Better Call Center Monitoring with Real-Time Data
As a leading provider of call center quality monitoring, J. Lodge needed an effective solution for tracking and measuring thousands of data points across multiple customers. J. Lodge replaced its paper and spreadsheet scorecard system with a customized Quickbase application that delivers fast, accurate data on call quality to its customers.
Challenge
- Multiple call-monitoring scorecards to be modified quarterly
- Secure access to call center data for staff of virtual analysts across 37 states
- Scorecard data needed to be aggregated across different attributes
- Month-end reports needed to be created for its global client base
- Clients wanted more insight into call center performance across more data points
Solution
- Scorecard application to automate analyst input and information sharing
- Online database functionality to ensure uptime and access for all users
- Custom scorecards developed on demand in hours, not weeks
- Self-serve customer reports based on real-time audit data
- Automatic email alerts for faster resolution of call quality issues
Benefits
- Low cost of development and maintenance saves over $100,000 per year
- Approximately 30 hours a month saved on report generation
- More than 45 hours a month saved on scorecard data compilation and handling
Since it was founded in 2000, J. Lodge has been setting the industry standard for call center quality monitoring while taking a socially conscious approach to its business model. The company employs a virtual staff of monitoring analysts who are former business professionals disabled by illness or injury and who must work from their homes.
It's a finely tuned operation that has taken years to perfect and involves analysts listening remotely to call center interactions and completing customized scorecards to rate the quality of the calls. Scorecards are then compiled and reports are provided to clients so they can evaluate the effectiveness of their customer service interactions.
The paper- and spreadsheet-based scorecard system that J. Lodge was using was time-consuming because scorecards needed to be updated for each new attribute that was being monitored and attributes could change monthly. In addition, manually aggregating all the scorecard data to fully evaluate call center performance was challenging.
We needed to find an alternative to the piles of spreadsheets and manual reports. The system didn't allow us to fully measure the true quality of the customer service experience, nor did it give the company insight into how agents were performing and where training needed to occur.
Quickbase Answers the Call for Database Affordability and Scalability
Schrider evaluated several database products but found them to be limited in scale and expensive to upgrade. Discovering Quickbase, he says, was a turning point for his company because it provided a low cost of entry and unlimited potential for growth with easy application development.
Using Quickbase's project management module, Schrider's IT team customized an online scorecard application that was deployed across his entire network of virtual call monitoring analysts. With it, they could input scorecard data and have it available in real time for review by any authorized user at any location.
Everything related to call center audits flows through Quickbase in real time, so information can be aggregated for a comprehensive assessment of call center performance. With audit data centralized in Quickbase, it's easy to see quality trends and identify where more agent training is needed.
Quickbase gave us unlimited ability to cross-correlate trend data from any point within the system, giving us unprecedented insight into the quality of the call center from the effectiveness of the agents to the satisfaction of the people who called in.
Email functionality alerts J. Lodge when an attribute score falls below a predetermined point so the company can notify the customer and correct the situation. Instead of waiting five to ten days for end-of-month reports, customers can run ad hoc reports on their call center audits without utilizing J. Lodge resources. And because Quickbase is Internet-based, it's readily accessible by virtual analysts regardless of what computer platform they're using, which is important since some of the employees use customized systems to accommodate their disabilities.
This application is by far the strongest one available for quality monitoring. It now takes seconds to satisfy our clients' needs for information, when it used to take days. There's no delay between the time information is entered and the time when it's available.
More Audit Quality Reaps Big Business Benefits and a Competitive Advantage
In the six years since J. Lodge deployed Quickbase, the company has been able to perform more call center audits in less time with fewer resources and with more insight into data.
Schrider estimates that he has regained 45 hours a month across all of his virtual analysts on scorecard processing now that Quickbase automates the process and eliminates the need for manually correlating and emailing the information. That time gain has allowed his company to increase the number of audits that can be performed by 35 percent.
End-of-month reports no longer need to be generated because J. Lodge clients can pull their own reports as needed, saving J. Lodge an estimated five to ten hours a month in valuable staff time that can now be reallocated to core business functions.
With Quickbase's easy application development, Schrider's IT team can modify an existing scorecard application in less than an hour and build out a new application from scratch in just a day, saving the company more than $100,000 in custom application development a year.
