Call scoring is the evaluation of phone call data against a defined performance standard, usually for the purpose of scoring customer service agents. For sales and marketing teams, call scoring can help surface certain metrics like sales agent script compliance and inbound lead quality.
Once you’ve established the criteria that make up a successful customer service or sales experience, the first step in successful evaluation is recording inbound calls for transcription or playback. These records can then provide key insights into your operation: Are your agents sticking to the script, and making sure to hit the right keywords with every call? Is your sales team following through on every opportunity to convert a lead into a customer, or are missteps causing prospects to fall out of the funnel?
An effective call scoring system can answer these questions and provide some much-needed peace of mind for managers and agents alike. With call scoring, your center can easily identify failing or ineffective procedures, zero in on customer pain points and frustrations, and help focus training and professional development efforts for your personnel.
Why should my organization use call scoring?
For customer service desks, robust quality assurance helps decrease turnover, boost agent efficiency and increase customer retention by improving the overall quality of the experience. And for sales desks, call scoring also helps you figure out what’s driving qualified leads to pick up the phone and call, so you can focus your marketing efforts on the channels that are delivering the best return on your ad spend.
No matter what industry you work in, having a transparent set of standards in place for your team boosts morale and self-accountability, and minimizes any confusion that might arise due to turnover on the management team. By implementing an effective call scoring solution, you can rest assured that expectations are being clearly communicated across teams and departments, and that everyone is on the same page.
Call recording can also be an excellent source of feedback and inspiration for organizations willing to keep their ear to the ground. You might learn that many of your leads are calling in with similar questions about your service, which is the perfect spark of inspiration for an infographic or piece of top-line editorial content. You’ll also learn more about the different types of customers and leads who call in, allowing you to focus your training efforts to address these specific needs and concerns.
How can I streamline and automate the call scoring process?
If you’re running a desk with dozens of agents, listening to all of their recorded calls will take a lot of time, and maybe even a small army of quality assurance specialists. Thanks to the increasing availability and viability of speech-recognition software and predictive algorithms, it’s easier than ever to automate the call scoring process.
With speech-recognition in place for your recorded calls, you can automatically generate accurate transcripts for calls, greatly simplifying the quality-management process. This then allows you to pick out keywords and phrases to see where your agents are shining, or where a call might have gone off the rails. Sales teams will find this feature particularly useful in determining whether a lead is qualified and ready for a followup.
Hand-in-hand with auto-transcription and call recording software, many call tracking services now offer automatic lead scoring, including CallScore by CallRail. CallScore allows you to choose from conversation keywords and caller data to judge whether a lead is ready for a sale. Then, CallScore can do the heavy lifting and listen in on your agents’ sales calls, and automatically identify whether the lead is likely to convert.
See how CallRail’s Conversation Intelligence and CallScore features can power up your sales or customer service team.
With the right call scoring solution in place, you’ll gain key insights into your team’s strengths and weaknesses, and make sure your sales or customer service desk are always at their best.
