Call center benchmarking is essential for determining whether or not a team is performing optimally, keeping up with their competition and compliant with best practices. As such, benchmarking is critical to the success of the call center.
Managers seeking to optimize their approach to call center benchmarking should develop a solid process to obtain relevant metrics and then compare the data they acquired to global metrics. (Yet in order to grab the right data, you’ll be needing advanced cloud-based call center software.)
Pulling the data will provide call center managers with an estimate of their team’s performance compared with their competitors, which in turn will help managers spend their energy and time on the right changes that have the greatest impact. This blog post will help managers achieve this final step in their call center benchmarking efforts. Below is information about global standards for the most common call center performance benchmarks according to The IFC:
Service Level
Service Level is the percentage of calls answered within a predefined timeframe. The global metric for Service Level in the call center is 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds.
Average Speed to Answer
Average Speed to Answer is the average amount of time for calls to be answered by an agent during a specific time period. This includes the amount of time callers wait in a waiting queue and while the agent’s phone rings, but not the time it takes for callers to navigate through the IVR. The global metric for Average Speed to Answer in a call center is 28 seconds.
Abandonment Rate
Abandonment Rate is the number of callers that hang up before an agent answers. The global metric for Abandonment Rate in the call center is between 5 – 8%.
Accuracy of Call Forecasting
Accuracy of Call Forecasting is the difference between the number of calls predicted to arrive during a specific timeframe and the actual number of calls that arrived during that timeframe in a call center. The global metric for Accuracy of Call Forecasting is 5% variance.
Adherence to Schedule
Adherence to Schedule measures a call center agent’s degree of compliance with their assigned schedule. The global metric for Adherence to Schedule in the call center is 95%.
Occupancy Rate
Occupancy Rate measures the amount of time agents are on live calls as well as completing work associated with the calls (after call work). The global metric for Occupancy Rate in the call center is between 60 – 80%.
Call Duration
Call Duration is the amount of time agents speak with customers on the phone. The global metric for Call Duration in the call center is four minutes per call.
Call Wrap-up Time
Call Wrap-up Time is the time that an agent takes after the call has finished to complete all work associated with the call (after call work). The global metric for Call Wrap-up Time in the call center is six minutes.
Agent Absenteeism
Agent Absenteeism is the number of days lost per year due to agents being absent as a percentage of the total number of contracted days. The global metric for Agent Absenteeism in the call center is 5%.
Agent Attrition
Agent Attrition is a measure of staff turnover annually, expressed as a percentage. The global metric for Agent Attrition in the call center is 15%.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction is a metric that can be acquired by conducting customer surveys as well as quality assurance measurements. The global metric for Customer Satisfaction in the call center is 90%.
First Call Resolution
First Call Resolution measures the percentage of all calls where the caller’s issues were resolved on the first attempt, without the agent needing to escalate the call, transfer the call or call the customer back. The global metric for First Call Resolution in the call center is 70 – 75%.
Call center benchmarking is critical to the success of any call center. In order to effectively engage in benchmarking, call center managers must leverage call center software that allows them to acquire the right metrics, set a process in place to regularly assess call center KPIs and be prepared to act on the results. Doing so will help to ensure the call center benchmarking process is effective and the call center benefits as a result.
Source: Talkdesk
