Call Center Metrics

Understanding and measuring of key performance indicators can be a painstaking task for call center owners. If you are concerned with this vital issue and wish to find out more about the most significant metrics, then this article will definitely be useful to you. Whether you are an experienced manager who has been implementing KPIs for years or a new agent willing to measure proper company performance, you will learn valuable tips that will help you design an effective metrics strategy, which really works.

Call center evaluation cycle

In order to be able to assess the performance of any call center, you should initially come up to this process with right metrics. Actually, there are dozens of them nowadays, but this does not mean that you should implement all of them at a time. This will be only a waste of your time and effort.  Furthermore, you may be puzzled by such a variety of them and may run a risk to overlook those aspects that are more critical for your business. Listed below are those metrics you should primarily consider when it comes to their introduction.

Continuous evaluation of a call center

Average handle time (AHT) is the average amount of time an agent spends both on the phone and engaged into post-call work. It is defined by means of dividing the total amount of general work time (including average talk time and wrap time) by the amount of successfully handled calls. It is not a secret that customers want to have their calls handled efficiently and on time, so if you manage to set up this metric properly, the reputability and popularity of your call center will increase.

Blocking rate is another metric you may benefit from. It is used to make sure that your customers are able to access your call center any time they wish. Ideally, the metric should be not higher that 1%. The higher this rate is, the more dissatisfied your customers will be.

Cost per one contact/call (CPC) is a common KPI that allows call center managers to find out whether there is a need to invest into technology improvement or not. It is defined by means of dividing the overall amount of costs related to handling contacts or receiving calls by their total number.

Finally, we should focus on customer satisfaction, which is a measure of the clients’ contentment with the whole process of interaction and the level of servicing. The more satisfied the customers are – the more improved the productivity of your call center will be. This KPI is interrelated not only with the above mentioned metrics, but with such indicators as number of offered calls, employee satisfaction, occupancy, quality monitoring scores, schedule adherence and service level as well.

Modern call centers understand that they have to be able to differentiate between various stats and related data in order to discover metrics that could help them get better insights into those processes that contribute to the advancement of their business performance. This is where they face an ambiguous situation. On the one hand, they realize that such KPIs as average handle time or the amount of successfully handled calls per hour will increase productivity, but may negatively affect the quality of servicing. On the other hand, however, there is no sense to focus on quality only and underestimate efficiency and quantitative measurements, since it may have a negative effect both upon the financial expenditures of the company and customer experience. What is the best way out of this situation then? The most reasonable solution to this problem is to find and implement those call center metrics that will ideally fit your company. That is why this process may prove to be quite time-taking and even challenging.

Importance of first call resolution rate

Nowadays, the majority of call center managers consider the following KPIs the most critical in ensuring customer loyalty and satisfaction, employee productivity and good contact center performance:  first call resolution, adherence to schedule, response time, contact quality, customer satisfaction, self-service accessibility etc.

How customer satisfaction benefits the company

Recent studies have proven, though, that there is no single metric that has a greater impact upon the overall level of customer satisfaction than first-call resolution (FCR).  What do people initially expect when contacting call center agents? The majority of them have specific problems and they want them to be solved as quickly (and, what is even more important, qualitatively) as possible. Otherwise, they will not be satisfied with the quality of servicing and will have to get in touch with call center agents once again. Therefore, it becomes clear that the better first-call resolution is, the more enhanced the customer experience will be. Furthermore, it will help reduce the expenses of a call center as well.

There are several reasons that help realize why first-call resolution is not observed in your company. Thus, there are situations when agents do not have the required authority to be able to solve the request, even though they know the potential solution.  As a result, they have to ask their customers to stay on-line for a certain period of time, which may increase the amount of abandoned calls as well as overall hold time.  Some agents may lack sufficient knowledge or training, which will make it difficult for them to deal with incoming calls and this is another thing you should consider if you intend to enhance your business success.

One of the best things associated with a telemarketing call center is better access to key performance indicators (KPIs). Despite of the fact that they are considered the most effective measures of productivity and quality, a lot of businesses fail to implement them properly, which results in extra money expenditures and improper assessment of the company’s performance.  Well, it really takes time to learn the essence of metrics and basics of their introduction, but if you manage to cope with that process correctly, your chances to assess your agents appropriately will notably increase.

Efficiency of a call center

The first metric we are going to discuss in this article is average handle duration (time), which is one of the most typical and widely used KPIs for successful evaluation of call center management. Actually, it makes sense to measure this metric, since each telemarketing company will benefit from learning how to handle incoming calls not only quickly, but effectively as well.   Each agent who works for this or that call center should know how to meet the customer’s expectations and make him/her satisfied with the quality of servicing.  That is exactly what this metric is mainly used for.

