What are the most important Call Center Metrics?

As you can see from the other replies, yours is not a simple question to answer. I have been researching contact center performance for 5 years and the “right” performance metrics is a perennial question. You have to consider:
• What is right for your business and the type of center you are running
• Different metrics for different levels of users; execs need an entirely different view to say a manager/supervisor
• You need a balance of operational metrics (volume of calls handled) and business metrics (sales made) – I find many companies focus on the former whereas what is probably more important is the latter
• In the same way you need a balance of efficiency metrics (average call handling time) and effective(outcome) measures (first call resolution rates)
• You have to consider the data sources available from which you can extract data and thus metrics; many companies today look at structured data (CRM, ACD), call recordings (speech), text (forms, surveys, emails) and social media sources (Facebook, Twitter)
Not sure how you plan to produce your reports, dashboards, and analysis but one way to get an insight to what is achievable is to look at some of the specialist vendors and they will demonstrate the variety of metrics they can produce from just about any source.
Hope this helps

Michael put together a great list, but before going to that level of detail, I'd go one step further and step back to insure there's clarity on what the primary goal of the call center is. For instance, the broad strategic goal(s) could be something like:

* generate revenue (process orders, cross-sell, up-sell)
* maximize customer satisfaction
* provide a low cost of service
* maximize first-call resolution

There can and almost certainly is some level of tradeoffs between some of these goals - for instance, a low-cost service center would almost certainly NOT focus on the same set of metrics as a center intended to maximize revenue. Which metrics are 'most important' are very dependent upon these decisions being made in line with strategic organizational goals.

Once you've got this level of perspective in place, it becomes pretty straightforward to move to the next level of detail and a set of more specific, easily-measured (and benchmarked) metrics.

Hi there

Whilst it’s important to understand how long callers are having to wait and how many callers hang up, they shouldn’t be a target, nor should they be the key metrics used to measure the service.

Measures like this (and others such as call volumes – offered and answered, and calls answered or made per call handler) help call centre managers to manage resource in response to volume or need.

However, they miss the most crucial aspect of call centre measurement: they fail to address why people call and how well (or otherwise) the call centre responds to that call. More worryingly, such measures do not demonstrate calls that could have been prevented.

Be careful what you measure - it will impact on the service your call centre delivers, and not always for the better!

Alison

Be very careful on what you measure - all too often call centers measure the wrong things! For example measuring time to answer is not a good measure and will create dysfunctional behaviour in your team as they attempt to achieve this target.

Suggest you review this article to help you in finding out the secrets of high performing call centers: http://www.callcentre-services.co.uk/

In addition Alison makes a very good point please do not dismiss it!

Best of luck
:Laurence

Joey,
This is not a simple question to answer, but the input from your respondents is spot on. As technology enables customers access to more choices, companies are using call centers as a strategic tool in the customer life-cycle management process from acquisition, retention, loyalty and migration up the value-chain. With Senior Managements Call Center KPI's in mind, reverse engineer your call center management KPI's / Dashboard to not only track and measure these elements, but also provide capabilities to access easy-to-use tools (the UI) so management can make real-time business decisons.

Don't overlook existing "tools" and "capabilities" within your current software / hardware running in the center(s). Leverage your ACD / Network / CRM vendors to help you intergrate and build your dashboard and a set of robust analytics behind the dashboard.

In my opinion it is based upon the environment and customer expectations. For us we track Queue wait time, Abandoned Call %, Queue Time for Abandoned Calls, Response Times for all other interactions (email, self service portal and voice mail) and Percentage of Requests resolved by our Service Desk. Our customers view keeping the queue wait times under a minute as a top priority and have responded well to that driving our call volume from around 650 calls per month to well over 1000.

I’m in agreement with many of you on this discussion board. The fundamental metrics help in deriving performance metrics. Now, performance metrics as I see them, can be classified widely into the following categories -

1. Business Performance metrics – to align with your business goals
2. Operational performance metrics – to review how your operations are running to support / help achieve your business goals.
3. Individual / Agent performance metrics – to drive OPS performance metrics that would in turn help drive your business goals.

Business KPIs would be –
1. Revenue Per Unit and EBIDTA
2. NPS score (Net Promoter Score)
3. Churn rate ( should take into account SignUps and Cancellation rate)
4. Customer Loyalty ( note: this is different from Customer Satisfaction Score)

Operational Performance metrics would be –
1. Sales ( $ and % of contacts sold)
2. Customer Satisfaction (should capture customer’s experience with regard to FCR - First Contact Resolution
3. Quality Scores of support (should capture FTR - first time resolution.) QA Scores are derived metrics that reflect upon training and coaching. For what its worth, if you have a central training tool in place for your agents, tracking the training certification / pass rate will help but it is not an absolute necessity. Every training module should be set up to achieve the QA goals ultimately.
4. cost of operation (stable or reduction in cost of OPS is preferable)

