What to Put in a BPO Quality SLA

Outsourced quality fails in the contract, not in the score. The client asks for a number. The BPO produces the number. Neither side can replay the call the number came from. Write the SLA so that cannot happen.

Define the form, not just the threshold

Attach the scorecard as a schedule. Name the fatal errors. State that a fatal on those lines fails the interaction regardless of the weighted score. A threshold of 85 with no fatal definition is an invitation to pass dangerous calls that scored well on tone.

Define the sample

State evaluations per agent per month, who may choose the contacts, and the client’s right to add a targeted sample (complaints, repeat contacts) on top. “Random 2%” with the vendor drawing the sample is how bad calls stay out of the pack. See how many calls QA should review.

Calibration rights

The client’s QA lead may score a blinded set each month against the vendor’s analysts. Agree a minimum agreement level on fatal lines, and a remedy when you miss it — joint recalibration, not a service credit that nobody calculates.

Dispute window

Agents and the vendor can appeal a score within a fixed number of days, against the criterion, with the clip. The client can overturn a fail that does not match the written line. Appeals that change the score are visible in the monthly pack. Silence is not agreement.

Evidence and exit

Who stores the recording, for how long, and in which country. Whether the client can export scores, criteria and coaching notes when the contract ends. A programme you cannot take with you is a programme you do not own. Multi-tenant QA exists so each client’s scorecards and reports are already separated.

Report the compliance count beside the average

Require the count of compliance fails, by criterion, not a single blended QA score. A vendor can hold 90 and still be breaching the disclosure on a slice of calls.

The operating model this clause assumes is described on the outsourcing QA page. If you are the BPO, the same clause is what your next client will ask for — better to already produce it.