Performance is what drives contact centers like every other business. Only when everyone in the team is clear about what they should be doing, can they succeed. The call center managers make the decisions about whether everyone is on the same page.
To ensure that agents are focusing their efforts on the main goals of the call center, it is essential to establish stable, unchanging call metrics that can be measured, analyzed, and reported on by everyone.
Call centers can find it difficult to see how they are performing with so many metrics available. It can be difficult to determine which metrics are best to increase performance. This article will explain the call center customer support matrix: What is call center matrix?, how it can be integrated into your contact center, and why it’s so important.
In this Article:
The Call Center Matrix is an assortment of metrics that are used to measure the performance of call centers. All of these metrics are interrelated. We have found that improving one will almost always improve the other. We have already discussed the many metrics we can measure. But how do we determine which are most important?
The bottom line is the most important metric for a call center’s success. It is not worth measuring any metric that doesn’t improve the bottom line performance. Some metrics have a greater impact on the bottom-line than others.
Call center metrics measure the effectiveness of customer service departments. Call centers often use metrics to gauge performance and agent productivity. This helps to increase customer satisfaction. To track the effectiveness and efficiency of a call center solution in achieving business goals, customer service managers monitor key performance indicators (KPIs).
Managers of call centers receive a lot of data from different platforms, each with its own business process. Metrics are a way to monitor and analyze this data. There are many types of metrics for contact centers, and what you need to measure will depend on your job. Customer service managers might only need one set, while front-line managers might require a different set.
To make a business case for customer service excellence, executives need to have a set of KPIs and strategic metrics. Operational managers, on the other hand, need more detailed metrics to help them make better decisions regarding customer service and workforce management.
KPI (or key performance indicator) is a measure that contact centers use in order to assess whether they are meeting their business goals, such as efficiency, and providing exceptional service. Contact centers can have many KPIs. The challenge is choosing the right one to measure all aspects of the operation without creating excessive data.
It is beneficial to use data and metrics at work. They allow companies to see how their day-to-day actions impact the company’s operations, and enable them to set and achieve goals.
Each call center will have its own way of measuring their performance. However, there are common metrics and KPIs for the call center industry. These metrics are generally focused on specific areas that provide key insight into customer experience and emphasize quality and quantity equally.
These four areas are best practices to measure customer satisfaction and keep a high-performance, efficient call center.
It is beneficial to use data and metrics at work. They allow companies to see how their day-to-day actions impact the company’s operations, and enable them to set and achieve goals.
Each call center will have its own way of measuring their performance. However, there are common metrics and KPIs for the call center industry. These metrics are generally focused on specific areas that provide key insight into customer experience and emphasize quality and quantity equally.
These four areas are best practices to measure customer satisfaction and keep a high-performance, efficient call center.
While there are many metrics that you can measure in a call center, you only need to focus on a handful of KPIs over time. This definitive list will help you ensure that you are not missing any vital contact center metrics. Refer to this list when making strategic decisions about the call center KPIs you should track and how to use a journey-based measuring approach to optimize your contact center performance.
Businesses thrive when they can provide customer satisfaction. How can you tell if your customer expectations are being met? Customer reviews can help you determine whether your customers have had a positive or negative experience with your products and services.
According to surveys, customers are less satisfied when they have to.
FCR (first contact resolution) measures the number of times an agent has successfully dealt with a customer’s problem without requiring a callback. FCR is a key component of excellent customer experiences. FCR is often regarded as the foundation of call center solutions.
Customers expect their problems to be resolved on the first call. This is one of the best ways for them to be satisfied and reduce customer defection. You can measure FCR to see how well you’re meeting customer needs and measuring your performance.
Formula: Total Number Reported Issues Solved on the First Call / Total number of Calls
OR
Total Number Reported Issues Solved on First Call/ Total Number Of First Calls Note: This metric can be used to indicate excellent call quality. It is also known as First Call Resolution Rate.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), measures how satisfied customers are with your products, customer services, and customer service. CSAT scores usually reflect customer satisfaction. They are measured through a customer survey. It is a good indicator of customer loyalty and long-term revenue.
This call center metric can be used to determine which factors have a negative or positive impact on the call center.
Companies often ask customers for feedback in order to determine which agents are solving problems efficiently. Companies classify customer responses according to their feelings based on a set of agreed-upon scoring systems.
CES is a measure of whether or not CES products solve a customer problem. There is no standard measurement, just like CSAT. Some metrics can be measured using a 5-point scale, while others use a 7-point scale.
The following question is used to gather results: “On a scale from one to seven (seven stands to Strongly Agree and the other for Strongly Disagree), was it easier for your problem to be solved?” Higher CES scores mean better customer experiences.
Net promoter scores are a measure of customer loyalty and experience. NPS scores are often based on a single question: How likely is it that this agent or company will be recommended to you?
Scoring is done using a sliding scale. 9 and 10 are promoters and 7 to 8 are passive. 0 to 6 are detractors. The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage detractors from the promoters. A score above 50 is acceptable.
It is possible to get valuable feedback on NPS scores. Strong NPS scores can go hand in hand with positive revenue growth and business growth.
Formula: (Number of Promoters ÷ Total Number of Customers in the Sample) – (Number of Detractors ÷ Total Number of Customers in the Sample)
Call records are used to track the efficiency of your team’s work and provide metrics on productivity. These metrics can help you manage and improve your performance as well as identify areas where you need to make improvements.
It is important to focus on the right metrics. What are the best metrics to evaluate agent performance in a call center? These are the top call center metrics you should be monitoring.
