
For any business to maintain a high standard and a positive reputation, assuring quality is of utmost importance. It is one of the few factors for a company to trust any service provider, especially in the BPO industry. It is only just for any client to expect a proper and regular quality audit, for without it a company’s standards will fall and can cause a lot of harm. Worst case scenario, a small mistake can cause a company to fail. This is why it’s important to have a well-planned and well-executed quality audit process.
To help you accomplish this, here are eight best practices BPO companies should apply to assure quality across all processes at all times.
- Align metrics with business goals
When identifying your quality metrics, you should consider how it will help you achieve your business. The reporting prepared by your QA team should focus on helping the business measure and assess the quality of each output and process being implemented. When identifying your metrics, you should see to it that it is aligned with your key performance indicators (KPIs), and that you have strategies in place to make sure that your team meets these KPIs. At the same time, the strategies you will be implementing should be measurable. - Clearly define quality metrics
An effective quality management plan requires clear and concise metrics. It’s also essential that everyone in the team is familiar with these metrics, as this will give them a direction on how to do their tasks properly and be able to achieve the company’s desired metrics. The management should see to it that the members of the team are given enough training to achieve these metrics. Moreover, team members should be able to monitor their performance regularly and know their current standing based on the quality metrics set for them. - Create a QA checklist
Aside from preparing your production team, you should also make sure that your QA team is prepared to accomplish their tasks auditing the production team’s performance. To make it easier for your QA team to do their job, you should see to it that a QA checklist has been prepared for them. Your quality auditors should then use this checklist as their guide when doing process audits. This will help make the process more systematic and a lot easier to complete. - Prepare a detailed improvement plan
Apart from having a well-organized audit process, a performance improvement plan should also be put in place. Without an improvement plan aligned with your quality metrics, all your efforts in doing regular performance audits will just go to waste. The goal for conducting audits is to identify your team’s opportunities for improvement and along with any other aspects of your business that may need to be enhanced for efficiency. - Make ongoing feedback a regular practice
Feedback is an essential part of improvement. It helps a person identify what his improvement opportunities are and helps him evaluate his current practice. Giving your employees regular feedback allows them to maintain good performance, which in the end, will benefit your business better. With better employee performance comes better output, which translates to improved operations and revenue for your business. - Use performance data results for coaching
After every quality audit, your QA staff should also see to it that coaching sessions are scheduled thereafter. This is important as it will allow them to better discuss their findings with the team. Effective coaching can help build a more concrete and positive change in an individual. This can also improve the transfer of knowledge from the QA coach to the employee being coached. To make coaching sessions more effective, see to it that every findings is discussed in detail. Allow the individual being coached to ask questions and openly discuss with you his current process. This way, you can better understand his thought process and be able to help him refine his methods, which can help him perform his tasks better. - Screen and train your QA team properly
For a QA team to be effective, they also need to be properly trained about your company’s products and services. Whether you decide to outsource your QA needs or hire and build a team in-house, it’s important that you choose a team that will understand your industry, your business goals and your processes as this will enable them to do their quality audits more effectively and efficiently. - Incentivize Your Team Appropriately
One of the best forms of motivation is incentives. Reward your team whenever your quality goals are met. This can help boost their determination to excel at doing their tasks and accomplish them based on the quality metrics you have set. With enough motivation and proper guidance, you will soon find your quality improving, with its results reflecting on your business’ overall performance. - Outsource Your Quality Auditing
In addition to utilizing our world-class QA capabilities for all of our client engagements, we also have some clients who select to utilize us only for QA (while they handle data processing in-house). Not all companies have the manpower and the capacity to handle their quality audit needs in-house. But that should not stop you from implementing rigorous quality management for your team and your processes. If you need professional quality assurance solutions, outsourcing it might be the best option for you. And if you need more detailed guidance on how you can outsource your QA needs, talk to us here at Assivo. We’ll be happy to help you come up with an appropriate quality audit process that suits your processes and your business model.