From the Call Center Learning Center


Call Center Hot Topic Checklists
Measurements and goals


Accurate assessment for long term improvements

Centerserve's end of the year tutorial series will provide you fast and easy to use fact sheets for 7 major call center topics. This week's Hot Topic Checklist features Call Center Measurement facts to help measure and improve your call center's performance.
 
 
 

Call Center Measurement Hot Topic Checklist

 

Centerserve's 2010 benchmarking results from 132 call centers found actual abandon rates exceeded the abandon rate performance goals in 8 of the 14 industries we surveyed.

According to Centerserve's 2010 benchmarking results, most call centers who want to decrease costs and increase customer satisfaction are setting goals to improve responsiveness to their customers' requests in the first call.  So, how is that working? According to our benchmarking results, first call resolution goals in call centers today are between 30% -99%. Only four industries participating in our 2010 benchmarking study are meeting their first call resolution goals! For more KPI data and to compare your call center to other call centers in your industry, be sure to download an excerpt of 2010 Benchmarks in Call Center Operations.
Customer Satisfaction: the key to our success! To get complete surveys and keep customers, avoid these items in your surveys:  asking two questions within the same survey item and using company lingo. Of course, keep the number of total questions to a minimum, while being specific and concise. Also, make sure your sample size is valid and represents all aspects of your customer base (business, customer, different geographical areas, frequent callers, first time callers and so on).
How can abandon rate be controlled? There are four primary changes to make in order to control abandon rate:
  1. Reduce hold times
  2. Outsource overflow calls
  3. Use callback options
  4. Inform customers about expected wait times
The most basic method of addressing agent availability is by individually coaching agents. Set clear goals and communicate those goals to agents frequently. Help agents understand their impact on the customer and what it means to the agent. One on one interaction with supervisors and strong leadership were the #1 motivators for agents!

Is outsourcing the answer to your average speed of answer goals? Consider redirecting calls when they exceed time thresholds or when call volumes exceed scheduled resources.

Cost benchmarks: The cost of doing business is on the forefront of our minds, here is an inside peek at other call center's costs.  The average cost per voice call across all industries in the 2010 survey is $3.93, which is down from an average of $4.58 in 2007.The average cost per voice call
across all industries in 2007 was $4.58. The average cost per email contact across all industries in the 2010 survey is $3.19; down from an average of $4.67 in 2007. The average cost per email contact across all industries in 2007 was $4.67.
How often should span of control be measured? Typically, span of control is not measured until one of the following situations arises:
  • quality monitoring is identified as an improvement area
  • supervisors are stressed due to workload
  • reducing costs becomes essential
  • organizational changes within the department or company

Current benchmarking data indicates over one-fourth of surveyed call centers in Centerserve's 2007 and 2010 Benchmarks of Call Center Operations have a span of control of 8 to 12 agents per supervisor.

There is no standard way to measure turnover, as turnover is dependent on your call center's location, industry and objectives.  However, Centerserve's research touts one factor to reduce costly, unwanted turnover: leadership.  One of the major factors that impact turnover rate is the quality of direct supervision.  Though already stated in this week's tutorial, it is worth repeating:  one on one interaction with supervisors and strong leadership was the #1 motivators for agents!  Working with your supervisors on leadership skills will reduce costly turnover and increase supervisor job satisfaction. It's a win-win!

 

Don't Reinvent the Wheel!

We have much more where that came from! Centerserve's Call Center Measurement eToolkit is an indispensable tool that will teach you how to assess and improve the performance of your call center.  By providing common definitions of terms and a complete overview of performance measures for contact centers, our eToolkit will promote your understanding of the functions and procedures that will enhance your call center performance and boost is efficiency.  For more information about this eToolkit click here.

Toolkit Objective:
A no-nonsense guide for measuring and benchmarking call center performance. For more about this eToolkit click here.

Highlighted Tool:
14 measure areas explored with benchmarking data

Pages:   189
Figures: 55
Tables: 9
Equations: 8
Price:   $289

Support:
  Research and education are our #1 priority.
Long after a purchase, Centerserve research analysts are standing by to help you apply research and "how to" information to your call center needs. Ask an analyst now to find out how this eToolkit will work in your call center.

970-669-6554 -- Email Us -- Sitemap
About Us. Copyright 1998-2010. All rights reserved.
Centerserve is a division of Centerserve, Inc.