Summary
There’s a reason you’re obsessed with call center productivity. The more productive you are, the more profitabilitable you are! So when you manage the productivity of call center agents how do you measure it? Should it be about the number of calls an agent takes in a day? Or the impact of those calls? The truth is, it’s hard to define productivity with a single number. There are a lot of ins and outs to look at.The productivity of a call center plays a key role in its growth and competitiveness. So business leaders must understand what call center productivity is, how to measure it, and how to improve it.
So what is call center productivity?
Productivity is defined as the amount of input needed to produce an output or result. In the context of a call center, the input can be your call center agents and your output can be the number of support tickets resolved in a day, a week, etc.Let’s do a little math, I know it's not my favorite subject either;) Call center A has 50 agents who can collectively resolve 500 support tickets in a day. call center B also has 50 agents, but they can collectively resolve 1,000 support tickets in a day. Which one is more productive? If you base it solely on those numbers, then call center B is the easy answer. But what if one agent resolved three tickets in one hour while another only resolved one ticket but it had a higher impact on revenue? IE the client was up sold or the client stayed when they might have changed providers. The key takeaway, productivity can’t be measured with just one metric.
So how do you measure call center agent productivity, really measure it?
There are many factors, it’s important to look at the agents individually. After all, they are at the core of your company.But it's also good to have a global view. Here’s a quick list of call center metrics to keep in mind.
Do they resolve issues quickly?
This metric is all about how many customers had their issues resolved on the first call. If your agent’s first call response or FCR is high, it means your agents are able to help customers right away. No need for follow-up calls and multiple interactions. If the problem isn’t solved during the first call, the customer will call again and again, taking time away from other customers. And if there isn’t a tagging or call log system in place they will have to repeat themselves to multiple agents frustrating clients and agents alike.
So how do you calculate it?
Here it comes, more math! Number of resolved calls on first contact divided by the total number of calls multiplied by 100 give you the average handling time or AHT is how much time a call center agent spends on any work related to customer interactions or engagements, in a given day, in a given month or even a year. This metric should be low—it means your agents are efficient in managing their time on calls and in actually resolving issues. Don’t forget to also focus on the quality of your customer service aside from simply shortening the handling time. Monitoring and listening can also help you determine if they’re giving your clients the service they deserve. With the whisper and dual listening feature from Ringover you’ll be able to better evaluate your call center agents. But let’s say you want to come up with a number or concrete measurement.
How to calculate this metric?
You just add the total talk time plus after call work time divided by the total number of calls, if you follow this calculation you get a rough estimate of your call center agent's productivity. There’s also the missed-call rate. Referring to unanswered calls or missed calls due to any number of factors: A customer calls, loses interest while waiting, and hangs up before an agent answers. Or a customer is put on hold in a queue, and they hang up while waiting. Or perhaps the client gets a voicemail and the customer doesn’t leave a message. So what happens after a missed call? 85% of people whose calls aren’t answered won’t call back. If a customer was calling about a sales inquiry, and gets no response, you can kiss that revenue goodbye! In fact, businesses can lose up to $75 billion a year due to negative customer experiences. Essentially, you want to keep your missed-call rate low. If it remains high, you may need to look into optimizing your processes, upgrading your tools, hiring additional in-house agents, or even outsourcing entire teams. You should keep an eye on this with real time statistics.
How might you calculate it more concretely?
You get the number of abandoned calls divided by the total number of incoming calls multiplied by 100 Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT Score). If you aren’t using one you, you should be it, only takes clients a few moments and with their feedback you can improve your process.
The CSAT score comes from customers via a rating scale (from 1-5) sent with a survey after a call with an agent. They are asked to rate how satisfied they are with the agent and how their issue was handled. The CSAT score is valuable because it’s a subjective score from actual customers. It puts a premium on how the stakeholders think about the agents. A high CSAT basically means your agents are doing a good job delivering solutions. And if you want to improve response rate to surveys you might consider giving a coupon or a discount no matter the response.
Improve your self-service options
Remember, not all customers want to speak to an agent right away. According to Harvard Business Review customers often prefer to have their questions answered without talking to the support team. In fact, 81% of customers now expect online self-service options. Specifically to millennials and gen Z customers, they might prefer email or chat options. If customers are able to find what they’re looking for right away, you’re delivering a stellar customer experience. Plus, self-service frees up your agents’ time for more urgent and complicated support tickets. Make sure that your self-service strategy gives customers fast and easy access to the information they need. It should also display a clear path to contact an agent if absolutely necessary.
Some ideas for better self-service
Create a FAQ page or a knowledge base for the most common questions. This saves valuable time. Try automation where you can. For example, live chat. If applicable, set up a product training or service training that walks new customers through your ecosystem. Be sure to continue to monitor and update your self-service strategy so it always stays up to date.
Encourage your team to be multi-channel agents
Virtual call centers are a far cry from traditional call centers. To stand out from your competitors, you need to provide the best customer service and customer experience. You can do this by serving your customers wherever they are—not just on your website. Start training your support team to be knowledgeable in different communication channels, including phone calls, emails, chat, messaging apps and any other channel that makes sense for your business. Aside from helping them upskill, the quality of customer service you can offer will be top-notch.
Try to provide your agents with the best tools and tech
Over 90% of workers say that the right technology helps them work. Find the best call center software to empower your agents so they can perform their best every single day. Ringover’s cloud-based phone system integrates seamlessly with most CRMs like Salesforce and many help desk solutions—reducing lag time and delays. Get help with productivity including call tagging, filtering, call forwarding, queue management and advanced analytics. Implement continuous monitoring and training. It’s important to look at the analytics in your call center software, but it’s even more important to act on them. Monitoring calls will allow you to track performance and pinpoint specific areas of improvement. You’ll be able to craft tailored training modules based on their actual performance. Empowered employees can improve your call center. If they know what success looks like and they feel motivated. Because of the pandemic, virtual call centers have been the new norm. Of course, this doesn’t come without its fair share of challenges—remote teams and technology constraints. The right call center software can help boost agents’ productivity. This will then translate to an improvement in the quality of customer service you are able to provide to your customers—setting your company up for success in the long run.You can try Ringover for free now. If you are looking for more specific information on integrating telephone system into Salesforce, you can also reach our experts on +33 1 84 800 800.
