Targets help you identify your contact center’s strengths and weaknesses when interacting with customers on all of their calls.
Indicators are divided into two categories — quantitative and qualitative. But each company chooses which of them to focus on. Accordingly, when measuring quantitative indicators, the main thing is numbers: the number of received calls, waiting time, etc. Instead, the goal of quality indicators is to provide excellent service to customers, that is, they are focused on the quality of service.
The task of contact center managers is to closely monitor work processes (agents) to improve and optimize work on projects of customer companies. As a rule, the quality control department of the contact center is responsible for quality indicators. Quantitative indicators include operational indicators, which are responsible for and show the management of agents’ work. Operational supervisors, and field team leaders are responsible for them. You can learn more about these indicators from this article.
What should be considered?
Contact centers often make the mistake of focusing solely on metrics without considering the needs, interests, and behaviors of customers/consumers. We at A.R.C.E. believe that target indicators do not always show the real situation of how customers feel about the work of the contact center. The main goal for the contact center is not the target indicators, although this is also an important aspect of the work, but, above all satisfied customers with the service.
Quantitative indicators
- Service Level (SL)
SL means the percentage of calls handled by an agent during a period that does not exceed a set value. An exemplary indicator of the level of service provided by a contact center is considered to be 80/20, which means that in 80 cases out of 100 agents should answer a call within 20 seconds.
Two factors influence the performance of the indicator:
- The number of personnel — the stricter the customer’s requirements for the Service Level, the more expensive it will be to process the request. For example, to receive calls from customers in a matter of seconds, a significant number of operators are needed who can respond promptly to them, so that customers do not have to wait long in line.
- The quality of agents’ work — the faster and more efficiently they work, the less time it takes to process one request, and accordingly, they can process more calls in a certain period. For this, managers conduct personnel training before the start and then monitor how the agents perform their work and work on its improvement.
- Abandonment Rate (AR)
The efficiency of processing telephone requests, which the contact center must provide for at least 95% of received calls. Accordingly, the value of the indicator of lost calls — AR should be no more than 5%. The efficiency of processing telephone inquiries = 100% — AR.
How is AR defined? AR = (total number of calls queued for connection with the operator — number of calls received by operators)/ total number of calls queued for connection with the operator*100%.
- NPS (Net Promoter Score)
This is a customer loyalty index, which is used to determine the loyalty of consumers of goods and services to a particular brand or company. The main question that NPS asks is: how likely is a customer to recommend a particular brand to someone else: family, friends, colleagues, or acquaintances? Usually, the client is offered a scale from 1 to 10, where he indicates the degree of loyalty to the company. The implementation of the survey can be carried out in various ways, but the most effective is the telephone survey of customers.
Three groups are determined from the array of answers:
- 0-6 points – detractors.
They leave negative feedback and are ready to find a replacement company soon/later.
- 7-8 points are passive.
Treat the brand normally, but may change company if a better offer comes along.
- 9-10 points — promoters.
Customers are brand ambassadors. It is easy to get in touch with them, they often leave positive feedback.
- Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI)
The customer satisfaction index is defined as follows: the ratio of the number of ratings 4 and 5 to the total number of ratings for all conducted customer surveys on the IVR software for the reporting period as a percentage. The rating on a 5-point scale is set by the client after completing the call with the agent. As a rule, the contact center should provide a CSI level of at least 96%.
- Average call processing time
The results of this indicator are determined by the formula: average call processing time = (call duration + client hold time + call processing)/total number of calls received by operators per month. It is recommended that the average call processing time does not exceed 4 minutes per month.
- First Call Resolution (FCR)
This metric means the percentage of customers’ problems solved when they first contact the contact center. It is calculated as follows: FCR = (Number of customer problems solved / Number of IVR surveys) * 100%.
- CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)
This is an average indicator of customer satisfaction with interaction with the company. Its main advantage is that this metric takes into account the reaction of the customer immediately after the end of his interaction with the product or service.
Read also: Look beyond CSAT: Does the metric measure customer satisfaction?
- CES (Customer Effort Score)
This metric helps to find out from the client how easy and simple it was for him to solve the question/problem himself and conveniently contact support.
Qualitative indicators
In addition to the above indicators, others can be used to evaluate the customer experience.
While contact center performance can be quantified in numbers or percentages, some metrics cannot be calculated. Such parameters include:
- The agent’s knowledge of the specifics of the company: the specialist can guide the client in detail about products and services, help with the choice or solving the problem, that is, consult with the request.
- Content of communication: how quickly and efficiently the agent was able to convey the necessary information to the client, answer all the questions that interest him, whether he showed interest and care for the person.
- To what extent communication with the client corresponds to the standards and values accepted by the company?
Such parameters are not evaluated according to certain norms, but as an example, calls can be selectively listened to. Qualitative indicators can still be presented in quantitative terms if you determine the percentage of conversations that meet established norms and standards. If you are interested in improving these metrics or need professional advice or customer service assistance, please contact us. Our manager will reply to discuss the details and help you.
