Call Center Metrics

Evaluation of human resource performance is especially important in those business areas were human factor plays the most important role.  For example, if we’re talking about call centers and customer support services it is imperative to employed and educate highly qualified personnel.  Let’s explain why.  When a customer purchases products/services he might have questions or problems with the products and services he has recently bought.  Of course such a customer will contact customer support service or company call center.  A customer is not familiar with the company structure, management system, approaches to of customer relations etc.  He or she will for his/her judgment based on his communication experience with call center operator.  In other words, if he has a nice chat and has all his questions answered and problems solved he will probably think: “Hay, that’s a nice company.  Perhaps, I will buy from them again.” There is nothing better for any business than a satisfied and loyal customer who is thinking of buying more.  Regular customers are regular sources of income.

What makes excellent call center operator?

Under what conditions will the customer have positive communication experience when talking to call center operator?

1. Communication etiquette.  Call center operators should be polite and use proper language.
2. Professionalism and competence. Customers are calling not to have a chat but to have their problems solved and questions answered. Call center operators must be 100% competent in all issues related to products and services they are company sells.
3. Readiness for unusual situation. Sometimes customers have very unusual questions and not typical problems which should be nevertheless solved.

The ultimate goal of human resource department is to recruit, employ, educate and retain personnel that will meet the above three criteria.  As known, human resource department does not produce anything and it doesn’t earn money.  That’s why if human resource department is working in efficiently this will cause losses for the company.

How improvement of HR performance can benefit the company

HR performance of call centers and customer support services should be constantly evaluated with the help of balanced scorecard system.  This will not only help optimize HR performance but also align HR goals, objectives and measures with the company strategy, mission and values.

It is important to create a positive organization climate and suitable working conditions for call center operators.  These employees can earn money for the company (for example, sales via phone) and create a positive company public image (by solving customers problems in answering their questions).

Implementation of balanced scorecard seems like an easy process.  Indeed, all you have to do is to choose the right indicators in the four categories: financial, customer, internal processes, of learning and growth.  It goes without saying that the company that wishes to implement balanced scorecard needs to have a comprehensive strategy.  The greatest advantage of balanced scorecard is its ability to put strategy into action.  However, with the wrong choice of key performance indicators balance scorecard will surely fail to bring any positive results.

How first resolution calls help company obtain financial results

In case of a call center a variety of aspects needs to be taking into account.  First and foremost, it is necessary to identified goals of a call center.  If this is a customer support service its key goal is to resolve customer Problems and answer their questions to keep customer satisfied.  If a call center sells the key goal would be increase of revenue from sales.  Only having established comprehensive strategic goals it is possible to move forward in implementation of BSC.

Let’s analyze the work of the customer support service.  As already set above its key goal is to keep customer satisfied by resolving their problems in answering their questions on products, services, technical issues etc.

What are success drivers in call center?

Often, managers all of call centers make a fatal mistake of introducing such an indicator as number of customers served during 1 hour.  Of course, this indicator is OK, since the more customers are served, the better.  But the goal of customer support service is resolve problems of customers.  A call center operator may handle 20 calls per hour but all those 20 customers would and conversation without their problems solved and questions answered.  In such a case the work of a call center would seem just great and calls handling capacity will increase.  But that will have nothing to do with the company strategic goals, like improving customer satisfaction.  Satisfied customer is more likely to buy again from the company and become a regular customer, i.e. regular source of income.

Thus, it is necessary to balance such indicator with another one – number of problems resolved per hour.  This indicator would certainly show progress of the company towards strategic goals of improving customer satisfaction.  Number of first resolution calls should be always increasing.  Any call center should have the separate group of expert to resolve problem calls with complex problems.

As known, balanced scorecard works in four perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, learning and growth.  Each perspective covers particular issues related to functioning of company, its internal or external environment.  It is very difficult to say which perspective is the most important one.  In fact, they are all interrelated and goals and measures in these perspectives are identified one by one.  Usually, the company sets financial goals and identifies relevant measures.  Objectives and measures in the three other perspectives are subordinated to financial goals.

