What Is Call Monitoring? Learn How Call Monitoring Works
If you’ve found this article, you’re probably curious about the ins and outs of call monitoring-- and you’ve come to the right place! We all know that call monitoring is used by companies all the time, but how, or why? Or maybe, you’re looking for call monitoring best practices. You’re in luck because we’re covering all you need to know about call monitoring.
Related: Call Monitoring Software
Call Monitoring Definition
Call monitoring is the act of listening to calls as a method to manage call quality, increase agent efficiency, improve agent performance, and develop sales or marketing strategies.
What is Call Monitoring Software?
Call monitoring software is typically a part of a larger software often referred to as a cloud contact center software or call management software. This is a phone system that is implemented and used through the internet that typically includes the capabilities of listening to calls, and often times includes features such as call whisper, call barge, and call recording.
Call Monitoring Software Capabilities
This call center software features gives the monitor the option to give assistance to an agent during a live call. Only the agent can hear the monitor’s comments--the caller is unable to hear and is unaware of the monitor’s presence during the call.
Call Barging
This call center software feature allows someone to listen to a live call and join the call to speak with both the agent and caller.
Call Recording
Hosted call recording is a typical call center software feature that records inbound and/or outbound calls within any given department or office. Calls are saved and can be retrieved later for review or training purposes.
Evaluation Forms / Scorecards
Some contact center solutions include call center quality monitoring features for supervisors to score agent performance during or after listening to a live call. Evaluation forms can include measurements related to the company’s KPIs, expectations for customer service, or other metrics relevant to the department.
Benefits of Call Monitoring
There are many benefits of live call monitoring, including:
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- Optimized quality assurance
- Reduced escalated calls
- Remote agent management
- New or existing agent training and coaching
- Feedback on customer needs
Who Uses Call Monitoring Software?
So who uses call monitoring? It's a commonly used feature, but we've broken it down into three main types of users that mainly use the software for measuring quality assurance and training.
Customer Support
Call center call monitoring can ensure quality assurance so that agents are handling calls effectively. Call monitoring software can also be used by management in order to train new agents through whispering on a live call or through recorded calls. Call barging can also allow the listener to jump into a call that needs immediate assistance without having to transfer the caller to another agent, improving customer satisfaction.
Sales Departments
Similar to customer support, sales departments can use call monitoring as a way to train new sales agents, give feedback, and improve workflow. Management can ensure that certain deals are being promoted by agents, and new agents can listen in on more experienced agents or listened to recorded calls as a way to learn about best practices.
Marketing Departments
Call monitoring call be helpful for marketing departments as a way to evaluate the leads they are creating and ensure that both the sales and marketing pitches and aligned to ensure consistency to customers.
Call Center Quality Monitoring Checklist
There’s a few things you should know to make sure your call quality monitoring is effective. To set your team up for success, here’s a call monitoring checklist that can help your team be the most efficient and effective in their objectives:
1. Create Objectives
Before implementing a call center, know your goals and expectations. Know what KPIs you’ll want to measure, what must be included on the scorecard, how data will be evaluated, and how changes will be made.
2. Provide Helpful Scripts
It’s important to set up agents for success. Give them the tools they need to be successful, including well-made scripts that are flexible and can be tweaked depending on frequently asked questions, common issues, etc.
3. Learn From Atypical Calls
It’s unreasonable to listen to and evaluate every single call, but atypical calls are important to focus on. Listen to calls that went extraordinarily well, horribly bad, abruptly, very long, or required multiple points of contact. This calls can be very important to training new or existing agents to improve the overall call center experience.
4. Recalibrate Your Team and Metrics
To ensure success, revisit your call recording methods and measurements. Make sure that there are no inconsistencies in the process or scorecard grading, and if there are any inconsistencies or difficulties in the process, revisit and recalibrate your process.
5. Stay Compliant
Call monitoring and recording laws vary among countries. In the United States, you should be aware of the following federal and state laws:
- Federal Call Monitoring Laws: In the United States, federal law only requires one-party consent for call monitoring. This means that one party of the conversation must know about and consent to call monitoring or recording. This law applies to all states that do not have their own call monitoring or recording laws.
- State Call Monitoring Laws: In some states in the US, all-party consent is required. This means that all parties included in a call must be notified and give their consent to their call possibly being monitored or recorded. Typically, an automated recording will play over the phone line stating the call may be monitored or recorded, and any party that stays on the line imply that they consent to the call.
When laws differ between states, the most restrictive law will be practiced. As a call monitoring best practice, it is highly recommended to always get consent from all parties before call monitoring and recording.
How AVOXI Can Help
We hope this article has helped you get a better understanding of how call monitoring works and the best ways to use it. If you're interested in implementing a call quality monitoring software, we've got your back! Our Cloud Contact Center software allows you to have all the call quality monitoring capabilities you need and more at $24.99 per user. Click the buttons below to learn more!
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