Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

I remember starting out as one of the first QA professionals in a call center in my early years.  It was nerve racking because I didn’t know a thing about how to monitor calls.  To top it all off, I was reporting to an executive who didn’t know much.

My first job was to work on an outbound project.  With a tape recorder (literally), a cord that connected to the phone and armed with software that was considered “shareware”, I started listening.

So, what is this checklist that we use?  What is it composed of?  There are two main categories at that time, but it has evolved into something more these days.  But, let’s get to the basics.

Objective and Purpose
Before you even start thinking of what the items are to be placed into the form, find out what the purpose is.  What do you want to get out of the monitoring session?  What would you like to find or hear?  As an example, the quality process could mean checking whether they are doing the right thing.  It could also be as broad as determining how customers are reacting to your service.

Brainstorm - Questions
Once you’ve decided what your purpose is, then you start brainstorming what you should put into the form.  Start out with a list of questions.  Don’t jump into getting items in the list.  This is a common mistake.  Take note that each question that is NOT related to the main objective should be removed. The questions will then lead to answers.

When you go through the answers, it will all make sense.  But, sometimes you end up with a lot of them and think, does this mean I have to get a 100 item checklist on every call?  No.  The next thing is to start editing and leave the most important items.

Next, the guidelines.