Building trust and consistency: The evaluation framework behind QEA
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In our recent blog, we introduced how the Quality Evaluation Agent elevates support excellence by bringing automation, consistency, and intelligence to quality assessments. Now, let’s dive deeper into the evaluation framework at the heart of QEA – the blueprint that defines how QEA evaluates support interactions, what standards it upholds, and how it transforms raw evaluations into actionable insights.
Why use an evaluation framework?
Quality management is more than just scoring support interactions. It’s about defining what “good” looks like for your business and enforcing those standards consistently. The evaluation framework in Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Contact Center empowers supervisors to do exactly that – at scale and with precision. It specifies how evaluations happen, the evaluation criteria, and how insights flow back to your team. By establishing this framework, you can set clear expectations for service quality and then let QEA’s AI automate the heavy lifting of evaluating each case or conversation against those expectations.
Core components of the QEA evaluation framework
The framework has three core building blocks that work together to turn raw support interaction data into meaningful quality assessments.
Evaluation criteria
These are structured forms that represent your quality standards. Each criterion can include specific questions (or checkpoints), defined answer choices, and a scoring logic (equal or weighted) for how each answer contributes to an overall score. For example, you might have criteria around issue resolution, accuracy, professional communication, and adherence to policy. QEA comes with out-of-the-box criteria, but you can fully customize criteria to fit your organization’s needs, whether that’s emphasizing compliance for a regulated industry or empathy and tone for a customer-centric culture. You can include detailed instructions in each criterion to guide QEA’s understanding of what to look for.
Evaluation plans
These define when and how evaluations are executed. An evaluation plan lets you decide the scope and frequency for QEA’s evaluations. For instance, you can set QEA to automatically evaluate every support case based on conditions occurring (like a case breaching its SLA, a customer giving a low CSAT, or a conversation sentiment dropping below a threshold). You can also schedule these plans to run on a recurring frequency basis, on occurrence of an event or on-demand that supervisors can run for specific high-priority incidents. This flexibility ensures that the evaluation process aligns with business priorities and workflows, without requiring constant manual oversight.
Evaluations
This is the execution layer where QEA applies your criteria to specific support interactions. When an evaluation runs (as defined by a plan or on-demand), QEA takes a given record (case or conversation) and autonomously analyzes it against the evaluation criteria. It then produces a detailed evaluation output that includes: a quality score (often broken down by section), the predicted answers for each question (with an explanation of why it judged it that way), and actionable insights or coaching recommendations for improvement.
For example, QEA might evaluate a closed case and output a scorecard saying compliance was 100% (all policy steps followed), communication clarity was 80% (noting jargon used in one response), and empathy was 70% (noting that the agent missed an opportunity to acknowledge the customer’s frustration) – and then suggest a coaching tip to the supervisor on empathy. Importantly, the framework allows supervisors to review and approve evaluations before they’re finalized. You remain in control. You can adjust scores or override any AI evaluation, ensuring transparency and trust in the system’s outputs.
Supervisors set up criteria and plans, while QEA carries out evaluations and directs results to dashboards and reports for easy review. This creates an ongoing, automated quality audit that aligns with your defined standards.
With structured standards and AI-driven automation, QEA ensures trust, compliance, and excellence in every customer interaction. Every issue—handled by a new hire, experienced agent, or AI bot—is measured against the same standards, enabling quick identification of deviations and best practices.
Case evaluations in action
Let’s make this concrete with how QEA’s framework applies to cases in Dynamics 365 Customer Service. In a traditional setup, a supervisor might manually review a small sample of closed cases each week to check for quality. This approach leaves many cases unchecked and often catches problems long after the customer interaction is over. QEA changes the game by automatically evaluating every case against your predefined standards during any stage of the case lifecycle.
Here’s how it works for cases: Suppose you have an evaluation plan that runs and checks for all closed cases. An agent closes a support case after resolving the customer’s issue. Immediately, QEA kicks in and uses your set criteria to evaluate that case. It looks at the case timeline (all customer communications, agent responses, emails, case notes, etc.) and answers the evaluation questions you’ve defined.
Evaluation scorecards
Within seconds, QEA produces a scorecard for the case. Key benefits of this approach to case evaluation:
- Automated quality checks: Every closed case is assessed without manual intervention. No more worrying that a critical case might go unreviewed. QEA ensures 100% coverage, so even edge-case issues or outstanding agent performances get flagged.
- Customizable criteria: You define the evaluation parameters to match your business goals. If customer satisfaction and first-contact resolution are your top priorities, your criteria can reflect that. If compliance and process are paramount (for example, finance or healthcare), you can emphasize those. QEA adapts to what matters most to you.
- Actionable insights: Instead of just a score, you get clear feedback on each case. This makes it easy to identify coaching opportunities. For instance, if many cases are showing “missing follow-up confirmation,” you can address that pattern with the whole team or adjust training materials.
- Scalable oversight: You can move beyond sampling a few cases and truly evaluate all cases for consistent quality. This scalability is huge – it means your quality program can grow with your volume without additional resources. It also means your quality metrics (like average quality score, or percent of cases meeting all criteria) are based on full data, not extrapolation.
Using QEA for case evaluations ensures every support issue receives thorough, consistent review. This approach helps organizations quickly identify policy breaches, skill gaps, or exceptional service, turning insights into targeted improvements. Ultimately, QEA transforms quality assurance into a continuous process, providing supervisors with a reliable tool for oversight and coaching.
Evaluating conversations
The same evaluation framework that powers QEA’s case reviews also extends to customer conversations – whether live chat sessions or voice call transcripts. In contact centers, conversations are as critical as cases, often more so in terms of customer experience. QEA’s framework is entity-agnostic, meaning it can evaluate any type of interaction.
The Quality Evaluation Agent’s evaluation framework embodies a modern approach to customer service management. Quality isn’t an afterthought but is built into the process at every step. With QEA handling the heavy lifting of evaluations, teams can truly elevate their support excellence by acting on insights and continuously refining the customer experience.
Ready to deliver service excellence with consistency and trust? Explore how to activate the QEA evaluation framework in Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Contact Center. Now you can turn every support interaction into an opportunity for improvement.
Learn more
Watch a quick video introduction.
For configuration steps, extensibility options, and best practices, see Manage Quality Evaluation Agent | Microsoft Learn
The post Building trust and consistency: The evaluation framework behind QEA appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
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