Call Center Metrics

Efficient work of a sales call center is a precondition for success in the market. In order to find out whether or not a call center operates efficiently it is necessary to set the goals and measures. In other words, it is necessary to answer a question “What performance and results would be deemed perfect” and “How are we going to measure performance?” These two questions require very definite answers. The best way to find such answers is to use Balanced Scorecard. This is one of the most popular performance evaluation and strategic management tools. One of its advantages is consideration of non financial indicators that are sometimes even more important than financial measures.

Important call center KPIs

The traditional way of measuring a call center is to evaluate expenses related to its maintenance and generated profits. Also, such indicators as number of handled calls and customer satisfaction are thought as the most important. However, there are a handful of other KPIs (mostly leading) that indicate progress of a call center on the way to implement strategy.

Why make more sales attempts?

Thus, for example, sales attempts per call may signal about revenue and sales growth. The point is that when customers place an order with a web site or call the sales departments, call center operators should not only handle their calls and requests but also inform on new positions and products, discount products, special prices and bargains, new sections of web sites etc. Experience shows that even if 1 of 10 customers pays attention to these notifications, sales rates goes up. Thus, measurement of sales attempts per call is beneficial in terms of call center measurement.

At the same time, call center personnel should also focus on “number indicators.” A call center should work fast. Thus, it is important to answer customers’ calls within the shortest possible period of time. Sometimes, when a call center operator is busy or cannot answer a question, he or she asks a customer to hold on while the call is being redirected. Perhaps, you have already faced the situations when you had to listen to that weird music for 5 or more minutes while your call is being redirected. Sometimes, customers with little patience hang up. This is not good since they will immediately form a negative judgment about the company, even if it produces great products.

A call center BSC should definitely represent both call center goals and company strategy and mission. At the same time, one should not put an excessive emphasis on numerical indicators, like time to handle a call, number of customers served etc.

It has been always important to measure customer satisfaction. However, for some businesses this indicator is particularly important. In this post we will talk about ways of measuring customers of call centers and customer support services.

Positive and negative call center KPIs

Perhaps, all of us have had experience of talking to operators of various call centers. As a rule call centers are common in service providers, for example hosting companies of ISPs. It should be noted that such experience was not always positive. Sometimes, call center operators are not competent enough to answer questions or solve problems in relation to products and services. Sometimes, we are offered to rate conversation with a call center operator. This is performed in several ways, using phone, email and chat programs.

Effective call center

Chat support is very popular since it is very convenient for a customer just to push a button and run a chat window. After the conversation you might be offered to rate your conversation according to various criteria. Some of the questions may include “Are you satisfied with communication etiquette?”, “Was a tech support specialist polite?”, “Did tech support specialist solve your problem?”, “Did you get answers to all of your questions?” and some others. Then call center managers collect and summarize information that is then to be used in setting weights for call center KPIs. For instance, if a call center experiences problems with solving problem of customers then it might be reasonable to conduct trainings and coaching for employees.

It is also helpful to measure customer satisfaction by asking customers to rate conversation when it is over. This is a very effective approach since a customer remembers all details and can adequately rate level of service.

It is very important to use such information in Balanced Scorecard. Some call centers gather information and then do not know what to do with this info. Balanced Scorecard will be a waste of money and time unless obtained info on customer satisfaction is actually used in decision making and improvement of a call center metrics.

You may not be aware of it, but customer satisfaction directly influences sales growth and increase of revenue. Existing customers really appreciate high level of customer support while potential customers evaluate this factor when making a decision to buy. For this reason implementation and maintenance of a call center BSC can bring excellent results for call center operators and top managers.

Several decades ago, the global call center industry was considered one of the greatest technological wonders. That is because businesses used corporate and manufacturing operations. With the development of new technology and improved communication tools, these operations became one of the most important businesses of modern times.

How does a call center interact with customers?

It is a challenging task to manage and operate this business, but the task becomes much easier if you are familiar with key performance indicators used in this industry. In this case, a good idea would be to get acquainted with call center metrics. You should realize that this is a completely different industry and consequently call center metrics greatly differs from other businesses metrics. Call center metrics include many areas and factors.

Key call center KPIs

Quality of calls belongs to the most important factors of this industry. That is why the main task of call companies will be hiring the most qualified and language proficient personnel. By hiring smart personnel that is highly knowledgeable about the services and products marketed or sold, you will ensure high quality of outgoing and incoming calls.

Cost per call. Call centers owners should look at actual costs of calls made through their operations. Usually outbound calls are more expensive, as long-distance telephone rates are applied. A great number of modern companies outsource manpower from English proficient countries as labor costs are much lower.

If you want to achieve good results in this industry, get sure that your employees are satisfied with the operating procedures, pay slips and working environment. If the mentioned factors are not satisfactory, the performance of your employees will definitely worsen and as a result will have a negative impact on the overall customer satisfaction.

