We’ve all heard about how important analytics are to running a successful contact center. With the incredible amount of data that’s now available to track, there’s no excuse for not taking advantage of it.
But there’s a potential downside to having all this access to trackable data, or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). How do you know which KPIs you should be tracking? You’ve got limited time and resources, after all - you don’t want to waste any time measuring something that won’t help you in the long run.
While each contact center will have certain KPIs that are more important for them to measure than others, in general, these are a few of the KPIs that your center should be tracking for maximum success.
Your call abandonment rate is how many of your callers hang up before being connected to an agent. This is a very important KPI to track, as it will tell you how many of your callers are becoming frustrated with long hold times.
If your call abandonment rate is high, it may point to a need for more agents or for changes in your staffing. A workforce optimization suite, like the Verint Workforce Optimization suite, can help you track and manage your staffing resources so that you’ve got the adequate number of people available to handle your highest-volume call times.
Like your call abandonment rate, this KPI will give you an idea of how satisfied your customers are and whether or not they’re likely to stay your customers.
No caller wants to spend valuable time tethered to the phone, listening to canned music while they wait for an agent to answer.
Keeping track of this KPI - which is found by dividing the total amount of time callers wait in queues by the total number of calls your agents answer - will help you determine whether your agents are providing your customers with the best possible service. It will also give you an idea of whether your agents have the tools and training they need to do their jobs well.
First call resolution - or the percentage of customers whose issues are resolved with a single phone call, without any need for a transfer or follow-up - has been found to have the highest impact on customer satisfaction, according to Ameyo. Each 1 percent improvement in FCR results in a 1 percent improvement in customer satisfaction. This kind of one-to-one cause and effect relationship is rare when it comes to KPIs, and should be capitalized upon.
One thing you can do to improve your FCR is ensure that your agents have access to a robust knowledge management portal. This will ensure that they can easily find the information they need to help your customers as quickly as possible.
It’s no secret that contact centers often experience high agent turnover rates.
While turnover can be a headache for managers, who must continually find and train new agents, it can also have a negative impact on customer satisfaction. Team morale may also suffer.
When contact centers are understaffed, even for short periods of time, agents’ workloads and stress levels can be significantly increased, so you want to keep an eye on this KPI and consider what you can do to reduce turnover as much as possible.
Tracking KPIs is a vital part of managing your contact center’s success and increasing your customer satisfaction. For more information on contact center KPIs, read our post “Establishing Your Contact Center KPIs.”
