Your business needs a call centre and you are wondering how to optimise your support. To have a view of the results you have to measure your performance and that of the call centre.
First of all you have to identify the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), that is, the indicators that monitor and record your performance. By making use of these indicators you can measure the level of productivity of your company, identify its critical issues and make the necessary corrective measures.
In the case in which the management of your call centre has been outsourced, the indicators to be monitored are already identified at the moment of signing the contract. In particular the KPI considered is called SLA (Service Level Agreement) and commits the outsourcer to maintaining certain volumes of calls within an established time. For example, answering 80% of the phone calls within one minute.
KPIs for monitoring the performance of a call centre
Here are some parameters that can be defined to keep the performance of a call centre under observation, whether it is an Inbound or Outbound activity
Response time
How long an operator takes to answer an incoming call. This measure is generally expressed in seconds.
Abandon Rate
Percentage of missed calls that are not answered.
Call Handling Time
This is a measure, generally expressed in seconds, of the time in which an agent is engaged in a call with a user. This time varies depending on the nature and complexity of the problem to be solved. As a result this is not an absolute parameter, but the average call handling time is a metric to assess the individual teams within the call centre.
First Call Resolution
Percentage of requests resolved in a single call, therefore that require neither the user nor the operator to make a second call. This parameter is actually an indicator of the agent’s performance. The better the agent, the higher their individual FCR will be, but it is not an exact measure because the resolution of the call might require an action by someone other than the agent, such as a supervisor or another department. FCR is difficult to measure precisely and must be assessed carefully.
Transfer Rate
In addition to First Call Resolution, some call centres also measure the transfer rate. This is a measure, expressed as a percentage, of the number of calls that the operator has to transfer to someone else to complete. It could be a supervisor or another department. The reason for the transfer could be the operator’s fault, a request from the user or an incorrect routing of the incoming call.
Idle Time
This is a measure, generally expressed in seconds, of the time an operator takes to complete a call after the user has hung up. For example, it could concern the time taken by the operator to put the requested material into an envelope and mail it to the user. Some call centres require operators to handle such matters while the user waits on the phone. This will result in a lower idle time, but a higher call handling time.
Waiting time
This is a measure, generally expressed in seconds, of the time an operator keeps a user waiting during a call. It could be the time needed to look something up or to speak with someone else to find an answer to the problem. Many call centres also specify a maximum period of time for which a user can be kept waiting.
Better results with an Outsourced Call Centre
Faced with the high costs and the management difficulties, a fundamental help today comes from outsourcing.
Outsourcing a call centre means having a lower labour cost. Hiring a resource internally, in fact, would entail a great burden for the company, which can instead outsource not only the recruitment of staff, but also the training. It will thus be able to rely on the highly qualified staff of the outsourcing companies.
Another important advantage is that, by outsourcing the Call Centre service, the company will not have to worry about investing in new technologies.
Outsourcing allows companies to focus on the core business activities and delegate outside the company the activities useful to improve the products or the services.
If you want to design specific solutions for your business, you just have to contact us at We Are Fiber.
