‘Metrics’ is a hot word in the world of contact centers. These data sets are a major part of what companies use to better understand their clients and consumers, as well as to examine the work of their own agents. Call center analytics and reporting is a key element of success for any center hoping to continually improve and grow.
How involved are your management staff in call center analytics and reporting? How are important metrics used in your center to improve performance and enhance customer experience? If you’re not sure where you stand or what improvements could be made to your current approach, check out these guidelines for call center analytics and reporting success in 2020 and beyond:
Why Are Call Center Analytics and Reporting Important?
There is a massive amount of data available to businesses of every kind today. This consumer data is extremely valuable. Ignoring it doesn’t just leave businesses behind their competitors - it leaves them without important insight into consumer behavior and purchasing patterns.
The data available to contact centers today can inform strategic decisions. This same information was not available just a generation ago - and some of it is still fairly new to the world of tracking, reporting, and analyzation. To remain competitive and relevant, companies must grow and change along with the evolution of data.
Understanding the more relevant metrics - and how your company compares to competitors as well as consumer expectations - will help your management team make plans for improvement. This may include better performance, greater consumer satisfaction, or enhanced productivity and profitability. Whatever you are aiming for, the deep understanding that comes from knowledge of these metrics can help your staff make more informed decisions about what changes should be made to achieve your goals.
Which Metrics Should You Be Tracking?
There is a wide range of metrics that your staff might consider important. Your team should be the first source of information when it comes to determining which of these should be your priority when it comes to tracking. After all, no one knows your center and its needs better than your staff.
If you’re looking for guidance for creating your metric measurement plans, though, here are several industry-standard KPIs that are universally seen as important to delivering better service and greater performance:
First Response Time
We will examine this metric first since many experts consider it to be foundational in all the rest. Without a quick first response time, consumers are likely to hang up before they can be served. Studies have shown that approximately one-third of consumers will hang up within one minute if they are made to wait.
There are bigger problems that can arise from these abandoned calls than just a higher abandonment rate. Consumers may take their dissatisfaction to social media or tell other consumers about it. They may leave negative feedback regarding the service they received. They may also stop using your products or services and convince others to do the same. This ripple effect can eventually have a major, lasting impact on your business overall - and can all be prevented through quick response times. Track yours to ensure you’re measuring up to expectations and not letting business slip through the cracks.
First Call Resolution
Along with first response time in critical importance is first call resolution. Consumers contact your center with the expectation of having their questions answered and their concerns addressed. They expect to have this taken care of during their first call, without enduring endless transfers or having to make repeated calls. This is known as first call resolution and it is important if you want to satisfy your consumers and keep them coming back.
Tracking your first call resolution will show you if there are improvements that need to be made to your agents’ approach at handling specific types of calls. If you notice a trend of multiple calls coming from certain consumers or regarding certain topics, these may be points to bring up during future training sessions. Working toward improved first call resolution will increase consumer satisfaction and improve customer experience.
Average Handling Time
How quickly can your agents typically wrap up a phone call? While they shouldn’t be rushing through the process to meet metric goals, they should be aiming for faster finish times. Today’s consumers prefer quicker calls when they call customer service lines - their time is valuable to them and they like to feel as if it’s valuable to your agents, too. Delivering faster resolutions and shorter average handling times means your agents are succeeding in offering them that feeling.
Consumer Satisfaction with Service or Support
Consumer satisfaction rates are an important metric to track, but what about satisfaction with specific elements of your services? Many of today’s most successful companies track the satisfaction of consumers with their actual products, whether those are tangible goods or services and support.
Your center would be well-served to track consumer satisfaction feedback related to the service or support being provided. A customer may be very satisfied with their purchasing process or the product they purchased from a company but have a mediocre experience in the post-purchase support phase. This means that overall customer satisfaction ratings may be inaccurate.
Tracking the satisfaction of consumers with your center’s specific services or support allows your managers to better understand how satisfied your customers are with what you are doing. It can also help you determine if adjustments need to be made to your everyday operations to improve the consumer experience.
For the tools and technology you need to make call center analytics and reporting easier and more effective, reach out to the industry experts at ChaseData. We have the software solutions your team need to better collect, organize, and use every metric that matters. To learn more, give us a call today!
