Key Performance Indicators in Call Center Businesses

The call center industry is a rapidly rising industry worldwide. Call centers are very much proliferating especially in emerging economies where there are thousands of competent workers who are adept and eloquent in speaking English. Because the industry is relatively new, the main and usual performance indicators are not applicable if call center managers and owners would want to assess their own business performance. As you know, self assessment of operations is crucial in every business because that would determine whether the company is profitable and effective or not. Key performance indicators (KPI) in call centers are different but are measurable.

Currently, there are five call center KPIs that should be focused at. Experts assert that considering and looking at these five call center KPIs would enable assessors to account for about 80% of overall performance of every call center business. Call center managers should be familiarized with those five call center KPIs.

Cost per call. The most effective and reliable cost metric in call center companies is cost per call. This is the expense the company is investing or spending just to make every single telephone call. It is a common knowledge that telephone services are not used for free. The call center company by some way is paying for every single second of call made by its agents. Moreover, offshore outsourcing of call center services should be made more cost effective because international call charges are usually more expensive.

Customer satisfaction. Many call center firms think customer satisfaction is hard to gauge. These days, that perception is being modifies. Logically, customer satisfaction is attained by call centers when the customers are buying or subscribing to the products and services marketed. Sales are a good indicator of customer satisfaction. Other than that, lack of customer complaints and negative feedbacks can be a very good variable for observation.

First contact resolution rate. If the call center is operating to provide technical solutions and support to incoming callers, the rate of first contact resolution is essential. Practically, if a call center agent is able to satisfy and help a customer through just a single call, the first contact resolution is achieved. If feedbacks and follow-ups had to be made, the rate drops. That is because through resolving customer problems and inquiries with just one call, the call center agents are made productive because that means they would be able to attend to many other new call customers.

Agent utilization. Call centers employ hundreds, if not thousands, of call center agents in a community or vicinity where they are operating. In looking at call center KPI, it is essential to look primarily at utilization of agents. Are the agents productive? Does each call center agent attend to incoming and outgoing calls? How many calls do agents make in a shift? The more customers are served by each agent, the higher the agent utilization metric becomes.

Aggregate performance. Aggregate performance of the call center refers to the balance score card used to evaluate the overall performance of the business. Usually, this includes costs per cal, call abandonment rate and average speed to answer calls of each agent.