calls with a specific comment in the notes section.
• Bookmarks – Allows users to indicate the important parts of a call.

These are only a few of the many powerful tools built within the Versadial software. If you are looking for a call recording tool to take your business to the next level, contact us to learn more about Versadial.

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Last Updated on June 8, 2023