Customer service quality assurance helps you maintain high-quality standards as you scale from handling dozens to thousands of issues.
By monitoring, measuring and analyzing interactions, you’ll find opportunities to improve your team’s performance and better meet customer expectations.
In this article, you’ll learn what quality assurance in customer service is, why it’s important and how to build an effective QA program. You’ll also discover the best QA tools to automate your processes and improve buyer satisfaction.
What is customer service quality assurance?
Customer service quality assurance is the process of evaluating customer interactions to find coaching opportunities to improve the customer experience. The goal is to solve every query as quickly, professionally and effectively as possible.
Customer service quality assurance encompasses a range of activities:
Monitoring and recording sales calls and other buyer interactions to gather data
Scoring customer conversations against pre-defined benchmarks to assess rep performance
Continuous team coaching by a QA manager to improve service delivery, in line with customer feedback and pre-established guidelines
QA is both a way to diagnose customer support issues and fix known problems. Here’s an example case:
Problem | A B2B software company adopts a QA scheme after a string of poor customer service report scores. The company knows something’s wrong, but cannot pinpoint the issue without analyzing customer support interactions. |
Diagnosis | Monitoring phone calls, email messages, live chats and social media mentions makes it clear that customer success teams take too long to resolve complaints. |
Solution | The company implements a quality assurance customer service program that teaches reps how to troubleshoot the most common software problems. |
Results | Resolution times halve over the next quarter. Customer satisfaction levels increase by 25%. |
The benefits of customer service quality assurance go beyond faster resolution times and a happier customer base. Improving customer service has wide-ranging advantages for your employees and your business.
Why is customer service quality assurance important for small businesses?
Enhancing customer service quality grows your business, boosts employee morale and enhances support. While it may seem like a heavy lift, the benefits make it worthwhile. Here are some optimal outcomes you can expect.
Find ways to improve customer service
QA programs make it easy to assess the quality of your customer service and act before problems lead to lower customer retention rates and lost revenue.
These tools suggest improvements without relying on feedback from buyers, who aren’t always forthcoming. Research shows that over half (56%) of customers won’t tell you about a bad experience; they’ll quietly switch to a competitor instead.
Tracking your Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer satisfaction score (CSAT) won’t necessarily help, either. While these scores tell you customers aren’t happy, they don’t pinpoint why. On the other hand, a customer service quality assurance process does.
Boost customer service rep engagement
Far from piling more tasks onto your customer service agents’ plates, a QA program makes their jobs easier and their lives happier.
Imagine being a customer service rep dealing with angry clients and solving complex problems all day. If your boss gave you feedback and tools to solve issues quicker, you’d probably be more excited to come to work.
QA programs don’t just dig up negative feedback. When managers conduct QA reviews, they spot instances of exceptional support, highlight the rep’s customer service skills and reward them accordingly.
Happier, more engaged employees boost your bottom line. According to a Gallup study, companies with engaged employees have 10% higher customer loyalty ratings and are 23% more profitable. It’s a win-win.
Enhance the customer experience
As prospects interact with your business dozens of times throughout the customer journey, they’ll often remember the support. QA puts these interactions in the spotlight, helping you delight customers and position your business for significant growth.
Businesses that systematically prioritize the customer experience gain an enormous competitive advantage. In fact, “customer-obsessed” organisations report 41% faster revenue growth than their rivals.
Customers are also 82% more likely to stay with a company when they receive value-enhancing support.
Rather than leaving service quality to chance, QA provides you with the structure and oversight to deliver exceptional experiences that translate into measurable business results.
To improve customer service and reap these benefits, you must first understand ways to assess the quality of your team’s customer interactions.
How to measure customer service quality assurance
An effective measurement method is the foundation of any successful QA program. As a small business, you’ll want a practical, cost-effective quality monitoring solution that pinpoints areas for improvement.
The table below explains the five most common measurement methods and which businesses they suit:
Measurement method | What it is, why it works, who it’s best for |
QA software |
|
AI tools |
|
KPI dashboards |
|
QA scorecards |
|
QA surveys |
|
A QA scorecard will be the best approach if you’re just getting started with customer service quality assurance. You’ll learn how to use it below.
Then, upgrade to additional methods and dedicated QA software as your interaction volume grows and query complexity increases.
The state of sales and marketing 2024
3 top customer service quality assurance software
A customer service quality assurance tool saves time and streamlines workflows thanks to features like automated transcription, recording and scoring.
To help you navigate the market, here are three practical options to consider depending on your goals.
1. Pipedrive – best for tracking interactions and becoming more customer-centric
Pipedrive combines customer service tracking with customer relationship management (CRM), making it an excellent choice for teams that want to consolidate tools while monitoring customer service rep performance.
The platform tracks customers throughout the buyer journey, from the first point of contact to ongoing interactions with customer success teams.
