Complete guide to call center metrics

Contact centers today rely more and more on data to understand and manage their operations and the performance of their agents. A modern-day call center software provides you with an ever growing number of indicators that can be the decisive factor between success and failure.

Call Center Metrics & ReportingCloud Contact Center SoftwareOutbound Sales
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Looking for a metric that could take your call center to new heights? Browse through our comprehensive, alphabetical list to find what you are missing.

Lead your contact center with data

Contact centers today rely more and more on data to understand and manage their operations and the performance of their agents. A modern-day call center software provides you with an ever-growing number of indicators that can be the decisive factor between success and failure.

To help you pick the right metrics and to optimize your operations, we’ve gathered a comprehensive, alphabetical glossary of the most common call center metrics.

Did we miss something? Contact us at marketing@leaddesk.com

List of call center metrics in alphabetic order:

You can click on KPI to jump directly to more info.

Active waiting calls | Adherence to scheduleAdvisor satisfactionAgent churn rateAgent utilization rateAverage after-call work timeAverage age of queryAverage call durationAverage call transfer rateAverage caller hold time while on the phone with an agentAverage handle timeAverage speed of answerAverage talk timeCall abandonment rateCall arrival rateCall attemptsCall availability | Call efficiency | Call emotion | Callback messagingCalls answered per hourCalls handledCalls per hourCase volumeChannel mix | Contact loadContact qualityContact rateConversion funnel progressionConversion rateCost per callCost per minute of callingCustomer effortCustomer issues | Customer satisfaction score | Downtime | First call close | First call resolution | First response time | Hit rate | Hold time | In-call abandonment rate | Inbound call volume | Longest call hold/wait time | Missed phone calls | Net Promoter Score | Occupancy rate | Peak hour traffic | Percentage of calls blocked | Preview time | Profit per call | Repeat calls | Revenue per call | Right party contact | Sales/resolutions per agent | Sales/resolutions per team | Self-service accessibility | Service levelSuccess rate | Transfer rate | Wrap-up time

Active waiting calls

Definition: A real-time metric that indicates the number of callers waiting in queue to get through to an agent.

Why is it important: This an important indicator of the workload of your agents. It also has a significant effect on other critical metrics, such as response time and abandonment rate.

How to improve: Ensure that you have the right number of agents and coach your agents to work more efficiently while maintaining quality service.

 

Adherence to schedule

Definition: The percentage of time the agent focuses on customers versus the time they are unavailable during a shift. Adherence includes calls, wrap-up and other work-related activities such as meetings and training.

Why is it important: Staff costs are the biggest expense at call centers.

How to improve: Workforce management software’s offer forecasting, scheduling and other features that help you optimize your workforce resources. You should also train your agents the skills necessary to work efficiently. Usually an 85% adherence rate is considered good.

 

Advisor satisfaction

Definition: Advisor satisfaction indicates the happiness and overall spirit of your team.

Why is it important: A happy and motivated employee is an efficient employee.

How is it measured: Conduct surveys every three or four months to assess employee happiness. Different surveys for different stages of an agents career is recommended. Consider these stages for example:

  • Induction
  • Training
  • Organizational change
  • Exit interviews

 

Agent churn rate

Definition: The percentage of your agents who have left your company in a specific period of time.

Why is it important: Hiring and training new agents is one of the biggest costs at contact centers.

How to improve: Though there is great variation, a 20–30 % agent churn rate could be considered normal. If your churn rate is higher, consider these:

  • The agents have too much or too little to do. Check your occupancy rate.
  • You are paying the agents too little or agents are not succeeding in earning commission. Exit interviews are a good way of finding out the reasons people leave.
  • Mismanagement where people are treated badly or managed too eagerly or leniently.

How is it measured: Take the number of people who left, divide it with the average employee number and multiply by 100.

 

Agent utilization rate

Definition: The percentage of time an agent is productive. This includes inbound and outbound calls and other work related to serving the customers. Also called occupancy rate.

