A primary goal of a call center is providing meaningful service to anyone who interacts with a business, regardless of the channel they use. This goal is somewhat challenging due to all the moving parts involved. Complexities of underlying technologies and the diversity of personalities on your team can add to the issue. The solution is in determining and analyzing the most important call center KPIs.
Establishing a productive contact center is the first step in improving your customer service strategy. Following that, determining whether your contact center is performing well is essential. So, how do you go about doing that?
Of course, with data.
Research has found that Americans spend over 900 million hours on hold annually. Waiting to get into a contact with a call center can be a frustrating experience. This is why call center metrics and KPIs are a reliable way to measure how your contact center works. Tracking right data helps you understand what your customers really need. The tricky part is understanding which ones to track. With so many options, it can be challenging to narrow down which ones you want or which could benefit your business.
To exceed customers' expectations, contact centers should give the business visibility into all aspects of its departmental activities and performance. Obtaining key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics is relatively simple. However, the challenge is developing the right contact center KPIs for each group of stakeholders.
Now that we established the importance of call center KPIs and metrics, it is essential to highlight which ones are the ones to look out for. Here is the list of ones you should look out for.
Customer satisfaction assesses how pleased your customers are with their interactions with your company. Call centers use surveying tools such as Net Promoter Score (NPS®) to quantify customer satisfaction and gather customer feedback. This metric gives businesses a clear indication of whether their customer service offerings are compelling or not.
H3: 2. First call resolution
FCR (First call resolution) measures the percentage of cases resolved between the customer and the call center on the first call. This metric is essential because it plays a significant role in reducing customer churn.
About 3% of customers who have an issue solved during the first interaction are likely to churn. On the other hand, 38% of customers will churn if the issue still needs to be resolved after the first call. The most effective method is to solve a problem quickly, and your first-call resolution rate can tell you how well you do it.
Call availability specifies how frequently your representatives are available to take calls and how long it takes them to resolve them. This call center metric gives you a good indication of whether or not agents are sticking to their schedule. If an agent's call availability is low, managers can look into their call records to see if the agent was busy or absent.
Call availability also assists teams in determining the peak hours of operation for the call center. You can see when reps are unavailable and adjust staffing and scheduling to meet the increased demand.
Customer retention rate (CRR) is the percentage of customers who continue to engage with a company over a given period.
A high CRR typically indicates that your customer service processes are helpful and practical. On the other hand, low CRR suggests there is a space for an improvement.
To enhance CRR, consider offering incentives to customers who inquire about services. This can reduce customer frustration and stress, especially when resolving an issue takes more time than expected.
Cost per contact (CPC) is one of the most essential metrics because it refers to the total cost of operations in a call center. It is calculated by dividing the total operational costs of the contact center by the total number of inquiries processed. You can also refine this metric by the communication channel.
Knowing your CPC can help you narrow down which channels are most effective for your customers. Your CPC can also tell you which channels perform best, such as whether your contacts come from traditional voice calls or a combination of email and SMS.
The abandon rate is the proportion of calls dropped or terminated by the customer. This percentage indicates how satisfied customers are with their wait times and call experiences.
It can also assist call centres in determining whether their phone systems are outdated. If your customer satisfaction is high, but your abandon rate is also high, it could mean that your call system is inadvertently dropping calls. Resolving these issues as soon as possible is critical because dropped calls can negatively impact the customer experience.
If your Abandon Call Rate needs to be lowered, look for issues that affect all of your agents and determine why they aren't reaching out to your customers on time.
This metric also reflects your customer experience. If customers have to wait so long for your team to assist them that they give up, something in your contact center needs to change to improve the customer experience.
The average Handle Time metric is one of the most essential ways to measure call center agent productivity. This is the average time needed for a customer to initiate contact with an agent until they disconnect. This includes including hold time and transfer time. It also includes the agent's follow-up work.
If the agent's average handle time is too short, it may indicate that agent needs to provide genuine assistance, rush the customer through, or listen thoroughly.
Focus on training and providing the tools they need to respond quickly to customer inquiries. Give them all the information they need with the click of a mouse so they can meet their KPI goal.
Average time to answer is a metric measured in seconds that measures the average amount of time it takes from the time an inbound call is received until an agent answers it. This metric is based on agents being available to answer calls within a specific time. While it includes time spent waiting in line, it does not account for the time needed for the call to navigate through an IVR system. Average Wait Time helps you evaluate your team's efficiency and degree of customer accessibility. It is also beneficial to define a service level objective.
Service Level measures the percentage of calls answered within a given period. Customer service representatives, for example, will frequently state that they aim to answer 80% of calls within 20 seconds. This is their service level objective for the call center.
Service level indicates whether your company has enough resources to meet the needs of its customers. It means that customers connect quickly to team members, and their issues are resolved on time. If your service level needs to improve, it may be time to implement new customer service tools or hire more staff.
Understanding and tracking call center metrics can help you improve customer and agent experiences.
It's critical to have a basic understanding of the metrics commonly used to measure call center effectiveness and how to best use training and technology to help agents be more successful and reduce agent attrition. That is why monitoring call center statistics and metrics are critical for increasing call center productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
Tracking all call center metrics discussed today is only one aspect of determining agent productivity. What about the other half? Data analysis to identify patternsExamine the types of reports, and analytics your contact center software provides, and then evaluate your call center KPIs and metrics regularly.
Furthermore, speaking with your agents can help you learn about their experiences, roadblocks, and requirements. Remember that reviewing your training literature is critical.
In the fast-paced world of call centers, keeping a close eye on key metrics is essential. There are dozens of call center KPIs to monitor, but choosing the right ones for your organization is critical. With the right blend of call center metrics and KPIs, you can ensure that your organization maximizes operational efficiency while never losing sight of customer expectations.
Learn more about how the Live product family can help you support and improve your customer experience strategy.
