Every contact center has two primary goals at the top of their list: maximizing efficiency and offering positive customer experiences on a consistent basis. While there’s a lot of data to measure, it’s difficult to determine the most important metrics. Read on for five key metrics for contact centers.
1. Contact Volume
Contact volume allows you to see queue volume across channels in real-time. Contact volume can then be monitored and managed. Real-time queue visibility for calls is the standard, but multi-channel contact centers are now monitoring volume across various contact channels and creating reaction plans for each one.
2. Conversion Rates
These production metrics determine the percentage of contact that ends in a conversion. This helps determine if the contact center is meeting top-level goals. Information can also be broken down into finer details, including geography and social influence.
3. Real-Time Adherence
The real-time adherence metric tells management if agents are where they’re supposed to be at a specific time. This metric is important for any real-time queue, including calls and chat. When service levels aren’t being met, real-time adherence should be analyzed. While planning in advance is valuable at time, real-time metrics also have to be monitored.
4. Service Level
Service level measures the percentage of calls, chats and e-mails that are answered in a given time frame. This metric should be monitored in real-time or at least near real-time, in a maximum of 15 minute intervals. If service levels crash for more than 15 minutes, over-staffing or outsourcing may be required to catchup and meet the daily goal.
5. Transferred Call Percentage
This metric measures the percentage of calls that are being transferred to other agents, departments or skill groups. According to the International Customer Management Institute, this metric is often under-measured. However, it gives great insight into the customer experience as well as the skill level of individual agents, and it can make routing design more effective.
When determining key contact center metrics, there are certain overarching principles that should be applied, like actionability and context. Metrics have to be actionable in order to be effective and a variety of reaction plans are necessary. Plus, there are certain metrics have limited meaning on their own and that have to be put into context in order for management to learn more.
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