Consider 9 mistakes that should not be made in contact center reporting. Below is our translation of this article.
1. Don’t let lost incoming call statistics fool you.
When calculating statistics of lost calls on an incoming line, you should make sure that the threshold for the duration of calls is sufficient to exclude permissible lost calls – erroneously made calls and incorrectly dialed numbers. The incoming call duration threshold should be five seconds, so if your call center’s setting is higher than this value, your lost call rate may be too low. Conversely, if you are measuring lost calls through IVR, they may be too high. If you are not properly tracking IVR records and the customer hangs up because they used the self-service process to resolve their request, then this should be considered a success, not an abandoned call. Note : it will be easier and easier to read if you define the terms of the article, and then control their use. Google itself does not do this, and the result is a multiplication of entities.
2. Stop Obsessing About Average Call Handling Time (AHT)
Measuring average call handling time can be important for a call center – it helps determine how many agents are needed per shift. But your employees should not be too focused on completing calls on time and meeting personal KPIs, because then they may not have time to resolve customer issues at the set time. As a result, customers will be forced to call back, and this is not at all what we are trying to achieve. Instead, prioritize First Call Resolution, this will allow your agents to focus on resolving the issue at the first call stage and will likely make your customers happier.
3. Loosen control over unattainable agent occupancy rates
If your agents strive to meet KPIs on a daily basis and handle an uninterrupted flow of calls, they are likely to be prone to burnout, leading to subsequent layoffs. Instead, it’s better not only to keep an eye on occupancy levels, but also to give operators enough time to collect their thoughts. Taking breaks from work and setting aside time for training will help avoid burnout and add variety to routine work.
4. Don’t ignore customers from the website
Now 60% of customers start their acquaintance with your company on the Internet, so it is important to take into account the leads from the website or landing page. To do this, it is desirable to combine data about visiting your resources and calls. This service is called call-tracking. The purpose of this activity is to get more detailed information about the customer experience, which can be used to measure the number of calls due to the fact that the customer has dropped out of on-line communication. Then this information needs to be shared with the team of developers of the Internet resource to finalize it.
5. Don’t Ignore Data You Already Have
The contact center already has a large amount of data. These include:
- How many times the client called;
- How many translations have been made;
- How many calls were on hold for too long;
- and etc.
Although each of these parameters is valuable in isolation, a comprehensive analysis will identify the main reasons and answer the question why some indicators are too high / low. Contact center reporting should focus on these issues and contribute to addressing them.
6. Use speech analysis
The problem with unstructured reporting data is that it is difficult to deal with it. That’s why contact centers really can’t ignore solutions like speech analysis. It will allow the manager to delve deeper into performance indicators and face customer interaction problems that are not always immediately noticeable. You think that speech analytics is only applicable to the largest contact centers, right? Not properly! Currently, speech analytics is delivering results and promising data to call centers with fewer than 100 seats.
7. Too much feedback can become your biggest enemy.
With a lot of data, it’s easy to get confused, so it’s critical to focus on what’s important, and data presentation and visualization are key to that. Think about what data you bring to the attention of operators. Do operators really need to know how many calls are in the queue? Their job is to provide quality service, not to quickly handle calls in order to reduce the queue. Also, don’t fall into the trap of measuring averages. Keep track of any deviations from the statistical parameters – by focusing on them, you can understand where you are not satisfying customers.
8. Don’t Report Too Many KPIs
Many contact centers are looking to upgrade or replace their management information systems that manage employees with KPIs. This indicates that this approach does not provide management with the information they need to make decisions. Including too many key performance indicators in reports inevitably slows down the reporting cycle. For example, if you measure 18 KPIs but only use 5 as evidence to make necessary changes to the call center, you should discard the other 13. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time. Measure and analyze only the data that can influence your decision.
9. Focus on more than just average KPIs
The problem with some KPIs, such as Customer Effort (CES), is that they display an average score, while people answering such surveys often give an extreme answer. CES surveys typically ask “on a scale from very easy to very difficult how easy it was to interact with [company name]. The idea is that consumers are more loyal to a product or service that is easier to use. Thus, you need to understand that the KPI curve will have a large spread. And you need to take into account not only the average value, but also extreme indicators. How do you keep track of your call center? Have you noticed any of these errors?
