When it comes to call center performance, comparison to your competitors, and to the industry average, means everything.

The Ascent Group’s recently released fourth annual call center benchmarking study reveals the strategies companies are using to make their call center operations more efficient while at the same time boosting customer satisfaction.

Conducted in early 2010, the study uncovers the practices “that make or break a customer contact center.”

More than 40 companies participated in the research and provided call center operational data that was used to calculate several performance benchmarks. Benchmark metrics collected and calculated include cost per call; calls handled per FTE (per month); percentage of abandoned calls; percentage of calls resolved on first contact; agent availability (time on phone or available to take calls) service level conformance and average speed of answer.

The study identifies the “best performers” for each industry -- above average companies that deliver low cost, high productivity and high service. It also calculates a “best performer” average for these high performing companies. In addition it calculates an industry average for each of the benchmark metrics, to demonstrate the performance of participants by industry.

What’s more companies were asked to share inbound call center operational strategies and experiences for the purpose of identifying practices that lead to higher agent productivity, improved call quality, and increased agent retention. The report also includes sections devoted to trends in training practices, call monitoring and IVR performance.

To learn more about this report or to purchase a copy, click here.

Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard