A customer service call center is a crucial part of any company, with thousands of agents dedicated to addressing client concerns and answering queries. This role carries significant responsibility, as the quality of customer service can greatly impact a brand's reputation, especially in today's world where word of mouth spreads quickly. Therefore, everyone in the call center must consistently perform at their best.
To maintain high standards among customer service employees, it is important to track and measure the team's performance using metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). This article will guide you through establishing criteria to enhance your customer experience strategy. You'll find everything you need to know about metrics and KPIs to ensure your goals stay on track.
Call center metrics and KPIs are measurable values used to track whether your company is meeting its goals. While a personalized customer service team tailored to your industry may have different specific objectives, all should focus on assisting your clients effectively and contributing to your business's success. Having data-driven call center metrics and KPIs are important because they can help:
Your industry has specific call center performance metrics that can help you improve your processes. Consider evaluating customer experience and measuring specific operational aspects using these common metrics.
These call center KPIs focus on your customers’ overall experience with your product or service, including any problems they had and how you resolved them.
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 the NPS®:
(Number of Promoters / Total Number of Customers) – (Number of Detractors / Total Number of Customers)
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. A good FCR means you get a positive customer retention rate, which can help make more promoters for your business. According to Khoros, 83% of customers agree they feel more loyal to brands that respond and resolve their complaints.
To calculate the FCR:
Total Number of Resolved Issues on First Attempt / Total Number of First Calls
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.
Like the NPS®, CES 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.
These metrics are centered on your customer’s contact with your company. KPIs in this category include how long the wait time was, when you resolved the issue, and the like.
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
The average call abandonment rate metric determines 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 the average call abandonment rate:
[(Total Number of Calls – Number of Calls That Reached Agents) / Total Number of Calls] x 100
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.
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
These call center KPIs assess how your agents perform as a team and individually. You can use these KPIs to see who’s at the top of their game and address any internal issues members might have within the organization.
The agent utilization 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 utilization rate, it’s important to factor in their break times and days off.
To calculate the agent utilization 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
ASA helps gauge how long a call center 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 organization 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
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 the AHT:
(Total Time on the Call + Total Time Customer Is on Hold + Total Work Time Spent After a Call) / Total Number of Calls
Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than being transferred from one agent to another. While there will be times when 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 the transfer rate:
Number of calls transferred / Total number of calls handled
This set of metrics tracks the call center's overall performance. Regularly monitoring these figures will allow you to determine peak times and whether you need to hire more agents to increase your workforce.
It marks how many calls your team is handling, excluding those that have been dropped. If your company has an interactive voice response (IVR) system, you’ll need to track these numbers separately from your human agents.
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 call center's overhead, such as your agents’ salaries, software subscriptions, and other human resource expenses.
To calculate the cost per call:
Total Cost of All Calls / Total Number of Calls
This KPI measures how many calls your call center 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.
Like the previous metric, this benchmark recognizes the busiest hours of the workday, allowing you to determine whether you need to hire more agents or shift their schedules to accommodate customer requests as they arise.
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
As its title indicates, this KPI calculates 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 well below the hold time.
Getting the average age of the query investigates the length of time your call center 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
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.
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 organization can monitor and access these separately to better address them.
To calculate the repeat calls:
Total Number of Calls About a Specific Issue / Total Number of Calls
Nowadays, many companies offer different avenues of customer support, such as phone calls, chat support, or text messaging. Assessing the traffic 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.
Having clear metrics and KPIs you can monitor and measure for your call center 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 center that consistently delivers on the metrics and KPIs we have covered in this article, consider Select VoiceCom, a top-notch call center partner in the Philippines.
SVC is a global leader in the call center outsourcing industry. We deliver professional, affordable services to companies that prefer to outsource their ancillary functions. Ready to get started? Contact us today to learn more!