A customer service call centre is an integral extension to any company, with thousands of agents to help handle client concerns and address queries. Being at the forefront of customer service is a lot of responsibility, as it can make or break a brand's reputation, especially with today's fast word of mouth. Because of this, everyone must always be on top of their game.
One way to ensure quality among customer service employees is to track and measure the team's performance with metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). If you're looking to establish some criteria to work on your customer experience strategy, this article is here to help!
Here, the guide lists everything you need to know about metrics and KPIs to ensure your goals are on track.
What are Call Centre Metrics & KPIs?
Call centre metrics and KPIs are measurable values you can track to see if your company is meeting your goals. A personalised customer service team tailored to your industry can have varying objectives, but all should focus on helping your clients and, in turn, your business succeed.
Having data-driven call centre metrics and KPIs are important because they can help:
- See your company's improvement over time
- Spot potential operational progress
- Monitor if any agents are underperforming
- Determine if existing goals need an upgrade
22 Essential Metrics & KPIs to Measure in a Call Centre
There are different call centre performance metrics specific to your industry you can use to improve your process. From assessing customer experience to measuring specifics in your operations, here are some common metrics you can consider checking out.
Customer Experience
This set of call centre KPIs concerns your customer's overall experience with your product or service, such as if they had any problems with your products or services and how you resolved them.
1. Net Promoter Score® (NPS®)
Mostly obtained through customer surveys, the NPS® measures how likely a customer will promote your product or service. It’ll give you information on how much customers like your product on a scale from 1-10. Those who scored 9-10 are promoters, while those who answered 0-6 are detractors.
To calculate for NPS®:
(Number of promoters / Total number of customers) – (Number of detractors / Total number of customers)
2. First contact resolution (FCR)
FCR determines how many customers had their issue resolved within their first call or message. Consequently, this measures how effective your agents are in addressing client concerns.
Having a good FCR means you get a positive customer retention rate, which can help make more promoters for your business. A Glance report emphasises this: "70% of unhappy customers whose problems are resolved are willing to shop with a business again."
To calculate for FCR:
Total number of resolved issues on first attempt / Total number of first calls
3. Customer satisfaction (CSAT)
The CSAT metric is related to the NPS®, as it's also mainly obtained through surveys and measured on a scale to assess how happy your clients are with your customer service. It could be represented in a graph tracking how satisfied or unsatisfied they are after speaking with your agents, which you can monitor regularly.
4. Customer Effort Score (CES)
Also similar to the NPS® is CES, which evaluates a customer’s effort to resolve their issue. For this particular KPI, you can use the same scale for the CSAT to ask customers if speaking to your agents made dealing with their problems easier or worse.
If you get a high CES, your customer service is deemed excellent.
Call Initiation
These metrics are centred on your customer’s contact with your company. KPIs in this category include wait time, when you resolved the issue, and the like.
5. First response time (FRT)
FRT measures a customer's wait time before getting in touch with an agent. A lower FRT rate means customers wait for less, contributing to a more positive customer experience. You can look at this metric daily, weekly, or monthly to track trends.
To calculate for FRT:
Total time waiting for all inquiries / Total number of inquiries
6. Average call abandonment rate
The average call abandonment rate metric looks at how many customers drop the call before reaching an agent. It’s often the result of a customer waiting too long on hold. A high figure in this KPI signifies that many customers are frustrated with your service, making them highly likely to become detractors of your brand.
To calculate for average call abandonment rate:
[(Total number of calls – Number of calls that reached agent) / Total number of calls] x 100
7. Active waiting calls
Another call initiation criterion is the active waiting call which looks at how many customers are on hold while your agents have an active call.
Too many customers stalled in the queue can cause them to churn. As such, this helps gauge how many calls your team can handle to help set client expectations as needed.
8. Percentage of calls blocked
As its name suggests, this KPI measures how many customers hear the busy tone when they call your business. It's important to keep this percentage as low as possible, as failing to manage client frustration when they can't reach you for help can lead to serious reputation damage.
Having this metric helps see if your system handles the volume of inquiries efficiently.
To calculate the percentage of calls blocked:
(Total number of calls that don't reach agents / Total number of calls) x 100
Agent Productivity
These call centre KPIs assess how your agents perform as a team and by themselves. You can use these to see who’s at the top of their game and address any internal issues members might have within the organisation.
9. Agent utilisation rate
The agent utilisation rate determines how productive the agent is within a workday. While your team shouldn’t be swamped, their workload must keep them sufficiently busy throughout the day.
In computing your company's agent utilisation rate, it's important to factor in their break times and days off.
