Call Center Monitoring and Social Media

BPA Quality Takes Third Party Remote Call Monitoring to Social Media

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Companies throughout the world have used third party remote call monitoring software for years to measure the success of their current processes and identify opportunities for improvement. While the demand for such software still exists, monitoring has gone beyond the mere confines of the phone interaction to include a full range of channels.

One of the most recent additions to the monitoring space where BPA Quality is concerned includes the far reaching spaces of the social networking phenomenon. Not only are companies establishing a presence on sites such as Twitter andFacebook (News - Alert), customers are also posting comments about companies and the news can either be good or bad.

No matter how a company may classify the information, it is truly rich and real-time customer feedback that can be used to strategize more effective ways to drive revenue and profit. This could seem like a daunting task to even the most innovative of companies as the information can be widespread and cover a full range of topics. The good news is that BPA Quality has already developed solutions that can capture this information for maximum use.

A team of experts at BPA Quality takes this form of third party remote call monitoring to a whole new level by capturing feedback from a full range of social media sites and turn it into objective and quantifiable data. This data can then be used to change the business into the picture of perfect in the eyes of the customer. Well, even if that is stretching it, the idea is to make those changes that keep the business focused on the needs of the customer to drive loyalty and long-term success.

This is accomplished through the use of the BPABuilder Online suite of tools offered by BPA Quality that allow companies to truly measure and use third party remote call monitoring applications that allow companies to extract rich, meaningful information from interactions involving their company and their customers.

The best way to control this information is to capture it, learn from it and improve interactions for customers and BPA Quality helps make that a reality with third party remote call monitoring solutions that maximize the social media platform. With the amount of data available to capture, attempting to do it in-house will take the focus away from core business initiatives.

Allow the experts to gather and quantify the information so you can then use it in your strategy planning. Third party remote call monitoring is important for any business and when it involves the social media environment, experience can make the difference.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi

USA Employee Spotlight August 2010 Kevin Shaw

Kevin Shaw joined BPA Quality in November 2009 and has already proven to be a tremendous asset to our Team.


He is responsible for the leading his team in exceeding personal targets, great quality scores (over 95% accuracy), and has distinguished himself as a true leader.


We at BPA Quality would like to send out a thank you to Kevin for going above and beyond and instituting an ever-present contributor to the overall team and ensuring we remain the best in remote call monitoring globally.

UK Employee Spotlight August 2010 Charlotte Davidson

Charlotte Davidson joined the Client Research Department at BPA Quality 4 years ago and has proven to be real 'pillar' of our Team.

Charlotte is responsible for the planning of resources and our People's talents to deliver successful projects for Clients in the UK, Europe and worldwide. Be it a Research project for a UK Client with over 25 nationwide branches or a multilanguage requirement involving over 40 worldwide locations, Charlotte can manage it exactly to the Client's requirement which takes somebody quite special!

We at BPA Quality would like to send out a thank you to Charlotte for her super-organised, focused and composed approach (regardless of the challenges!), her always present smile and for her contribution to make BPA what it is today - the best in remote call monitoring available globally.

BPABuilder: Third Party Remote Call Monitoring Software Built for Customization

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

The BPABuilder is a good way to customize your company software, as it includes features to track, trend, report and create the stimulus to "build your Quality Customer Experience," as company officials say. 

The BPA Builder comes with "such services as Third Party Remote Calling Monitoring, Mystery Calling, Mystery Shopping, Benchmarking, Customer Satisfaction Surveying, Social Media Monitoring and other General Contact Center Quality Assurance initiatives you may have," company officials say.

Other important features include PABuilder.Reporting, included with the BPABuilder Program as a standard and integral part.  It's developed and delivered in three different ways:

BPABuilder.Online. Every report that is relevant to your data and your business is available as part of BPABuilder.Online. "Web-based reporting at the click of your mouse, reporting that is robust, accurate and designed for the maximum impact on your agents," is how company officials describe it.

