Call Center Audit Checklist (2022)

The call center audit checklist is a necessary tool to measure the performance of the company. The checklist can be summed up to five things but we have found that it is much easier to audit your call center, when using a good power dialer that supports reporting & analytics. 

Overall Call Center Performance

Using call center metrics will help you, as the manager, evaluate and measure the success of your goals. Some of the most relevant metrics to track in a call center include, but are not limited to:   

• Calls until a conversion – By tracking how many calls it takes until a prospect becomes a customer, you can tell a lot about your leads quality as well as your agents skills.
• Calls per hours – This gives you an idea of what each agent is capable of doing and helps you assess new goals for them to strive for in the future.
• Call outcome – Not only is this important for knowing which numbers are no good but it’s also an indicator of how successful your sales dialogue and caller ID appeal to  prospects. 
• Follow-up Per Lead – The follow ups are where over half of the sales come from, so it’s important to know the amount of follow-ups with any given lead. 
• Voicemail returns – This measures the effectiveness of your company’s voicemail script. 
• Handle Time – Keeping the customer on the phone longer allows the agent to answer any concerns they might have and gives them time to gain more information from the customer as well.  
• Agent Satisfaction – This metric measures how well the agents think each call went. The manager can use the positive and negative calls as teaching tools later.
• Cost per call – This call center metric is an industry standard used for measuring how much a single call costs and helps with tracking or predicting expenses. 
• Number of Metrics You Are Tracking – The metrics you track should be a necessity for your business, not a luxury, unless of course you have the manpower to track it all. 

Agent Performance

For analyzing agent performance a few metrics will be helpful:

• Follow a schedule to promote prioritizing tasks, keep all agents on the same page, and fight against procrastination.
• Measure quality assurance by using a scoring tool. This helps the manager understand how successful an agent is with call handling, following the script/protocols, and the use of phone etiquette. 
• The number of calls assigned to an agent. This will determine how busy the agents are, as well as if there is a need for more agents or less. 

You will likely need to use different metrics for inbound and outbound call center reporting, due to the difference in goals and call center purposes. Be sure to use metrics that will be useful to the company goals and will be manageable. 

Call Center Scripts

Provide your staff with effective scripts. One that will get all the necessary information. Again for inbound and outbound calling the scripts will look differently and need to achieve different things. Keep this in mind when picking or writing your script(s). 

Inbound call center scripts will either have a script provided from the client or you will have to create one. In inbounding call scripts the goal is to get the callers name, contact information, and the purpose of the call. 

Outbound call center scripts will focus more on giving information to the call recipient. The scripts will need to include information like who is calling (the company or agent name), the product or service, and the benefit of the product or solution to the customer. 

Call Center Culture

The culture of your call center matters. For many businesses, their call centers are the primary point of contact with consumers. Everything from calling to place an order, request information about a product, inquire about a delivery date or voice a complaint, a call center is expected to handle everything pleasantly, informatively and efficiently. A call center is the backbone of almost every business, therefore, it’s important to have a healthy and positive culture. 

Building  call center culture begins with looking at the current values and culture and seeing whether everyone is working toward a common goal. Learning how to improve call center culture is different for each organization, however, once it is identified the company can build the culture around it. If employees have company values to look to and see management upholding the values it will create a desired call center culture. 

Customer Satisfaction

Call center customer satisfaction always starts with the satisfaction of the employees. If you don’t cater to the needs of your employees how will they cater to the customers needs? 

Here are six tips on how to improve customer satisfaction by improving the employee satisfaction: 

• Offer continual training – Offering regular training sessions and other forms of professional development will keep your team up to date and ready to tackle any issues that might arise in their day-to-day.
• Hold call review meetings – Calls can go well and some calls might not, both outcomes are lessons and can be used as teachable moments by the manager. Review meetings are beneficial for improving agents skills and correcting mistakes. 
• Boost daily morale – Employees don’t expect grand gestures, although occasionally it’s nice to do so. Small but meaningful gestures go a long way. For instance, providing snacks or having a casual day is enough to boost morale. 
• Create a collaborative environment – The traditional work space doesn’t always allow for collaboration. By having meetings, an open-door policy, and online platforms for sharing ideas and thoughts, your agents will feel heard and be able to collaborate for solutions. 
• Share experiences – Call center agents experience a lot of the same situations and it’s important that agents share these experiences. For new agents they will be able to learn what to do when that experience arises and for experienced agents it can give insight into a better way of handling the situation in the future. 
• Reward good performance – Just as bad performance needs to be corrected, good performance needs to be rewarded! Find out what motivates your employees, so you can give rewards that will encourage their performance. For instance, extra time off work, a bonus, recognition in the company etc. 

If you are new to management or have been managing people for a long time, it is always helpful to receive tips on your call center management!