Why is it important: The productivity of a call center is dependent on the effectiveness of the work force. Also, you don’t want to risk agent boredom or overworking the staff.

How to improve: The industry standard is a rate between 75% and 85%. This combats boredom and minimizes mistakes made in a hurry. Try different staffing solutions and schedules to optimize the rate.

 

Average after-call work time

Definition: The time between the caller hanging up and the agent being able to take a new call. Sometimes the terms ‘wrap-up’ and ‘post call processing’ (PCP) are used.

Why is it important: Long after-call work times lower your agents’ utilization rate, which makes them less productive.

How to improve: Have effective wrap-up templates, remove futile steps in the process and support your agents with training.

 

Average age of query

Definition: If a query can’t be resolved in the first call, the average age of query indicates the time an average case stays open before it’s resolved.

Why is it important: Along with first call resolution, average age of query indicates your call center’s efficiency in serving the customers.

How to improve: Have people available for more complex cases that can’t be resolved in the first call.

 

Average call duration

Definition: The average duration of calls during a specific period.

Why is it important: Call length data enables you to manage the expectations and workload of your team.

How to improve: Training your agents gives them tools to solve problems efficiently.

 

Average call transfer rate

Definition: The percentage of calls that get transferred from one agent to another during the customer service process.

Why is it important: Transferring the customer to another agent takes time and lowers the productivity of your call center. The customer is looking for high-quality service and a speedy resolution.

How to improve: The training you provide to your agents should enable them to solve most calls. Make sure you provide the customer a smooth transition to another agent in more complex cases.

 

Average caller hold time while on the phone with an agent

Definition: Agents sometimes have to put callers on hold to check their information or speak to a supervisor. This is also known as hold time.

Why is it important: No customer wants their time wasted and long times on hold typically make them feel unappreciated.

How to improve: Ineffective software or below-par agent performance can have a bad effect on this metrics. Make sure that your technology is modern and agents are well-trained.

Average handle time

Definition: The time it takes an agent to pick up the call, resolve the customer’s issue and do the wrap-up work. Average handling time (AHT) includes the time the customer is on hold and the updates and notes that have to be inserted into their contact details.

Why is it important: You should aim for a perfect balance between high-quality service and agent productivity. The customer is searching for a solution, so speed alone isn’t enough. The ratio between average talk time and average handle time can reveal problems in the wrap-up or resolution process.

How to improve: If your agents rush through their customers, customer experience suffers. On the other hand, spending excess time with a customer gives no extra value and can increase the waiting times of other customers.

 

Average speed of answer

Definition: Average speed of answer (ASA) is a critical metric that indicates the average time a customer has to wait before an agent can answer a call.

Why is it important: The customer is looking for a quick solution to their problem. Being as accessible as possible is important for good customer service.

How to improve: Coaching and motivation guarantee agents know the standard expectations for this KPI. Inadequate tools may lower the efficiency of a call center considerably.

 

Average talk time

Definition: The average time the agent actually talks to the customer. Similar to average handle time, but excludes the pre-call preparation, time on hold and wrap-up.

Why is it important: The ratio of average handle time and average talk time can be revealing. If average talk time is short but handle time long, either customers are having to spend a long time on hold or your agent’s wrap-up process is slow.

How to improve: If your agents rush through their customers, customer experience suffers. On the other hand, spending excess time with a customer gives no extra value and can increase the waiting times of other customers.

 

Call abandonment rate

Definition: Call abandonment rate (CAR) indicates the percentage of calls where a customer hangs up the phone or abandons a chat session before being connected to or receiving an answer from an agent.

Why is it important: Getting in contact with a service provider significantly increases customer loyalty. Making it easy for the customer to reach you through various different channels also increases the number of interactions, which easily leads to poor customer service. If the abandonment rate is high, customers can switch to another service provider.

How to improve: Check that your agents are not overworked. Also, make sure that you have the right agent balance between callers and chat sessions.

 

Call arrival rate

Definition: The average number of incoming calls during a specific period.

