Call centers play a vital role in delivering exceptional customer experience and serve as an extension of a company’s business. It is crucial to measure and continuously improve call center performance to ensure customers receive the highest level of service.
In this article, we will dive into the world of call center metrics. Discover what these metrics are and how they can be effectively utilized to enhance the overall customer experience.
Table of Content
- What are Call Center Metrics?
- Why are Call Center Metrics Important?
- 13 Important Call Center Metrics to Monitor
- Best Practices to Improve Overall Call Center Performance Metrics
- How to Monitor & Track Call Center Metrics & KPI
Yeastar P-Series Phone System Call Center Solution
1. What are Call Center Metrics?
As we know, in a call center, simply handling high call volumes doesn’t guarantee the success. Call center metrics provide valuable data and analytics to evaluate the productivity and overall effectiveness of customer service teams. Managers should monitor these trends and patterns to gain a comprehensive understanding of their team’s performance and make the right decisions to increase customer satisfaction.
2. Why are Call Center Metrics Important?
Call centers provide a direct channel for customers to voice their opinions and shape perceptions of your brand. Analyzing call center metrics allows you to spot potential issues that may negatively impact customer happiness. By taking action based on insights gained from tracking metrics, you can foster loyalty and satisfaction, ultimately gaining more loyal customers.
Certain metrics are universally valuable and will undoubtedly provide answers to essential business inquiries like evaluating financial health, understanding customer sentiment, and more. Let’s explore them below.
3. Thirteen Important Call Center Metrics to Monitor
Generally, call center metrics can be classified into three key categories as follows:
1. Agent performance metrics
2. Call center operations metrics
3. Customer experience metrics
| Call Center Metrics | |
| Agent Performance Metrics | Average Handle Time (AHT) |
| Average Hold Time (AHT) | |
| Average Talking Time (ATT) | |
| Calls Answered, Missed, and Abandoned | |
| Call Center Operations Metrics | Active Waiting Calls |
| Average Waiting Time | |
| Average Call Abandonment Rate | |
| Average Call Answer Rate | |
| Customer Experience Metrics | Service Level Agreement |
| Max Waiting Time | |
| Missed Calls Rate | |
| Callback Messaging | |
| Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) | |
Agent Performance Metrics
- Average HandleTime (AHT)
Average Handle Time (AHT) refers to the average duration an agent spends on a customer interaction, starting from when they answer the call until it is disconnected. Typically, A higher AHT indicates higher costs and a potentially negative impact on the customer experience, so it’s often a big focus for call centers.
The formula is: (Total Ring Duration of Answered Calls + Total Talk Duration of Answered Calls) / Total Answered Calls
- Average Hold Time (AHT)
Average Hold Time (AHT) measures the average duration that agents keep callers on hold during a customer call. Companies typically aim to minimize hold time in order to provide prompt customer service.
The formula is: Total Hold Duration / Total Answered Calls
- Average Talking Time (ATT)
Average Talking Time (ATT) means the average amount of time that agents spent talking to callers. Unlike Average Hold Time, ATT does not include the time spent on hold. Optimizing the average talk time is essential to enhance efficiency and reduce unnecessary costs of call centers.
The formula is: Total Talking Time / Total Answered Calls
- Calls Answered, Missed, and Abandoned
Calls Answered, Missed, and Abandoned are key metrics in measuring agent workload and performance. These count numbers, along with various rate statistics of per agent, offer valuable insights into agent efficiency, responsiveness, and customer satisfaction. Monitoring these metrics help managers decide how to allocate resources more effectively.
Yeastar P-Series Phone System Agent Performance Report
Call Center Operations Metrics
- Active Waiting Calls
Active Waiting Calls compares the current call volume to the number of callers waiting for agent assistance. This real-time metric provides valuable performance insights for agents and encourage them to efficiently resolve calls in a timely manner. It is noticeable that delivering quality customer service should never be compromised in the process.
- Average Waiting Time
Average Waiting Time is a metric that measures the average amount of time a customer spends waiting for service or assistance. Long waiting times can lead to customer frustration and dissatisfaction. Generally, managers should always lower down waiting time to ensure customer satisfaction.
The formula is: (Total Ring Duration + Retry Interval) / Total Calls
- Average Call Abandonment Rate
Call Abandonment Rate is a metric that calculates the percentage of inbound calls that terminates before the caller being connected to a live agent. Customers abandon the calls after long wait because they generally want their issues resolved quickly. Abandoned calls signal customer dissatisfaction and frustration.