Revenue is a crucial component of call center metrics, as it governs all other business components. Your business’ progress and failures depend on the revenues. If it is strong, try sustain it; if it is weak, you will need to assess your all operations of your call center.

To assess a cal canter business, you first of all, have to look at the operations’ schedule. Generally, call centers are outsourced, that is why schedules of operations greatly differ from usual work hours. As an example, Indian call center employees will have to work on graveyard shifts especially if calls are made from and to Canada or the United States.

Here are some more key performance indicators:

- Rate of speed of answer

- Response duration

- Blocked and abandoned calls

- Average call value

- Average handling time per call

- Occupancy and productivity

If set properly, metrics for such business can guarantee quick success.

It is impossible to imagine a modern company that offers products of services without competent and efficient customer support service. Moreover, as online sales are becoming increasingly popular, call center has gained tremendous popularity. Sales by phone have become a norm of today’s life. It is so convenient! However, an inefficient call center or customer support service may take the company down, thus hampering its progress on the way to implement strategic goals and gain considerable competitive advantage. In this article we will talk about call center BSC, implementation tips and most popular KPIs.

Tasks and goals of call centers

Implementation process of a call center BSC starts with development of realistic and comprehensive strategy. It is vitally important to get the entire personnel involved in strategy discussion. Of course, there are no ideal situations, and not all employees are very loyal and dedicated. However, top management should do everything possible to motivate personnel and get employees involved in strategy discussion. The point is that ordinary call center operators know very much about problems of their department, as well as most common problems of customers. Thus, if a call center is designing a strategy, opinions of ordinary managers and call center operators who are at frontline, are very valuable.

Then comes choice of key performance indicators. It is difficult to say what stage is the most important. However, it would be fair to say that selection of KPIs is one of the most important stages of BSC implementation. This especially concerns call center BSC since this business unit is customer oriented. It also does not produce anything which sometimes causes serious losses. Key performance indicators represent critical success factors in various aspects of running business.

Why is optimization of call center performance effective?

Popular call center KPIs include cost per call, first resolution calls rate, time on hold, number of calls handled by one operator, abandoned calls rate and many others. It is impossible to develop a universal set of key performance indicators that will work equally well for every call center. Every business unit is individual. Every call center or a helpdesk has unique structure and problems. Still, it is rather reasonable to use sets of key performance indicators specifically created for a call center. Some KPIs are fairly universal such as cost per call or customer satisfaction. Correct measurement of such KPI will offer call center managers valuable information on progress of their business unit in terms of strategic goals implementation.

Very often top managers face serious problems with evaluation of business performance in their companies. As a rule, problems concern the wrong choice of measures to be evaluated. Even the best strategic plans may fail simply because top management gets the wrong information on how well the company is performing in terms of implementing strategic goals. It is very important to have correct and on-time information on progress or regress of strategic goals implementation. This also applies to call center BSC. This business unit is characterized by focus on customers. In fact, call centers and helpdesks are created to serve customers. Thus, they do not produce anything, consulting customers and generating sales instead. It is vital to use the right key performance indicators in performance evaluation, otherwise investments in BSC will come back with no benefits and profits.

Goals of a call center

Implementation of a call center BSC starts with strategy development. If a call center does not have independent strategy or strategic plans integrated into company strategy, such a call center will most likely cause serious losses. The point is that every decision made by call center managers must comply with strategic goals of a company. In other words, if number of handled calls needs to be increased, then this improvement should cause changes in other perspectives of BSC (as known, there are 4 BSC perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, learning and growth).

The 3 initial stages of call center BSC implementation

What are the most typical KPIs in financial category of a call center BSC? Without any doubts, these are KPIs related to call expenses. For example, these are such key performance indicators as cost per call and revenue per call. The latter KPI refers to sales call centers that sell products and services in real time regime. Cost per call may include all expenses related to handling one call – salary for a call center operator, telecommunication costs, office maintenance costs etc.

Number of one and done calls is also very important. Customers do not want to waste much time to solve their problems that might have occurred due to faults of producer company or a service provider. This KPI directly influences such measure as % of customers that are satisfied with support service. The more customers are happy with support service the more chances that they will buy from the same company again.

In fact, all KPIs and BSC categories are interrelated, including in a call center BSC that can be implemented either independently or as a part of company strategic plan arrangements.

Call center evaluation is a must for every company or business unit that sells products or services. Call centers can be of different types: customer support service and sales call center that handles customer calls and places orders. Sometimes, call center operators call customers to offer products while in most cases customers are calling to make inquiries on the products/services or buy selected products. Quality of customer support and etiquette of call center operators is very important for ordinary customers. Very often customers form their judgment on a particular company based on how they have talked to a call center operator. A customer may not like a particular brand just because a call center operator was unable to solve his/her problem or answer questions. This happens very often since modern products and services are quite complex and thus people always have certain questions.