Why is it important: Having a good understanding of the number of incoming calls during different hours gives you the possibility to organize your workforce to meet the demands 24/7.

How to improve: Depending on the size of your call center, try to find the perfect intervals to monitor, so you get the information you need without fruitless extra effort.

 

Call attempts

Definition: The number of calls an outbound agent has to make to reach a specific prospect.

Why is it important: Agents often have to make several calls to reach the person they are looking for. The prospect may be busy with another call, they may deny the call or not answer at all.

How to improve: A good contact list is the key to reaching the prospects. It’s vital to have enough background information to know when to reach a person. For example, calling a school teacher during office hours might not be the best idea.

 

Call availability

Definition: Indicates the time your agent is ready to answer a call vs. the time they are busy with customers or otherwise engaged.

Why is it important: Along with monitoring agent performance, this indicator helps you organize your staff. You need to know when your agents are busy and when they aren’t.

How to improve: Be sure to have the right number of agents working on each shift.

 

Call efficiency

Definition: Call efficiency is at the same time an essential and vague metric that indicates the number of successful contacts during a period.

Why is it important: Agents are compared statistically and often the numbers are an indicator of success. You can always measure the number of scheduled demo calls or appointments and closed sales, but in inbound calls the matter is more complicated, as the needs of the customer vary.

How to improve: Analyse transcripts of successful calls or listen to recordings to determine patterns of success and failure. Be careful not to focus completely on numbers, as sometimes quality beats quantity.

 

Call emotion

Definition: The rating your agents give for each call.

Why should you care: Agent satisfaction affects agent churn and customer service quality.

Why is it important: Are your agents bored or overworked? Have you offered them incentives and motivated them to do well? Are the teams working together or is every agent working only for themselves?

How is it measured: Have a quick one-click poll at the end of each call to see how your agent has reviewed the contact.

 

Callback messaging

Definition: If you have a callback option available, you can monitor the number of callbacks and the average time it takes to complete a callback.

Why is it important: The ideal way to serve a customer is to handle their case when they call and keep callbacks to a minimum. The least you can do is to make sure you call back quickly.

How to improve: Ensure adequate staffing in order to handle callbacks or, even better, avoid the need of the call back in the first place.

 

Calls answered per hour

Definition: The number of inbound calls answered in an hour.

Why is it important: This metric generally indicates productivity. Just keep in mind that seasonal trends, shift changes and many other factors have on effect on the number of answered calls.

How to improve: Ensure that you have the optimal number of agents working at a given time and that technology is not preventing you from receiving calls.

 

Calls handled

Definition: All calls handled by an agent during a specific time period, not including abandoned calls.

Why is it important: Like calls answered per hour, this metric generally indicates productivity. Just keep in mind that seasonal trends, shift changes and many other factors have on effect on the number of answered calls.

How to improve: You should ensure your agents have access to proper training and high-quality software.

How is it measured: If you are using an interactive voice response (IVR), it is useful to separate those calls from the calls handled by agents.

 

Calls per hour

Definition: The number of outbound calls made by an agent in an hour.

Why is it important: An important metric in giving an overall picture of an agent’s efficiency.

How to improve: Make sure that your agents know what they are doing and they have the best possible tools for the job. However, a high number of calls doesn’t always equal efficiency. The quality of your contact lists makes a difference, and you have to pay attention to other metrics, such as contact rate and average talk time, to get a better understanding of the process.

 

Case volume

Definition: The number of calls or cases an agent takes during a shift. Contact centers usually have a daily quota that agents are expected to reach.

Why is it important: Case volume is a key indicator in assessing agent efficiency.

How to improve: You should train your agents to recognize the moment in a call when they can no longer offer better customer service. You should also motivate them to reach their daily quotas.

 

Channel mix

Definition: Indicates the percentage of the various channels that incoming support tickets arrive through. The most widely used channels are voice, chat, email, web, walk-up and self-help.

Why is it important: Various channels have different costs and different customer segments. Due to costs and the fact that younger customers prefer self-help or chat to live voice, the dominance of live voice in customer service is decreasing.