The formula is: (Total Abandoned Calls / Total Calls) * 100%
- Average Call Answer Rate
Call Answer Rate shows the percentage of answered calls in relation to the total number of calls. A higher answer rate is indicative of better effectiveness for companies, as it implies fewer customers or callers being turned away.
The formula is: (Total Answered Calls / Total Calls) * 100%
Yeastar P-Series Phone System Wallboard
Customer Experience Metrics
- Service Level Agreement
SLA refers to the percentage of conversations that are answered within a set timeframe. It is an important indicator of a call center’s performance and efficiency, measuring how well a call center can handle incoming calls while maintaining acceptable hold times.
The formula is: (The Number of Calls Answered within SLA Time) / Total Calls) * 100%
- Max Waiting Time
Max Waiting Time is the longest time a customer had to wait to be connected to a call center agent within a specific timeframe. It is important to reduce this metric as lengthy wait times can lead to customer dissatisfaction and negatively affect their overall experience.
- Missed Calls Rate
Missed Calls Rate refers to the percentage of missed calls in relation to the total received calls. A higher missed calls rate may indicate a potential need for improvements in staffing levels, call routing, or overall call handling processes to minimize missed opportunities and enhance customer satisfaction.
The formula is: (Total Missed Calls / Total Calls) * 100%
- Callback Messaging
Callback Messaging is a metric that measures the number of callers who choose to leave a message with their contact information for a call back, rather than waiting in a queue or being put on hold for an extended period. This allows agents to proactively reach out to customers. The goal is to keep this metric at a minimum as most customers prefer immediate issue resolution.
- Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
Customer Satisfaction Survey provides granular insights into customers’ feedbacks on each call handled by an agent. By utilizing such surveys, managers can understand the customer’s perspective, identify areas of improvement, and ultimately retain their loyalty.
Yeastar P-Series Phone System Queue Performance Report
4. Best Practices to Improve Overall Call Center Performance Metrics
Monitoring metrics is an important first step in managing call centers efficiently, but true optimization comes from analyzing the data and using it to improve operations.
Empower Your Teams
Managers can receive comprehensive reports on agents’ performance and identify areas where improvement is needed to enhance the service ability of teams. Providing appropriate training for agents who need to enhance call handling skills is fundamental for call center improvement.
Set Specific Targets for Different Metrics
It’s vital to break down the goal of improving customer experience to be specific. You should establish clear and measurable targets for different call center metrics. For example, set a goal for a 90% first-call resolution rate within the next quarter, so that you can track progress more effectively.
Make Data Driven Decisions
By analyzing metrics, especially those that fall below industry standards or previous performance levels, you can identify the factors that may affect customer loyalty. This analysis enables you to implement informed changes in the right direction.
Track and Evaluate Progress Over Time
Due to the nature of call centers, it can be difficult to implement changes that quickly and directly impact your call center metrics, so it is vital to track and evaluate progress over time, assessing the effectiveness of implemented changes. Based on your observations, you can consider further improvements to optimize call center operations through an iterative approach.
5. How to Monitor & Track Call Center Metrics & KPI
Yeastar P-Series Phone System, a call-center-capable solution, offers a comprehensive set of predefined call center reports that provide detailed insights into call center performance. Additionally, managers can easily monitor crucial metrics on Wall-board during daily operations.The reports are automatically generated in visually appealing graphs or charts, making analysis and data extraction effortless. You can get historical and real-time reports, allowing you to evaluate past activities and plan future actions as needed. Additionally, the reports are categorized into two types to provide comprehensive data about queues and agents:
| Yeastar Call Center Reports | |
| Queue Performance Reports | Queue AVG Waiting & Talking Time |
| Queue Performance | |
| Queue Performance Activity | |
| Queue Callback Summary | |
| Queue Callback Activity | |
| Satisfaction Survey | |
| Satisfaction Survey Details | |
| Agent Performance Reports | Agent Login Activity |
| Agent Pause Activity | |
| Agent Missed Call Activity | |
| Agent Performance | |
| Agent Call Summary | |
Queue Performance Reports — Gain valuable insights into the work efficiency of one or more queues over time. These reports enable you to evaluate the performance of each queue accurately.
Agent Performance Reports — Analyze agent activities to gain insight into individual agent performance. These reports help you assess if agents meet the expectations of your call center over time.
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