For example, the contacts timeline provides a visual representation of your reps’ interactions with each client, making it easy to track engagement frequency.
Integrate Pipedrive with helpdesk software like HappyFox and Help Scout to build a CRM-powered ticketing solution that logs every action your customer service reps take.
Reps can manage tickets directly in Pipedrive, allowing your business to collect data to power your QA program.
Additional Pipedrive features help you become a customer-centric organization and meet customers at every stage of their journey.
For example, Pipedrive’s Chatbot reaches out when buyers land on your site. It answers common questions and points visitors to relevant resources.
If a personal touch is necessary, Pipedrive’s Live Chat feature lets bots hand the conversation to customer service reps.
Pipedrive centralizes conversations in the Live Chat inbox, where managers can assign queries and monitor rep productivity. The inbox streamlines data collection by automatically adding contacts’ details to your CRM.
One surprising way to please customers is through Pipedrive’s AI-powered Sales Assistant. The tool helps sales reps deliver a solid customer experience to prospects before they buy.
The assistant streamlines interactions by recommending the best sales action, automating follow-ups and reminding reps when to reach out at specific deal stages.
What customers say about Pipedrive:
Quick and easy to set up
Automations and integrations save time and streamline workflows
Outstanding customer support
2. EvaluAgent – best for automating and integrating training and feedback
EvaluAgent is a customer service software that automates major parts of the QA process, including call evaluation and training.
The platform automatically analyzes rep performance, providing real-time insights and actionable improvements that help employees learn as they work. It also triggers lessons when agents hit pre-defined low-performance thresholds.
Say you want to run training programs. The software provides best-practice meeting templates and helps you build agendas to deliver consistent sessions across the business.
Other EvaluAgent functionality includes the following:
Feature | What it does |
Automated quality scoring | Analyzes 100% of customer interactions across your business. |
Sentiment analysis | Taps into the voice of your customer for deeper insights. |
Work-from-home (WFH) platform integration | Users save precious time on routine admin tasks. |
What customers say about EvaluAgent:
Simple onboarding process makes it quick to get started
KPI tracking makes it easy to spot trends, patterns and potential coaching areas
Built-in reporting is basic and could be better
3. Scorebuddy – best for AI-powered QA
Scorebuddy is an AI-enhanced call center quality assurance software that automatically scores 100% of your customer interactions.
To get started, create your QA scorecards, then use Scorebuddy’s AI to auto-score rep performance. Tweak the AI’s scoring system to better align with your criteria and weight its scores accordingly.
Automatic assessments save QA managers time and effort compared to manual methods. They let you run in-depth QA programs for more employees without increasing headcount or overwhelming your existing assessors.
Here are a few other key capabilities of Scorebuddy’s QA system:
Feature | What it does |
Automatic human and AI agent scoring | Lets you see how well your chatbots are solving customer needs. |
Dashboard personalization | Reps receive immediate feedback and tailored coaching plans to keep them engaged. |
Customizable reporting | Users can tailor reports to reflect business goals using embedded business intelligence tools. |
AI analytics | Enhances QA data by identifying patterns and trends that managers might miss. |
What customers say about Scorebuddy:
Easy to update marking criteria to meet company best practices
Individual rep tracking makes it easy for employees to measure their performance
Software can be slow, especially when loading large data sets
In addition to selecting the right tool, building a successful customer service QA program requires strategic thinking, systematic implementation and an ongoing commitment to change management. Here’s how to do that.
5 best practices to build an effective customer service quality assurance program
These five best practices provide a framework for small business managers to develop quality assurance programs that deliver measurable sales revenue.
1. Outline a vision of great customer service to set clear goals
Start by defining what high-quality customer service looks like to your business. Excellent customer support looks different from one company to another, so it’s essential to drill down and ask your team and customers what truly matters.
For example, one company may prioritize speedy resolutions, while another values thoroughly investigating issues and helping customers maximize value.
Once you’re clear on your focus, set relevant KPIs to track your progress. The key is to pick metrics that directly align with your goals while providing actionable insights.
Here are some examples to get you started:
Key performance indicator | Description |
First response time | The time between a customer’s initial inquiry and the first response from a support agent. |
Average response time | The average time it takes for agents to respond to customer messages across all interactions. |
Average handle time | The average duration from when an agent answers a customer inquiry until they resolve the issue or the interaction ends. |
Abandon rates | The percentage of customers who hang up or leave the queue before reaching an agent. |
Hold times | The average time customers spend on hold during a support interaction. |
First call resolution | The percentage of customer issues resolved during the first interaction (also called first contact resolution). |
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) | A measure of how pleased customers are with a service interaction, usually rated on a scale from one to five. |
While QA scorecards assess individual rep performance, KPIs provide a top-level overview of your entire customer support function. Tracking them highlights systemic problems and root causes, like slow response times, that you must fix.
