Remote operations
Marc Prempain
15 April 2024
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When a customer experiences an issue with a product or service, the first thing they often do is call a customer service hotline. This means that call centers are crucial to providing good customer service and maintaining a good customer experience (CX). With such an important mission, call centers need a way to keep tabs on their performance. So how can call center metrics help them do this?
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics used in call centers to measure employee performance, customer satisfaction, and overall call center effectiveness. Call center software can often calculate these KPIs based on call data and customer feedback. The four call center metrics you need to track are NPS, AHT, FCR, and CSAT. Don’t be intimidated by the acronyms. They’re easy concepts to understand. Now let’s dive in!
Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how likely a customer is to recommend your company or service to friends and family. It is widely used in customer service to understand how loyal a customer is to your brand and how favorably they consider it against competitors. ViiBE’s video call software tracks NPS in real-time, thanks to a quick post-call survey. When customers experience better service, this often results in a higher NPS score.
Average Handle Time (AHT) measures how long, on average, a call center representative spends on the phone with each customer. This calculation includes talk time, hold time, and post-call work time. AHT should be considered alongside other KPIs because an individual customer requiring more time than average can distort an employee’s AHT score. To provide good customer service, it is critical to treat the customer courteously and not rush them for the sake of lowering the AHT.
First Call Resolution rate is a statistic for the number of callers who resolve their issue without requiring a follow-up call. ViiBE also tracks FCR in the survey, which updates KPIs in real-time. The goal is to finalize a majority of call resolutions in the first call. If a customer has to call again, ViiBE’s ticketing solution makes it easy to pick up where they left off. It can organize multiple calls under the same ticket, so even if a different operator answers, they can find the relevant customer data instantly.
While not all call centers are created equally, customer-centric call centers are designed around resolving customer issues speedily and satisfactorily. Besides NPS, customer service call centers use the KPI called CSAT to measure customer satisfaction. CSAT stands for Customer Satisfaction Score and helps to identify unsatisfied customers who require an immediate follow-up. Call center agents can use service recovery to resolve unsatisfied customer issues. This technique uses empathy to apologize for the problem and fix it adequately. After service recovery, the customer may be more satisfied than a typically happy customer. This surprising result is thanks to a phenomenon known as the service recovery paradox.
KPIs are crucial for a few different reasons. First of all, KPIs play an essential role in call center management. They help keep operating costs down by increasing agent performance and overall call center performance. AHT helps to measure call volumes to determine staffing needs.
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Some KPIs also help measure satisfaction. Measuring satisfaction allows you to make changes based on the customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and makes it possible to determine whether changes are effective.
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Finally, KPIs are important because they take the complex inner workings of a call center and transform them into an easily digestible number.
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Beyond these four primary KPIs, other indicators like average speed of answer, call volumes, customer effort score, call abandon rate, and many more. Inbound and outbound call centers may differ on what KPIs are most useful for their use cases.
Many call centers have migrated to a contact center model, where they use multiple modes of communication to interact with customers. This new model is called omnichannel communication. Contact centers thus give customers more options so they can choose their preferred channel of communication. ViiBE is a flexible software designed to easily integrate into a call center as a video call solution. With a simple web link, customers can connect to a ViiBE call without downloading or logging in to anything. It works with existing call center equipment and common CRM platforms. It allows the option to create a virtual call center if you do not already have one. ViiBE makes video calls simple, whether you’re starting from scratch, upgrading your call center into a contact center, or simply want to add another mode of communication.
Delivering excellent customer service requires staff that is constantly up-to-date on the best practices. ViiBE’s built-in knowledge management tool creates a centralized, cloud-based location to store the most recent procedural information. It also stores call data and can even save the video call for future reference. This ability makes it simple to conduct quality control and design training. You can identify a specific time when a customer experienced an issue and use the video as a real-world example for customized training programs. You could even make customized customer service training videos. This feature allows you to pinpoint the specific issue and create individualized training for underperforming employees.
Running a call center is hard work. Maintaining quality customer service with the constant customer calls and keeping up with the latest advancements in technology requires a manager with dedication. Call center metrics are a crucial component to keeping track of your center’s performance. ViiBE’s built-in KPI trackers give you continuously updated information on the performance of your call center overall and specific employees or a specific time period. Unique features like a built-in knowledge base and the option to create a virtual call center make it easier to run a call center, no matter your circumstance. If you’re ready to move to video calls and want to make life easier for both customers and staff, consider using ViiBE in your call center.
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