How to improve: Make sure all the channels you use are of high quality, since an inefficient channel ends up costing you extra without relieving the pressure.

Don’t force a customer to a specific channel. Rather use incentives and teach the customer to use the low-cost channels. Adding a wait time message to your voice channel and providing easy access to chat, email or self-help can encourage the customer to adopt new low-cost channels.

 

Contact load

Definition: The number of calls your agent makes or receives in a day.

Why is it important: Being aware of contact load helps in staffing and thus running an efficient contact center.

 

Contact quality

Definition: A qualitative review of the call center’s courtesy, professionalism, accuracy and data acquisition skills.

Why is it important: You should aim to offer a standardized quality of service for all customers. The qualitative reviews help identify the areas where improvements are needed.

How to improve: Have a quality control specialist review your call center.

 

Contact rate

Definition: The percentage of answered calls compared with outbound calls made.

Why is it important: If no one answers your calls, your efficiency suffers.

How to improve: Be sure to have high-quality contact lists at your agents’ disposal. Do market research to find the perfect segments and timetables for the calls.

 

Conversion funnel progression

Definition: Instead of measuring indicators like calls per hour, you can concentrate on the actual results by measuring the parts of the conversion funnel. Split the process to individual parts that each have their specific goal.

Why is it important: All conversions aren’t alike. Often a simple sale on the first call is the best goal. Sometimes the process is more complex and you have to settle for smaller goals, such as setting an appointment or booking a demo, to get closer to finalizing the deal.

In complex cases, customer service agents can also split the process to smaller separate units to avoid keeping the customer on hold. This approach requires transparency and good communication skills.

How to improve: Define realistic goals for each campaign and case. Set goals that take the process forward efficiently.

 

Conversion rate

Definition: The percentage of calls that reach the goal that is set for the campaign. Depending on the campaign, the goal can be a sale, setting up an appointment, a donation etc. Similar to success rate.

Why is it important: Having a high conversion rate is vital for every outbound operation, as it has an impact on revenue.

How to improve: You can train your agents and ensure their pitches are up-to-date and effective. Using a CRM enables you to build sales funnels that improve your conversion rate.

Cost per call

Definition: A key metric that indicates the average cost of a call at a contact center.

Why is it important: Cost per call is especially useful in analyzing expenses and efficiency in outbound campaigns where a campaign usually has a clearly defined goal. Remember that this doesn’t give you information about the success rate, only the cost.

How to improve: Software and agent training have a big effect on cost per call.

 

Cost per minute of calling

Definition: Similar to cost per call, but emphasizes the actual time spent.

Why is it important: You get a quick overview of your expenses. Remember that this doesn’t give you information about the success rate, only the cost.

How to improve: Software and agent training have a big effect on call cost.

 

Customer effort

Definition: Indicates customer satisfaction by asking the customers how much effort they had to put in to get a solution to their problem.

Why is it important: If your customer service requires a lot of energy to deal with, the customer is rarely happy.

How to improve: The overall performance and key areas, such as training and tools, of the contact center have a direct link to how much customer effort is required to get a problem solved.

 

 

Customer issues

Definition: Categorizing your customers’ problems with your product. You can also reverse the process to analyze your agents’ outbound problems. What are the factors on your product that customers are hesitant about?

Why is it important: Collecting customer and agent issues and analyzing them gives you a good overview of your overall customer experience. Decreasing the number of customers that require help makes your company more efficient.

How to improve: Analyse the most common problems and escalate them to for example your product development team. You can do the same for outbound calls by getting the sales team together to tackle the most common problems.

 

Customer satisfaction score

Definition: Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a widely used customer experience metric that indicates how satisfied the customer is with a company’s product or service.

Why is it important: Satisfied customers stay with the company.

How is it measured: Most customer experience experts believe that having a scale from 1 to 5 and only concentrating on the ones who give the value of 4 (satisfied) or 5 (very satisfied) is the best way to accurately predict customer retention.

