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Benchmarking Customer Service

To 'Benchmark' something simply means to measure or judge it against a known standard. This is an extremely simple definition for a process that, when applied to a customer contact operation (call and/or web center), is anything but simple. Here for your benefit are benchmarks to use as guidelines and ways of structuring your thinking:

Every customer contact operation functions through the complex inter-relationship of a dizzying range of continuously fluctuating variables. If you think that was hard to say you should know that it's even harder to manage. The foundation of a well-constructed call center management program includes clearly defined and realistic goals supported by a team that understands how to drive their performance metrics from current levels to the goal.

Benchmarking allows you and your team to know where you customer contact operation stands today. This creates an understanding of how your operation rates as compared to other call centers and also provides a baseline measurement against which future changes can be compared. A handful of the Key Performance Indicators that most call centers track are provided below for your review. Remember that a thorough InTelegy benchmarking audit will consider the impact of these variables on your organization and customize them to meet your needs.

Customer Service Benchmarks:

Total Calls: An internal metric for all calls presented to the center including blocked, abandoned, and handled. This number may include all inbound and outbound calls and should also separately report total inbound and total outbound calls.

Calls Offered: Total number of calls sent by the phone company to the call centers'. This count is normally presented as a total and then broken down by line and generally comes from the phone company in regular reports.

Blocked: The number of calls that were offered but not accepted by the call center phone system, or a specific line, due to technical or capacity issues. This number usually comes from the phone company in regular reports and should be reported on daily and tracked both weekly and monthly. The goal is always ZERO.

Answered: At the call center level this number will represent the total number of calls accepted into the call center phone system. If calls blocked equals zero then the number of calls accepted should equal the number of calls offered. The goal is to answer (accept) all calls offered.

Abandoned in IVR: A call that terminates prior to having had the opportunity to complete routing to or listening to a complete FAQ recording. The goal is to have zero calls abandoned in the IVR system.
Calls Placed in Queue: An internal metric which is simply the number of calls placed in the queue (hold) to wait for a live agent. This number is generated by the call center phone system.
Average Answer Delay: The average length of time (in seconds) a caller must spend waiting before the ACD can find an available agent to take the call. This number is not the equivalent of Average Speed of Answer as it includes only those calls that actually experience a wait. Also known as average time of delay. An average queue time of less than 30 seconds is considered exceptional.
Average Speed of Answer (ASA): Equal to the total time in queue divided by the total number of calls answered. This data is available from the ACD. This number is generated by the call center phone system. 20 seconds or less is a common ASA goal for world-class operations.
Abandoned: The number of calls that are terminated by the caller while waiting for a live agent. The goal is zero.
Abandon Time: An internal metric for the average time (seconds) a caller waited before abandoning a call.
Calls per Hour: The average number of calls that an agent handles per hour, and is equal to the total calls handled during on working shift divided by the total time logged into the telephone system. This number is generated by the call center phone system.
% Service level: (Calls answered in less that X seconds) / (Offered calls *100). A typical representation of this goal is 80/30 where the objective is to answer 80% of the calls within 30 seconds. World class operations typically push service level expectations to 90/20 or better.

Team / Individual Metrics:

Adherence To Schedule: A measure of whether agent's are "in their seats" as scheduled. Adherence is calculated as a percentage equal to (actual time an agent is logged into the system ready to answer the telephone) divided by (the total time the AGENT is scheduled to be ready to answer the telephone) times 100. The data for the percent adherence is taken from the ACD and should be reported on daily and tracked both weekly and monthly. Typically the goal is 80% or better.

Post Call Process (a.k.a. After Call Work Time): This is the time after a call is completed that the AGENT needs to complete administrative work related to the call. The data for after call work time is taken from the ACD and should be calculated by individual and group daily, weekly and monthly. Based on the workflow design it is expected that after call work will average less than 120 seconds.

Average Handle Time: An internal metric that is the sum of talk time and after call work time. With and avg. talk time of <180 sec, wrap time of <120 sec, and hold time of <30 sec the average handle time should consistently be less than 330 seconds.

Average Dials per Hour: (outbound only) In operations without an auto-dialer this is the count of agent initiated outbound calls.

Average Contacts per Hour: (outbound only) This may be used to represent the total number of live contacts that an agent made during outbound calling, or it may be refined to indicate only the number of Decision Maker Contacts per Hour.
Average Sales per Hour: (sales programs only) a count of the average sales closed by an agent. May be represented as a discrete count of actual deals closed or may be stated in terms or a dollar amount per hour against an appropriate dollar-based goal.
Hold: This is the number of seconds that an agent keeps callers on hold and should ideally be zero.
Occupancy Rate: Occupancy rate is equal to (Talk time + hold time)/(Talk time + Hold time + Idle time) times 100. The data to make this calculation is available from the ACD. In an operation with a 75% utilization target that is tightly managing idle time it is possible to achieve 80% or greater Utilization numbers.
Utilization: Agent total talk time divided by available time. Utilization target is generally 75% or higher.
Available Time: The amount of time that the agent was logged into the phone system and available to take calls.
Logged In Time: The total amount of time that an agent was logged into the phone system regardless of status.
Not Ready Time: The amount of time that an agent was logged into the phone system but not available to take calls. The BA is considered to be idle from a phone system perspective.
Average Talk Time: Average length, in seconds that the agent spends on a call. Initial target is <180 seconds for agent calls.
Total Talk Time: An internal metric for the total number of seconds the caller was connected to an agent.
Calls Escalated: Number of calls passed from an agent to other staff for resolution. This number is generated by the call center phone system. Patterns will emerge over time allowing for a reasonable range to be set for this number.
Calls Transferred: An internal metric that is the percent of total calls transferred from the original agent to an external (to the call center) number. This number is generated by the call center phone system. Patterns will emerge over time allowing for a reasonable range to be set for this number.

Call Quality Metrics:

Call quality numbers are based on key call criteria that have been specifically selected as a result of applicable laws, organizational guidelines, and/or operational objectives. The framework for a quality monitoring program will vary between operations with the one common component being that all world-class operations have robust quality monitoring program in place.

Optimize Call Center Performance

To read our article "Assessing Your Customer Service...", Click Here

Every customer contact operation is unique and, much like a doctor would examine x-rays and lab reports, an InTelegy Strategy and Plan is a focused and individualized review of your center. InTelegy can work with you and your team to develop a clear and complete understanding of the current state of your customer contact operations. Beyond that the InTelegy team can work with you to develop an actionable strategic plan, implement the plan, then manage and fine tune the on-going operations. InTelegy is prepared to become your partner in success.

If you would like to further discuss these benchmarks and how they impact your operation, complete the email form or call us at 1 877 GR8-CALL.

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