Major call center KPIs

As a very important business unit, a call center requires proper evaluation. These days many companies adopt and implement strategy in order to gain or maintain competitive advantage. Successful implementation of a strategy implies involvement of all business units and departments. Only when the entire personnel is involved it is possible to succeed in strategic planning. This also concerns Balanced Scorecard which is known as the most effective and popular performance evaluation and strategic management tool that puts strategy into action. BSC is just perfect for a call center as this business unit is always customer oriented.

Call center evaluation

Implementation of a call center BSC differs from implementation procedure in other business units. Top managers have to take into account peculiarities of a call center, related expenses, goals and measure. It is vitally important that call center goals and measures comply with requirements of general company strategy, values and mission. In this sense, choice of key performance indicators is perhaps the most important stage. Let’s review a couple of them.

One of the most popular indicators is cost per call. Here, top managers need to understand why they make or receive calls. The company spend certain amount of money for one call, thus it expects to receive some revenue. The key goals of sales call center is to sell products/services, and thus cost per call should be correlated with revenue per successful call. If this is a customer support service, then call expenses should be related to customer satisfaction, one and done calls rate and some other important KPIs.

Balanced Scorecard is quite a tricky tool. Indeed, it can become a saver for any company. Equally, it can do so much harm, that company top management will never say anything good about Balanced Scorecard. It is really astonishing, but BSC never guarantees success, no matter what some BSC fans would say. If organization is not ready to transform and change, Balanced Scorecard will never help.

BSC is a helpful perofrmance evaluation tool for call centers

In case of a call canter (application of BSC in a call center, to be exact), Balanced Scorecard has numerous advantages. With a perfectly functioning call center it is really easy to attract new customers, as well as keep existing customers satisfied. If company’s call center is efficiently working, it is really possible to boost sales and generate increased revenue.

So, let’s review key advantages of BSC use in a call center.

1. Tracking key performance indicators to optimize call center performance. A special BSC team would develop a series of key performance indicators which will represent company critical success factors which will make it possible to measure call center progress on the way to implement strategic goals.

2. Working out call center strategy. If company call center is just handling calls it doesn’t mean that it works the way it should work. Every call center must have strategic goals. Moreover, these goals have to comply with the company strategy. One of such goals may be increase of customer satisfaction, sales growth, decrease of average call duration etc.

3. Correct mistakes and changing strategy. Balanced Scorecard makes it possible to introduce amendments to the strategy and operational management if necessary. If evaluation of key performance indicators showed certain problems, company top management develops a series of counter actions. This is a very common practice among companies using balanced scorecard. Both external and internal environment is changing rapidly, so company must react to these changes. Balanced Scorecard gives company management at very clear and transparent picture all goals and measures, as well as cause and effect ties between them, so that top managers can introduce relevant changes.

4. Focus on most important things. Very often call centers place an excessive focus on number of calls handled or average call duration. These indicators of very important indeed, but there are things that matters most of all, like customer satisfaction, and returning customer rate.

Some important call center KPIs

When applying Balanced Scorecard in a call center it is really important to make all necessary preparations and get the entire call center personnel involved in this process.

It is extremely important to properly motivate company employees when implementing balanced scorecard and introducing strategy maps. Of balanced scorecard requires great involvement of the entire company personnel. Of course, it wouldn’t be reasonable to demand deep knowledge of BSC and company goals from every employee. But at the same time the more personnel knows about company strategic goals the better it will perform in order to achieve them.

Why is reward system important in BSC implementation?

Motivation in balance scorecard implementation is one of the preconditions for success. Indeed, if the employee is motivated in the right way he would do his best to show the highest performance. Besides, balanced scorecard and strategy maps very often cause a broad discussion within the company. And very often the most creative ideas come from ordinary personnel. Top managers are sometimes unaware of peculiarities of customer conduct while front line managers sometimes know their customers even better than their friends because they deal with them on the everyday basis.

What motivation now we’re talking about when implementing balanced scorecard? Well, sure thing this is financial motivation. Employees must be financially interested to improve performance and reach strategic goals at the intermediate and final stage.

Proper motivation is important for BSC use

The same time implementation of strategic goals is not only about having expected values of key performance indicators in the four perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, learning and growth. Strategy implementation is about having future vision and personal interest in the company success. So, motivation gives employees reasons to show their best performance.

As a rule, reward programs are introduced to the level of department or a business unit. In such a way it is easier to control all business units and the company and communicate goals and tasks of different departments.

It would be interesting to mention that motivation can be also nonfinancial. For example, top performing employees may be offered such rewards as attendance of some business seminar, additional time for personal project, meeting with the business guru George is having additional vacation or time off to spend it with family and friends.

Remember that even if balanced scorecard is implemented observing all norms and conditions it will not work unless company personnel is truly interested in it. Indicators and requirements should be understood for ordinary employees otherwise they will start considering balanced scorecard to be another control system which will cause opposition or even anger. A properly motivated employee is an employee who is interested in his personal development and growth, as well as company success in general.

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?