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Glossary
— Quality —IQS

Internal Quality Score

— Definition —

Internal Quality Score (IQS) is a QA metric that measures how well support conversations meet your team's internal standards — tone, accuracy, process adherence, empathy. Unlike CSAT (which reflects the customer's perception), IQS reflects a trained reviewer's assessment. The two metrics are complementary: CSAT tells you how the customer felt; IQS tells you whether the agent followed the right process.

— Formula —

IQS = (Sum of all rubric scores ÷ Maximum possible score across all reviewed conversations) × 100

Each conversation is scored against a rubric (e.g. 5 dimensions, each scored 1–5). IQS is the percentage of available points earned. A team IQS of 82% means agents scored 82% of available rubric points on average across all reviewed conversations.

— Benchmark ranges —

B2B SaaS support teams with structured QA programs

Excellent90%+
Good80–90%
Needs coaching70–80%
Systemic issuesBelow 70%
— Calculator —

Calculate your IQS

IQS82.0%
— Common mistakes —
  • 1Reviewing too few conversations — sampling 2–3% of conversations is not statistically meaningful for agent-level coaching.
  • 2Using IQS as the sole quality metric — IQS and CSAT can diverge; a technically perfect conversation that still leaves the customer frustrated is a quality failure.
  • 3Not calibrating reviewers regularly — without calibration sessions, different reviewers score the same conversation differently.
  • 4Optimizing agents to score well on rubric rather than to actually help customers — the rubric should reflect genuine quality, not compliance theater.
— Related metrics —
CSATDSATNPS

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