Call center functions

However, much depends on strategic goals of the company, its vision, values and mission.  It matters a lot which department a business unit uses balanced scorecard.  In case of a call center customer perspective plays the most important role.  Why is it so?

Well, a call center is a forefront of the company.  When a customer or a potential customer calls a company is first talking with a call center or tech support operator.  Very often his judgment about the company is formed based on his purchasing or communicating experience.  Relations with customers are all important.  To regular customers provide any business with regular income.  Making money is what any company aims at.

Customer relations management

Customer satisfaction is something that improves loyalty of existing customers and win favor of potential ones.  A real customer, i.e. the one who buys from the company from time to time can become a regular custom.  But in order to achieve that company management should make sure they stay in touch with such a customer and keep him informed on new products, services, offers, special rates and prices etc.

If we’re talking about customer support service or tech support, customer satisfaction is a must in this case.  If the customer calls tech support he certainly questions or problems which she wants to resolve.  If the call center operator manages to solve this problem right away it means that the customer will not have to make the repeated call.  Number of such “one and done calls” is a great indicator of how efficient a call center works.

In addition, even if customers are not asking for some new offers call center operators are to inform customers on new products and services.  Number of sales per 100 calls is another great indicator to be measured.  Stats shows that the more often call center operators attempt to sell products the more purchases customers make.

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Optimizing an evaluation of the call center performance may be daunting task.  We have already forgotten the times when customer support centers consisted of several technical specialists who try to answer all calls and solve all the problems, whenever possible.  The times have changed now as customers became very demanding and sometimes even picky.  When picking up the phone and dialing number of a customer support center one hopes not only to hear a pleasant voice and a polite language.  One hopes to have his problems solved and questions answered.

Call centers have become inseparable parts of all pay companies that sell goods or services.  Since customer support service has very few financial indicators (they do not earn money) it is quite difficult to evaluate performance of such a call center.  This is where Balanced Scorecard System comes into play.  Balanced scorecard was specifically designed to include financial and nonfinancial indicators in evaluation process.  Moreover, BSC helps in communicate in operational management with strategic goals.  Company strategic goals may be quite clear.  This is gaining profits.  But what about a call center or a help desk?  Let’s review cases of two types of call centers: sales call centers and customer support service.

Major call center KPIs

If a call center has one key goal of performance sales then generate in revenue and gaining a larger market share would be the key strategic goals of such a call center.  However, in order to achieve financial success one should pay attention to operational management and performance of a call center.  Customer satisfaction, sales attempts, cost per sale, revenue per sale and a number of other indicators would represent performance of a sales call center.  At that, financial indicators seem to be the most important here.  But this is not entirely true.  Customer satisfaction with the conversation would play a great role on decision-making by a customer.

Customer support service has one ultimate goal to resolve problems and answer questions as well as keep customers informed on general and technical issues related to products and services.  It would be fair to say that customer satisfaction is the key indicator here.  Also, one should pay attention to the number of one and done calls (also called first resolutions calls), abandoned calls rate, time on hold, average waiting time etc.  And efficient and professional operator needs to make sure that all concerns and questions of customers to answer so that the customer has no need to make the repeated call.

What makes an effective call center?

A call center plays an important rule in the work of any company that sells products or services.  It is but the work of a call center or a customer support service that real and potential customers for their judgment about the company.  What do you usually do when you have questions or concerns about purchased products or services?  Of course, you call customer support service with the hope to get your questions answered and problems solved.  Call centers may have different goals and purposes in different companies.  Some businesses use call centers to sell products and services while others employ the phone operators to provide customers with ongoing support and guidance.  If you called customer support service and your questions were not answered you would probably think that it was not worth to deal with such a company.  The thus, you are a lost customer for such a business.  Of the innards of economy it is very unwise to lose customers because of poor quality services.

A call center, as in any aspect and elemental business structure, needs to be measured and evaluated.  Business up performance measurement is used to help company reach strategic goals.  In this sense, balanced scorecard is a number one tool that communicates operational management with the company strategic vision.  Of the balanced scorecard evaluates key performance indicators, also known as KPI.  Call center has own set of KPIs that represents its performance.

