What does it take to achieve best-in-class, live, online proctored (OLP) test delivery in an asymmetrically evolving digital world? Kryterion’s solution is a carefully synchronized, multi-layered organization.

Most of the time, Kryterion’s skilled proctors are OLP exam candidates’ only point of contact. (A summary of our proctor training program appears in the recent article, How Kryterion Puts the Pro in Proctoring.)

However, when candidates violate test sponsors’ remote testing guidelines or when technical issues compromise candidates’ ability to complete an exam, proctors quickly “escalate” the session. This generally pauses the exam.

Kryterion’s Customer Support Advocate Team

Escalated exam sessions are swiftly routed to Kryterion’s Customer Support Advocate (CSA) team.

A CSA will either validate the proctor’s concern or return the session back to a proctor. The objective is to help the candidate resolve the situation as rapidly as possible, communicating by chat, so the exam session can continue. If the candidate fails to respect the test sponsor’s OLP testing requirements or oversteps specific tolerance thresholds, the agent can suspend the exam. Agents can also suspend sessions when an unresolvable technical issue interferes.

For guidance before a test session or support afterwards – such as when an exam is suspended due to technical issues – candidates turn to the live chat option in Kryterion’s candidate portal. The experienced specialists assigned to support those candidates are Live Chat CSAs.

Every day, all day, Kryterion delivers OLP exams to test candidates in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East, and the US. Not surprisingly, the hardware, software, and the internet environments candidates rely on is wildly diverse.

The upshot is that Live Chat CSAs field questions and issues posed by perplexed, impatient, and sometimes frustrated individuals daily. Significant experience and success in prior roles as proctors and CSAs prepare Live Chat CSAs for this challenge, along with additional cultural and situational sensitivity training.

They troubleshoot technical issues. They reschedule candidates into exams at the candidate’s earliest convenience. They approve refunds. They also answer questions about every aspect of the online testing experience, drawing on an extensive library of internal and external reference materials.

The Kryterion Solutions Team

When the answers to test candidates’ digital conundrums prove elusive, the Kryterion Solutions team (KST) steps in. KST agents specialize in service recovery efforts when other troubleshooting efforts have been exhausted. The methods they use vary. Among the most effective is the use of remote access technology – with candidate permission – to access candidate equipment and identify the underlying causes of otherwise inexplicable issues.

Definitive answers aren’t always available. In these relatively infrequent situations, KST agents work hard to mitigate candidate disappointment and mend a fraught relationship. Agents’ long experience with test sponsors’ programs, candidates, and Kryterion’s own systems enables them to suggest solutions and facilitate prompt resolutions.

Measuring Up: Kryterion’s Quality Assurance Team

The backbone of Kryterion’s OLP quality assurance program is a carefully conceived set of policies and procedures. These, in turn, provide the outline for the standards against which the Quality Assurance (QA) team measures individual team members’ efforts. Kryterion holds itself and its team members to high standards.

Every week, QA specialists randomly select and review a recent candidate interaction conducted by every single proctor, CSA and KST agent. Using role-specific scorecards, QA evaluates the overall quality of agents’ interactions, the rapidity of their responses to candidate questions, and the accuracy of their guidance, among other factors. Scorecard results are reported to the agent and the agent’s supervisor.

Agents are expected to achieve a score of 90% or better. Compiled team results are tracked closely by managers. When a shortcoming is identified, extra coaching is provided.

QA also maintains a library of public facing articles, internal reference, and training materials that supply the answers candidates and agents need.

Take the next step

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