Digital Push Reporting. Every report that is available on the BPABuilder.Online tool is also available via Push Distribution. "If you prefer, reports can be sent directly to your email inbox at regular intervals," company officials say. "Just let us know which reports you would like to subscribe to, how often you want them, and where you want them delivered, and the information you need to build a Quality Customer Experience comes to you."

Custom Reporting and Analysis. The BPABuilder.Reporting tool will include "reporting and analysis by our team of experts and Client Strategies department," company officials say. "These types of reports are intended to address specific needs or findings that are not part of the standard online package." These reports are delivered in your choice of format such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint or PDF.

BPABuilder.Coaching is also included with the BPABuilder Program as a method of delivering coaching to the Call Center Agents, and to track this coaching in order to generate an environment for improvement.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Juliana Kenny

BPA Quality Touts Measuring the Subjective for Call Center Improvement

by David Sims

It's interesting to hear a call center provider talk about its philosophy of how the company goes about its business. BPA Quality officials say that the challenge as managers is to "move the barometer of performance from poor or average to outstanding." 

"We probably have all been on the receiving end of poor or average customer service," they say, adding that research shows that "a contributing factor to this is that often when agents are given feedback it is often in varying degrees subjective -- the impact of this is that either the agent believes that the feedback is biased and disregards it, or genuinely does not know how to improve based on the feedback."

For example, they say, the agent may be told to be friendlier. Which is great, but what if the agent does not know how to be friendlier? Right -- she has a job waiting for her at the IRS tomorrow. But stay focused here.

BPA's experience and research in the field for over twenty years lets them claim specialist status in analyzing behavior by "constructing metrics that allow the precise measurement of performance. Seemingly subjective elements of calls are accurately measured."

This means that feedback becomes objective and actionable and easily delivered consistently by supervisors, company officials say: "Agents have confidence in the feedback and know how to improve. The organization has an accurate and objective view of performance by team, center or enterprise-wide."

BPA officials say that, armed with all that, "we then apply your standards, your technical requirements and your policies to our philosophies to identify the key activities that result in a Quality Customer Experience. We then strive to develop clear, well defined criteria to help support the activities that result in a successful customer interaction."

Part of this is then eliminating the “gray areas” of typical quality monitoring by developing detailed definitions of these key criteria and support this clarity through extensive calibration and analysis of the consistency of the data.

The result, they say, is "clear results and actionable observations that allow your managers, supervisors and agents to modify the behaviors of the call center activities to build a Quality Customer Experience time and time again.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Juliana Kenny

Successful Quality Monitoring Programs Must Haves

Successful Quality Monitoring Programs Must Haves

Listening is nice, however your agents will figure it out quickly if they know that
you are merely listening and not doing anything with the information; They will
use the Hawthorne Effect to their advantage! As a remedy, the agents must be
provided with a strongly supported feedback mechanism that they can easily
understand. There are four factors that you must understand in making any

program successful:

• The agents have limited time and bandwidth to absorb any feedback…they
are busy!
• They usually take all their direction from their direct supervisor…they know
who their boss is!
• They want to know what they did right and wrong…they truly want to
perform well!
• You must be consistent, fair, and accurate in your feedback…if it isn’t, the
supervisors and agents will discount the findings!

Employee Spotlight for July 2010 USA - Aldo Alvarez

Aldo Alvarez has been with BPA Quality for 2 years and has grown into an invaluable lead on many projects from training, coaching and managing high profile teams.  You can read more about Aldo's talents via his linkedin.com profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/aldo-alvarez/20/b62/188

BPA Quality sends out their thanks to Aldo for a job well done and for his dedication in making BPA what it is today -- the best in remote call monitoring available globally!

UK Employee Spotlight July 2010 Elle Neal

Elle Neal has been with BPA Quality for 4 years and has grown to be a valuable asset to the BPA team.  In her role of Senior Project Manager, Elle shines in her planning, execution, monitoring and managing skills on any project that she is tasked.  She is extremely customer focused, pro-active and always ready to take on new challenges.  We at BPA Quality would like to send out a thank you to Elle for her tenacity, team spirit and dedication in making BPA what it is today - the best in remote call monitoring available globally.