Some call center measures

Another metric we are going to focus on is staff shrinkage. It refers to the general amount of time an employee is on the clock without being available to receive and handle inbound calls. The thing is that all agents should be provided with an opportunity to get proper training if necessary, which, in its turn, will make them more productive and knowledgeable. As a result, it will not only increase the overall rate of employee engagement, but workforce satisfaction as well.  Turnover rates, in their turn, will decrease.

Wrap time or after call work (ACW) is one more KPI, which is worth serious consideration. As a matter of fact, it is not difficult to realize what makes this metric popular with call center owners. The fact is that effective employee management implies the ability of its agents to switch from one call to another as quickly as possible, thus handling all of them properly. Still, some businesses are so oriented on the improvement of the amount of handled calls that they fail to realize that each agent needs at least a few seconds of rest between the incoming calls in order to be able to answer them professionally. Fatigue will hardly help them fulfill this task properly.

If you wish to improve the performance of your call center, you just have to do as much as you can to achieve the desired balance between productivity, quality, employee satisfaction and good customer service.  Metrics will help you find a reasonable solution to this problem.

The best way to find out how well your call center is currently running is to establish a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) that are also referred to as metrics. They are said to be highly efficient in measuring the performance of your company as well as the productivity of your workforce. The fact is that you should initially learn what factors contribute to the advancement of your business. Moreover, you have to make a thorough estimation of the whole process rather than simply apply a set of call center metrics, some of which may not be even critical for your business. What are the principles of choosing proper KPIs? How is it best to implement them? Read on to learn answers to these questions below.

Financial and non-financial call center metrics

Call center metrics are essential for any telemarketing company, since they help analyze and manage call center data. Things like customer satisfaction, average call response time, employee punctuality and productivity, the amount of time a worker needs to be on the phone to handle the problem etc. are considered typical, but highly important metrics, which can facilitate the analysis of your call center  performance. If implemented properly, these metrics help business owners detect the most urgent problems that affect the business advancement of their companies, thus making it easier for them to introduce vital and timely changes.

Importance of high first resolution calls rate

Let us have a closer look at some of the above mentioned call center KPIs. It is not a secret that a reputable telemarketing call center should have over fifty employees that stick to one and the same program. It means that they have to be able to receive and handle hundreds or even thousands of incoming calls every day! This is undoubtedly a painstaking process, which is even more complicated if some of the most essential metrics are not in place. For example, if a KPI like first call resolution rate is not implemented properly, call center agents will find it difficult to handle all requests successfully right from the start. It means that they will have to receive hundreds of repeat calls, which will result in inefficiency and waste of time. That is exactly why there is a need to assess this metric properly in order to find out the initial causes of inefficiency. As a result, the team will become more productive, which will be inevitably reflected in overall enhancement of call center performance and prosperity.

Why are call center metrics an object of burning discussions and serious concerns? What makes them so important? These questions worry the majority of call center owners, who aim at promoting the performance of their organizations and generating revenue. Let us look for the most reasonable answers to these questions. To do that, we should first discover the essence of these metrics and their most popular and effective types.

Importance of first resolution calls

As a matter of fact, the number of call center metrics is really impressive. No wonder, a lot of business owners (especially those who are just starting their career) find them quite puzzling. It is not easy to calculate their number, but implementation of each metric will certainly affect your company and employees. Therefore, the most reasonable solution is to define the obvious drawbacks of your call center (if possible) even before you start searching for call center metrics to improve the situation. Do not be afraid that you will not cope with this task. On the contrary, properly implemented metrics will help you identify what problems are observed in your organization nowadays. You can also utilize the results you will get to enhance the situation.

At present, experts point out the following metrics that are extremely important for each reputable call center: service level, customer and employee satisfaction, contact quality, first-call resolution, agent attrition, schedule adherence, forecast accuracy. Though these metrics are quite significant, we will focus on those that seem more critical for this kind of business. What we talk about is average answer speed, abandonment rate and average call handle time.

Some important call center benchmarks

ASA or Average Speed of Answer is associated with the amount of time a caller waits on-line waiting for a call center agent to answer his/her call. This metric is closely related to another one, known as service level. The latter helps measure the required amount of time more accurately so that it could be easier for the managers to decide on further actions.

The Abandonment Rate Metric indicates the approximate percentage of callers who abandon their calls before agents answer them. This is determined by means of using the so-called “Automatic Call Distribution Report”. To define the required index, it is essential to know not only the amount of abandoned calls, but that of answered calls as well. Experts underline, however, that this metric may not be fully reliable, because there are diverse factors that can make callers hang up ahead of time.

When it comes to the assessment of the Average Call Handle Time, it is essential to realize that it is one of the basic tools that help assess the quality of work and professionalism of agents. As soon as you find out the amount of calls handled by each employee, you will decide whether your agents need additional training to perform better or not.

