Outsourcing your Pharma Call Center Quality Monitoring Program

Many pharma call centers simply don’t have the time for even a basic contact quality and compliance monitoring (QCM) program.  When headcount gets tight, and a supervisor’s span of control goes from 1 to 8 to 1 to 15, the QCM program gets shuffled down the to-do list.

Is There a Solution?

How about outsourcing your QCM program. That’s right! If you have an existing internal monitoring program, or if your outsource contact center provider monitors themselves, or even if you have no program at all, it might make sense to have an independent QCM vendor handle the monitoring for you.

Risks and Benefits of Outsourcing your QCM

Before we go any further, I want to put forth my disclaimer.  Centerfirst provides call monitoring services for our clients.  Nevertheless, I hope to offer an objective view of the risks and benefits of outsourcing your monitoring program.

Risks of Outsourcing your QCM

1. Building trust

It takes time to develop trust between call center professionals and monitoring professionals and having this function outsourced is another layer of trust to work through.

2. Using the information

If you don’t have a QCM program currently, it will take some time getting used to the monitoring feedback and using the reports. Your monitoring program will produce feedback that can be used to help assess, coach, and develop your agents’ performance. However, having an outsourced program and not  taking the time to use the data will not produce a good return on your investment.

3. Three’s a crowd

You may be adding another vendor to your contact center relationship, and you know the saying, “Three’s a crowd.” If your center is currently outsourced, your vendor partner is likely already doing monitoring on their own. There are clear benefits to an independent monitoring partner, but the three-party relationship is an added risk to be managed.

Benefits of Outsourcing your QCM

If you don’t currently have a QCM program, the most important benefit might be that now you  have information to provide feedback for your agents and documented quality oversight for inspectors. If you do already have a program, what benefit does outsourcing offer that your current program might not.

1. Objectivity

If you are outsourcing your contact center and asking your contact center vendor partner to handle the monitoring, you might not be getting an objective view of agent performance. An independent monitoring partner helps ensure an objective view of your outsourced service provider’s customer service, medical accuracy, and regulatory compliance.

2. Efficiency

An independent QCM program costs about $5,000 – $10,000 to set up and $45 and $85 per monitored call and case. It’s more expensive than no QCM  program or having your current call center vendor monitor themselves, but it’s probably less expensive than running your own in-house program.

3. Benchmarked

Having an outsourced call monitoring provider allows you to know that your center is constantly benchmarked against the performance of other centers in the bio-pharma industry.

I hope I have provided some thoughts for you to consider about your QCM program.  If I have not held up to my promise to be objective, please let me know.

If you would like to know more about outsourcing your quality monitoring program, please contact us.