Improving Call Center Metrics Through Careful Observation

February 12, 2021

Improving Call Center Metrics Through Careful Observation

How do you optimize call center work? to achieve better call center metrics. It’s a question that has kept many a busy manager up at night. When you’re conducting significant call center operations in any vertical or industry manner, quality matters; that’s the bottom line. Your results have to do with how effectively your workers communicate with the people on the other end of the line, whether it’s to conduct surveys, sell products and services, troubleshoot problems or deal with money – or anything else.

With that in mind, it’s a good idea to look at every alternative for conducting the quality assurance that’s going to promote your call center’s long-term success.

Call center metrics are essential to measuring the success of a call center operation. Improving these metrics can help increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and boost revenue. Here are some strategies for improving call center metrics:

1. Reduce Average Handle Time (AHT)
   AHT is the time it takes for a call center agent to handle a call from start to finish. By reducing AHT, call centers can handle more calls in a day, which can increase productivity and reduce costs. To reduce AHT, call centers can provide agents with training on effective communication skills, use call scripts, and provide access to tools that can help agents resolve issues quickly.
2. Increase First Call Resolution (FCR)
   FCR is the percentage of calls that are resolved on the first call. Improving FCR can reduce the number of calls that need to be handled, which can increase productivity and reduce costs. Call centers can increase FCR by providing agents with the necessary training and resources to resolve issues on the first call.
3. Improve Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
   CSAT is a measure of how satisfied customers are with their call center experience. A high CSAT score can lead to increased customer loyalty and referrals. Call centers can improve CSAT by providing agents with the necessary training and resources to resolve issues quickly and effectively. They can also gather customer feedback and use it to improve their processes and procedures.
4. Reduce Abandoned Calls
   Abandoned calls occur when a customer hangs up before reaching an agent. Reducing abandoned calls can improve customer satisfaction and increase productivity. Call centers can reduce abandoned calls by improving their call routing system, providing customers with estimated wait times, and increasing the number of agents available to handle calls.
5. Increase Agent Utilization
   Agent utilization is the percentage of time that agents are actively handling calls. Increasing agent utilization can improve productivity and reduce costs. Call centers can increase agent utilization by providing agents with the necessary training and resources to handle calls efficiently and effectively.

In conclusion, improving call center metrics requires a combination of effective training, resources, and processes. By implementing these strategies, call centers can increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction.

Human Analysis and The Script

Yes, there’s a script for a lot of call center work. But part of the problem is that human communications are not inherently scriptable. There are too many ‘black swan’ scenarios and wildcards in the mix. You can’t accurately script what the other person will say, so you soon get into uncharted waters, no matter how great your script is.

Call center workers know this from experience. Many of them scoff at the idea that a script will be useful beyond a brief introduction or a basic roadmap for follow-up.

Much more of the work of a given call center session involves working directly with the unanticipated impact you get from a caller. That, and listening to a person’s unique problems and needs. It has much more to do with the kinds of quality assurance that are only done after the fact – through detailed call monitoring, detailed benchmarking, and sophisticated oversight.

With that in mind, why not have excellent QA solutions that involve human analysis of calls? Sure, you can get something out of the box that brings you some call metrics, but there’s a lot of opacity there; you don’t really get true business intelligence for feeding back into your operations.

That’s what we’re about here at CallCriteria – our AI-enabled voice analytics and quality assurance tools take a collaborative principle and build on it with excellent engineering to produce the QA that will drive actual success, not just a pale ghost of a solution. Please take a look at our website for more on how our QA and observational systems work to safeguard the value that your operations bring to stakeholders and optimize its ability to reach its goals. We are here to help you and your clients succeed in today’s tech-heavy business world.