 

Downtime

Definition: The time your software is down or offline due to a malfunction.

Why is it important: In just one minute, a large contact center can miss hundreds of calls if their systems are down.

How to improve: Compare average down times between software vendors, invest in modern software and let the service provider know as soon as possible when errors occur.

How is it measured: If you are trying to find out only technical failures, remember to exclude normal reasons for downtime: fire drills, training etc.

 

First call close

Definition: The percentage of sales made on the first call.

Why is it important: This depends. In B2C the aim is often to get the customer to buy the service or product as soon as possible. In B2B, however, deals are very seldom struck during the first call.

How to improve: Share the best sales tactics and scripts and train your staff well.

 

First call resolution

Definition: The percentage of problems that are solved on the first call. First call resolution (FCR) is a key indicator of the quality of customer service.

Why is it important: Having a good rate indicates customer satisfaction and reduces repeat calls.

How to improve: The overall performance and key areas, such as training and tools, of the contact center have a direct link to how many problems get solved during the first call.

How is it measured: You have to make a choice whether you concentrate on the total number of calls or the total number of first time calls. Make sure your staff knows how to interpret the figures, as the two are not comparable.

 

First response time

Definition: Very much like average speed of answer (ASA), first response time indicates how long a customer has to wait before being patched through to an agent the first time they make contact.

Why is it important: The customer is looking for a quick solution to their problem. Being as accessible as possible is important for good customer service.

How to improve: Coaching and motivation guarantee agents know the standard expectations for this KPI. Inadequate tools may lower the efficiency of a call center considerably.

 

Hit rate

Definition: The percentage of successful calls versus the customers who won’t be called again during a campaign.

Why is it important: This indicator gives good insight on agent efficiency, contact list quality and the potential of the campaign.

How to improve: Comparing campaigns enables you to import the successful ingredients from one campaign to another. Also, a low hit rate might signal that your agents need more training or your contact list is not good enough.

 

Hold time

Definition: Agents sometimes have to put callers on hold to check their information or speak to a supervisor. Hold time is the number that expresses the duration spent on hold.

Why is it important: A customer doesn’t want their time wasted and long times on hold may make them feel unappreciated. An AT&T survey stated that the average on-hold time for a caller to hang up is less than two minutes!

How to improve: Ineffective systems or agent performance can have a bad effect on this call center KPI.

 

In-call abandonment rate

Definition: The percentage of customers who don’t feel the agent is able to provide a solution to their problem and decide to hang up. Also applicable to outbound, when a customer is not convinced with the service or product offered and ends the call.

Why is it important: Analyzing abandoned calls is vital if you want to improve your customer service or hit rate.

How to improve: Is there something the agent should have known or a training that could benefit the whole company? Could a different tone of voice work better? In outbound, the problem is often bad contact lists.

 

Inbound call volume

Definition: The mother of all call center metrics, as it indicates the total number of incoming calls and is the basis for many metrics.

Why is it important: By analyzing inbound call volume you get a better understanding of monthly fluctuations and trends. You can also get a rough overview of an individual agent’s performance. Remember that not all incoming calls are equal, so you should only use this metric as a starting point for a more careful analysis.

 

Longest call hold/wait time

Definition: The longest time a customer has waited on hold before getting to speak to an agent.

Why is it important: Being on hold is one of the biggest reasons for customer dissatisfaction.

How to improve: If there is an unusually long hold time, you should analyze the inbound call volume during that shift and decide if the staffing was on point.

 

Missed phone calls

Definition: The number of calls where a customer couldn’t reach an agent.

Why is it important: If you ignore this KPI, you’ll end up losing customers. Not reaching a service provider is one of the biggest reasons for customer churn. Telux HD’s Jessica Lalic claimed in 2016 that the average cost of a missed customer call in the UK was 1,230 pounds or 1,450 euros.

https://teluxhd.com/the-hard-hitting-impact-of-missed-calls-for-uk-smes/

How to improve: Staffing is key: you should be familiar with the peak hours and months in your industry. Try call routing to ensure that agents are utilized efficiently.