2. Create a QA scorecard for comprehensive team assessment
Next, translate your customer service vision and KPIs into rating categories and specific questions. You’ll include these on QA scorecards to make it easy for managers to assess rep performance.
Here are some common QA scorecard categories and example questions:
Category | Question |
Greeting and closing | Did the agent greet the customer warmly and close the conversation professionally? |
Communication clarity | Was the agent’s communication straightforward and easy to understand? |
Empathy and tone | Did the agent use a friendly tone and show genuine understanding of the customer’s situation? |
Solution accuracy | Did the agent provide the correct solution or information? |
Personalization | Did the agent address the client by name and tailor responses to customer needs? |
Product knowledge | Did the agent demonstrate accurate knowledge of the product or service? |
Compliance | Did the agent follow all required processes and compliance guidelines? |
Timeliness | Did the customer receive a prompt response from the agent? |
You should end up with a completed scorecard that looks something like this:
Finally, assign your scorecard a grading system: either a binary (yes or no) measure or a scale (from 1 to 10).
A binary system makes grading faster and more objective. Asking a QA manager simple yes-or-no questions avoids bias creeping into your assessments, which can cloud results.
You can still apply weighted scores, as in the example above, to ensure evaluations align with your customer service priorities.
3. Choose which interactions to review for high-value insights
Most small businesses won’t have the time or resources to go through every customer conversation, so decide how many calls to assess and which ones to focus on.
While randomly selecting a percentage of all interactions is the most objective method, it can lack nuance and may slow progress toward your business goals.
A better strategy is to choose calls that provide the most significant insights into support quality and offer the best chance of meeting immediate objectives:
If you’re training a new batch of reps, make their calls a priority
If recent email requests have gone unsolved, review more of them
If social media queries have long first response times, include many samples
Regardless of your goals, aim to review a cross-section of interactions from every type of customer support you offer to spot channel-specific issues.
4. Provide feedback and implement a solutions-led training program
Whether building a new customer service department or improving your existing support team, make sure everyone knows how to deliver best-in-class support through regular feedback and training programs.
Start coaching reps the moment they join. Here are some common strategies to get you on the right track:
Adopt an onboarding program to help new agents get up to speed quickly and confidently solve issues from day one
Use call recordings and evaluations to give your team constructive feedback, helping them improve their resolution rates and boost customer satisfaction
Hold regular coaching sessions to act on feedback using persona-based training so agents adapt to different types of customers
Build and regularly review a knowledge base containing frequently asked questions and solutions to common problems
Pipedrive’s knowledge base is an excellent example of how to explain complex topics clearly:
Reviewing interactions, delivering feedback and designing training programs can be significant undertakings for a business owner or customer service lead. If you feel stretched, consider hiring a customer service quality assurance manager or third-party QA specialists to run your initiative.
Check out existing customer service quality assurance job ads on sites like Indeed for inspiration. Ask your customer service manager for any connections who can offer one-off or part-time support.
5. Use AI to save time and evaluate every interaction
AI tools supercharge your customer service quality assurance efforts, helping you assess every call and act faster to improve rep performance.
According to the CallMiner CX Landscape Report, 87% of global contact center and customer experience leaders believe implementing generative AI is key. 91% think it will optimize CX strategies.
Here are the core AI features to look for:
Feature | Description |
Automatic evaluation of every interaction | AI tools should review all customer interactions across channels. Recommended software: EvaluAgent |
Sentiment analysis and keyword spotting | Look for AI that analyzes customer sentiment and flags conversations with negative emotions or other keywords. Recommended software: Front (integrates with Pipedrive’s CRM) |
Agent performance analytics and coaching | Choose a platform that tracks agent performance, identifies knowledge gaps and recommends targeted training. Recommended software: KrispCall (also integrates with Pipedrive) |
Conversation summaries and reporting | AI should generate concise call summaries and actionable reports, saving time on manual conversation reviews while providing clear insights. Recommended software: Pitch Patterns |
Predictive analytics | AI identifies patterns that predict customer churn or dissatisfaction, allowing you to intervene before escalation. Recommended software: Pipedrive’s Sales Assistant |
Tracking every interaction with AI will uncover hidden patterns that humans fail to spot. Leverage these AI insights to deliver personalized training programs to each customer service rep.
AI customer service QA also creates an audit trail, which improves accountability and compliance and resolves disputes faster.
Final thoughts
Customer service quality assurance quantifies the efforts of your customer success teams, producing data and feedback to turn ordinary service into exceptional experiences.
By implementing the best practices in this article and adopting one of the customer service quality assurance tools, you’ll be on the path to happier customers, engaged employees and a healthier business.
Try Pipedrive free for 14 days to manage your customer interactions better, track rep performance effectively and make your business more customer-centric.
