measuring productivity in contact centers

How to measure contact center operational efficiency

October 27, 2022

HGS Agent X, an award-winning contact center solution, helps to improve agent productivity, enhance customer experience, and leverage deeper insights. Learn more about Agent X.

The CX space is a constant witness to changing technologies that can sometimes cause operational hiccups. However, operational efficiency and productivity don’t have to be affected and can be easily achieved with the help of tried-and-tested improvements offered by Contact Center AI solutions.

But what exactly does productivity in the CX space look like, and how can it be measured?

What is contact center productivity?

Productivity in a contact center boils down to an effective conversation between a brand and the customer, where customer experience takes precedence over the typical turnaround time. It is measured in terms of time and resources that are invested to reach this goal.

Think of productivity as a cycle where in order to deliver a good customer experience, a business will have to consider the customer history, anticipate the customer needs, and work in real-time. This increases the productivity of the contact center where agents are quickly able to deliver an optimized customer experience.

The cycle itself is a great tool for businesses to learn how to optimally channel their funds, time, and resources.

Measuring Productivity in a Contact Center

To fully understand the importance of productivity control, the big picture to consider is the analysis of the various performance metrics, such as customer satisfaction, first call resolution, retention rates, etc.

HGS Agent X - Key Performance Metrics (KPIs)

To quantify productivity, every business uses a set of key metrics that track the performance of various business processes. Below are some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring the productivity of contact centers:

First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate: This productivity metric shows how many customer requests were solved during the first contact. It is good to keep it over 70-75%.
Average Speed of Answer (ASA): Historically, customers do not like wait times of more than two minutes before hanging up. So, it is ideal to minimize the ASA by quickly moving the call queues before the customer abandons the call.
Abandon Call Rate (ACR): ACR is the number of calls that the customers ended before an agent could answer. A high ACR can be addressed by changing the dialing software or expanding the team to share the workload.
Percentage of Call Transfers: This metric shows the number of calls that had been transferred by the agents to their colleagues. In situations where the call transfer percentage is high, it can highly affect customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is recommended to either provide the agents with the necessary training for them to be able to confidently handle the call without transferring or to rethink the call routing strategy altogether.
Call Completion Rate: This key indicator reflects the real-time productivity of agents by showing the number of successful calls connected against those that failed. It is also possible to see the number of repeated calls (in case of connection failures or other reasons).
Percentage of Repeat Calls: The percentage of repeat calls helps assess agents’ success rate in solving customer problems during the first contact itself.
On-Hold Time: This KPI shows how long the customer had to wait on call for the agent to get back with a resolution.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): The CSAT score shows the percentage of satisfied customers. It is one of the most straightforward metrics where the customer themselves rate their experience through a quick survey.

We may be looking at numbers, but these numbers essentially, mirror how well a business knows what a customer wants. Businesses may employ every trick in the book to increase their revenues but eventually, it comes down to aligning themselves to an approach where the customers are the top priority.

The solution to drive improvements in contact center performances is to include seamless cross-channel journeys, automation, AI-infused actions and suggestions, a smart knowledge base, data-driven insights, and the flexibility to scale as and when required. A unified solution in an AI-driven and cloud-based platform is the perfect tool.

Is there more we can add to this to tighten up this ending since we are cutting out the improving part?

A contact center solution like HGS Agent X adds tremendous value to customer interactions and serves as a dependable co-pilot empowering agents to perform better with cutting-edge technology. The easier a business makes it for its agents, the better customer service it will be able to deliver.

Ready to build a contact center for the future? Start with improving agent productivity – Learn more in our whitepaper!

Prakash Hariharasubramanian, Director & Practice Lead, Intelligent Process Automation (IPA), HGS
Prakash has led various IPA implementations across multiple industry verticals in his tenure of 7 years with HGS. In his role, Prakash develops IPA practice frameworks, creates IPA solutions, and serves as a key automation evangelist for HGS.

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