Call Center Metrics

Tough times call for using smart, sensible measures, and managing call center performance during recession periods calls for a renewed focus on measuring performance and employee retention.

The financial crisis threatens everyone, from companies big and small to their clients and consumers. Tough economic times mean cutbacks on almost every scale, from huge layoffs from companies that have suddenly seen record lows, to holding back on spending at the consumer level. For these reasons and more, managers have to come up with strategies in managing call center performance during recession. Those who fail to adapt to the challenging times will see their companies and organizations fail to survive the crisis.

The first thing to realize is that everyone, to some extent, will be worried about the possible effects of the financial downturn on the company and on them, personally. It would be a wise management decision to try and maintain or even boost morale, if at all possible. Hence, management should work closely with the human resources department in order to present a calm, unified front, as well as open communication channels with employees. This would also suggest that celebrations and award giving ceremonies, even if they should be somewhat less grand than they were in better times, should still not be canceled entirely. The company should project a feeling of determination to go on and continue to perform well, despite external circumstances.

Now, empty pronouncements without any real plans backing them up may help in the short term, but are sure to harm the company in the long term. Thus, before sending off any memorandums or messages through the company, management should be sure that the information they contain are up to date and relevant. There should be an underlying business plan for weathering the recession that the management has agreed upon and revised extensively. At the same time, this business plan should take good communication with the employees into account.

Essentially, times of crisis are times for the organization to slim down and focus on its core, on its best people. It becomes more important than ever to be able to measure performance in order to ensure that you are doing your best to keep your best people. In hard times, job mobility can actually increase as employees begin to reconsider their employment. Bad news or even just rumors, if left unchecked, can cause employees to migrate to other employers. The focus on communication as mentioned above will be the best measure to counteract this. If employees are aware that management and the other higher ups of the company are doing their best to control the effects of the recession on the company, they will have higher morale and confidence. They will be much less likely to jump ship, and more likely to stay with the organization.

Managing call center performance during recession, apart from these more general considerations, should also ensure a steady stream of real-time data. This performance data from the employees will provide important criteria in the case layoffs become unavoidable. Keep the top performers happy, and if you have to let go of any people, make sure that only the lowest performers go.

Managing call center metrics during recession periods should be given primary importance, because they provide valuable data on which to base decisions on the fly.

Managing call center metrics during recession periods may seem of secondary importance, but in fact, it is extremely necessary in order for a call center to minimize losses. Economic downturns usually trigger companies to go all out and try to cut expenses as much as possible. This is more often than not accomplished via such measures as budget cuts, bonus and salary cuts, employee layoffs, and other equally drastic steps. What companies should realize is that a longer term perspective should still be adopted, even in the face of very turbulent short terms.

Metrics are key parameters that serve to allow managers to get an idea of how particular aspects of a process or organization are performing. In the case of call centers, some metrics include average handling time, or the time that it takes for an agent to wrap up a query, and customer satisfaction ratios. These metrics are important strategic tools, as they allow managers to keep track of employee and department performance accurately. For example, the effects of training, salary raises, and other actions should be reflected eventually in these metrics.

During times of recession, it becomes more important than ever to keep a close eye on call center metrics. One big reason for this is so that management will be able to rein in cost cutting when it begins to have too big an impact on performance. Call center performance relies on a number of different factors, with morale being one of them. Salary cuts and termination of coworkers will presumably have a negative effect on morale, leading eventually to decreased performance. Not to mention the loss of manpower that terminating employees would result in.

All in all, managers should always be aware of the effects of their decisions on call center performance, and even more so during periods of financial recession. Decisions made during recessions tend to involve even more risk than usual, apart from usually having to be made quickly. These represent crucial turning points for the company, during which every bit of data available to base the decision on would help immensely. Call center metrics become much more valuable in crunch times such as recessions, and they should be paid as much attention as possible. Objective data, with the proper analysis, will prove invaluable to managers devising strategies and tactics for coping with financial developments such as recessions.

A complete business plan to weather a downturn in the economy should include, therefore, a comprehensive plan for keeping up the monitoring of performance through metrics. Past and present performance should be used as benchmarks for determining the acceptable extent and percentages of drops expected to be experienced during the recession. Using these estimates, budget cuts and other cost cutting measures should be carefully limited. Managing call center metrics during recession will act as a barometer to help managers ensure that the company’s performance is not suffering too much because of cost-effectiveness measures. This will minimize losses and maximize the chance of making it through.

Economic crises can hit hard, and controlling call center metrics during recession periods can mean the difference between going under and making it through with acceptable losses.

Financial crises will not hit everyone equally, of course; but in the end, practically everyone will feel some sort of effect from economic downturns. The news will continually be filled with companies and organizations experiencing difficulties and enacting desperate measures to try and stay afloat. Carefully monitoring and controlling call center metrics during recession periods will prove to be a crucial part of any strategy in coming through the crisis with minimal losses.

This is because companies should still be focused on providing the best products and services that they can, despite the times changing unavoidably for the worse. Clients and customers will be sure to appreciate your organization’s devotion to quality and service all the more during times of crisis. This means that paying attention to organizational performance, making use of call center metrics, for instance, should be continued and even intensified.

In fact, real time data regarding employee performance should ideally be readily accessible by Human Resources as well as management. This is because this data will be useful for accurately gauging current performance and efficiency levels, and this, in turn, will be essential to making the right decisions. Decisions regarding employee retention, attrition, and termination should be made on these objective bases, depending on their performance, rather than randomly or on subjective bases.

The top performers should be taken good care of, and all realistic measures should be taken to ensure that they stay with the company. It has been observed that in difficult economic times, it is the best people with the most qualifications who are most likely to jump ship and try their luck with other employers. This becomes especially likely when they are made to feel as if the management is not doing enough to help avoid the harmful effects of the crisis. Hence, communication lines should be opened, at least to the top performers, to ensure that they are updated on the latest developments in the company. This will help foster a feeling of belonging and solidarity, making it less likely for them to want to leave.

The lowest performers, on the other hand, should be the prime candidates for termination, should worse come to worst and layoffs become inevitable. The slackers, the agents with the highest average handling times and lowest customer satisfaction ratios, for instance, may prove to be liabilities in periods of financial and economic difficulties. In some cases, human resources can still apply its various techniques and training methods to help the slowest employees catch up. However, tough times will call for some tough decisions, and when it comes to that, HR should be able to call on metrics and data on which to base their choices.

Apart from trying to minimize costs and expenses in general, during financial downturns, companies should focus more on intensively managing their people. By controlling call center metrics during recession and thus having a good, accurate, knowledge of employee performance; managers would have firm ground from which to make appropriate plans and decisions.