What this episode is about
Chris Mounce from Evaluagent joined me to get back to basics on QA: scorecards and coaching. Chris started as an agent and moved into coaching and QA, and a bad early call where he put an angry caller on mute is a big part of why.
Chris talked about the QA maturity curve. Almost everybody starts in spreadsheets, and as a center grows the scorecard tends to grow into a monster, with an urge to get every single thing onto it. The cost is real: the longer each evaluation takes, the fewer conversations your team can review.
To decide what belongs on the form, gather feedback from stakeholders, managers, agents and customers. Chris's example was the classic "did the agent use the customer's name three times" question. How much does a customer really care about that? Forced, it feels fake. That's what I call false hustle: maximum effort in the wrong place, like a thank-you after every verification step.
On coaching, Chris walked through using a conversation model to keep sessions on track. His favorite is GROW: goal, reality, options, way forward. We also talked about role play as a low-risk way for agents to try new approaches, and celebrating wins as loudly as you address problems.
Key takeaways
- Keep the scorecard lean. Every extra question costs evaluation time and coverage.
- Tie each question to something customers or the business actually value.
- Watch for forced behaviors like name repetition that feel fake to customers.
- Use a structured model such as GROW to keep coaching sessions productive.
- Role play lets agents practice difficult scenarios with no risk.
In Tom's words
“And the longer that it takes to score with it, it means that your QA coverage on your conversations gets, gets smaller.”Chris Mounce · 10:43
“did the agent use the customer's name three times during the call? And really, how important is that to the customer?”Chris Mounce · 13:04
“I kind of personally call it false like false hustle”Tom Laird · 13:41
“I love the grow method.”Tom Laird · 30:09
Transcript excerpt
These excerpts come from an automatic transcript and are lightly edited for readability (filler and obvious transcription errors removed). For exact wording, listen at the timestamp.
[09:12]There's an urge to get every single thing that you can think of into that scorecard. And I get it: if it's on the scorecard you can measure it and report on it. But it comes at a cost. If every piece of insight from those 150-plus questions was truly valuable and actionable, maybe it would be justified. But that's a perfect example of outgrowing a spreadsheet. It's becoming a monster. And the longer it takes to score with it, the smaller your QA coverage on your conversations gets. (Chris Mounce)
[12:03]You can gather feedback from your stakeholders, team members, managers, your customers. Understanding your customers' needs will help you identify the areas that are most important. I've seen this a few times where the scorecard question is, did the agent use the customer's name three times during the call? And really, how important is that to the customer? If you're trying to force it, it's going to have the opposite effect because it feels fake. (Chris Mounce)
[28:42]There are lots of models out there, but my favourite is GROW. G is goal: you start off with the end in mind. Then you move on to R, reality, where the agent is at. (Chris Mounce) / Tom: I love the GROW method. I think coming up with your own structure can be a little difficult, because everybody has a different personality, so that's extremely valuable.