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June 01, 2021

Mastering the art of QA

by Lukaš Lyndo

QA Team Lead

In the beginning, there was nothing. Our main goal was to give an answer at any cost. Not too long after the decision was made – we need a Quality Assurance process, so we could move from ‘just-Customer-Support’ to, the team delivering a fantastic Customer Experience. After becoming a Quality Analyst (9 months of being in the Customer Success Specialist’s shoes later), it was my main task. I want to share my lessons, tips and tricks with those in a similar situation.

  • The transparency trap.

If you already know what criteria are the most important for your QA process, it’s time to fire up the good old excel sheet and we are all set, right? No! Before you begin, take some time to think through the communication. Your success agents probably can’t wait to receive their first dose of feedback, but are they 100% onboard with the entire process? Do they know what criteria they will be evaluated on? I’d suggest taking your time here to ensure that agents understand the whole concept of QA.
In our case, we just went ahead with the full release. Naturally, our feedback created more questions than answers. I wouldn’t recommend it.

  • The Quality of Quality

One of the questions I get asked regularly is how do we ensure that the quality team receives feedback and adheres to all the standards? At the start of our journey, we were nowhere near the answer. All the feedback we would receive was scattered and unorganised. Some of it came through Team Leads, other through agents directly. Honestly, it was abstract at best and subjective at worst.
The solution for me lies in allowing agents to quickly follow up and discuss their results with the QA team. In other words, agents can quickly dispute their scores if they disagree with them, which gives us valuable insights into our QA performance.

  • Calibrating your quality compass

Regardless of what kind of quality system you have in your organization (be it Top-down, peer review, or anything else), having a good quality process “calibration” meeting is a must. It is time for all parties to have their representatives talk about all the misunderstandings, grudges and emotions they may experience. As a Quality Lead, I use this opportunity to drive the change into our daily processes.

All in all, I’d say that starting a QA process requires the effort of an entire organization. Get all the parties together, figure out their expectations and communicate your goals. Then combine all the ingredients into a coherent system and voila, you’ve saved yourself a lot of time by NOT doing this process backwards! On a serious note, this is a continuous improvement process, so don’t get upset if it doesn’t work immediately. Take your time and you’ll master the art of QA.