You can read more about Elle Neal at her Linked.com profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/elle-neal/17/946/789

Why Outsource Call Monitoring?

Why Outsource your Call Monitoring?


As a sales manager in a rather large outbound call center, I always found myself lacking the time to listen to my agents' calls on a consistent basis.  Our training department attempted to monitor calls as well, but the effort was always pushed to the back burner for more pressing issues.

Once team leaders were incorporated in the monitoring process, the coaching increased, but sales decreased.  Taking your best agents off the phone was probably not the best decision.  Plus, due to the close-knit relationships that form on the floor, there was/is a lot of nepotism that can occur.  Unfortunately, this scenario is seen throughout the call center industry.

How do you overcome these obstacles to ultimately increase the customer experience and sales?

Well, using a 3rd part to listen to your calls and provide feedback can provide just that answer.

This is what a 3rd party call monitoring firm can provide:

1.  Objective Measurement
2.  Consistent feedback, not based on biases
3.  Emphasis on the customer experience, rather than internal targets
4.  Actionable feedback that can be used by agents, supervisors, managers and training departments
5.  Data that can specifically change behaviors

Bottom line:

  "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it."

Ultimately, a 3rd party call monitoring firm can provide you the tools to measure and manage call center teams effectively.  Period.

BPA Grows by a Baby!

Congratulations Giovanni and Signe on your new bundle of joy!

Fresh Eyes

At BPA Quality, we have been speaking this week with an International Airline Client about how to evolve our project to the next level. Our client shared with us that every month they gain great feedback and knowledge to make their call centers betters.  Although they may encounter the same situations during their internal analysis, they had found that using "fresh eyes" to piece together new ideas has been very beneficial to their overall growth.

When a company is so entrenched into their daily tasks, some very significant breakthroughs can be overlooked.  When they use an outside source, the mundane becomes extraordinary in the elevation of their call centers to the next level of excellence.

"When you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that makes it good or bad."  ~ Miles Davis

Ten tips to improve listening skills on the telephone

Ten tips to improve listening skills on the telephone

Stay focused
Prevent yourself from being distracted by colleagues or external noises and concentrate on what your caller is saying.
Detect emotions
Listen to the emotion in your caller’s voice. Does it match or endorse the words they are using?
Ask questions
Ask questions to gain more information on points you need to clarify.Publish Post
Don’t interrupt
you listen more effectively when you’re not talking, so refrain from interrupting your caller. Let them finish what they are saying; interruptions may break their train of thought.
Don’t pre-empt
Avoid pre-empting what your caller is going to say, chances are you will be wrong and miss some of the content of their conversation.
Recap key facts
Summarize and reflect back to check you have heard the key facts and content of the caller’s conversation correctly. It also lets the caller know you have understood them. Statements such as “What I’m hearing is…” and “Sounds like you are saying…” are great ways to reflect back and summarize.
Pen and paper at the ready
Have a pen and paper to hand and get into the habit of making short quick references to any questions you want to ask or points you wish to raise or comment on. When your caller has finished speaking refers back to your notes and take action. If you are thinking of answers and responses while the caller is speaking, you are not listening.
Say it again
if you are having difficulty listening, makes the necessary adjustments. You might say, “I’m sorry I missed that last point. Please repeat that for me.”
Watch the stereotypes
Avoid stereotyping individuals by making assumptions about how you expect them to act and what you expect them to say. This will bias your listening.
Be aware of the barriers to listening
• we think we’re right and the other person is wrong
• we feel we have to provide help right away
• we prefer to talk rather than listen
• we are waiting for gaps or pauses to jump in with our response

The Language you use within a call center can be critical...

In a customer service environment the language that we use can have a strong effect on how the customer perceives the service.  In a sales environment this is even more critical. 

Here are some examples of Positive Words/Phrases:

 “Definitely”
“Surely”
“Absolutely”
“Certainly”
“Rest Assured Mr.……”
“I do understand the inconvenience you have faced……”
“I will be more than glad/ happy to assist you….”
“I completely understand the reason why / your situation….”
 “I will surely ensure that…”
“What I will do for you right away is……”
“I assure you I will try my best…..”
“What I can do for you right now is ….”
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience that you have faced, what I can do for you is ….”


