Remote Listening is the ability to listen to a live conversation between a call centre agent and a customer from another location with or without their knowledge.
Who uses remote listening in call centres?
Remote Listening is normally a function that is undertaken from a Team Leaders desk or by a Quality Assurance team.
The main purpose is to monitor the quality of the conversation and provide feedback to agents for coaching purposes.
Do you need special technology to perform remote listening?
Yes. Typically most call centre ACDs will enable you to access a contact centre agents extension to log in.
Of course, given the sensitivity, the access for remote listening is normally restricted by user profile so only Team Leaders, Managers and Quality Assurance staff will have remote listening privileges assigned to their profile.
With the new cloud-based call centre technology the same principle applies although it’s often as simple as just clicking the agent’s extension to listen in.
Again, the same security protocols exist that restrict this feature to certain users.
For some systems, you will need to be in the same centre to access calls remotely (as external network access is blocked) whereby with cloud technology you can literally listen in to a call from anywhere in the world.
Benefits of Remote Listening
There are really three main benefits of remote listening:
- To ensure you can provide support to a call centre agent if you hear them on a difficult call.
- To observe performance without their awareness for coaching purposes.
- Enable other stakeholders (e.g. senior management) to listen in to live calls to understand how good the call centre staff really are.
Call centre remote listening differs from traditional coaching methods like one-on-one or double jacking where the Team Leader is physically right next to the employee.
Recommended further reading:
- Get expert tips on how to improve your coaching and leadership tips in a contact centre environment.
- Find a list of suppliers of call centre technology including those with remote listening capability in our free CX Directory >>>
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