To calculate for agent utilisation rate:
[(Average number of calls of agent per month x Average time to handle a call) / (Number of workdays in a month x Total working hours in a day)] x 100
10. Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
ASA helps gauge how long a call centre agent in your team takes to pick up a call. A high ASA score means your group spends too much time on a call or takes too long to pick up a call. Depending on the cause, your organisation can solve this by integrating automation or software tools into your operations.
To calculate for ASA:
Total waiting time for answered calls / Total number of answered calls
11. Average handle time (AHT)
Another KPI in the agent productivity class is AHT. This metric quantifies how long an agent is on a call, which begins when the call is answered and ends when it's disconnected.
Depending on your industry, your agents may need to handle different calls for different concerns, which need to be tracked separately. Measuring the AHT allows you to determine the benchmark for your team and make necessary internal adjustments accordingly.
To calculate for AHT:
(Total time on the call + Total time customer is on hold + Total work time spent after a call) / Total number of calls
12. Transfer rate
There's nothing more frustrating to a customer than being transferred from one agent to another. While there will be times this will be necessary, such as talking to another department or a supervisor, it's crucial to keep the transfer rate low to avoid churn.
To calculate for transfer rate:
Number of calls transferred / Total number of calls handled
Operations
This set of metrics tracks the overall performance of the call centre. Regularly monitoring these figures will allow you to determine when peak times are and if you need to hire more agents to add to your crew.
13. Calls handled
It marks how many calls are being handled by your team, excluding those dropped. If your company has an interactive voice response (IVR) system, you’ll need to track these numbers separately from your human agents.
14. Cost per call (CPC)
CPC deals with how much a call costs on average when handled by an agent. If the price is too high, it may cut your budget and become unsustainable in the long run.
The total cost of all calls could include the overhead for the call centre, such as your agents' salaries, software subscriptions, and other human resource expenses.
To calculate for cost per call:
Total cost of all calls / Total number of calls
15. Call arrival rate
This KPI measures how many calls your call centre receives at a specific timeframe, whether by the minute, hour, or day. Knowing your call arrival rate helps tell you if you're getting an influx of calls, requiring more staff, so you can better manage your team and address client needs.
16. Peak hour traffic
Like the previous metric, this benchmark is used to recognise the busiest hours of the workday so you can determine if you need to hire more agents or shift their schedules to accommodate customer requests as they come.
17. Average call lengths
This KPI identifies the average length of a call over a workday. By observing these numbers, you can set a standard for your agents and have an idea of what their workload will be.
To calculate the average call lengths:
Total call times for all times / Total number of calls in a workday
18. Longest hold time rate
As its title indicates, this KPI puts a figure on the longest time a customer is on hold before speaking to an agent. The longer a customer spends on hold, the more likely they’ll abandon the call, so you must ensure all calls are picked up way below the hold time.
19. Average age of query
Getting the average age of the query investigates the length of time your call centre has unsolved inquiries from your customers after their first call. It goes hand-in-hand with the first contact resolution, considering you want issues resolved as quickly as possible.
A short average age of query and high first contact resolution are good signs of excellent customer service.
To calculate the average age of the query:
Total time of unresolved queries / Total number of unresolved queries
20. Callback messaging
Because customers don't want to be on hold for long periods, some companies offer the option of having an agent call them back later. The callback messaging metric measures how many take this option, allowing you to decide if you need a separate team to handle callbacks.
21. Repeat calls
This KPI tracks how many customers call again to complain about the same issue. Measuring your repeat call rates helps you see recurring problems so you and your team can devise a solution that works without fail.
If you have several client concerns that keep coming up on your list, your organisation can monitor and access these separately to better address them.
To calculate for repeat calls:
Total number of calls about a specific issue / Total number of calls
22. Channel mix
Nowadays, many companies offer different avenues of support for customers, such as through phone calls, chat support, or text messaging. Assessing how much traffic goes to these channels and determining the overall customer experience for each medium will help determine if any change is necessary to address issues that may arise for this channel mix.
Let Metrics and KPIs Pave the Road to Your Call Centre Success
Having clear metrics and KPIs you can monitor and measure for your call centre team lays the foundation for your business's success. Setting expectations and letting your agents know their benchmarks will help them do their best to help customers and create promoters to advocate for your company.
If you want to partner with a call centre that consistently delivers on the metrics and KPIs we have covered in this article, consider Select VoiceCom, a top-notch call centre in the Philippines.
Select VoiceCom is a global name in the call centre outsourcing industry known for delivering professional and affordable services to companies that prefer to outsource their ancillary functions.
Ready to get started? Contact Select VoiceCom to learn more!
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