Outsourcing: Key Performance Indicators

Key Performance Indicators – KPIs allow companies to quantify their objectives so that they can regularly monitor their performance and determine what works and what needs to be improved within the business. Each industry has its own indicators, but what about call centres?

Performance indicator: definition

The performance indicator is a measurable value that gives direct visibility to data and trends. It is leveraged at several levels to assess a company’s ability to achieve its objectives. It is divided into two categories: high-level, which focuses on the overall performance of the company and the lower level will focus on procedural services such as sales, marketing, human resources, support and others.

What are the performance indicators for call centres?

The monitoring of performance indicators is the responsibility of call centre managers who collect different types of data across multiple platforms focused on different business processes. As such, when you are preparing to outsource one of your services, you should discuss the performance indicators that will be monitored, based on your company’s expectations, with your provider.

Some examples of performance indicators that are taken into account in the context of outsourcing of your human resources, satisfaction survey, remote secretary and telemarketing services:

Active Calls Waiting: This metric provides an overview of the number of calls currently on hold in the queue. It is essential for the team of operators who will then be able to adjust their work pace accordingly. The aim is to ensure that the traffic meets the company’s objectives and at the same time to collect real-time information on the workload of telephone operators.

Longest waiting time for a call: This metric is more important than it appears to be! Its measures both the target holding time and the longest holding time per day. Thanks to this, necessary measures can be taken to maintain customer loyalty. One example is by increasing the number of agents on call

Peak traffic time: This metric allows you to target the busiest time slots in order to prepare and plan for the availability of enough agents.

Status indicators of the call centre: This key performance indicator provides an overview of the team performance through several other indicators. These measures give an idea of the current capabilities and performances of the team.

Call abandonment: This metric provides an overview of the number of disconnected calls before any interaction with the telephone operator. It also provides the background information of the number of the disconnected calls versus active and pending calls.

Average processing time: This metric monitors the average duration of a call to understand the workload required for each call. It also helps to know the performance and effectiveness of agents.

Cost per call: This metric takes into account the hourly rate of each agent, the resources made available to generate a call and the investments made into the required equipment. Its monitoring is essential to avoid any loss.

Customer Satisfaction: It allows a direct view on the performance of the telephone operators. This will have a direct impact on the perception that customers have of companies.

Post-call processing time: This metric is used to monitor the effectiveness of agents while performing post-call operations. This would help to determine the time that should be allocated for this action.

Waiting time: While it is not advisable to put customers on hold, this metric allows you to get an overview of the average waiting time of a caller before he/she is connected with a telephone operator.

Customer calls processed as from the first minute: Customers do not like to wait before being connected to an operator. As such, this measure helps to ensure that customer calls are processed within set deadlines.

Call arrival rate: This measure tracks the number of incoming calls per day over the last 30 days. This allows call centre managers to identify the trends and to determine days on which the number of calls was particularly low or high.

Call resolution: This measure tracks the number of calls resolved. It also allows you to research for more specific data, such as the resolution rate of the first call and the number of calls requiring a subsequent resolution.

Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR): Not all attempts to call are conclusive. Thus, the Call Setup Success Rate gives an idea of the successful call completion rate according to the specifications provided by the client.

Time lost due to technological problems: It is important for the provider to understand downtime and to be able to identify the causes of this production loss. This particular measure therefore provides an overview of the total downtime due to technological problems.

Call arrival rate: this rate measure provides information on the number of incoming calls over a given period.

Call back messages: This metric indicates the total number of messages left with a call back number. The provider will therefore have to monitor the number of customers who have left messages requesting a call back in order to ensure that all messages are processed on time and according to the specifications provided by the customer.

Repeat calls: this metric identifies recurring problems. Thanks to this, when a particular problem occurs at a high frequency, teams can prioritise their tasks while implementing a solution. At the same time, they will ensure that this does not have a negative impact on production.

Agent usage: this metric gives a view of the total time spent by agents on the various tasks related to a call. It also helps to assess team productivity with regards to defined objectives.

Call completion rate: this metric monitors the total number of calls connected and successfully completed against the number of calls that failed.