“I would suggest / I recommend…..”
“To avoid a similar inconvenience in future I request you to….”
“All you need to do is to just….”
“A simple way / method to change it will be to…..”
“As soon as you receive…”
 “You will surely be able to enjoy…..”
“You will ONLY be charged…..”
“We have a variety of …..’
“It’s a wonderful service where instead of _______, you can ____________ …..’
“This is the best plan/scheme for your requirements…..’
“For just $____. …you can…..”
“For Special customers like you…..”

Satisfied Vs. Loyal Customers

You may have a satisfied customer, but are they truly loyal to you.  If they see a better deal at a competitor, will they grab it?  Why?

For the most part, your customers are looking to be WOW'd.  When they call in or online chat with your agents, are they finding themselves excited about that experience?  They should be because that is how you get them coming back.

I am addicted to shoes.  I will look at shoes wherever I might go, online or in a store.  When Azppos.com came around, i thought I had died and gone to heaven until I saw their prices.  Luckily for me,  I was give a coupon code and decided to purchase some awesome looking shoes.  After I put in my code and gave my credit card number online, I found that the discount was not applied.  I contacted the online agent and they were so helpful in ensuring that I received my discount.  He even with the extra mile and called me the next afternoon to ensure I received my order and it went through properly.  Then, about a week later, I received a handwritten note from this agent thanking me for my business.

Why am I telling you this?  I'm telling you this because I was WOW'd and I've not kept quiet about it.  I am now a loyal customer/advocate of Zappos.com.  They know how to take care of their customers.

Their agents are trained to make their customers not want to go to their competition.  What are you doing to create loyal advocates out of your customers?

NY Office

Spent the better part of last week in our NY office to discuss all the great things to come at BPA Quality.  Just to give you a sneak peek to what is coming, here are some key words:  website, social media and staff!  I've never had such a privilege to work with a great group of people that knows so much about Quality!  More exciting news to come....

Factors for Effective Quality Monitoring

Listening is nice, however your agents will figure it out quickly if they know that you are merely listening and not doing anything with the information; they will use the Hawthorne Effect to their advantage! As a remedy, the agents must be provided with a strongly supported feedback mechanism that they can easily understand. There are four factors that you must understand in making any program successful: 

~  Your program should be clear and to the point. The agents have limited time and bandwidth to absorb any feedback…they are busy! 

~  Your program should integrate the supervisors or managers of the agents. They usually take all their direction from their direct     supervisor…they know who their boss is! 

~  Your program should have a clear definition of what you want the agents to do. They want to know what they did right and wrong…they truly want to perform well! 

~  Your program must be consistent, fair, objective and accurate in your feedback…if it isn’t the supervisors and agents will discount the findings! 

Quality Coaching

I am a runner, I love to run. Recently, I set one of my best times as a 40 year old for a 3 mile run, averaging about 7.5 minutes per mile. I felt great about this result. The very next day, my 9 year old daughter runs into my office, with a grin ear to ear and proceeds to inform me that she set the school record for the mile, running it in just shy of 6 minutes flat. All of a sudden, I wasn’t that great anymore, and I didn’t realize it until someone told me. Aside from being much older, I had no idea why I couldn’t beat a 9 year old. I needed a coach to get me there. Your call center agent is much the same. They carry on their daily activities to the best of their knowledge or ability, each with their own mind about how well they are doing. Whether this meets the expectations set by the overall company isn’t known, that is until someone tells them. Sure, you can send the agents reports, numbers, scores, and customer satisfaction numbers all day…just like my comparison to my daughters running time. This only gives them half of the picture…it tells them the result of what they are doing. While they may perform well or poorly, they simply do not know the reasons why. Someone must be their coach. 

-Craig Antonucci, Director of Client Strategies @ BPA, MBA and Professor of Decision Sciences

If you'd like to read more, please contact Karyn Dupree at 516.300.1236 or karyn.dupree@bpacalls.com