The call centre business is one of those that do not have any tangible or physical product. As such, the call centre KPI is measured differently from other industries. How this is measured is normally done through tools that are automated. However, there are also ways to measure performance based on the voice of the customer. The following are the most common key performance indicators in the call centre business.
AHT
Average Handle Time or AHT is one way of controlling productivity. Each call that is received should be finished at a certain point. The time that a customer’s issue is resolved is based on how difficult the program is. Some programs will require that the call is done at five minutes, some will require 10 minutes and the others may be lower. However, in most technical-related programs, AHT is not a measurement of performance since what matters more is to resolve the technical issue, which usually takes more than 30 minutes. The reason AHT is measured is to ensure that all customers who are waiting on queue are taken care of.
CSAT
Customer Satisfaction or CSAT is usually measured to know how the business is doing in terms of how they are perceived. In most cases, CSAT is measured by means of a scaling system. For example, a customer may rate a customer service associate from 1-10, 10 being the highest. Sometimes, anything that is between 7-10 is considered satisfactory and anything that falls lower than 7 is a defective performance that needs improvement. In other cases, the way this is measured is a simple yes or no. Customers are asked if they were satisfied with the way their concern was handled. If they say yes, then it means that the service was satisfactory, a no means otherwise.
Retention
In some programs in which the goal is to retain customers who want the service to be cancelled, customer service representatives are measured based on the number of customers whom they have convinced not to cancel the subscription. This ensures that the number of customers does not decline. In this type of program, frontline customer service representatives or CSRs are given the power of decision. They can offer freebies to customers or added warranty just to retain the customer’s subscription.
Quality
The way quality is measured is through monitored calls. Quality Assurance Specialists have specific guidelines that CSRs follow to ensure that the standards of the program are met. There are three different ways of monitoring calls: recorded, side-by-side, and remote. Each call is rated based on attributes that are expected for each call. Each attribute has a corresponding point, all of which are averaged once the call is done.
Managing a call centre is different from managing a manufacturing company since the outputs are not tangible. The very output of a call centre is the call that was made, which cannot be redone or retouched, unlike tangible products that can be tweaked. Call centre KPI is always based on the company’s program, which mostly have something to do with how money is generated through these calls like sales.