Call Center Metrics

What do you usually do if you are having problems with the product or service you have just purchased? Sure, you call tech support or a company call center. It does not matter which products you have bought or what service features aren’t working. You still pick up the phone and dial a number to hear pleasant voice saying: “Tech support welcomes you.” Of course, you do not only want to hear a pleasant voice, but also have your problem solved or question answered.

Many customers form their judgment about the company based on their experience of talking to call center operators. You may have bought the best products or services ever, but if customer support service is unable to answer your questions about the products you may get discouraged with the company or even get angry.

Call center or service desk efficiency is a must for all companies providing such services. Tech support does not earn money, so in a way this is unprofitable department of the company, and that is why many managers do not pay due attention to call center performance. But as said above, inefficient call center may take the company down and lower sales rates. It will be increasingly difficult to find new customers while existing customers may go to your competitors.

Measure service desk efficiency with Balanced Scorecard system

Use effective software to measure service desk efficiency

From time to time service desk efficiency must be evaluated. Balanced Scorecard is an ideal tool to perform evaluation of business performance. This system can be used by managers at all levels, since it is very easy to use and provides very accurate evaluation results.

Balanced Scorecard will help you concentrate on major factor5s influencing performance of a call center. For example, increase time on hold (period of time customers have to wait to talk to an operator competent in the certain area) may have more serious and dreadful consequences for a call center than increased cost per call.

So, Balanced Scorecard system evaluates a number of KPIs (key performance indicators) which altogether represent overall performance of a call center. These indicators are not numerous, however extremely important for anyone who wants to optimize call center work.

Balanced Scorecard will provide you with evaluation results of such indicators as cost per call, time on hold, revenue per one call, one and done calls, conversion rate and others. With figures and graphs you will be able to analyze business performance and find solution to existing problems.

Business performance evaluation is perhaps one of the most important business processes. Net revenue is not the only indicator of how well you company is performing. Of course, making more profits is an ultimate goal of any company and net revenue is a very important indicator. But still, there are so many other factors and indicators showing how your business performs in the market.

Perhaps, you have noticed that almost all companies have own call centers and contract independent call center companies to work for them. Why would a company need a call center? In the modern age of telecommunication, ordering products or services by phone is a very common practice. Besides, potential customers often have questions about products and services, while current customers may have problems or concerns about purchased products/services.

Thus, call center is a linking element between customers and business. If this element fails to perform its core functions, the business is likely to have problems. The result of this may be decreased revenues and even losses.

To evaluate performance of your call center, you need to use specialized software that does all the hard work for you. Balanced Scorecard system is known as a reliable and trusted business performance evaluation system. This program will help you find strong and weak points in the work of a call center. Sure, you need to answer one question that may not seem easy for you: “Which service desk benchmark is most important for call center?” The answer is quite ambiguous. The reality is that there are several most important key performance indicators (KPI) having the most influence on business performance. Call center metrics includes KPIs directly related to calls, their cost, customers, employees and their attitudes.

Which service benchmark to choose? Use BSC to find answers

Service desk benchmarks

So, of you want to know weak points in the work of a call center you need to use Balanced Scorecard system and evaluate the following KPIs:

1. Customer satisfaction. Ask you customers to rate conversation with the call center operator. Were all questions answered? Did call center operator talked to you politely? Were you fully informed on the issue you have been interested in? Customer satisfaction has a direct impact on revenues and number of new customers.
2. Cost per call. If you are an ineffective manager who makes wrong decisions it may turn out that cost of one call may equal to the cost of a cheap product you sell. Try to analyze what factors influence cost per call, and what needs to be done to reduce it.

Sure, there are many more KPIs in call center metrics, which will be covere din the next articles on this blog.

As successful as call centers may be today, there is still a need to manage and control call center performance. Here are some tips on how to do this.

The call center industry has been experiencing boom after boom for so many years now. This is a strong indication that there is much revenue to be earned in this industry! And for the many investors considering delving into the call center industry, you must be prepared to tackle every single aspect to be tackled, just to ensure the success of your call center. Yes, call centers are indeed quite successful these days. But this does not go without much effort from the many people behind it, as well as the different technologies that support the operations of such centers!

The typical call center does not just cater to the needs of one client. In fact, in the most common setting, a call center could very well cater to the needs of banks, travel agencies, financial institutions, and the like. And these establishments have different needs and operations to handle. The call center itself would then have to hire different sets of representatives who would then be trained to handle the problems and issues the customers of these clients would be calling about. Let us say that a call center has an Internet Service Provider for a client.

The call center would then have to hire representatives who would have sufficient background and experience when it comes to the technologies and such in providing Internet services. The same call center could then have a financial institution for a second client. The representatives hired for this account should then have a certain level of background in accounting or banking and finance. Thus, there is a need for any call center to be very flexible when it comes to catering to the individual needs of their clients. So, what can be done to manage and control call center performance?

The perfect approach to take here is actually the Balanced Scorecard. This is actually metrics and metrics management combined. The metrics to be used here should represent the business in its entirety. These include the calls, the operators, the expenses incurred, and the revenue gained. In managing these metrics, the proper order should be implemented. But it is equally important to keep the number of metrics to be used at a moderate level. So, just choose the metrics that are relevant to your business as a call center.

You should also have a financial perspective when deciding which metrics to use here. Most call centers actually perceive that more revenue is garnered with more calls. But this is not true at all. This is not just about making as many calls as possible. There are also conversion rates to consider, as well as maintaining costs at the lowest possible rate.

Next to consider are the internal processes. Just how is a phone call handled in your very own call center? How do the queues of calls go about? Is there a particular segmentation of incoming calls that takes place? How long is the call-handling time that you perceive as average? And what about your service window? Is it available 24/7? These are just some of the questions you need to ask when it comes to the internal processes of your call center. By keeping these things in mind, the plan to managing and controlling the functions entailed in maintaining call centers is indeed made easier to achieve.