It is crucial for any call center to find the best ways to improve its performance. In this regard, there can be nothing better than introducing versatile key performance indicators in order to define which of them will work better for your business in particular. The majority of these metrics are meant to reveal the efficacy of handling customer contacts. So, what KPIs exactly are considered the most popular and efficient here? It is reported that the following measures are the most widespread: average handle time, on-hold time and after-call work time. If you wish to find out more about these metrics, then let us analyze their essence below.
Call center efficiency and effectiveness
Average handle time (AHT) is claimed to be the most typical metric applied to measure the efficacy of call handling. It is comprised of the overall talk time and that required for after-call work. This KPI is a top choice for those businesses that consider it important to determine staffing requirements as well as general workload. For better results, it is recommended to measure average handle time both by day of the week and time of the day. In this case, the metric we are talking about helps identify not only the performance of a certain call center, but that of each agent as well.
Call center metrics
On-hold time implies the overall amount of time a customer is on hold waiting for his/her problem to be solved. The main goal of introducing this metric is to reduce both the number of cases when a caller has to wait on hold and the duration of that period. Although this indicator is quite informative, not all call center owners consider it too significant to be implemented in their companies. In most cases, this metric is used as a means of identifying specific gaps in agents’ performance and their knowledge by reviewing the percentage of incoming calls this or that employee puts on hold.
After-call work time (ACW) is another indicator, which is additionally considered the most controllable of all metrics. What does it imply? It comprises the amount of time an agent has to spend after the handled conversation. He/she needs this time to update computer files, fill out documents and complete all work associated with the call. After call work time should ideally be measured and then analyzed over a particular time interval in order to provide adequate assessment of the amount of time required for the accomplishment of all tasks. This metric also helps indicate employees, who need extra training and coaching for better performance.