3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

For contact center managers, keeping track of metrics is nearly a full-time job. (For some larger centers, it IS a full-time job.) The amount of data generated today in the average customer support organization is massive, and there are limitless ways to slice and dice that information to determine the health of operations. The problem is that managers don’t have limitless time, so it’s critical to pick the right measurements to focus on to monitor efficiency, quality and time.

A  recent blog post notes that service quality metrics are among the most important. While efficiency metrics that measure costs are important, they’re relatively useless unless customers are being provided with the best possible experience. They’re also a little harder to accomplish, because they require input from customers themselves. (You may think you’re providing customers with great service, but unless they agree, you’re chasing your tail.)

“Customer satisfaction indicates how your agents performed in solving customer issues,” wrote Galt. “This can be done in a variety of ways, including with customer satisfaction surveys that are sent out after a call or chat.”

You can also build a picture of customer satisfaction by engaging in regular third-party call monitoring to help you get an objective perspective. That said, there are metrics that measure the customer experience that don’t require you to talk to customers. These include:

First-call resolution. Are you resolving customer issues on the first call? Customers will always count it as a win if you can solve their problem the first time they reach out, eliminating the need for costly (and annoying) follow-up calls. Tracking first call resolution ensures that you are satisfying customers in the shortest amount of time, without the need for repeat contacts by customers.

Average wait time. While average handle time is important to measure efficiency, it doesn’t mean that much to the customer experience, particularly if you’re cutting calls short to keep AHT metrics down. Average wait time tracks how long it takes for customers to connect with an agent who can address their needs.

Self-service usage. Self-service is a great way to improve the customer experience as long as it’s effective and not being used as a barrier to keep customers from seeking live help. Often times, customers can resolve their own issues without needing to get in touch with an agent. Self-service usage tracks whether or not your customers are using self-service options and can indicate that you may need to revisit your IVR set up. Low usage of self-service probably means that your existing self-service channels need major improvement.

From here, you can find ways to improve operational metrics as long as they don’t bring down customer satisfaction and experience numbers. If average handle time, call wrap-up time and cost per call are too high, it probably means you have problems with the desktop systems agents are using. Do they have to hunt too hard for answers? Are there too many disparate databases? Are desktop systems old, slow and outdated?

Likewise, metrics to measure employee performance can help you understand your training, engagement and motivation procedures to keep employee turnover low. If attrition is too high, better employee engagement programs may be needed. It’s not simply about workers’ happiness in their jobs: high turnover costs companies dearly in terms of labor and administration, and drags down the quality of support and the experience customers expect.