We all have a story about when we were treated in an extremely poor manner or exceptionally well. We tend to share these stories with others and we all know that this word of mouth marketing can impact a lot and can be an absolute advantage or one of the worst drawback a company can ever face.
That is why keeping this fact in mind that Customer service is a cornerstone of most of the businesses now and for years businesses have used metrics to measure their call center operations to make them outstanding.
Warren Buffett said it best:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. “
Therefore we’ve taken out and managed a few very important metrics that will definitely boost up your call center performance and help you improve your customer service because at first, you should measure its effectiveness.
1 – Service level Service level agreement (SLA)
is basically an agreement between a vendor and the client who defines the level of service expected from the vendor. The SLA contains the requirements and standards in which the operation of the contact center is based on.
2 – First response time ( FRT )
The most important thing 88% of consumers look for in a company is what are they giving value to their time? Surely nobody wants to be put on hold. The very first response from the agent is considered the First time KPI which is typically viewed as most important. Call centers representatives handling call requests quickly will leave a lasting impression on their callers.
3 – Abandonment Call Rate
The main reasons that lead to abandoned calls are unnecessary lengthy wait times and hold times. An IVR with an inefficient system may also cause callers to abandon the call queue. To completely ensure compliance with the SLA, an 8% or lower abandoned call rate needs to be maintained quickly.
4 – Average Handheld Time ( AHT )
Average Handheld time is a prime factor when deciding a staffing level for call centers. Already knowing how long each call will likely help more the agent to manage their schedules. The goal is to ensure workloads do not become overwhelming.
5 – First Call Resolution ( FCR )
Most of the customers have a strong desire to have their inquiries resolved during the first call. They are very much likely to drop good feedback when this element takes place. FCR is really an important factor for call centers. Measuring FCR allows you to perform well and meet the full requirements of the customer.
6 – Customer Satisfaction ( CSAT)
Customer Satisfaction is a good way to measure or judge whether the call center agents are delivering poor or high-end quality customer experience. The basic goals of measuring CSAT is to get a better understanding of which factors are impacting the call centers in a negative manner and also the ones giving a positive influence.
7 – Quality Monitoring Scores
Agent performance is key to measuring call quality, including how quickly they resolve any issue of the customer, how efficiently they are moving from one call to another and the accuracy rate at logging call information. An advanced level training can be also provided to the call center agents to boost up their call quality performance.
8 – After Call Work Time (ACW)
Improving call center after call work time should be a priority for increasing efficiency throughout. This should be measured to determine how much time is being taken for this part of the call agent’s job. Ideally, post-call work should be kept to a minimum to ensure the agents are spending as much time as possible handing a customer instead of tending to post call tasks.
9 – Peak Hour Traffic
Peak hour traffic is that time of the day when there is a huge load of maximum calls that are to be handled by agents. This can be determined with the help of real-time monitoring and the agent performance can be planned to handle the work in the most caught up hours of the day.
10 – Agent Availability
Agent availability basically refers to the time when call center agents are present to take calls. This includes the time spent on waiting for calls to arrive at the time spent on handling calls. It also implies the commitment of the agents and how well agents manage their shift schedules.
11 – Average Age of Query
This metric defines how long the average case stays open that is not resolved during the very first call. The shorter the duration is, the better the query it will be.
12 – Net Promoter Score ( NPS )
NPS helps you receive valuable feedback from your customers referring to their interaction with the call center agents. A stronger NPS score heavily associated with positive revenue and better business growth.
13 – Call Setup Success Rate
Keep in mind that not all calls are going to be successful but by measuring the call setup success rate the call center managers can garner a better idea of what can be the success rate of the calls on daily basis. This helps them to allocate resources in a more flexible way so that it can be ensured that high levels of successful calls are being maintained constantly.
14 – Sales Per Agent
You will measure sales and total calls to evaluate sales per agent KPIs. Managers can use this metric to tweak targets and improve overall sales performance.
15 – Call Arrival Rate
This element counts the number of calls that arrive in each day and it also includes the data from at least 25 to 30 days. It will enable you to easily manage, create and track patterns. Also will help you create better call agent schedules according to your needs.
16 – Percentage of Calls Blocked
Your customer is calling because they need a question answered or taken care of an important issue, and the last thing they’re going to receive is a busy tone. It will make a huge drawback to your business. This is one of the most aggravating aspects of dialing into a call center and receiving a busy signal. Measure your KPI, determine the issue and train your employees who struggle with overwhelming call queues.
17 – WorkForce Management
If your call center has deployed a workforce management solution, you can compare historical data against real-time data to measure your forecast versus the actual call volume, agent adherence to their schedules.
