Within the contact center, metrics are used to determine the overall effectiveness of strategies, customer service levels, conduct A/B testing and more. There is a metric for just about everything – customer satisfaction for instance can be measured by gathering data on contact center performance, agent productivity, and many more activities.

Four key contact center improvement focus areas

While just about everything and anything can be analyzed, industry-best standards suggest that these four key areas should be prioritized for an optimal, high-performance contact center that delivers above board customer service:

1. Contact center operations
2. Customer experience
3. Interaction initiation
4. Agent engagement and productivity

1. Contact center operations

This metric should look at the contact center from an operational standpoint, measuring things such as average handle time (AHT), number of contacts per hour, schedule adherence and more. This is critical for determining if the contact center is running as efficiently as possible and will help to identify any potential process improvements that should be made.

2. Customer experience

This metric is all about the customer and their experience navigating with your contact center. Key things to measure include customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, Net Promoter Score (NPS), first call resolution (FCR) rate and more. By understanding how your customers feel about their interactions with your contact center (agent, chat, chatbot, social, etc.), you can make the necessary changes to improve their experience.

3. Interaction initiation

This metric focuses on how interactions are initiated within the contact center, specifically looking at things such as inbound call volume, web chat volume, email volume and more. This is important for understanding how customers are trying to reach your contact center and if there is a preferred method of communication.

4. Agent engagement and productivity

This metric looks at how engaged and productive your agents within the contact center are. Key things to measure include average handle time (AHT), interaction time, after call work (ACW) time, number of contacts per hour and more. By understanding how your agents are performing, you can make the necessary changes to improve their productivity. And let’s not forget to also measure their engagement as this directly impacts their productivity.

Keep your eye on these key contact center metrics

In a contact center, there are many Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that need to be monitored to help ensure the quality of customer interactions, and overall agent and customer satisfaction. KPIs are a great place to start, since they provide valuable insights into how your organization is performing. But with so many different metrics to choose from, it can be difficult to decide which ones are the most important to track and analyze, before you can decide what to do with them.

Below are a few essential metrics that every contact center should be tracking:

• First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate: This metric measures the percentage of customer inquiries that are resolved on first contact. A high FCR rate indicates that customers are getting their issues resolved rather quickly and efficiently, which leads to higher satisfaction rates.
• Average Handle Time (AHT): This metric measures the average amount of time it takes for agents to resolve a customer issue. A shorter AHT indicates that agents are resolving issues more quickly, which again leads to higher satisfaction rates.
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Score: This metric measures how satisfied customers are with their overall experience. A high CSAT score indicates that customers are happy with the service they’re receiving, while a low score indicates that there’s room for improvement.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): This metric measures how likely customers are to recommend your company to others. A high NPS score indicates that customers are very satisfied with their experience and are likely to recommend your company to others, while a low score indicates that there’s room for improvement.
• Average Speed of Answer (ASA):  This metric measures the average amount of time it takes for agents to answer customer calls. A shorter ASA indicates that customers are getting through to agents more quickly, which leads to higher satisfaction rates.
• Absenteeism:  This metric measures the number of agents who are absent from work, either due to sickness or other reasons. A high absenteeism rate can have a negative impact on productivity and customer satisfaction.
• Employee Satisfaction:  This metric measures how satisfied agents are with their job. A high employee satisfaction rate indicates that agents are happy with their work and are more likely to provide good customer service, while a low rate indicates that there may be some issues that need to be addressed.

These are just a few of the core essential metrics that every contact center should be tracking. By monitoring these metrics, you’ll be able to get a better understanding of how your contact center is performing and where there may be room for improvement – because there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

Benchmarks and dashboards

Benchmarks and dashboards are an absolute necessity when it comes to tracking and understanding your contact center metrics. A benchmark is a point of comparison that allows you to measure your performance against others in your industry. It’s a valuable tool that shows how you stack up against your competition and identify areas where you may need to make improvements.

A dashboard is a visual representation of your data that makes it easy to spot trends and see how your contact center is performing, at a glance. Dashboards can be customized to show the specific data that you want to track, making them a valuable tool for managers who need to stay up-to-date on the latest metrics.

By using these tools, you’ll be able to get a better understanding of your contact center’s performance and identify areas where improvements need to be made.

What to do with your contact center metrics

Once you’ve identified and collected your key contact center metrics, it’s time to put them to use. The next step is to analyze these metrics to identify trends (both positive and negative) to better understand the cause and effect, and then focus on improving the identified areas.

By setting clear goals and creating benchmarks to compare your performance against others within your industry, you’ll be able to identify areas where you need to make improvements. And by setting goals, you’ll have a clear target to strive for.

And remember, metrics should be used as a guide, not a rulebook. Every contact center is different, and what works for one may not work for another. Using the right metrics, you’ll be able to get a better understanding of your contact center’s performance, and by tracking these metrics over time, you’ll be able to see how your contact center is improving and make changes as needed to continue providing excellent service to your customers.

Data-driven organizations are empowered with greater insights that lead to real, tangible improvements and optimal decision-making

But where do you start? There are so many different metrics you could track, and it can be hard to know which ones are the most important. It can be overwhelming. Without understanding your goals, objectives and prioritizing opportunities, every metric, though valuable, is not always important.

We can help you identify the key performance metrics that impact your contact center operations. With proper analysis, we can uncover gaps in performance leading to clear and specific recommendations, such as agent coaching, process, and tool optimization, change management and more.

Let’s talk metrics.