IQS: Internal Quality Indicators

IQS (Internal Quality Score) is an internal KPI used to evaluate the quality of employee work and service delivery, especially in call centers, support teams, and sales departments.

In customer-facing teams, IQS often combines:

• service behavior (script adherence, tone, empathy),
• operational metrics (response time, resolution quality),
• customer-related outcomes (post-contact CSAT, CES or NPS),
• compliance with internal standards and regulations.

In the context of surveys, IQS may capture the quality of responses, speed of handling requests, adherence to process, and the customer's overall experience - and can be linked with broader satisfaction measures like CSI, CSS or Customer Experience indices.

Why IQS Evaluation Is Used

IQS is a backbone metric for internal quality management and operational excellence. Typical goals:

• Improving service quality. IQS helps assess how effectively employees communicate, solve problems, and follow standards. High IQS often correlates with better CSAT, lower Churn Rate and higher Customer Retention and Repurchase Rate.
• Managing employee performance. It provides structured input for coaching, performance reviews and VOE programs, highlighting strengths and gaps in skills.
• Optimizing internal processes. Aggregated IQS data reveals bottlenecks (e.g., complex scripts, broken hand-offs) and supports process re-design, automation, and tool improvements.
• Enhancing customer interactions. By evaluating real conversations and tickets, IQS shows how well the frontline turns policies and scripts into experiences that feel simple and helpful for customers.
• Data-driven decision-making. IQS adds a quantitative layer to quality discussions, complementing qualitative feedback and enabling comparisons across teams, shifts, and time periods.
• Employee motivation and recognition. When designed transparently and fairly, IQS can be tied to recognition programs, gamification, and development plans.

How the IQS Metric Is Calculated

There is no universal IQS formula; each company defines its own indicator set and scoring rules. Below is a simple example using an unweighted average of three indicators:

• Response time (T)
• Customer satisfaction (C)
• Service standards compliance (S)

Each indicator is normalized to a 0–1 scale (or 0–100%), for example:

• T: 0.80 (80% of contacts answered within the SLA)
• C: 0.90 (90% positive CSAT)
• S: 0.75 (75% of audits meet standards)

A basic IQS formula:

In the example:

This means that, across the three selected dimensions, the internal quality score is 81.7%.

In more advanced setups, companies may:

• assign weights to indicators (e.g., customer-impacting metrics count more), similar to a Weighted Survey,
• include additional metrics (e.g. FCR, FRT, TTR, post-contact NPS or CES),
• build composite indices and track them over time using time series analysis.

General Methodology for IQS Surveys

IQS programs usually combine quality audits with structured surveys of customers and employees. A typical methodology:

1. Define what IQS should measure. Decide which aspects of quality you want to capture: service behavior, process adherence, speed, CSAT, internal collaboration, etc.

2. Create tools: checklists and questionnaires

• Quality checklists for auditors or supervisors.
• Short customer surveys (CSAT / CES / NPS) after interactions.
• Optional Employee Engagement Surveys or VOE instruments to capture internal insights.

3. Choose data collection methods

• call and chat monitoring,
• screen recordings,
• online forms, post-contact surveys, or panel studies for repeated measurement.

4. Define the target sample. Decide which respondents and interactions to include: random sample, specific queues, new hires vs experienced agents, particular products, etc. Ensure coverage is broad enough for reliable conclusions.

5. Collect and process data

• score interactions using quality forms,
• aggregate customer survey responses,
• normalize indicators to comparable scales (e.g., 0–1).

6. Calculate IQS and analyze results

• compute IQS overall and by team, channel, or region,
• apply cross-tabulation to find patterns,
• use quantitative research and qualitative analysis on open comments.

7. Interpret and make recommendations. Translate the numbers into concrete insights: where are scripts failing, which teams need training, which processes cause repeated contacts?

8. Report and feedback. Prepare understandable reports and dashboards for leadership and frontline teams, highlighting both gaps and success stories.

What Is Considered a Normal IQS?

There is no universal "good" IQS threshold, because:

• indicators vary across industries,
• some companies use very strict scoring, others more lenient,
• channel mix (calls, chat, email, social) and customer expectations differ.

As a rough guideline, many organizations treat:

• 80–85%+ as good or healthy internal quality,
• below 80% as a signal that more systemic improvements are needed,
• 90%+ as excellent but also worth sanity-checking (overly generous scoring can hide real issues).

The most important comparison is against your own history and internal targets, not other companies' numbers. Monitor IQS trends alongside CSAT, NPS, CES, retention, and operational KPIs to understand the bigger picture.

How to Improve the IQS Metric

Raising IQS is a continuous effort that blends process optimization, people development, and culture.

Key strategies:

• Analyze IQS data regularly. Look beyond averages: inspect low-scoring interactions and themes from customer comments and auditor notes. Combine IQS with sentiment analysis on open feedback.
• Invest in training and coaching. Focus on areas highlighted by IQS: empathy, active listening, product knowledge, system navigation, conflict resolution. Use recordings and examples from real cases.
• Optimize processes and tools. Remove bottlenecks, simplify workflows, improve knowledge bases and CRMs. Often, low IQS reflects bad tools and processes, not bad employees.
• Motivate and recognize quality behavior. Link high and improving IQS to recognition, career development, or bonuses (carefully designed to avoid score inflation). Encourage peer feedback and best-practice sharing.
• Adopt supporting technologies. Use QA platforms, analytics, and monitoring tools to scale quality checks. Where appropriate, use predictive analysis to spot risk trends early.
• Build a culture of quality. Communicate why IQS matters for customers, employees, and business outcomes. Treat findings as opportunities to learn, not just reasons for punishment.
• Use a PDCA cycle. Plan improvements → Do (implement changes) → Check (measure impact on IQS and CX metrics) → Act (adjust and standardize). Repeat regularly.

When IQS is integrated with CX metrics (CSAT, CES, NPS, CSI) and VOE/VOE data, it becomes a powerful bridge between internal operations and external customer outcomes, helping the organization improve on both fronts at the same time.