6 Tips to Conduct a Successful Call Calibration Session

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Call calibration session are extremely relevant to the overall performance of a call center and should be performed on a regular basis.

Call calibration process should be consistently done by the quality monitoring teams, trainers, campaign leaders and other relevant stakeholders. This way there is a good chance to review how interactions with customers are taking place, use the standard evaluation form to compare the quality scores, and conduct productive and effective discussion centered on a particular campaign. The primary aim is to ensure that the actual scores remain within a variance of 5%.

Here are some tips to help you understand how to conduct a successful and effective calibration session.

Tip 1: Materials need to be distributed

Before you begin a calibration session, the relevant emails, chats and selected calls need to be distributed to all the participants so that call evaluation can be done. The participants for a calibration session should be supervisors, managers, any agents and the quality monitoring team.

If some agents are included in these calibration sessions, especially if a review is being done on their interactions with customers, it can act as an excellent learning session for them. Thereby, agents can get a direct feedback from the group and can appreciate the scoring process in a better manner.

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Make sure interactions are reviewed first to ensure the agent will not have a negative experience. If an agent has to be reprimanded, it should be done when the calibration team is present.

It is the responsibility of a Quality Monitoring team to be ready with their evaluation forms when they are done with the scoring process. The distribution of blank evaluation forms can be done when the interaction needs to be reviewed.

All participants may complete the score prior to the beginning of the session or when the review is being conducted. However, it should be pre-determined before the start of the session so that the variance if any can be captured.

Ideally about two to three interactions for each calibration session is sufficient but it also depends on the conversation length that is under review.

Tip 2: The Quality Monitoring team should facilitate proceedings

It should be the responsibility of the Quality Assurance team to facilitate the call calibration session. Your SPOC or single point of contact should be the leader of this discussion.

It is he/she who should be allocating time to each of the participants along with distribution of materials before the meetings. Moreover, technology should review the interaction and venue logistics.

The facilitator should be also responsible for distributing the session’s summary to all the participants and coordinate for follow-ups if necessary.

If any scope of improvement is found during a calibration session, the same should not only be communicated to the concerned agent but should be also retrained and monitored to make sure that he/she is complying.

Tip 3: Fix the ground rules to be followed during the session

In order to have an open environment during a calibration session, the following suggestions can be followed:

  1. Decide the start time and the end time beforehand
  2. Calls should be listened to carefully without interrupting or reacting
  3. Participants should keep an open-mind and be honest while discussions are going on.
  4. More stress should be put on consistency rather than being right or agreeing.
  5. Strict confidentiality should be maintained even after the discussion is concluded.
  6. All the attendees can be asked to add additional guidelines when they feel that something is amiss.

Tip 4: Previous discussions needs to be reviewed

The calibration process should be commenced by reviewing the lowest and the highest scores. It is easier to discuss these 2 ratings rather than other scores.

If it is not the first call calibration session then the scores of the previous sessions can be used for locating any type of deviations. But, if you are conducting a call calibration process for the first time, scores can be set during the meeting.

It takes some time to get any team calibrated so the process should not be rushed. You should follow the practice of regular meetings for duration of an hour.

Tip 5: Feedback needs to be put together

You must make sure the call feedback reaches the floor of the call center. It is the responsibility of the facilitator to make sure all the feedback is in sync with the goals of the call center or the goals of the call calibration process. The idea is to clarify the standards of quality performance.

Tip 6: Definitions of the quality standard should be reviewed

One of the most important advantages of a call calibration session is to review the definitions of quality standards. The suggestions can be noted by the Quality Assurance team and act upon after a feasibility study.

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