When it comes to customer experience (CX), contact center agents are the first (and in many respects, most crucial) line of communication with the customer. Giving these staff members the insights and analytics to deliver superior experiences is the difference between good and outstanding service. But what are the essential metrics to track, and how can businesses stay on top of them throughout the day, especially when agents are working remotely? Let’s look at a few key metrics, and how an advanced contact center solution can help optimize them.
Outstanding customer experiences translate into extended brand loyalty, higher renewal and upsell activities, and greater brand recognition. When analytics on these indicators are delivered through a cloud-based infrastructure, it gives managers of virtual and hybrid contact centers a cohesive view of their entire operation. Agents in distributed locations can leverage a unified Contact Center as-a-Service (CCaaS) solution from anywhere with an internet connection. In this way, administrators can manage and monitor their entire staff simultaneously, whether agents are in a physical office or working from home.
Nadine Simpson of United World Telecom recommends that companies set specific key performance indicators (KPIs), to analyze contact center solutions. Five key KPIs any contact center should keep in mind include:
First Contact Resolution (FCR) rates: Effective contact center tools can measure whether a caller’s inquiry was resolved on the first call, whether additional call-backs or emails were required, and how much time elapsed during each attempt.
Average Wait Time: One of the most common customer service complaints is the amount of time spent in queue waiting for a representative. Contact center reporting documents the amount of time callers waited in queue.
Average Handle Time (AHT): This measures the average time spent handling a call, encompassing both talk and hold time. By carefully monitoring contact center analytics, managers can ensure agents are keeping AHT low, ensuring customers quickly get the answer to the questions.
Call Abandonment Rate: This refers to how often customers leave or abandon a call—usually as a result of excessive wait times. Sophisticated, unified solutions can help agents perform their tasks in a more streamlined manner, without navigating multiple screens, reducing abandonment.
Agent Compliance: Cloud-based workforce management tools can monitor whether agents are adhering to their assigned schedules—no matter where they are physically located. Compliant, efficient agents can greatly impact productivity.
Related: Simplified Solution for Exceptional Customer Experiences
Monitoring these key metrics throughout the day is positively essential for delivering delightful customer experiences. And yet, according to consulting firm McKinsey, a majority of organizations do not utilize advanced analytics and performance metrics to improve their outcomes. Why don’t more companies leverage advanced contact center analytics? Too many have entrenched legacy technologies that simply don’t accommodate sufficient reporting and metrics capabilities. Yet contact center analytics tools offer vital insights to help administrators identify agent strengths and weaknesses, pinpoint and even predict peak call volume periods, document hold times and call drop rates, and even monitor agents’ compliance with established personnel requirements. Accurate performance data can help contact center managers adjust staff schedules, offer support to agents in need, and reallocate resources to optimize customer engagement.
Organizations that don’t employ straight-forward cloud-based analytics do so at their own peril. “When a company doesn’t have a clear view of the customer journey, contact center performance across major KPIs, such as quality score, average handle time, and contact resolution rates suffer,” confirmed analytics executive Niren Sirohi in an article for Customer Strategist. As he rightly points out, contact center analytics are a key place to start improving the customer experience.
It’s a part of our Contact Center Essentials solution to help businesses build a contact center solution that meets its needs and deliver comprehensive analytics that will help businesses hit their performance goals. With effective contact center tools, businesses have the ability to transform the customer experience, providing superior engagement that creates efficiencies and increases the company’s bottom line.
To learn more about how to implement a contact center in your business, contact us.
