Quality management (QM), also known as quality assurance (QA), refers to the customer service strategies aimed at continuously improving service quality. The focus extends beyond just boosting service efficiency—it also aims to guarantee customer satisfaction and promote the professional development of support agents.
Targeted quality management ensures that every customer interaction is handled in a professional and friendly way, and with a clear focus. According to some sources, 76% of organizations believe that quality assurance in customer service plays a key role in improving customer experience (CX). To support this, many rely on analytics tools of service desk software to track critical aspects of QM—such as customer satisfaction score, performance metrics, KPIs, gaps, compliance, average ticket handling time, agent performance, and improvement opportunities.
In this blog, we will explore the importance of well-optimized processes as a foundation for service excellence. We will also examine how effective quality management—supported by intelligent, AI-powered tools—plays a vital role in strengthening quality assurance in customer service.
Also read: 14 Helpful Tips To Deliver Great Customer Service
Importance of quality management in customer service
As customer expectations grow rapidly, harnessing the power of digital transformation can ensure they deliver an enhanced customer experience. And businesses that trail in adoption, fail to offer personalized customer services leading to customer attrition and loss of revenue. These reasons indicate why quality management in customer service is important. It sets the seal on why customer service is not about being reactive, but it is about being proactive to improve the overall customer experience.
Businesses that invest in quality assurance benefit in the long term from such advantages:
- More efficient processes: Minimal room for errors due to optimized service workflows.
- Better employee performance: Regularly training service teams helps them to understand and serve the customers better.
- Greater brand loyalty: Outstanding customer service creates loyal customers who happily recommend the brand to others.
- Higher customer satisfaction: Customers receive consistent and high-quality responses to their queries.
Ways to measure customer service to ensure quality assurance
How can a business identify gaps in their customer service?
How can businesses measure the effectiveness of their services?
There are a variety of approaches businesses can implement, but below we have listed down some of the most common ways to measure customer service.
- QA Software: Quality assurance softwares has advanced functions to automate and track every customer interaction. Through agent dashboards, service teams are able to track how quickly agents are resolving customer queries and if they need any coaching to progress in their roles.
- KPIs: Error rates, net promoter score (NPS), and customer satisfaction score (CSAT) are some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure quality assurance in customer service. Monitoring these KPIs helps businesses understand where their service is lacking so that they can improve their service levels to improve customer loyalty.
- QA Score Cards: You can’t improve what you can’t measure. A QA score is simply an evaluation form which businesses use to gather customer feedback. As businesses aim to constantly improve customer experience (CX), they can define their goals in the QA scorecard, measure them, and identify key areas of improvement.
- Customer Surveys: Actively listening to customers and resonating with their needs creates excellent businesses that put customer excellence at the core of their quality management strategy. Surveys are powerful tools when they include the right questions in order to gain insights on customer preference and pain points.
- Employee Surveys: Service agents are at the forefront of customer service, and they have a deep and comprehensive understanding of what customers want. Employee surveys are a great way for businesses to record some internal KPIs. KPIs such as job satisfaction levels, effectiveness of employee training, and internal processes can be measured to serve the customers efficiently.
Foundations of successful quality management
- Define clear service standards: Effective quality management begins with clearly defined service standards. Businesses need to understand the existing standards before outlining the next steps. Ensuring faster response times to increase higher problem-solving rates allow businesses to provide quick support and maintain a specific level of customer experience.
- Systematically use customer feedback: To continuously improve the quality of customer service, it is important to periodically gather customer feedback and evaluate it. Surveys and direct interaction with customers is a great way to do that. Businesses that actively respond to customers’ feedback can proactively address any gaps in the customer service and further improve the quality.
- Employee training and coaching: Delivering high-quality customer service is directly related to an employee’s customer-facing skills. Conducting regular training sessions and focusing on continuous skill development is essential. Training employees not just in their field but also training them in effective communication and handling customer issues helps them completely upskill themselves. They feel more confident to provide effective customer service.
- Using technology and AI-powered tools in quality management: Modern technologies are playing an increasingly important role in QM. AI can help businesses automate processes and make customer service more efficient. A service desk with QA tools intelligently evaluates customer interactions and identifies areas of improvement which ultimately result in shorter waiting times, faster resolution of queries, and an overall improvement of customer service quality.
AI-driven tools for a 360-degree customer service management
ThinkOwl, the AI-powered customer service software suite with QA tools, offers businesses powerful tools for quality assurance. The software empowers service-teams through real-time analytics and intelligent automations.
- Automatic analysis of customer interactions: The AI recognizes patterns in customer inquiries and provides valuable insights for service optimization.
- Real-time assistance for service agents: ThinkOwl provides an “AI knowledge assistant” to service agents while resolving customer queries to deliver quick and precise responses.
- Integrated feedback mechanisms: Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is measurable in OwlDesk so that businesses can make required improvements in customer service.
Also read: AI Analytics: Essential For Smarter Decisions and Steller CX
Achieving customer service excellence
Studies show that companies with robust quality management programs experience up to 25% higher customer retention rates. Organizations that establish clear service standards, actively gather customer feedback, invest in ongoing employee training, and embrace modern technologies are better positioned for long-term success—and can continuously enhance quality assurance in customer service. Over time, this leads to a more consistent service experience, building stronger customer trust and loyalty.
Would you like to learn how ThinkOwl can improve the quality of your customer service management? Request a demo!