Individual / Agent Performance metrics – should help track their bonus and PIP-
1. QA Scores – ability to track FTR via your audit form is an absolutely essential.
2. CSAT Scores
3. Productivity / Contact handling metrics such as such as agent utilization, efficiency, Paid Vs Productive hours, schedule adherence, attendance, # of contacts handle, log ratio, contact handle time (this is applicable for all channels of support - phone, tickets, chat), % on hold ( a very strong indicator for phone agents that could be derived from fundamental metrics such as AHT and Hold time. Note: this Hold time is the amount of time the agent puts the customer on hold, and not to be confused with wait time - the time the customer was on hold waiting in queue to speak to agent).
4. Sales metrics (if applicable) including # of Saves attempted by agents.
5. If you are in a manufacturing industry that ships parts to customers, it’d be worth measuring FDR – First Dispatch Resolution as that directly ties into your OPS metric – cost of operation.

Just my $0.02. Thank you all for a very thought stimulating discussion.
-Abi

For a high-level desktop dashboard: Service Level, number of calls in queue, longest wait time, number of agents signed on/available/talking. There are many other metrics that are excellent for review, but not so much in real time...depending on your particular business needs as mentioned above. Your phone vendor should have helped you out with real time views(Cisco, Aspect, Avaya or whoever provides your ACD). You may want to speak with them as well.

I work in a call center as a rep but have been a Team Lead and done metrics for my managers. Some of our metrics include: ATT, ACW (after call work), AHT (combo of ATT and ACW). Others that we have tracked are Service Levels, NCH (number of calls handled) (this can be done per phone split if you have different areas). Other options are Abandon Rate as a percentage, number of calls abandoned. The Abandon % will help give you an idea about your true Service Level as well.

Many metrics may/should come from DB's and sources in your compaany that are outside the Contact Center (AR, Billing, Service, Shipping, etc.) and not be just CTI/QA data.
Any of these could be needed on any call - always trying to get a "One and Done" result.
BUT looking at all of these in a dashboard CAN be a enormous task for your IT dept to set.
We have answer for that with Mashmatrix dashboard. If you want mor info - contact me at: salowey@live.com. We can chat i will be able to send you a demo and other details

The most important metrics in any service are the value add metrics and the non value add metrics.

So I need to understand what is the purpose of the service. Then I measure what delivers that purpose and what is waste.

AHT, ASA and all the usual suspects are simply what is easy to measure, throughput, or productivity of the sausage mill.

In statistical terms unless by Average you mean median then AHT makes no sense as your data are probably non normal. (I wont explain that here but send me a mail if you would like a fuller explaination).

In any case measuringthe productivity of a transactional process is driving all the wrong behaviours, shovel faster is not a good mindset when you are dealing with customers. If you can appreciate that a value add is one call (customer gets issues resolved at first contact) a NVA is at least two calls (customer calls back, gets escallated, gets a call back). Driving productivity in a NVA heavy environment leads to driving your waste, remember 2:1. So the more calls you take the more NVA etc. Why do you think companies have so many call centres? They are creating their own work.

Joey,

All of the above are acceptable answers without understanding the goals and objectives of the call center management team. Suggest asking them what they find is critical to quality within the center. Ensure the dashboard metrics reflect their feedback. One thing for certain, money will be a factor. At some point, be sure to correlate performance to dollars.

Good luck!

Jeff Ostapa
Director of Call Center Services
iServe Direct Commerce Services
www.iservedcs.com
jostapa@iservedcs.com
1-866-895-4379

Some of the metrics will depend on your business, however generic KPI's for the call center would include average handle time (AHT), staffing levels, service level, inbound/outbound call and abandoned volumes. I suggest also an actual to forecast comparison if you can get it. You also want a roll up of some type, either month to date, year to date, etc. There are sub-components of these that would include more granular statistics that will help you understand your center further. There would also be a different set of metrics for your infrastructure team to monitor, at the trunk level, for example, to ensure you are not having problems at the network level. HDI (Help Desk Institute) has a lot of great information on call/support centers. http://www.thinkhdi.com . They also have local chapters around the U.S. which hold monthly meetings about various topics, including KPIs.

Thank you

What HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL Didn’t Teach Me about Call Center Metrics -

Jeff Rumburg (Harvard Business School Graduate and Co-founder of MetricNet) recently co-authored a white paper with me, Eric Zbikowski, called The Five Most Important Performance Indicators for Customer Service Call Centers. The original abstract made the cover of the former Call Center Magazine and it was the feature article in Customer Management insight’s online magazine

See the white paper abstract below and GET YOUR FREE full length COPY HERE:
http://www.metricnet.com/whitepapers2.html

The Five Most Important Performance Indicators
for Customer Service Call Centers

***ARTICLE ABSTRACT / OVERVIEW***

Today’s call center technologies and reporting packages make it easy to capture copious amounts of performance data. Most call center managers can tell you everything from last month’s average speed of answer to yesterday’s average handle time. But what does it all mean? If my abandonment rate goes up, but my cost per call goes down, is that good or bad? Is my call center performing better this month than it was last month?

