An effective strategy based on Balanced Scorecards enables to measure the efficiency and productivity of the call center, management and its operations in a cohesive approach. Call centers which are the hub of businesses, dealing with the customers, provide a channel of interaction between business entities and the potential consumers. These businesses can be the utility providing firms as the; banks, mails or catalog firms. A call center can be either inbound or outbound. Inbound call centers receive calls from customers who may need assistance or information about a certain product or service. However, outbound call centers, on the other hand, make outgoing calls to potential customers for marketing purposes.
One of the dilemmas for the management of a call center like any other business entity is; curbing the costs and striving to reach a balance between expenses and the service levels provided. Since none of the calling customers want to be on hold or call waiting for a very long time, call centers have to increase the number of their call agents in order increase the responsiveness time towards these calls. The salaries of the call center agents make up to seventy percent of the call center expenses and hence, the management tries to maintain a minimum number of efficient workers. Still, it is essential for call centers to enhance and optimize the productivity of their agents and other resources in order to combat this particular scenario.
Since a few years call centers have been relying on forecasting techniques via telecommunication in order to identify the requirement of agents for a particular point in time. This approach focuses on predicting call traffic intensity in any given hour and scrutinizes the historical data and the market trends of the past and present. Another important factor studied is the behavior of the customers when their calls get queued. The performance measures focus on the aspects that include; talk time, handling time, calls attended per hour and time of delay etc.
However in today’s world there is s considerable shift in the concerns of the organizations and the management on the whole. As compared to talk times and handling time, which was given the most significance in the past, overall call center performance based on the indicators identified by the scorecards are given more importance. These key performance indicators are based on the goals of the organization and thus keep the targets and objective in-line with the mission and vision. A vigilant focus on these KPIs will allow the management to track and predict loopholes, performances and efficiencies of the system. Also, they will help in pinpointing and formulating solutions and implementation strategies for the same. With the help of scorecards management and measurement not only becomes an easier tasks for the administration but it also allows the other stake holders to view a clear picture of the performance of a call center with respect to its internal and external issues and influences.