Call Center Metrics

Every respectable company that sells products or services either has own call center or uses services of other call centers and helpdesks. It is impossible to imagine post sale service without call center support. When people buy products/services or are about to buy them usually ask questions about these products. Sometimes certain problems occur and these problems have to be resolved. Post sale services contribute to customer loyalty to a particular brand even if the support is provided not by the producer company but by an individual call center. Let’s also not forget about sales call centers and call centers that process internet orders. Lots of people buy online these days, and thus, call centers have to efficiently work in order to process and confirm all orders.

Most popular call center KPIs

Every call center is an inseparable element in successful functioning of a company. It is not enough just to enter the market with a new product. As already said above post sale service is important and thus excellent performance of a call center in a must. In order to improve performance it is necessary to set goals and measure current and potential performance. This is where Balanced Scorecard comes into play.

Call center evaluation chain

Call center BSC consists of the traditional 4 perspectives: financial, customer, internal business processes, learning and growth. At that, it is impossible to say which category is the most important. As a rule, weights are set individually by top managers and those responsible for BSC implementation and maintenance. Moreover, all categories and indicators are interrelated. Thus, implementation of financial goals is impossible without implementation of relevant goals in the other categories.

The principle behind BSC is very simple. Key performance indicators are selected for the abovementioned 4 categories. Evaluation of KPI will offers top managers information that indicates efficiency of strategic goals implementation. For example, a call center wants to decrease cost per call, baseline and target are set. Then call center employees use new call handling methods and try to improve performance. In course of time, performance changes and relevant figures are indicated on a dashboard. These are signals to top managers who should make decisions on possible changes in operational management.

Besides, call center BSC can tell much about future developments. For example, customer satisfaction with call center and support service can offer valuable info on sales growth since satisfied customers are eager to buy from the same company again.

Evaluation of business performance is all important, especially in the post crisis economy. Markets are becoming increasingly competitive, and tough competition has its advantages and drawbacks. To drawbacks we refer constant desire of competitors to gain an increased market share and wipe out other companies. That’s why it is so important to automate business management and be able to respond to changes in internal or external environment.

Almost all companies that sell products or services have contact centers, also called help desks or customer support service/call centers. What would you do if you have some questions about purchased product or a service? Of course you will look for a toll free number published on the company web site. And this is by conversation with a context center operator that you will make your judgment about the company, quality of its services and its business reputation.

Use BSC system to improve perofrmance of a call center

Evaluation of call center performance will give you answers to many questions, as well as help you set and reach strategic goals related to development and enhancement of a customer support service.

For this reason use of balanced scorecard system is highly recommended. This tool created in early1990s is now the most popular automation tool for business management. In case of a call center balanced scorecard system will evaluate special KPIs relevant to specific character of a call center work. They keep the eye is a key performance indicator which shows a certain aspect in the work of a company or its department.

The traditional approach tends to view financial KPI as the most important. Well, this is partially true and logical as the goal of any business is making profits and gaining competitive advantage in the market. But at the same time balanced scorecard system also fought uses on operational aspects which are called nonfinancial.

Do not financial KPIs we refer such indicators as customer satisfaction, number of one and done calls (first resolutions calls), time on hold, abandoned calls rate, blockage, employee satisfaction, organization climate, training effectiveness and efficiency. Financial KPI include cost per call and revenue per successful call (if the company sells something via phone).

With balanced scorecard system you will be able to set long-term goals and improve performance of a call center. A well performing call center creates at perfect business image for a company which in its turn is attraction for new customers. More customers means competitive advantage which is the ultimate goal of any business.

Evaluate most important call center kpi

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.

Call Center is a computerized office where large volume of customer request and queries are handled by a team of professionals. The office is operated and controlled by a company to administer all the product support and online queries through the customers. Various offshore deal and debt collection is also made here in these call centers. In addition to all the customer support and services, call center is also meant for receiving and delivering various fax, e-mails, and letters to and from the dealers or consumers.

Various wings and sections of customer service representatives is appointed in a call center, each of which pertaining to a particular product of the company. The employee has to deal with each and every queries put on by the consumer regarding the performance and functionality of the product. Call center is an extensive open help desk where each call center agents are provided with computer, head-set and telephone, connected to the main telecom switch of the company. Each of the computers can either be independently operated or worked on under a common computer network including main frame computer and local area network. All the voice and data pathways are linked through a computer telephony integration which keeps a track record of all the incoming and outgoing calls from the office.

Main motive of call centers is to interact with the customers and deal with all the utility regarding the catalogue firms and customer support for software and hardware products of the company. Some of the call centers even work on offshore business and deal with the consumers abroad. Some companies even operate a call center office to carry on the internal functions more specifically and smoothly within the nation. Those call centers may either be in the form of help desk or a sales support.

A call center can be viewed as a operational network in the form of Que. This queuing network is so assumed with same type of customers and statically identical servers arranged in a Queue form of network. This queuing theory is the key to the over all work force planning and management. A track record of the entire performance index is measured with the help of this queuing network. How many calls can a employee attend, frequency of call rates, efficiency of the employee to sort out with the queries are few of the work flow sections which has to be managed through this queuing network.

Queuing model also works on the qualitative and quantitative insight of the company. Based on the performance index of queuing model it could be decided that the call center should be more qualitative driven or the quantitative driven. The one which could be more beneficial for the company is chosen. Queuing model can also be used for planning and operating skill- based routing of calls. Based on the multi-type customers and multi talent skilled professionals the work force can accordingly be distributed.

A scorecard of the performance of each and every employee is maintained under the queue model network of the call centers. An operational research on shift- structure of the employee, forecasting of calls and the detailed analysis of customers impatience is maintained with this queuing network of call center.