In this week's tip, Andrew Laycock explains how to set out a call monitoring sheet for staff development.

Some general pointers from the many I have designed would be:
* Call opening: as in was the standard greeting used, security procedures adhered to, customer addressed by name.
* Communication skills: types of questions asked, demonstrated active listening, acknowledgement given, appropriate tone etc.
* Product/Procedural knowledge: was everything explained, was everything explained correctly, did the customer know what was to happen next.
* If a Sales element: did the agent offer to upsell, cross sell, explain benefits, close the sale.
* Problem resolution: was empathy used, did the agent take ownership, could the agent resolve the problem, did the agent know who to refer the problem to.
* Call close: did the customer know what was to happen next, did the agent ask if there was anything else they could help with, was standard close used.

These are only brief off the top off my head but I'm sure you get the gist. As to scoring I tend to suggest monitoring probably 10/12 calls or 30 minutes worth every month and marking each one with Yes, No or N/A and then use a simple four tier rating (never five as the tendency is to go for the middle three as safe) as follows:
4 - Observed on every call where applicable.
3 - Observed on more than 75% of calls where applicable.
2 - Observed on more than 50% of calls where applicable.
1 - Observed on less than 50% of calls.

Alternatively you can use a weighting system if some elements of the call are more important than others and I've known some clients I have worked with who have deemed some elements so critical that the agent/advisor automatically gets a 1 if these are missed.

The important thing to remember with any call-monitoring sheet is to use it in a developmental way not as an assessment - agents have targets and objectives that measure performance.

Read the question that provoked this response and other members tips on call monitoring here.