Major energy operator automates QA within its existing tech stack

An expanding diversified energy network company

This privately owned energy provider connects millions of Victorians to electricity, solar and gas through its vast and growing distribution network. The company continually invests in projects that increase the capacity, reliability and resilience of the network, powering local communities. 

In this industry, service faults and outages from severe weather conditions can trigger a crisis response. The provider initially engaged Probe CX to move off its legacy DTMF-based technology, which only handled 120 simultaneous calls, and onto Oration conversational IVR to manage surge events. 

Today, Probe CX manages its onshore contact centre, rapid response teams and outage management digital deflection, ensuring tens of thousands of callers a day can receive assistance.

Scaling up critical quality assurance

Accurate quality assurance is a crucial aspect of this provider’s contact centre operations.

Managers were responsible for conducting manual quality assurance (QA) of phone calls with customers at a minimum of two per agent per week, which the team successfully doubled. However, reviewing interactions against quality scorecards took considerable time and effort that was better spent on high-value work. 

Additionally, if the team missed an important detail mentioned on a call, the ramifications could be significant. Tim Wainwright, Operations Director at Probe Group, explains:

‘We take a very cautious and safe approach to customer care. Public and field crew safety is number one. Say a life support customer called, and they ended up in hospital because we didn’t do something right. That’s a serious safety issue we must handle and it creates a compliance issue as well.’ 

In order to continually uplift service quality, Probe CX proposed expanding QA coverage through smarter use of the company’s existing technology. 

‘We had team leaders doing QA, so there’s not only a cost imperative, but the question of whether this is an effective use of their time,’ Tim says. ‘If we can strip admin away and allow them to create better value for that particular function, then that's a win.’  

The goal

Uplift quality assurance to improve the provider’s quality of service and industry standing. 

A proof of concept maximising Genesys usage

Probe CX addressed the challenge by enabling automated quality management (AQM) within the company’s Genesys instance. 

The AQM solution reviews conversation transcripts and answers a set of closed questions against the quality scorecard, checking simple criteria like use of the correct greeting, the offer of a feedback survey, and more. This intends to support QA consistency and reduce scoring variability, freeing managers from their administrative duties. 

Though the AI-powered AQM exists in Genesys, simply flicking the ‘on’ switch was unrealistic. Probe CX collaborated with the provider’s quality lead on developing targeted questions, configuring the AI to only score binary, objective elements, and running multiple rounds of testing and assessment. 

The first round identified a need to improve the system’s ability to recognise key phrases. Questions were later rephrased and tested with phonetic spelling, increasing the accuracy of detection and scoring. Subsequent iterations of the AQM aimed to further improve performance. 

‘We've got to make sure the automation has repeatable results that are consistent with what we're expecting,’ Tim asserts. ‘And we want the client enabled and comfortable using the capability.’

Early testing shows promising signs  

Since implementing AQM, the energy provider has:

Crucially, the contact centre is now able to continually uplift quality of service. The consistency and reliability of QA scorecards better positions managers to coach agents and optimise CX processes — improving the customer experience by extension. 

Moving forward, the Probe CX team plans to finalise and roll-out the solution, and deploy others in line with the company’s objectives.