Call Center Quality Assurance Audit Template

Quality Assurance (QA) is a vital component in every industry from healthcare to education, manufacturing to IT.

Customers want to know they’re getting quality products; companies want to know they’re delivering quality service.

But how do you measure more subjective qualities, like customer interactions?

More importantly, how do you make sure every customer experiences the same standard of service from every employee every time?

This is where call center quality assurance comes in. By implementing regular quality assurance audits of agent calls, you can ensure a consistent level of service from every agent on every call – even across multiple call centers! When paired with your normal employee evaluations, QA audits are a resource you can’t afford to do without.

That’s why we at Process Street have created this call center quality assurance form checklist template.

Based on advice from DMG Consulting, a leading agency in contact center research, this template will show you some of the interactions you’ll want to monitor, as well as different systems for evaluating, scoring, and communicating these results to the rest of your team.

Use this checklist in tandem with their Contact Center QA Guide to have a 5-star quality assurance program in no time!

Ready to dive in?

Checklists should start like all good beginnings: establishing the who, what, when, where, and why.

This section deals with inputting all the essential information about the quality assurance audit.

Each task has a stop tasks in place to make sure nothing gets left out. 

A stop task stops a checklist at a particular point, preventing any task after that point from being completed until the stop task is complete. 

First thing’s first: Add names and emails of the agent, the agent supervisor, and the quality assurance auditor. Type them in the appropriate form fields below.

Using the tools on the right, you can customize this with as much or as little information as you need for each audit. 

If you want to edit this checklist template and its features (short text, email, dropdown, date entry, etc.) that’s easy to do by clicking on the “edit template” button.

There are two main methods to perform call center quality assurance audits. 

Audits can be done in “real time”, where quality assurance auditors monitor a call while it happens. This is either done by the auditor accessing the agent’s system remotely, or by having the auditor sit next to the agent during the call. 

The other alternative is to use recorded calls. This method is more convenient for the auditor, and can happen any time – even while the agent isn’t working. 

Either way, it’s good to have a record of the call details for reference. 

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This section of the process goes through every step of the audit. Since calls can be unpredictable, these tasks can be completed in any order to suit the auditor’s needs.

Some of the tasks apply conditional logic, which uses if/then statements to hide irrelevant fields or tasks unless they meet the right criteria.

Check out this video for a brief overview of what conditional logic can do!

Call centers are often strapped for resources. You have a lot of agents, a lot of calls, high turnover, and not much time. Your QA auditors may even be fresh out of training. 

Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. This template is designed so even your most inexperienced agent can follow the steps and provide constructive feedback.

In the final section, you can make note of any feedback or guidance you have for the agent.

This could be something like, “Remember to verify the customer’s identity,” or even as simple as, “That was a great way to open the call!”

The long text box gives you as much space as you need for your notes.

Customers want to be assured that their private details are safe and, well, private. 

If your call center regularly handles bank accounts and credit card details, you’ll need a thorough verification process in place to keep their trust.

To emphasize the importance of this task, the question has been formatted in red – one of the neat tools that go with the text content feature. 

Instead of a point system, this type of dropdown menu offers a simple pass/fail choice. 

The first question uses the subtasks feature. You can learn more about how it works here.

What steps did the agent take to verify the customer’s identity?

Here’s an example of conditional logic at work:

If the customer’s identity wasn’t verified, a new long text field appears where you can make notes about the interaction.

Likewise, if the agent did not pass this section, the task “Refer for coaching” appears in the list to the left.

An important part of an agent’s duties will involve knowing how to best navigate and use the call center’s systems. 

Giving your agents the proper skills and support to complete their responsibilities effectively will give them a feeling of confidence and security that will ultimately increase morale. 

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Making sure your agents are up-to-date on their product knowledge is essential to a well-run call center.

Agents can’t effectively sell a product or troubleshoot a service if they don’t have the most up-to-date information.

Fortunately, measuring knowledge of products and services isn’t that different.

The simplest way to score an audit is with a 100 point scale, which each item equalling 1 point. At the end of the audit, add up the points to get a score.

In the multi choice field below, each action has a different point value based on their value to the company.

This section is worth 30 points total.

It’s undeniable that cross-selling and upselling are valuable tools for increasing revenue.

You have a 60-70% chance of cross-selling to a current customer, while there’s only a 5-20% chance of converting a new prospect.

You need your sales agents at the top of their game so they don’t inadvertently alienate your customer in the process.

Customers do not like being transferred. 

Sometimes, though, it’s unavoidable.

In those cases, your agents need to have the appropriate soft skills to reassure the customer, but also the technical skills to transfer the call without dropping it.

Integrations are another way to up your checklist game with Process Street. This checklist connects with Zapier to automate calculations, but there are over 1,000 apps you can use to automate processes with Process Street!

Once the questions in this section have been answered, the points scored will automatically be calculated and entered into the field below.

