Findings from our Support Quality Benchmark Report show that 4 in every 5 support teams have a customer service QA program.
And that shouldn’t be surprising.
A robust support quality assurance program is a great way to improve efficiency, boost morale and foster professional growth in your customer service team.
However, in order to achieve this, you’ll need to be asking the right questions while conducting your conversation reviews. Questions that dive deeper into the different aspects of your support and give you the chance to:
- uncover trends and patterns,
- identify areas of improvement within your support,
- gain a more holistic picture of your support, which numbers alone can’t paint.
And this article is all about these very questions!
We’ll be going through a list of the most important customer service quality assurance questions that will put you in a pawsition to examine your support from a variety of angles to ensure you’re delivering the best customer expurriences possible.
Support Quality Assurance Questions by Rating Category
Scorecard rating categories represent support goals and demonstrate customer service priorities. Here’s what support teams evaluate their agents on:
So we’ll divide our support quality assurance questions based on these same scorecard rating categories along with an additional section for KPIs.
Let’s get right in!
Product Knowledge
The product knowledge category covers technical know-how, from troubleshooting issues to providing accurate advice and instructions to the customer.
Product knowledge is essential to clear and confident communication. A thorough understanding of the product allows agents to understand customer issues more deeply and thereby provide better solutions.
Here are the most important support quality assurance questions to help you understand how well agents know your product:
- Did the agent fully understand all the questions posed by the customer?
- Did the agent provide accurate information about the product?
- Did the agent identify the root cause of the issue?
- Did the agent demonstrate knowledge of key features?
- Was the agent up-to-date with the latest product changes?
Tone and empathy
Whether agents are expected to interact in a formal and purrfessional manner or take on a friendly and casual approach depends on your company’s voice.
But whatever the case, you want your agents to display empathy and maintain a positive disposition through all their interactions.
Here are the questions you need to be asking during your next support QA session to discover if you’re agents are using the right tone of voice:
- Did the agent greet the customer appropriately?
- Did the agent use the customer’s name?
- Did the agent personalize their communication?
- Did the agent acknowledge the customer’s problem?
- Did the agent maintain a friendly attitude throughout the conversation?
- Did the agent apologize for any inconveniences appropriately?
- Did the agent thank the customer at the end of the conversation?
Internal Processes
Every business has its own systems and processes in place tailored around their own needs. And following these processes is essential to maintaining consistency across your support team.
We’re sure yours is no different. So here are some support QA questions to better understand whether your agents’ responses comply with your internal processes:
- Did the agent go through the customer’s history and check prior notes?
- Did the agent verify the customer’s identity?
- Did the agent tag the conversation correctly?
- Did the agent provide the customer with relevant self-service links?
- Did the agent make effective use of macros?
- Did the agent include sufficient notes?
- Did the agent escalate the issue appropriately?
Solution
When it comes to support QA scorecards, one of the most important rating categories is ‘Solution’.
And that makes a lot of sense, considering solving customers’ issues is one of the main functions of support.
Here are the questions you can ask during your conversation reviews to examine the correctness and completeness of your agents’ responses:
- Did the agent answer all of the customer’s questions in a concise manner?
- Did the agent ask the customer how they want the issue to be solved?
- Did the agent give alternative ways to solve the issue?
- Did the agent clearly outline the next steps?
- Did the agent provide a timeline for resolution?
- Did the agent provide the customer with timely updates?
- Did the agent offer additional support that minimized the chances of the customer following up with further questions?
Language and Grammar
Poor spelling, grammar, and choice of words are all huge barriers to effective communication.
At best, they can be unclear or distracting. And at worst, downright rude or offensive. Both of which you’d probably like to avoid.
So here are some questions to keep in mind when setting up your support QA program to check if the language used by your team is clear and effective:
- Did the agent use correct grammar?
- Did the agent use the correct spelling?
- Did the agent use correct punctuation?
- Did the agent use consistent wording for product names and features?
- Did the agent avoid using technical jargon unless absolutely necessary?
- Did the agent make appropriate use of emojis and GIFs?
Key Performance Indicators
The real beauty of customer service quality assurance is that it allows you to dive deeper into stories that numbers alone can’t tell.
But that doesn’t mean that your support metrics don’t have their place in the conversation review process. In fact, combining the qualitative and quantitive aspects of your support is what will truly allow you to get the complete picture of your customer service.
Here are the most crucial questions focused on KPIs that you should be asking in your support QA sessions:
- How long did the agent take to respond? (First response time)
- Was the agent able to solve the issue within the first interaction? (First contact resolution)
- How long did the agent take to resolve the issue? (Handle time)
- How many tickets being handled have been resolved? (Resolution rate)
- How many answers does it take to resolve an issue? (Replies per conversation)
- How satisfied was the customer with the support they received? (CSAT)
- How did the agent perform against your own quality standards? (IQS)
Download the checklist
There’s no question..
..that asking the right questions is essential to a successful support QA program.
And we hope this extensive list of quality assurance questions for customer service helps you get a fresh perspective on the different aspects of your support.
Asking the right questions during your reviews is a real game-changer. And so is using the right QA tool that allows you to streamline this entire process.
Luckily, we have an easy-to-use, customizable quality management platform that’s helped:
- Education Perfect pushes CSAT above 96%
- Buffer takes their QA from manual to masterful
- Agorapulse scales customer care without losing quality
And a whole bunch of other well-known hypergrowth companies deliver great experiences at scale. So get your paws on Klaus today and have ameowzing QA sessions like never before.