 

Net Promoter Score

Definition: Net Promoter Score (NPS) helps measure customer loyalty and satisfaction. Based on a straightforward question: “How likely is it that you would recommend company X to a friend or colleague?”

Why is it important: Not only does NPS measure loyalty and satisfaction, but also the likelihood of someone promoting your brand.

How is it measured: A scale from 0 to 10 is used, and the responses are divided into three categories: promoters (9–10), passives (7–8) and detractors (0–6). When you subtract the percentage of customers who are detractors from the percentage of promoters, you get the Net Promoter Score, which can be either negative or positive. The passives only increase the total number of respondents and bring the score closer to zero. You should consider a Net Promoter Score of anything above zero good, +50 excellent and +70 exceptional.

 

Occupancy rate

Definition: The percentage of time an agent is productive. This includes inbound and outbound calls and other work related to serving the customers. Also called agent utilization rate.

Why is it important: The productivity of a call center is dependent on the effectiveness of the work force. Also, you don’t want to risk agent boredom or overworking the staff.

How to improve: The industry standard is that the rate should be between 75% and 85% to avoid agent boredom or mistakes made in a hurry. Try different staffing solutions and schedules to change the rate.

 

Peak hour traffic

Definition: The time when your call center is at its busiest.

Why is it important: To avoid missed calls and long hold times, you should be aware of your peak hours, weeks and months.

How to improve: Analyze the peak hours and slow periods and do optimal staffing and scheduling respectively.

 

Percentage of calls blocked

Definition: The percentage of callers who are put on hold when they call.

Why is it important: This metric should be very low for call centers, as customers are more likely to leave companies they can’t reach.

How to improve: Check the software you use is up to the task. Also, if call lengths are longer than they should be, you should train your agents.

 

Preview time

Definition: The time an agent takes to prepare for a call. This can include thinking about the strategic approach to use or going through information on a lead.

Why is it important: You certainly want your agents to be prepared for calls, as they then have a better chance to succeed. On the other hand, efficiency is important, so preview times should be reasonable.

How to improve: Use good contact lists with up-to-date customer records and have a good software that makes it easy to access the information.

 

Profit per call

Definition: When you have a comprehensive set of cost and revenue metrics at your disposal, you can calculate the average cost or revenue for different types of calls.

Why is it important: First of all, this is a strong indicator of the profitability of your business in general. Also, it enables you to analyze the different operations or campaigns separately to understand which of them are profitable.

How to improve: Strategic organizational changes, agent training and cutting-edge software are some aspects you should consider if profitability is low.

 

Repeat calls

Definition: Repeat call rate is linked to first call resolution, as it measures the percentage of customers who have to call more than once to get their problem resolved.

Why is it important: The customer is more satisfied with first call resolution than having to call repeatedly. It’s also an important factor for call center efficiency, as repeat calls are costly.

How to improve: When first call resolution is not possible, you should analyze the typical reasons for repeat calls. This way you can give feedback straight to the company’s communications or product development team. You can also train your agents to offer self-service options and respond efficiently to the most frequently asked questions.

 

Revenue per call

Definition: A key indicator that tells how much revenue rolls in per call.

Why is it important: In order to calculate ROI, you need to know the cost and revenue per call.

How to improve: Set realistic but ambitious targets and offer incentives to drive agent performance. Remember that fluctuations are normal and all campaigns different. Concentrate on the meaningful changes that offer information on the structural changes needed at your call center.

How is it measured: Total revenue divided by total number of calls.

 

Right party contact

Definition: As opposed to contact rate, right party contact indicates the percentage of calls where the agent actually gets to speak to the person they were trying to reach. This KPI excludes the calls where the call is answered, but there is no business opportunity as the person reached was not the right decision maker.

Why is it important: Reaching the right person, in the right place, at the right time is the best case scenario for outbound business. If you really want to test the accuracy of a contact list you are using, you should pay attention to the percentage of calls where the right person was reached.