All metrics you implement in your call center should be measured regularly. This is the only way to track all changes that going on in your company.

The advancement of online technologies has opened a broad range of options to all people. Business owners have found numerous ways to benefit from this fact as well. Call center managers, for example, consider it very convenient to use the services of home-based employees. However, we should admit that this innovation has resulted in unpredictable challenges, which are initially associated with the effectiveness of remote staff management. How can you identify whether a person performs his/her duties appropriately without having a chance to control him/her, for instance? Are your employees responsible enough to contribute to better performance of your company? There are much more similar questions that bother call center managers. Therefore, they have found a perfect way out of this situation. They have learnt to apply specific measures that help them assess their remote agents without any particular effort.

Business (call center) optimization

Properly implemented call center metrics prove to be a powerful tool for the enhancement of the whole process of working. As far as they are characterized as non-intrusive, they do not prevent employees from performing their regular duties. They simply help the company management understand their current problems and ways of their solution. They also motivate the staff to work better for the benefit of the organization.

Major tasks of a typical call center

One of the drawbacks of employing home-based agents is that they do not cooperate with each other. Some of them admit that they lack communication and professional assistance, which is frequently reflected in the quality of their work.  This is where call center metrics may become helpful. They provide a great opportunity to unite both in-house and remote employees into a single qualified team. Modern online technologies make it possible today to display these metrics on any desktop applications, thus providing home-based staff with the same data related to current phone call traffic as office employees have. Call center managers have learnt to measure the productivity of remote agents’ work by means of the above mentioned information technologies as well. No matter what call center metrics you decide to apply in your company, you will not face problems with home-based employees. Reliable Internet connection is what will help you succeed in this process.

The growing number of call center managers realize the benefits of employing remote agents these days and try their best effort to utilize the most important call center metrics (such as average call handle time, first-call resolution rate, service level, employee and customer satisfaction,  forecasting accuracy, contact quality etc.) to their advantage.

Conscientious call center managers, who are concerned with the profitability and quality performance of their organization, are expected to think far beyond metrics they implement. They should initially understand the needs of their clients and try their best effort in order to meet their requirements. They should define their sales objectives as well as other effective ways of successful organization advancement. Nonetheless, it is impossible to imagine a reputable call center without properly implemented and measured metrics that always affect its performance. As a result, there is an increased need to learn more about those call center metrics that really matter in this business.

Communication directions

When we talk about the most significant measures, we should focus on such metrics as service level (general response time), adherence to a particular schedule and forecasting accuracy. Let us start with the service level first, since it is one of the most common metrics implemented in organizations of this type. If you fail to put this metric in place and measure it properly, you will not be able to find out how accessible your call center is to those customers who use its services. It also helps identify the approximate amount of agents required to ensure efficient servicing as well as basic criteria used to compare the performance of your call center with that of your competitors. Response time and service level matter for those call center managers who need to define the connection between the amount of resources they have and potential ability to reach the objectives they have set.

Schedule adherence is an important call center metric that helps measure the amount of time an agent is involved into the process of handling calls during his/her shift. The majority of call centers wish to achieve the 90% rate here, which means that each agent should be able to handle incoming calls 54 minutes during each hour. This measure is comprised of the overall amount of time an employee spends when working with clients and the amount of time he/she spends in the so-called “after-call work”, which implies waiting for the next incoming call or making outbound calls, for example.

Evaluation of business units

Forecasting Accuracy is a great call center performance metric, which involves the correlation between the amount of forecasted incoming calls and their actual quantity. This measure is highly important, because if managers of these organizations underestimate the existing demand for call center services, it may result in lack of workforce, which, in its turn, will lead to unsatisfied customers, longer wait time in queues etc. Overestimation of this metric, however, may lead to overstaffing, excessive money expenditures and other related problems that will reduce the expected revenue.

What is one of the most impressive things about a call center? This question may be answered in several ways depending on what point exactly one may focus. If we talk about a call center as an organization, the performance of which is of great importance both for its managers and customers, then we should undoubtedly discuss the implementation of metrics and their significance. As far as metrics are the basic measures of productivity and quality of this organization, it seems vital to define which of them are the most helpful when it comes to the assessment of call center agents. Listed below are key metrics that seriously affect the level of workforce performance.

List of most common call center kpis

Average Handle Time (also referred to as Average Call Duration) has always been considered one of the most influential call center metrics. Managers of these organizations pay special attention to it, because it affects the level of customer satisfaction. On the one hand, it seems quite understandable that if agents manage to handle incoming calls quickly, it will promote the popularity of a call center. On the other hand, though, it often turns out that the speed of call handling does not imply the efficiency of this process. This is because an agent may fail to provide the customer with valuable information he/she expects to get, for example. This negatively affects the overall performance of this organization. Therefore, its managers should strive for maintaining a reasonable equilibrium between the amount of handled calls and other metrics, such as level of customer satisfaction, revenue per each call and the rate of first-call problem resolution.

