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How often you should review your scorecards: a process and timeline

With scorecards taking time to define, it can be tempting to take a ‘one-and-done’ approach. However, doing so can put you at risk of not only using outdated line items, but skewing your QA to outdated concepts. 

Why should you review your scorecards?

Having data from regular evaluations enables your team leaders and managers to build a profile of individual team members, but also the overall team. Analyzing this information can reveal trends and patterns, which in turn enables you to take action quickly to resolve any issues.

For example, if a majority of the team is performing poorly in compliance, then additional team training should be on the cards to improve the issue.

But before doing that, it’s worth asking whether it’s the agents, or the scorecard itself. If the phrasing, angle or criteria of the scorecard isn’t quite fit for purpose or the channel it’s designed for, then you’ve got an entirely different issue.

This is why it’s so important to review scorecards. They’re an essential aid to not only measuring and improving performance, but also preventing bad practices spreading through a contact center.

It’s challenging, but by following a quality framework and reviewing often, you stand a much better chance at success.

How often you should review your scorecards

Ideally, you should review your scorecards at least every six months. We recommend this timeframe because it allows you to:

At the same time, six months comes around fast in a contact center! Before you know it, you’ll be into a regular rhythm of reviewing that means you can roll out meaningful changes that help your team and business collate more accurate, useful data.

Evaluating your scorecards

To evaluate your scorecard, ask the following questions:

1. Is it working and meeting requirements?

Is your scorecard easily understood and applicable to the types of conversations your agents are having? Is the scoring criteria in place providing genuinely useful insights as well as addressing necessities?

If you’re struggling to come to a conclusion, it’s a good idea to loop in your evaluators for feedback. They’re in the perfect position to outline areas for improvement or where confusion typically arises.

Calibration sessions can also help shine a light on whether scoring criteria is too open to interpretation, so you’ll get more consistent evaluations across the board.

2. Has it adapted to your changing business?

Have you adopted new channels? Adapted to updated regulations? If so, does your scorecard reflect this?

This question is more about checking nothing crucial has been missed off, keeping your business accountable.

3. Is it helping to improve quality?

Ultimately, the whole point of using scorecards is to improve agent and overall team performance over time. 

For example, are you putting actions in place to develop and motivate your team – like training and coaching – in response to both high and low scores?

It’s worth assessing this at both an individual and team level to identify whether the scorecard is helping you make improvements, and at what scale.

Conclusion

Scorecard evaluations don’t need to take a long time, but naturally they may take longer if you identify issues. If you’re making changes or suggesting a new version, it’s a good idea to involve your agents, evaluators and team leaders – check out our blog about launching a scorecard internally for more guidance.

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