Despite all the data that call center managers have at their fingertips, most cannot answer a very basic question: How is my call center performing? Perhaps worse, many call center managers are unaware of the critical role – beyond mere measurement – that Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) can and should play in the call center. This includes the ability to track and trend performance, identify, diagnose, and correct performance problems, and to establish performance goals and assign accountability for achieving the goals.

An increasing number of progressive call centers recognize that when it comes to performance metrics, less really is more! They have discovered the 80/20 rule as it applies to call center performance measurement. These world-class call centers have learned that the effective application of just five KPI’s is all that is required for measuring, managing, and continuously improving their call center performance.

In this article, MetricNet (www.metricnet.com), a leading source of online benchmarks and a pioneer in call center benchmarking, identifies and defines the five most important performance metrics for customer support call centers. They provide benchmark ranges for these metrics, and offer a creative approach for combining these metrics into a single, all-inclusive measure of call center performance.

GET YOUR free FULL LENGTH COPY of this white paper HERE:
http://www.metricnet.com/whitepapers2.html

-Eric Z

I am of the opinion that the performance of any call center can be measured on the basic hygiene levels. If the basic hygiene is not met then any other performance metric added will not give the right results.
1. Services levels- this will give you an insight to is the call pattern standard or do we have any variations in call volumes, are we short of manpower of is the roster in accurate i.e. are people logging in at off peak hours.
2. AHT- high AHT will always hamper your service levels.
3. Short call percentage- are agents disconnecting calls, or do we have any technical fault that calls are being picked up but getting disconnected within first 10 -20 second. This will generate repeat call.
4. Quality- the call quality of agent will give you perspective of how would be the experience of the customer.
5. FCR percentage- will help you in understanding how many customers got the solution for the day.
Other than that if you have sales process then daily sales on dashboard will also give you a comparison of where you stand in terms of your daily and monthly targets.
However if you are meeting your basis hygiene levels then it totally depends on your improvement focus areas. There is always a scope of improvement in any process hence which ever factor you feel requires focus can be taken up in the metrics and the performance can be tracked.

When we talk about inbound call center performance indicators that intrest the high level management is the TSF means "Telephone Service Factor" it gives an holistic view on the KPI's mentioned above by others such as wait time, nos of calls, Average speed of answer, abandon rate,cost per call and on the other end, FCR, and call handling quality figures are also added, TSF can be derived from any telephony solution such as Cisco,Avaya,Aspect,Lucent,etc, the international standard are set on 90% and call centers are given a target by the management in order to acheive 90%, in fact the staffing is also done on a three standard deviation methord with is linked with the TSF, so it becomes easy for the management to decide which area needs to be improved, lets say if the TSF is going down that means, they have to look at the staffing issue, or unexpected increased number of calls coming in,or service issues or system issues such as IVR may not work in peak hours or your trunk is getting packed.

I shout think the first one is Customer Delight Index. How satiified are your customers? AHTs, FCR all contribute to the above

The “Most Important” Call Center Metrics for you will depend on the primary focus of your specific Contact Center.

If your primary focus is on Cost Containment – and if you operate your Call Center as a “Cost Center” - then Average Speed of Answer (ASA), Average Handle Time (AHT), and Maximizing Calls per Agent per Hour are typically emphasized as the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In order to maximize ASA and minimize AHT, Agents are usually required to rigorously follow a script. A tightly-scripted Call Center environment is also sometimes determined by an Industry Sector: such as Financial Services/Insurance/Healthcare - or by a Client’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) for an Outsourcer.

An unscripted Call Center environment is typically found - and should be encouraged - when you operate your Call Center as a “Profit Center” - where the key KPIs are usually Customer Satisfaction and First Call Resolution (FCR). That’s not to say that an unscripted Call Center environment shouldn’t employ training aids/general ideas/key phrases. Ideally these should form a framework of points upon which an Agent drapes their own personality and phraseology.

It’s all about the quality of the ‘Humanware’ you deploy in your Contact Center to begin with.

Scripted and unscripted call handling are discrete and different pursuits - requiring separate Personality/Job-Fit/Temperament Factors. Someone with the Intellect & ‘Verbal Artistry’ to serve a caller in an unscripted fashion is rarely a good fit for a tightly-scripted Call Center environment. Equally – it is rare for someone who performs well in a tightly-scripted Call Center to successfully make the transition to unscripted caller interactions. Few people possess the ability to work successfully long-term in both a scripted and unscripted Call Center.

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A company called Outbound Excellence has developed a Dashboard Panel of over 100 Key Dashboard metric reports - these processes were all developed through a Lean 6 Sigma process methodology - it's worth a look - here's the link: http://salestransformationtoolkit.com/Top_100_Sales_Growth_Tools.htm