How to improve:

  • Use your software to weed out non-contacts.
  • Know when to reach your customer. Be sure to have a call log where the agent indicates if they have reached the decision maker.

 

Sales/resolutions per agent

Definition: Outbound sales or inbound customer service resolutions made by an agent during a time period or campaign.

Why is it important: Agent performance is key in call center success. It also enables you to offer training to those in need and to reward those who perform well.

How to improve: In order to do well, an agent needs a good contact list, training and a high-quality software.

How is it measured: When assessing agent performance, remember to consider whether the contact lists and results are comparable.

 

Sales/resolutions per team

Definition: Instead of concentrating on a single agent, this metric measures the sales or resolutions achieved by a team.

Why is it important: Having your agents work as a team where they help each other perform well is often more efficient than having all agents work towards individual goals.

How to improve: Experimentation is the key. Try to find a balance where your agents can both work with leads that support their strengths and work with colleagues that complement their weaknesses. You should also offer incentives for good teamwork.

 

Self-service accessibility

Definition: Indicates how easy and helpful your self-service options, such as IVR, app or website, are.

Why is it important: When your self-service channels work well, the burden on your agents decreases. But if the channels are unhelpful, your agents will have to deal with a frustrated group of customers, who weren’t supposed to call in the first place.

How to improve: Make your self-support channels as easy to use and informative as possible.

How is it measured:

  • Customer surveys
  • Rate of callers who aborted their session in the IVR and didn’t call back
  • Rate of callers who requested to speak to an agent while dealing with the IVR
  • Analytics tools indicate if the users reach a solution through the self-service channels.

 

Service level

Definition: Service level is a broad term used to give an overview of call center quality. The problem is that there are many ways you can calculate it.

Why is it important: Service level is one of the core areas, where every successful call center should aim to excel.

How is it measured: Call centers often evaluate their service level by calculating the percentage of calls in which the customer reaches an agent inside a set time frame. This, however, only gets you so far, as what happens during the call remains a mystery. You should also use other metrics, such as customer surveys or in-call abandonment rate, to give yourself a better general view of your operation.

 

Success rate

Definition: The percentage of successful interactions. Success can, of course, be defined in a number of ways depending on the campaign. See also conversion rate.

Why is it important: Whatever your agents do, there must be metrics in place to analyze their performance and improve the areas that require attention. Remember that focusing only on sales and revenue can be short-sighted, as scheduling appointments or conducting surveys can have a strong long-term impact.

How to improve: You can train your agents and ensure their pitches are up-to-date and effective. Using a CRM enables you to build sales funnels that improve your success rate.

 

Transfer rate

Definition: Indicates the percentage of calls that get transferred from the first-contact agent to someone else.

Why is it important: Customers want their issue solved in a quick and simple manner and transferring them from one agent to another is a proven way to decrease customer satisfaction.

How to improve: In addition to agent training and quality software, the agent has to have some degree of authority to perform actions without everything going through a supervisor. Transfers are an inevitable part of a call center operation, but keeping them to a minimum results in better customer satisfaction.

 

Wrap-up time

Definition: The time an agent spends on a customer after the call has ended. It can include matters like taking notes or updating customer information in the CRM. See also average after call work time.

Why is it important: The wrap-up should be done well, as the call center should always have up-to-date information on their customers. Efficiency, however, is the key to successful call center business, so the wrap-up time can’t be too long.

How to improve: You should allocate sufficient time for wrap-up and provide good software that makes it easy and fast.

 

Conclusion

There you go, a complete list of all call center metrics you might need and want to follow in your business. Be considerate though, usually focusing on only a few metrics is enough. Check out these blog posts for some ideas on what matters the most in both inbound and outbound.

5 Inbound Metrics to Make a Contact Center Take Flight

6 Outbound Metrics to Help Your Agents Close More

For a more in-depth understanding of reporting in contact centers, check out this post:

Contact center reporting – How to make the most of it?

Need help with call center metrics or reporting? Don't hesitate to contact us.

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