Call center metrics has own specific character as the process of calling involves two parties: the caller and the operator.  The caller has to be satisfied with his call while the operator needs to do everything to resolve problems as soon as possible.

Major call center kpi

So, what are major KPIs for call center?

1. Revenue per successful call.  If the call center has commercial goals it needs to sell as much as possible.  By increasing this KPI top management of the company increases revenue.
2. Cost per call. Logically, the less money a company spends to answer one call, the more efficiently it works. However, here one should be reasonable, and excessive economy and saving may result in poor quality service.
3. Conversion rate. This is % of call that ended up with successful sales.
4. Average call handling time. The less time an operator needs to answer one call, the better for the company and callers.
5. First resolutions calls rate. This is % of calls during which the problems were solved at once (customer do not have to call again).

How a call center contributes to success of the company

Many managers are wondering why balanced scorecard system failed to link operational management with strategic goals.  One of the most common myths about balanced scorecard is that this system can do magic and turn an ordinary company into a successful business giant.  Well, this is not so, to put it mildly. Balanced scorecard can be extremely effective for the company only in case it is properly implemented and maintained.  If the company management or its personnel is not ready to use balanced scorecard all the efforts to implement this system will be futile.  Please remember that balanced scorecard implementation is a very complex and rather expensive process.

It is also important to know when your company needs implementation of balanced scorecard and if it needs balanced scorecard at all.  There are a number of signs indicating that a company should get balanced scorecard implemented.  Of course of these a general signs and the situation should be analyzed individually in every case.  But they work for all companies in general, more or less.  What are these signs?

• Personnel has no clear understanding of the company strategic goals
• Company management devotes little time to strategic planning or does not participate in strategic planning and all
• Companies in the holding or corporation do not have effective feedback and communication system
• There is no operational control in the company, so no one really checks how tasks are performed.

But what is more important is awareness that the company (as well as its personnel, midlevel and top management) is really ready to use balanced scorecard.  It goes without saying that the company should have personnel to deal with BSC and the time to devote to balanced scorecard.  BSC is run by people, so these people should be well educated on this system.

AKS-LABS offers free questionnaire on balanced scorecard for employees and managers to test their knowledge.  The questionnaire covers most important issues on balanced scorecard.  Questions mostly concern general issues on BSC, key performance indicators, strategy maps and strategic goals.  This is core knowledge of balanced scorecard so if the company personnel has weak understanding of BSC this system is unlikely to work effectively.

Are you ready to use Balanaced Scorecard in your company?

It would be good to mention that questionnaire on balanced scorecard will be helpful for employees at all levels, from auditory office clerks to top managers.

Check out free questionnaire from AKS-LABS

Find more on BSC questionnaire here

Check you knowledge on BSC

Many top managers mistakenly think that implementation of balanced scorecard is a simple process and expect fast results from this system.  Balanced scorecard is often viewed as kind of an magic tool that solve all problems in the company and turns a mediocre business into an international corporation.  Well, this is not so.  Balanced Scorecard requires serious investments of time, money and efforts.  The company, its management and personnel should be ready to implement and use this system to reach strategic goals.  That’s why, it is very important that those who are in charge of implementing balanced scorecard are well educated on this issue you and ready to use it.

Templates on Balanced Scorecard is a great learning tool

First and foremost, the company has to clarify its strategic goals.  This is the most important stage as without clear strategy balance scorecard will turn into a useless pile of documents, tables and charts.

Developers of BSC designer offer their customers free and bait products that provide users with additional information on balanced scorecard.  We have already talked about training course on BSC from AKS-LABS.  This time you can enjoy the free product which is that collection of templates on balanced scorecard.

These templates can be used to draw a strategy maps for the company, clarifies strategic goals, measures, response actions etc.  The templates are offered in power point and pdf extension, so users of free to choose the suitable one.

