Quality assurance (QA) in contact centres has relied on call sampling: a small percentage of interactions reviewed manually, scored against a framework, then fed into coaching. That model is increasingly seen as insufficient, not because QA teams aren’t diligent, but because sampling cannot keep pace with the volume, channel mix and risk profile of modern customer contact. Across both public sector services and commercial contact centres, coaching at scale means expanding from ‘a few calls’ to ‘every interaction’ through speech, text and interaction analytics…
Why sampling is being replaced
Sampling creates blind spots. It can miss emerging issues, inconsistent behaviour, vulnerable customer interactions, and process failures that drive repeat contact. It can also feel unfair to agents: performance may be judged on a handful of interactions that aren’t representative.
By contrast, 100% interaction coverage allows leaders to identify patterns with confidence: what’s driving complaints, where policy is being applied inconsistently, and which behaviours correlate with better outcomes.
What ‘100% coverage’ looks like in practice
Most organisations aren’t expecting managers to listen to everything. Instead, analytics tools are used to:
- Automatically tag interaction reasons across voice, email, chat and messaging
- Flag compliance and risk events (e.g., missing disclosures, vulnerable customer cues, verification failures)
- Highlight coaching opportunities (e.g., excessive hold time, weak objection handling, missed empathy markers)
- Provide micro-insights at agent, team and centre level
This creates a targeted coaching pipeline, where human time is spent on the interactions that matter most.
Best practice: Targeted, risk-based coaching
The most effective coaching-at-scale programmes are built around prioritisation. Typical best practice includes:
- Risk-based queues for compliance- and safeguarding-sensitive interactions (especially important in public services)
- Performance-based targeting where agents receive coaching aligned to their specific gaps, rather than generic refreshers
- Journey-based coaching themes tied to the issues driving repeat contact and failure demand
- Manager enablement: simple coaching packs with examples, transcripts, and clear ‘what good looks like behaviours
Commercial centres often focus strongly on conversion, retention and customer effort reduction, while public sector services place additional emphasis on consistency, accuracy, accessibility and appropriate handling of vulnerable callers. The underlying coaching model can be shared: the weighting of outcomes differs.
Avoiding the ‘algorithm-as-manager’ trap
A common failure mode is using analytics purely for scoring, which can quickly feel like surveillance. Best practice is transparency and balance: agents should understand what is being measured, how it is used, and how it benefits development.
Leading centres also combine automated insight with human context, ensuring coaching remains supportive, fair and grounded in real-world constraints.
The payoff: quality, consistency and capacity
When done well, 100% interaction coverage doesn’t just improve quality: it increases capacity. Managers spend less time hunting for calls and more time coaching. Leaders get a clearer line of sight to systemic issues. And agents receive feedback that is timely, relevant and more representative of their work.
Coaching at scale is now less about monitoring more and more about coaching smarter.
Are you searching for Agent Coaching & Monitoring Solutions for your organisation? The Contact Centre Summit can help!
Photo by SEO Galaxy on Unsplash