Agents may not realize it, but finishing a call correctly is as important as the call itself. 

The wrong ending to a call can be disastrous in terms of customer perception.

Your agent may perform every step correctly, and then flub the wrap-up by cutting the customer off.

That’s what your customer will remember.

That can be avoided by using the actions below.

First call resolution, or FCR, is the backbone of call center service level calculations. 

Failing to achieve FCR is perceived as poor customer service by customers – something which contributes to approximately $62 billion in losses a year for American businesses.

But measuring first call resolution can be tricky. Every call center uses a different criteria. 

Does it count against FCR if the customer has to be transferred? What if the customer calls back, but with a different issue?

The important thing is to decide how you measure a call’s success for your agents. 

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No matter where your company is located, or what industry you’re in, there will be legal regulations that must be followed. 

But regulations change. 

A good quality assurance program will identify agents who need more coaching on these regulations, and agents who have a good understanding of them.

It keeps everyone operating on the same, consistent level of service with no unpleasant surprises – which is exactly what you want.

With conditional logic again, the auditor can input which regulations, if any, were violated. 

Agents need to connect with the customer, while still behaving professionally. 

After all, your agents represent your company’s values and ethos to your customer.

You want every action they take to reflect positively on your products, your services, and your company.

The approval feature will streamline the feedback process by allowing the agent to acknowledge the results with the click of a button!

The video below will show you all about approval automation at Process Street.

Dynamic due dates let you adjust a task’s due date based on a varying factor unique to each checklist, like a date field or a task that has yet to be completed.

For example, this task’s due date is set at 1 hour after the previous task is completed.

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Now all that’s left  to is calculate the score and communicate the results. 

Once this task is completed, the agent will receive a notification to review and approve the audit score and feedback.

The text field below uses variables to collect information from the rest of the checklist into one location.

As you can see, the agent’s name, evaluator’s name, final score, and feedback has all be automatically entered, saving the auditor valuable time.

Dear {{form.Agent_name}}:

Your QA audit was completed on {{form.Audit_date}} by {{form.Auditor_name}}.

Your QA Score is {{form.Final_score_(percentage)}}.

Based on the call audited, {{form.Auditor_name}} provided the following feedback:

Greeting:
{{form.Greeting_feedback}}

Verification:
{{form.Verification_feedback}}

Systems knowledge:
{{form.Systems_knowledge_feedback}}

Problem-solving:
{{form.Problem-solving_feedback}}

Cross-selling:
{{form.Cross-selling_feedback}}

Transferring:
{{form.Transferring_feedback}}

Wrap-up:
{{form.Call_wrap-up_feedback}}

Professionalism:
{{form.Professionalism_feedback}}

The next task requires the agent to approve (or reject) the auditor’s feedback. 

The task for employee approval should be assigned to the agent being audited. 

You can assign users and groups to individual tasks in your checklists, making it easy to see who is responsible for what task.

The email widget has been used with checklist variables to generate an email that can be sent using the auditor’s own email program.

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The only thing left to do is set the date for the agent’s next quality assurance audit. 

Choose a schedule that works for you, your agents, and your company to bring the best out of everyone by using the date and time field below.

And that brings us to the end of your call center quality assurance audit template!

Hopefully, going through this checklist has shown you some of the options you have with Process Street’s super-powered checklists to document your processes, and instantly create an actionable workflow.

The point is to minimize human error, increase accountability, and provide employees with all of the tools and information necessary to complete their tasks as effectively as possible.

• Merriam-Webster: Quality Assurance Definition
• WHO: Quality Assurance in IVD and Laboratory Technologies
• The European Commission – Quality Assurance: Education and Training
• Compliance Help: ISO Consulting Service – Quality Assurance for Businesses: An Explanation
• DMG Consulting, LLC: Contact Center and Back Office Research and Consulting Services
• DMG Consulting – Contact Center QA Guide: Building a World-Class Quality Assurance Program
• Reg Dutton – The Ultimate Guide to Call Center Quality Assurance
• Yves Le Roux – Privacy Concerns in the Digital World
• PCI Security Standards – Protecting Telephone-based Payment Card Data
• Martin Jukes – Quality Assurance: How to improve the perception and achieve great results
• Serguei Netessine – Product Knowledge Drives Sales Leadership
• Sophia Bernazzani – Cross-Selling and Up-Selling: The Ultimate Guide
• Maria Deutscher – Getting “Transferred” Tops the List of Reasons We Hate Customer Service
• The Balance Careers – Top 10 Soft Skills for Customer Service Jobs
• Lindsay Willott – Excellent Customer Service Phrases Every Team Should Use
• AJ Beltis – What is First Call Resolution? Everything Customer Support Pros Should Know
• Shauna Geraghty – How to Measure First Call Resolution in Your Contact Center
• SalesForce – Proven Call Center Best Practices: 6 Things a Rep Should Never Say

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