Some important kpis to be measured in a call center

The next metric we will focus at is ACW (After Call Work), which is also sometimes referred to as “Wrap time”. Actually, the significance of this aspect is quite obvious, since each agent is expected to move quickly from one call to another. At the same time, a lot of call center managers overlook the fact that their employees need at least a few minutes of rest between the call they answer, since it will for sure increase their ability to handle the upcoming call positively.

If you wish your call center to become more profitable and popular with customers, then First-Call Resolution metric is what you should obligatory implement for the assessment of your agents. There is no doubt about the fact that this rate is highly essential for each organization, since it affects its efficiency, popularity and success. So, if you have not considered it by this time, then you are highly recommended to do that right away.

Call centers are primarily large offices, which are staffed with agents who either receive or make phone calls with the only purpose – to satisfy the needs of the company’s customers and increase its popularity and productivity.  There are call centers that aim at answering incoming calls only (for example, those that are related to banks and are responsible for settling the clients’ problems) and those, which make outbound calls (such as survey organizations, for instance).

Call center BSC

No matter what type of a call center you are managing at the moment, the main idea of its establishment implies providing people with extra convenience and support. However, it frequently turns out that not all customers can easily make use of those services business owners claim to offer them. If you have ever tried to contact a call center agent, then you probably know what we are talking about. The fact is that this procedure proves to be challenging and depressing due to numerous factors, which prevent a call center from performing its main functions. That is why, the increasing number of call center managers decide to implement useful key performance indicators (or KPIs), thus aiming to improve the situation and build the company’s reputation.

Call center goals

At present, we may differentiate between several KPIs that have a great impact upon the functioning of any call center and, as a result, advancement of your business. These include first call resolution, average call handle time, speed of answer, customer satisfaction etc. The latter, by the way, is one of the most influential and dominant metrics, since it helps define whether your clients are satisfied with the level of servicing they are offered or not. If you are seriously concerned with the success of your business, you should realize how important it is to set up this KPI and establish good relationships with your customers. The fact is that this metric (if implemented correctly) will enable you to keep track of the productivity of your workforce, thus contributing to the achievement of this objective.

It is not a secret that all companies and organizations (call centers included), irrespective of the services they offer, have a set of short- and long-term goals they wish to achieve. You may be surprised, but such objectives may prevent these businesses from focusing on many important aspects, including the rate of customer satisfaction. This is where call center KPIs will prove to be useful, serving as the best reminders for them. They motivate the managers to be persistent in the process of achievement their goals, which eventually results both in the increased profits and reputation. This is exactly what you are striving for, aren’t you?

There are different techniques that enable business owners measure performance of their companies. KPI evaluation is one of them. It is applied in lots of industries nowadays and has already proved to be highly efficient in the process of call center functioning assessment. Unfortunately, there are certain problems associated with the implementation and validity of these indicators.

Main measures for call centers

It does not really matter what metrics exactly you are going to analyze, you will always face the risk of using subjective and non-informative metrics. Another problem you may come across is inconsistency of those KPIs you wish to set up. It generally depends upon the amount of data sources you use. For example, you will not find it problematic to measure call time, but you will for sure be puzzled when evaluating the levels of customer or employee satisfaction, because the perception of people differs from one person to another. So, is there any way out of this situation? Let us find that out below.

KPIs in 4 perspectives

The number of problems related to effective call center performance assessment in not limited to those mentioned above. There are much more of them to be solved today. The only reasonable solution here is to consider a particular number of KPIs at a time rather than analyze individual metrics. This will give an intrinsic and trustworthy idea of what exactly is going on in your call center. No wonder, the only efficient and powerful tool that may ensure the expected result is the Balanced Scorecard system, which adds importance and validity to those KPIs you are going to evaluate.

However, how can you be sure that call center metrics you implement using the Balanced Scorecard system are really applicable for your call center? Actually, the best way to make sure you are not mistaken with their selection is to define what exactly makes these KPIs valid. To start with, these metrics should be accurate, appropriate and collected from relevant data sources. In addition, they have to be clear and valuable. Unfortunately, not all metrics have these features and may not correspond to your business.

It frequently turns out that not all business managers realize the actual power of KPI metrics and the Balanced Scorecard system in general. They simply believe that the main objective of this tool is to measure the company’s performance and this is their main mistake. The truth is that properly chosen and implemented call center KPIs may provide you with the best diagnostic capacity, helping you identify basic problems that may prevent you from getting the most out of your business.