Call centers are constantly looking to be more productive. Higher productivity translates to better customer service and increased profits. One of the most significant factors that influences the productivity of your call center is your agents. Happy and motivated agents can excel at customer service and achieve call center productivity goals; however, when agents are overwhelmed or disinterested, productivity plummets.
The good news is that there are many ways to improve the happiness and motivation of your call center agents, which will ultimately lead to improved productivity. One way is to use KPIs that measure and monitor employees’ satisfaction with their jobs. This can be done by assessing employee satisfaction metrics (ESS) like job security and promotional opportunities and monitoring customer service metrics that gauge agent performance.
Identifying your business’s best call center metrics starts by aligning them with your company’s goals and objectives. You can then select the metrics that most directly measure your progress toward these goals. Some of the most common call center metrics include Average Handling Rate (AHR), First Call Resolution (FCR), Service Level, and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score.
AHR measures customers’ average time on each phone call with an agent. This metric is crucial for contact centers that receive high volumes of calls, and it can help managers optimize staffing and reduce call volume by keeping agent handling times as low as possible.
Another helpful metric is Average Wait Time, which shows the average length of time that a customer spends waiting on hold before they speak to an agent. Having this metric can help companies assess how long customers are willing to wait on the phone and how they communicate those wait times to their consumers.
Abandonment Call Rate is a crucial metric for call centers to understand, as it helps them identify and address issues that cause their customers to abandon a phone call. This is often a result of having a high call volume or insufficient agent resources to handle it, which can be addressed by monitoring and training agents to respond appropriately to customers’ needs.
Businesses also track Occupancy Rate, which shows the percentage of an agent’s shift working on calls versus performing other administrative tasks. This metric helps to identify peak and lull periods for the call center, which can help plan staffing requirements and adjust agent schedules. Lastly, call centers need to know how many products their agents sell daily, which can be measured through Productive Calls Per Agent (PCPA). This metric will help businesses assess whether they are achieving their sales targets and if any areas need improvement.
