Calibration Sessions

Calibration sessions in contact centers refer to collaborative meetings or sessions involving all those who evaluate transactions/interactions. These sessions aim to ensure consistent and accurate evaluation and scoring of customer interactions, such as calls or chats, to maintain quality standards across the contact center.

Calibration sessions may be conducted regularly, such as weekly or monthly, depending on the contact center’s requirements. Quality assurance teams typically facilitate these sessions and involve an approach that utilizes a gauge or gauge panel to align evaluations and promote consistent quality across the contact center.

By conducting calibration sessions, contact centers can enhance the accuracy and reliability of their quality evaluations, ensure fairness in agent performance assessments, and maintain consistent service delivery standards.

Primary Aspects of Calibration Sessions

• Evaluation Consistency: Calibration sessions aim to evaluate and score customer interactions consistently. Different evaluators may have varying interpretations or standards when assessing interactions. Calibration sessions help align evaluators’ understanding and interpretation of quality criteria, ensuring that evaluations are fair, objective, and consistent.
• Quality Standards: Contact centers typically have predefined quality standards or evaluation criteria that agents are expected to meet. Calibration sessions allow evaluators to discuss and clarify these standards, ensuring all evaluators meet the desired performance expectations.
• Discussion and Feedback: During calibration sessions, evaluators individually score out a sample of transactions chosen by the gauge. These scored transactions are then discussed during the group portion of the calibration session. They provide feedback, share insights, and engage in open dialogue to improve the evaluation process. This approach helps enhance evaluators’ skills and knowledge while fostering a shared understanding of quality expectations.
• Discrepancy Resolution: In cases of discrepancies or disagreements in evaluations, calibration sessions serve as a forum to address and resolve those discrepancies. By discussing differing assessments, evaluators can identify gaps, clarify guidelines, and reach a consensus on scoring to ensure fairness and accuracy. The gauge or gauge panel makes all final decisions in any case of disagreement.
• Training and Development: Calibration sessions also contribute to evaluators’ and supervisors’ ongoing training and development. They provide an opportunity to share best practices, discuss challenges, and identify areas for improvement in evaluation techniques. This continuous learning and development help enhance the overall quality management process.