Struggle with measuring your call center performance? No problems with that anymore! Check out our latest post about key call center KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and call center KPI metrics that can be used both for inbound and outbound contact centers.

KPI Metrics For Inbound Call Center (Customer Service)

First Contact Resolution Rate

First Contact Resolution, also known as First Call Resolution, is one of the most important call center KPIs, at least because it is one of the most influential components of positive customer experience, along with customer satisfaction and customer effort score. It measures how many customer queries were resolved within one conversation. Ideally, an industry standard for First Call Resolution rate is 80%, but for more complicated industries, you can use 70-75% as a good benchmark. Nevertheless, even high First Call Resolution doesn’t guarantee that there are no issues with too long average resolution times.

Call Handling Time

Call handling time, or average handling time, is an essential one of KPI metrics call center can use for measuring agent performance. It measures how much time it takes to handle customer calls on average. The issue is that many call center managers confuse the average handle time metric with average resolution time. Remember: call handling time refers to the time spent from the start of the call to its end, and if the issue is transferred to another department – for instance, IT department – for resolution, the time of resolution provided by their efforts isn’t measured. It is just about the agent’s part of the work.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is an extremely important customer experience metric that measures how satisfied are customers with your product or service, or with certain customer interactions. Thus, measuring customer satisfaction for different customer interactions on a regular basis is vital for any call center that wants to ensure customer retention and positive experiences of your customers.

Average Speed Of Answer

The average speed of answer (ASA) is one of crucial contact center metrics that should be used by all customer service teams, at least because without this metric it is impossible to measure service level. This metric refers to the average time spent by agent to answer a call. The average response time is another name of average speed of answer, and the industry standard is 20 seconds. This metric is needed to measure agent productivity and time contact center agents spend on answering calls.

Average Resolution Rate

Average Resolution Rate is one of the most Important call centre metrics and KPIs used to measure the effectiveness of your call center in terms of customer service. It measures how many customer requests were resolved compared to overall number of calls received. The higher it is, the better it is, so you goal is to focus on at least 95-98%.

Agent Turnover Rate

Average turnover rate, often called agent turnover rate as agents are the employees that suffer the most from high turnover and attrition, nevertheless, it can measured for each type of call center jobs separately. High agent turnover is a common situation in most call centers, yet not normal as it harms customer service quality and overall stability of the business. It is measured by comparing the number of agents at the beginning of measured period and comparing the number of remaining agents at its end.

Average Call Wait Time

One of the most important call center performance metrics examples which measures how much time customers spend in the call queue before being connected to the live agent. The longer these times are, the higher is the chance that customers will just leave the queue and become a part of your customer churn statistics.

Customer Churn Rate

Customer churn rate is another one of call center performance metrics examples, even though it is a universal business metric used all over the world in different industries. Nevertheless, it measures how many customers you have lost during measured periods of time – and in most cases, you have to focus on achieving numbers that are close to 5%. Anyhow, there are industries where even 20% of customer churn is nothing more than a common thing.

Average Number Of Waiting Calls

This metric measures how many calls are there in a call queue on average, and it has practical purpose – it helps to understand how many agents during certain periods of time to provide timely service and avoiding call abandonment. Nevertheless, this metric is not very common to measure and some call center managers ignore it.

Call Volume

This metric is used to measure how many incoming calls are your handling on average during certain periods of time, and it is used to be measured regularly to determine your peak hours and downtimes and thus adapt agent scheduling in order to avoid too long wait times.

This metric is extremely important for business that has seasonal peaks to plan agent scheduling precisely.

Customer Feedback Percentage Per Agent

This call center metric measures the percentage of positive customer feedback provided for each separate agent of your team. Thus, quality assurance team can understand which agents are performing better, and which agents need assistance and additional training. This metric is quite subjective as it relies on customer opinion, but nevertheless, it provides deeper insight into such aspect of customer service as how agents can meet customer expectations and address their needs.

Cost Per Resolution

Cost per resolution is an economic metric used to measure the cost of all actions taken to resolve a problem. Thus, this metric is required to help call center managers understand where they can find more cost-effective solutions for customer issues resolution. The main issue is to find balance between cost reduction and customer experience.

KPI Metrics For Outbound Call Center (Sales)

Lead Conversion Rate

This well-known metric doesn’t need to be spoken of, nevertheless, let’s define how it works. Lead conversion rate measures how many leads were converted into customers, or in other words, how many of your leads agreed on your offer and the deal was closed. This is the most important sales metric over there.

Percentage Of Connected Calls

Call connection rate, or contact rate, sometimes also called as success rate is a metric that is used to measure how many outbound calls were answered by real prospective customers. With the use of manual calling, this rate rarely exceeds 35%, but with the use of auto-dialers, it can grow up to 75%.

Talk Time

Talk time is the average or absolute time spent on talking with prospects. This metric can help to see whether agents are following internal standards and using call scripts properly, or whether they are trying to end each call as soon as possible.

Sales Per Representative

Monitoring sales per representative stands as a fundamental KPI for any call center operation. This metric serves to gauge agent performance and pinpoint areas ripe for improvement. With this data at hand, it becomes effortless to distinguish high-performing agents from those who may require additional training and support. By delving into insights gleaned from sales per representative, strategic resource allocation within the call center can be optimized, ensuring the efficacy of outbound sales endeavors.

Cost Per Acquisition

Cost per acquisition (CPA) emerges as a critical KPI, quantifying the expenditure involved in acquiring a single customer or lead. This metric holds particular significance for evaluating the efficacy of marketing and sales strategies. Call centers leverage CPA to juxtapose the cost-effectiveness of each agent’s outbound sales endeavors, facilitating the identification of optimal approaches. Moreover, CPA affords companies clarity on the investment required to secure new customers or leads, empowering informed decisions regarding marketing budget allocation.

First Call Close

First call close serves as a pivotal KPI utilized by call centers to evaluate agents’ success in swiftly closing sales during outbound calls. The primary objective of this metric is to ensure agents can seal deals expediently, thereby maximizing efficiency and productivity.

Call Abandonment Rate

This metric quantifies the frequency of customer-initiated call abandonments prior to agent engagement. Call abandonment rate serves as a valuable tool for identifying opportunities for improvement across customer service, sales, and outbound call operations.