USA Voice & Data broad carrier relationships provide access to the most competitive pricing for voice services of every nature, including call centers. But how do you track the efficiency and competency of your call center?
Here, USA Voice & Data partner Evolve IP lists 10 KPIs to efficiently monitor and track performance of your call center…
‘Measuring the efficiency of a call center is critical for success. It is difficult to assess this without having a handle on how satisfied customers are with the service or having a measure of the waiting period before calls are answered.
There are many Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can be used to measure the efficiency of your call center. In reality, no single KPI can guarantee performance and they all have to be considered collectively to arrive at operational guidelines and fix issues that affect call center efficiency. Here is a list of KPIs that are most important to track how well your call center is doing:
1. Customer Satisfaction
This KPI is one of the most important to measure as it provides you with an assessment of your call center’s performance from the people who count most, your clients. Customer surveys can be used to collect this data and may include questions to rate call resolution, call quality and speed to answer. First contact resolution is a critical metric that measures the extent of knowledge and competency of your call center agents. If customers are being put on hold or rerouted for query resolution, it impacts customer satisfaction negatively and may indicate that your agents need more training.
2. Active and Waiting Calls
Agents need to resolve calls efficiently to reduce the waiting period for customers. However, speed should not compromise the quality of customer service and agents must ensure that queries are
answered to the client’s satisfaction. This KPI measures the ratio of active calls compared to the number of callers waiting in line. A disproportionately high number of waiting calls may indicate that you need to employ more call center agents.
3. First Call Resolution
Your call center’s objectives should be to answer and resolve calls as quickly as possible while delivering quality service. This KPI measures how well calls are being handled by your agents to resolve issues.
While first call resolution is always the main objective, it is not always possible and some issues may need several calls to resolve. Unresolved issues always raise a red flag and need further investigation. A high percentage of customer issues resolved on first contact and a low percentage of unresolved issues will show a successful call center.
4. Average Resolution Time
The Average Resolution Time measures the average time spent on each call. This KPI can be used to assess the performance of each agent and the overall efficiency of your call center. A call center dashboard can be programmed to measure this KPI. It will help you to track this and many other metrics to help you reduce handling times, increase productivity and improve the efficiency of your customer service.
5. Percentage of Blocked Calls
This is a critical KPI that measures the number of calls that receive a busy tone when customers call. It is essential that this metric is given the highest attention because every blocked call represents a missed marketing opportunity. If a potential customer’s call is blocked, they may take their business elsewhere. Blocked calls could be a sign that your call center is inadequately staffed. However, it must be viewed along with other KPIs such as call length, which may indicate that the problem lies in inadequately trained agents.
6. On Hold Time
No one likes to be kept holding on a call and the On Hold Time could seriously affect your business. Sometimes, putting calls on hold is unavoidable but this KPI will give you an overview of the average amount of time your callers are waiting to speak to an agent. Most customers expect to spend a reasonable time on hold before their call is answered by an agent, but if it is too long customers are likely to drop the call and go elsewhere to resolve their issues. Once again, a high On Hold Time could either indicate a shortage of agents or that agents need further training to speed up their service.
Queue Callback is an excellent feature, offered by Evolve IP, that alleviates this stress on call centers. In an effort to avoid wait time or callers sitting on hold, the platform confirms the caller’s number and then enters them into a queue to be called back as soon as an agent becomes available.
7. Call Abandonment Rate
This metric shows how often calls are connected but there is no agent available to take the call. Call centers should not have a Call Abandonment Rate above three percent. Any abandoned call has a negative effect on customer satisfaction and can have a huge impact on the viability of your call center if allowed to get out of control. It is vital that you track this KPI to ensure it stays within acceptable limits.
8. Agent Turnover Rate
Every call center manager needs to track this metric over time. This KPI shows the number of agents who have resigned from the position or left the company for some other reason. A closer analysis may reveal problems in the workplace that are causing a high agent turnover rate and enable management to resolve any issues. A high agent turnover affects customer satisfaction significantly. It also has anegative impact on team morale. In addition, it will affect the call center’s profitability because money has to be spent each time a new agent has to be trained.
Check out our article on Top Qualities of a Successful Call Center Agent.
9. Call Scoring
Call Scoring is a great way for management to assess the performance of individual agents and address any problems that come up. This is done by asking customers to complete a short telephonic
questionnaire after the call to rate the agent’s performance. This presents call center managers with an opportunity to identify areas to improve agent productivity and efficiency. It also identifies those agents who may need additional training to meet the required standards.
10. After Call Work Time
In most call centers, agents are required to do some administrative work after completion of a call. This is usually stipulated by call center management and assists with the administration of the facility. This KPI will give managers an indication of the time taken by individual agents between the completion of one call and handling the next. It provides them with another opportunity to address any issues that affect agent efficiency.
Conclusion
These are just some of the KPIs which can be used to measure call center efficiency. There are many more that have the capacity to tell you how well your call center is performing. They also highlight any problem areas and present an opportunity to improve your team’s efficiency and performance at an individual agent level.’
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