Quality assurance has remained stagnant for decades, but that is about to change. The introduction of a new program called quality intelligence (QI) aims to shift the focus from individual rep performance to a more strategic approach that emphasizes capturing the voice of the customer and customer experience data that aligns with business and CX objectives, which are more valuable to the organization and enterprise.
The best part is that this evolution does not require new technology or significant investments. With minimal barriers to entry, service leaders should look to implement this shift, which will provide quick value to adopters.
The purpose of quality assurance has traditionally been to ensure that individual representatives meet the required quality standards during customer interactions. However, evaluating a statistically significant sample of representative calls each month is virtually impossible. Additionally, the current rep monitoring and evaluation processes are time-consuming and expensive.
Gartner research shows that more than 75 percent of customer service leaders think their quality programs are of high or very high value. Those who said its value was high or very high said the top reason service and the enterprise get value from their quality program is voice of the customer (VoC) and customer experience (CX) insights, not rep performance insights. It is clear that the goal of current QA programs are misaligned with what service and the enterprise value most. Service leaders must evolve their quality programs and shift their focus from prioritizing individual rep performance to purposefully capturing more valuable voice of the customer (VoC) and customer experience (CX) insights.
If you go beyond capturing just rep performance, you can't continue to call it quality assurance. It's more than that. We evolved the name to better represent the more holistic data that is captured. The new quality intelligence (QI) program expands the scope of the quality program to include VoC and CX data, along with traditional QA evaluations. QI captures customer indirect feedback (VoC), identifies obstacles and pain points (CX), and evaluates reps based on strategic objectives (QA). By incorporating these three components, QI provides broader and more holistic insights that are aligned to strategic use cases related to CX and business objectives. For example, a priority for service leaders could be to improve first contact resolution. The QA data collected as a part of QI would include behavior or tasks that lead to higher resolution rates among reps. QI VoC and CX data captured would include what customer feedback points to the root cause of resolution failures and opportunities to increase resolution rates.
Once the data is captured, it can be analyzed and trends can be identified, enabling more strategic action to be taken, especially when compared to the results of the QA programs of today.
The insights from QI should be combined with existing VoC survey and analytics data to create a more complete customer and CX picture.
To successfully shift from QA to QI, it is important to gain buy-in from leaders and change the established belief that a quality program's primary objective is reviewing rep calls for performance and compliance. Here are three key acknowledgements that will help drive this mindset shift:
- There is untapped strategic insight available through customer service interactions, and implementing QI allows us to uncover and leverage that insight.
- By capturing and sharing this untapped quality intelligence, we can impact strategic decision-making and business outcomes, demonstrating the value of customer service.
- The insights captured through QI will directly and positively impact customer service, leading to outcomes such as decreased live-assist volume. This creates a win-win situation for both service and the enterprise.
To achieve this mindset shift and gain buy-in, leaders should develop talking points to effectively explain the why, what, and how of the shift. It is important to sustain this change once implemented and measure success using recommended strategies for overcoming employee resistance to organizational change.
Leaders must also embrace and understand the change to QI, adopting a more strategic and holistic objective for the quality program. Delivering on expectations involves capturing CX and VoC data, deriving insights from it, and tying resulting actions to CX and business outcomes.
Communicating the achievements of the QI program is crucial for building advocacy and justifying the evolution of the quality program. Conducting a pilot of a QI program with a specific use case and data intelligence needs can provide quick wins and validate the value of the shift. This will also help quality analysts transition into their new role as QI analysts.
In conclusion, the shift from QA to QI is necessary to align with the evolving needs of service leaders and the enterprise. By capturing VoC and CX data and incorporating it into the quality program, organizations can gain valuable insights and drive improvements in customer experience and business outcomes. With minimal barriers to entry, service leaders should embrace this shift and start reaping the benefits of quality intelligence today.
Deborah Alvord and Jonathan Schmidt are analysts in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice, covering topics such as talent and operations, customer experience, contact center operations, service and support strategy and leadership, and more.