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.