AHT (average handling time) is the amount of time an agent takes to complete a single interaction. Agents at contact centers are often evaluated on their speed to resolve calls. This is because they want to decrease call wait times and increase retention rates. Agents who can efficiently resolve problems and have faster AHT rates are more effective.
Formula: (Total Talk Time + Total Hold Time + Total After-Call Work Time) ÷ Total Number of Calls
You can calculate the rate at which agents are being utilized by dividing the number of hours worked by the agent’s availability to work. If an agent answers customer calls six times per hour, then 75% of that agent’s utilization would result (6 hours worked/8 hours available).
Formula: (Average Number of Handled Calls x Average Handle Time) ÷ (Total Work Hours in Given Period) x 100%
ASA refers to the time it takes for an agent to answer inbound calls. This includes time while the agent rings but does not include time spent waiting in IVR systems. Average speed of answer (ASA), in the industry, is about 28 seconds. The longer the ASA times are, the higher the risk of customer satisfaction, agent absenteeism, agent turnover, efficiency, and accessibility problems.
Formula: Total Wait Time for Answered Calls ÷ Total Number of Answered Calls
Customer’s first contact with a call center shows how much you value their business. This measure gives insight into the time period between contact and speaking with an agent.
Before the customer ever engages with an agent, perceptions begin. Loyal customers can be created or destroyed by how they communicate their wait times and the length of their hold time.
FRT is directly linked to customer satisfaction and is easy to understand why. FRT tracks the percentage of calls in which the agent resolves the customer’s issue or inquiry without increasing the call transfer rate, escalating or returning the call. Because of the lower transfer rates, many believe that FRT is one of the most important KPIs for call centers.
Formula: Total Wait Time for All Calls ÷ Total Number of Calls
Callers are effectively blocked when they reach a busy signal. It is useful to see what percentage of customers are blocked. A high number can lead to frustrated customers and poor customer service. A busy tone usually indicates a shortage of agents or that the call center software is unable to handle the volume of calls.
Formula: (Number of Calls that Fail to Reach Agents ÷ Total Number of Incoming Calls) x 100%
The abandon rate in an inbound call center is the percentage that has been abandoned before a customer calls an agent. This metric is calculated by the sum of all inbound calls and the number of abandoned calls. Waiting times are directly related to retention rates.
This is why it is important. Many service level agreements have an abandonment rate target. A low abandonment rate is a worthwhile goal, but it does not always lead to better customer satisfaction scores.
Formula: (Number of Calls – Number of Handled Calls) ÷ Number of Calls x 100%
The active waiting call metric measures how well teams handle call volume in real-time. This gives contact center managers insight into how agents handle calls versus those who are on hold. A high number of calls on hold can lead to poor customer service, customer retention, and an increased agent churn.
Call center managers must establish acceptable levels of call center performance over time. These metrics and KPIs can be used to identify peak hours and assess shifts in contact center trends. They also help forecast staffing requirements. These metrics and KPIs can help companies understand the impact of company initiatives, such as product launches or marketing campaigns, on call volume.
This KPI shows all calls made by an agent over a certain time period. This KPI doesn’t usually include abandoned calls. This metric can be broken down into the following types:
CPC tracks the average cost of each contact that a call center agent takes. This gives insight into your operations and can be used to help you make resource allocation decisions. This provides insight into the cost efficiency of a call center and how it allocates its resources. This formula works by taking the total cost for all calls and dividing it by the number of calls.
This metric allows organizations to assess how many calls a contact center receives in a given time period. You can express the time period in a number of ways. It can be expressed as a day, an hour, or a minute. This KPI is monitored by operational managers daily. Executives may use it to spot trends over time.
Each call center must monitor the call volume and identify the days with the highest call volume. This KPI helps to forecast staffing requirements and ensure workforce engagement.
This metric allows you to see the average length of calls in a given time period. This metric is used to establish expectations and manage teams’ workloads.
This measure measures how long unresolved questions remain open, even if they are not resolved in the first attempt. The goal should be to reduce the average age of queries. This is FCR. It measures the number of queries that remain open after a given time. This formula measures the time it takes for current open questions to close compared to total open queries.
Many companies offer customers the chance to get a callback, which can help avoid lengthy waits on hold. Businesses must track how many callback requests were received during a given time period to determine how many customers chose this option. This KPI makes it easier to evaluate staffing needs and increase efficiency. This metric should be kept to a minimum as customers are eager to resolve their problems immediately.
The repeat call rate closely correlates with FCR. It helps companies determine how often certain issues or problems are not resolved. Customers can be asked for their feedback and track repeat calls rates. This will help identify and resolve any recurring problems. Customers may be less frustrated if there are more self-service options.
Here is a summary table that lists common KPIs for call centers, categorized by the data they measure. To gain an accurate understanding of the quality and efficiency of their service, efficient call centers examine multiple data points from various parts of their operation.
| Data Measured | KPIs |
|---|---|
| Customer Experience |
|
| Agent Productivity |
|
| Call Initiation |
|
Quality Assurance metrics, also known as QA metrics, refer to data that is collected and used to measure the performance of contact center agents. While they vary by industry, QA metrics typically focus on conversation-handling efficiency and creating a better omnichannel customer experience. Common quality metrics include Average Speed of Answering, First-Call Resolution and Average Handle Time. Customer Satisfaction Score is (CSAT), Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and Customer Effort Scores (CES).
It is important to understand the most common metrics used to measure agent effectiveness in call centers, how technology can be best used to increase agent success, and how to reduce agent attrition. It is crucial to keep track of call center metrics and statistics in order to improve call center productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction, and agent attrition.
