How a Leading Housing Association Unified Contact Center Quality Assurance Across Every Channel
Our Client is one of the largest housing providers in the south of England, managing 35,000 homes and work on behalf of 80,000 customers. We work with them on several aspects of their housing association contact center quality assurance program.
Managing Quality Across Calls, Email and Webchat for 80,000 Customers
Our Client has been working with BPA for many years. They originally asked BPA to develop an independent call evaluation process to help identify a more accurate reflection of the Quality of Service being offered, as well as making recommendations around how their service could be improved. During this time, our Client developed the quality monitoring program to include emails. In 2020, BPA was then invited to work with the Client to:
- Develop a quality monitoring program for Webchats
- Achieve alignment and consistency of quality measures for each contact channel; calls, email and webchat
- Drive improvement and consistency in quality scores for all contact channels
- The introduction of quality monitoring for webchats also coincided with the launch of the Clients new Customer portal. 2020 will be a year we all remember for the pandemic and the impact it had on so many businesses. Many of the Clients services had to be suspended during the first lockdown in March 2020 and the Client saw a 15% drop in call contact volumes.
Why Fragmented QA Processes Were Holding Back Service Improvement
However, once the first lockdown was lifted and services slowly resumed, the Client saw an increase contact through the Customer portal webchat facility and via email (54%), whilst call volumes quickly returned to pre lockdown levels.
Building a Multichannel QA Program with Consistent Standards Across All Contact Channels
The Clients first requirement in developing a monitoring program for webchats was to agree the quality measures and design a scorecard. BPA provided guidance on what these measures should be and shared best practice with our Client to help produce the quality guidelines and the scorecard.
The Client has used BPA’s quality software, QualityPLUS (known now as EvalidateQA) for a number of years, and we knew exactly the type of reporting they wanted in order to provide a detailed view of the quality of interactions at Organization, Team and Individual level. QualityPLUS also enabled them to identify the lower performing measures and to focus on driving improvement in these areas.
Once the quality measures were agreed, quality monitoring was undertaken on a random sample of webchats, as a ‘temperature check’ to see where the Client were and the improvements which were required.
The first set of quality scores produced results of 79%, and through QualityPLUS reporting capability, The Client were quickly able to identify some key areas on which to focus and drive improvement. They also identified the need to ensure all colleagues understood the guidelines and the measures they were being marked against.
Using Calibration Sessions to Drive Alignment and Coaching Across Teams
In addition to aid coaching and development of colleagues, Team Leaders needed a greater understanding of the Clients quality monitoring model and the measures being introduced. This was achieved through 6-weekly Calibration sessions, alternating between, webchat, emails and calls.
Housing Association Contact Center Quality Assurance – Case Study
95% Call Quality KPI Consistently Achieved
The introduction of quality monitoring on webchats to run alongside the call and email quality evaluations gave the Client a centralized model for quality monitoring. It helped ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and enabled them to focus and drive improvement in lower-scoring quality measures.
Webchat Scores Improved by Over 11% in Nine Months
The Client’s key learning takeaway was the importance of investing sufficient time in bringing all stakeholders together to share objectives, learnings and to carry out extensive calibration sessions.
A Centralized QA Model That Supports Compliance and Continuous Improvement
Frequent and open communication have enabled them to build confidence, knowledge, share best practice and build a strong partnership with BPA.
95 %
Call quality KPI consistently achieved at over 95%
11.58 %
Webchat quality scores improvement in 9 months
6 %
Email quality scores up 6%
A Long-Term Partnership Built on Communication, Trust and Shared Best Practice
We have worked with BPA for a number of years and we have been really pleased with the quality monitoring model we have built. BPA has worked with us getting to understand our business and provide valuable insight into our service. This has enabled us to share best practice and focus on driving improvement to deliver the best customer experience.
Emma Abrams, Customer Service Training and Quality Manager