The strategy map in templates covers four perspectives: financial, customers, internal processes, learning and growth.  It is possible to fill in own KPI, measures, objectives, targets and initiatives.  As a result the full and comprehensive company strategy map will be made.

Templates also include screenshots of BSC designer, in particular excel with BSC designer.  This will give users and those interested in balanced scorecard a general idea on how the system works.

Check out free templates

Download free BSC templates

Much has been said about Balanced scorecard system, and of course much will be said about this great tool to evaluate business performance and approach company to its strategic goals.  At the same time balanced scorecard is quite a complex tool, although it uses seemingly simple evaluation methods.  One of the greatest advantages of balanced scorecard is that this system started evaluating non-financial indicators, also called KPI.  Creators of the system claim that in order to achieve financial success one should do much on the operational level.  That’s why it is important to evaluate operational KPIs.  Ideally, every employee in the company should understand his contribution to fulfillment of tasks and reaching of the strategic goals.

It is not easy to implement balanced scorecard.  Moreover this is quite a lengthy and expensive process, especially for big companies.  Before implementing balanced scorecard one needs to take into account me humorous factors and accomplish many things.

It is highly recommended that your company or people who are in charge of balanced scorecard implementation undergo special training or a scuff or professional assistance.  Education and training is always good and the business world, and balanced scorecard is not an exception here.

Buy BSC training course

It is very important to get support and advice from experts in balance scorecard and people who have designed the relevant software.  You have a good chance of learning many new things and having me humorous questions about balanced scorecard answered by purchasing training course from AKS-LABS.  The course is available at this page.

So, what will you learn from the corps?  First of all it needs mentioning that the course is divided according to implementation stages of balanced scorecard.  This means that you won’t hear some complex things before you have got simple things explained.  The course covers such issues as designing scorecard and learning basic things about the system, implementing scorecard and starting points, selecting a set of winning KPIs and determining the right number of them, designing strategy maps and cascading balanced scorecard.

Sure, the course will not give answer to the question “how to make a business successful.” At the same time you’ll certainly learn many useful tips on the use of balanced scorecard.  The course is very easy to comprehend as the speaker uses at very clear and simple language even when talking about complex things concerning business management and strategic planning.

Stages of BSC implementation

Evaluation of business performance is all important, especially in the post crisis economy.  Markets are becoming increasingly competitive, and tough competition has its advantages and drawbacks.  To drawbacks we refer constant desire of competitors to gain an increased market share and wipe out other companies.  That’s why it is so important to automate business management and be able to respond to changes in internal or external environment.

Almost all companies that sell products or services have contact centers, also called help desks or customer support service/call centers.  What would you do if you have some questions about purchased product or a service?  Of course you will look for a toll free number published on the company web site.  And this is by conversation with a context center operator that you will make your judgment about the company, quality of its services and its business reputation.

Use BSC system to improve perofrmance of a call center

Evaluation of call center performance will give you answers to many questions, as well as help you set and reach strategic goals related to development and enhancement of a customer support service.

For this reason use of balanced scorecard system is highly recommended.  This tool created in early1990s is now the most popular automation tool for business management.  In case of a call center balanced scorecard system will evaluate special KPIs relevant to specific character of a call center work.  They keep the eye is a key performance indicator which shows a certain aspect in the work of a company or its department.

The traditional approach tends to view financial KPI as the most important.  Well, this is partially true and logical as the goal of any business is making profits and gaining competitive advantage in the market.  But at the same time balanced scorecard system also fought uses on operational aspects which are called nonfinancial.

Do not financial KPIs we refer such indicators as customer satisfaction, number of one and done calls (first resolutions calls), time on hold, abandoned calls rate, blockage, employee satisfaction, organization climate, training effectiveness and efficiency. Financial KPI include cost per call and revenue per successful call (if the company sells something via phone).

With balanced scorecard system you will be able to set long-term goals and improve performance of a call center.  A well performing call center creates at perfect business image for a company which in its turn is attraction for new customers.  More customers means competitive advantage which is the ultimate goal of any business.

Evaluate most important call center kpi