Phone recording software (aka call recording software) is a very effective tool in not only assessing and evaluating call center agents but also in helping to train them to enhance their skill sets and performance.  Phone recording software with quality monitoring capabilities empowers supervisors, team leaders and agents them

selves to review good and bad past calls to identify best-practices and areas for improvement.

Here are 10 ways you can use phone recording software to improve customer service skills within your contact center.

1. Create an online repository of weak phone calls between agents and customers.  Include all types, such as: cancelled account, customer complaint, dissatisfied customer, very long call, etc.  Use these calls to train new and existing agents on what "not" to do.  Keep these calls fresh and update regularly so the repository does not become stale.

2. Create an online repository of best-practice strong phone calls between agents and customers.  Include all types, such as: new customer, renewed subscription, successful upsell, successful cross sell, highly satisfied customer, etc. Also use these calls to train both new and existing agents on what to do and how to handle specific situations.  Make it a contest and have agents submit their best calls.  Pick the best calls and reward agents accordingly.

3. Combine recorded-call evaluations with live monitoring for a 360-degree assessment of the agent's performance.  Live monitoring enables supervisors/evaluators to give immediate feedback when necessary following the call, while recorded-call evaluations gives the evaluator more time to review the call on a number of factors.

4. Hold "rapid fire" group call-review sessions to go over good and bad recorded calls together and discuss as a team.  This gives all agents, customer service managers, evaluatory and supervisors the benefit of hearing other team member's perspectives.

5. Evaluate the evaluator - allow call center agents to evaluate a call or two of their team leader through an evaluation form.  This empowers the agents and makes them feel like their input on call performance is important.  Inadvertently, it also helps them with their own training.

6. Self-evaluate - Have supervisors or team leaders pick specific calls for agents to review in order to grade themselves on their own performance.  This also empowers the agent and gives him/her a non-threatening opportunity to see what went right and what went wrong during their call.

These are simply some of the many tips you can use to improve agent performance using call recording and quality monitoring software.