3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

Contact centers generate a lot of metrics. Take call times, hold times, handle times, wrap-up work times, customer satisfaction, sales conversion rates and more, and combine them in a nearly infinite number of possibilities. Are they all important? To some degree…yes. Do they all reflect the quality of customer support you’re offering your customers? No.

Check a list of the metrics you track. Now ask yourself…are these metrics more important for cost control, or are they about improving the customer experience? Are some of our metrics actually working against one another? Imagine a contact center that tries to minimize average handle time (AHT) while boosting first-call resolution (FCR). That’s a bit like trying to avoid a bad sunburn while mandating more time spent in the sun. Agents are under pressure to “get off the phone fast,” which leaves customers with unresolved issues. The result? They call back again, ruining FCR metrics.

If you think you’re not using the right metrics, or your metrics are working against each other, it may be time to look at your metrics. (Here’s a comprehensive list of them, courtesy of a blog post by inContact’s Chandler Gait).

How many are about service quality and the customer experience? How many are about cost-cutting? Perhaps it’s time to emphasize the few metrics that can actually do both at the same time. These are:

First-call resolution. It will probably be unnerving to reduce emphasis on average handle time (AHT). It’s traditionally such an important metric in many contact centers. But it doesn’t take into consideration whether the customer’s problem was actually solved. First-call resolution measures what percentage of calls were handled in a one-and-done manner. When customers have no need to call a second (or third) time on the same issues, contact centers are actually saving time and money while boosting customer satisfaction.

Self-Service Usage. Customers actually like using self-service to solve their own issues…as long as it’s easy to use and effective. The end result is that the customer is happy, and the contact center has saved time and money because a live agent wasn’t required. Many companies’ self-service channels are not usable enough to rely upon. They’re designed from the contact center’s perspective, NOT the customer’s. Improving this stat may require a serious revamping (or reinvestment) of the IVR, digital channels, mobile apps and chat bots.

Conversion Rates. For contact centers engaged in selling, this metric tracks the number of calls or connections that resulted in a positive outcome such as a sale, money collected, or donations. Improving this metric is not only great for the company’s bottom line, it’s also good for customer relationships because it means you’ve put more effective customer interaction policies into place.

Forecast Accuracy. All contact centers experience regular peaks and valleys in customer inquiries. Being able to forecast calls correctly then is critical for ensuring you are not over- or under-staffed at any given time. Forecast accuracy helps track whether or not you are correctly forecasting these periods. If you’re not, you’re probably endangering customer relationships and wasting money. Getting it right translates directly to a better experience for the customer and an improved bottom line for you.