Whether you’re running an inbound or outbound call center, consistently tracking your most critical metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) is incredibly important. Staying on top of your call center metrics and KPIs can help you evaluate your team’s performance, the quality of customer service your team provides, and the overall efficiency of your call center operations.
What’s more, it can help you figure out what’s not working well and where improvements are needed. Below, we’ve listed some of the most common metrics and KPIs every call center team leader should track.
Top Metrics and KPIs for Outbound Call Centers and Why Track Them
Outbound call centers are mostly sales-oriented, with agents involved in making outbound sales calls. Some of the key metrics and KPIs that outbound call center team leaders should be tracking to evaluate the effectiveness of their outbound calling efforts include:
Call Answer Rate
Call Answer Rate (also known as Answer Success Rate) is one of the critical outbound call center metrics to measure. It shows the percentage of outbound calls answered by prospects or customers out of the total number of attempted calls over a certain period. Along with other metrics, it helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your outbound calling strategy. If you are using automated outbound call software, you can improve your Call Answer Rate by enabling local caller ID. That allows you to call prospects or customers from local numbers, increasing the chances of your calls being answered.
Dropped Call Rate
Dropped Call Rate is the percentage of outbound calls that are dropped before the prospect is connected to an agent. That may happen when you use auto dialing solutions, and it means that you might need to adjust your dialing strategy. It’s particularly important to keep an eye on your dropped call rate because outbound call centers using auto dialers must comply with specific regulations – and failing to adhere to these regulations can result in fines and penalties.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate measures the percentage of outbound calls that result in a successful outcome. Based on your business and the specifics of your product or service, that could be a booked demo call, an event sign-up, a closed sale, or anything else. Conversion rate is the most straightforward metric that directly shows the effectiveness of your outbound calling campaigns and who your top performers are.
First Call Close
First Call Close shows the percentage of outbound calls that result in a desired outcome during the first interaction with the prospect or customer. This is an essential metric to measure for certain types of outbound calling campaigns, such as lead generation, appointment setting, telemarketing, fundraising campaigns, and other. A low First Call Close rate suggests that you might need to improve your sales scripts or train agents to handle objections more effectively.
Top Metrics and KPIs for Inbound Call Centers and Why Track Them
Inbound call centers deal with incoming customer calls and are service-oriented, for the most part. Here are the most important call center metrics and KPIs that you should keep an eye on if you’re operating an inbound call center:
Average Handle Time (AHT)
The Average Handle Time measures the average amount of time a call center agent takes to handle a customer service call from start to finish, including the actual talk time, hold time, and any post-call follow-up activities (like updating customer data in the CRM). The industry standard for the Average Handle Time is around 6 minutes. If you see that your numbers are significantly higher, that may negatively impact your customer satisfaction levels. And it might also indicate that your reps need additional training.
First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate
First Call Resolution rate is one of the key metrics and KPIs inbound call center team leaders should track. FCR basically measures the ability of your call center reps to resolve customers’ issues during the first interaction without customers having to call you back regarding the same issue. This metric is also closely tied to customer satisfaction, as consumers naturally want to get their issues handled in one call. In fact, according to a study by SQM Group, every time a customer has to call back to get the same issue resolved, customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) drop by 15% on average.
Call Transfer Rate
Call Transfer Rate shows the percentage of inbound calls that had to be transferred to other departments or agents. Excessive transfers can negatively impact customer experience and customer satisfaction. If your reps often have to transfer customer calls, it might mean that your call routing strategy needs adjustment. One of the best ways to minimize transfers is to set up an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that will interact with callers, capture customer intent, and route your customers to the right destination automatically.
Call Abandonment Rate
Call Abandonment Rate will show you the percentage of inbound calls that were abandoned by callers before being connected to an agent. That usually happens when your inbound call volume is higher than your reps are able to handle, and callers are being put on hold for unreasonably long. And based on a study by Software Advice, even one minute of hold time feels like too much for over 60% of consumers. You can reduce the abandonment rate and improve customer experience by simply offering customers an in-queue callback option.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Lastly, the Customer Satisfaction Score shows how satisfied your customers are with the level of customer service they receive from your team. While that depends on the industry, overall, a CSAT score between 70% and 90% is considered good. Customer satisfaction naturally plays a key role in customer loyalty – that’s why it’s important for businesses to maintain high CSAT scores and leverage customer feedback to implement improvements when CSAT scores fall below the average.
Wrapping up
Keeping track of your most critical call center metrics and KPIs helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your call center operations, assess agent performance, identify improvement opportunities, and make better informed, data-driven decisions. Luckily, call center software solutions typically come with built-in reporting and analytics tools, allowing you to track these metrics and KPIs automatically.
