What are Call Center Metrics? 8 Features

What are call center metrics?

In this blog post, we explain what call center metrics are. A successful call center needs the right metrics to track its goals, and these metrics form the basis of your KPIs. Accurate data is essential to running a call center successfully. With the heavy call traffic that comes in every day, it can be quite difficult to understand what’s going on without meaningful measurements. That’s why choosing the right metrics is so important: when you focus on a specific KPI, you can clearly see the reality it reflects in your business. So, let’s look at the key call center metrics.

Key Call Center Metrics

First Call Resolution

First call resolution is the ratio of contacts resolved during the first call with the customer, without the need for a repeat call, to all contacts. The agent doesn’t need to transfer the call, no follow-up is required, and the customer reports that their problem was solved on the first call. Resolving customer issues on the first call also streamlines your call traffic and prevents interruptions caused by congestion. In addition, quickly resolving an issue without a callback gives the customer a great experience. This metric also helps you measure the success of your call center and the performance of your representatives.

Service Level

Service level indicates what percentage of incoming calls are answered within a specified target time. It can be calculated with different formulas, and it shows whether the overall performance of the call center is reliable. A company can improve its service level by training representatives, improving processes, and upgrading the technology it uses. Service level is also called Telephone Service Factor (TSF) and refers to handling incoming calls within a certain period of time, expressed as “answering X% of incoming calls within Y seconds.”

After Call Work

After call work refers to the tasks that need to be done immediately after a call and as a result of it. These tasks usually involve data entry, filling out forms, or making external calls, and during this time the representative cannot answer another incoming call. It is one of the most important processes in a call center: minimizing it and resolving issues as quickly as possible gives your team more time to answer calls. However, over-optimizing it can harm your customer experience, so it’s important to keep it under control and plan it carefully. Representatives should also receive appropriate training from the company.

Average Handling Time

The next metric is average handling time. AHT, which has been the most common call center metric for years, is the sum of the average talk time and the average after call work for a given time period. AHT includes hold times as well as post-call tasks. To improve it, your representatives can be trained to build better product knowledge and to master your call center software.

Average Speed of Answer

This term includes the average ring time, average talk time, and average after call work within a given time frame. However, this metric does not include the time spent routing customers to the appropriate queue or the time they spend interacting with a voice response system. An important aspect of this metric is that it is closely related to various measures of customer satisfaction and can reveal bigger problems than long wait times alone.

Average Time to Abandonment

Your customers always want to reach you quickly and easily. If they can’t reach you in a short time, they don’t wait for an answer and hang up. This is also referred to as an abandoned (or lost) call: the caller hangs up after joining the queue but before reaching an agent. When customers repeatedly fail to reach you, their loyalty and trust decrease, and they may start turning to your competitors. That’s why it’s beneficial to use technology that helps you manage your call traffic.

Customer Satisfaction

How do call center metrics help increase satisfaction? Customer satisfaction is the ability of a company or brand to meet the business, emotional, and psychological needs of its customers. It also reflects your customers’ experience, what they think, and how committed they are to your company. It is one of the most important metrics, and training your representatives on this subject will contribute to higher customer satisfaction. If you want to read more about customer satisfaction, you can check out our other blog posts.

Percentage of Blocked Calls

The percentage of blocked calls is the share of customers who get a busy tone when they call. If this percentage is too high, it means your agents are unable to help customers, and callers may feel ignored or neglected. This can create disappointed customers who don’t get the help they need. To prevent this, you should provide your representatives with the necessary training and check their proficiency levels. In addition, you should do your best to keep your operations under control.

Average Sales per Agent

The Average Sales per Agent metric measures the average total sales that agents close in a specified period. It helps you track the number of sales your team has closed and the rate at which you are meeting your goals, so your representatives’ targets stay clear.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we answered the question “What are call center metrics?” and examined the key metrics one by one. These metrics show what your call center contributes to your business and help you identify problems and gaps in your team and company, so you can build solutions based on them. Did you find this article helpful? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

If you’re still curious about call center metrics, you can read more on the subject.

Resource:

• https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/call-center-services