5 Contact Center Metrics You Better Be Measuring

1. First Contact Resolutions

If you don’t measure this already you need to start. It’s an important metric because it is directly tied to customer satisfaction. The number one goal of your contact center should be making your customers happy. A great way to NOT do that? Make them work for a resolution.

The most effective way to increase your rate of FCRs is to provide agents with a system that allows them to find answers fast, and collaborate with other agents should an answer prove to be more difficult.

2. Abandonment Rate

This is defined as the rate of customers who leave the interaction before speaking/interacting with a live agent. While it is important (you cannot serve them once they leave), it does not have the effect on CSAT scores you might think it would. In fact, CSAT scores are not affected negatively until abandonment rate reaches about eight percent. This is good to know for contact center directors trying to reduce abandonment rate, as 8% is essentially just as good as 0% in terms of CSAT and will cost a lot less to achieve.

3. Average resolution time

Also referred to as average handling time, or mean time to resolution, this metric measures, basically, how long it takes to reach a resolution from the time it is first reported to when it is fully resolved. It is usually measured in hours and has a huge effect on CSAT scores.

4. CSAT

Let’s face it. All the other KPIs you’re measuring, you’re measuring because they affect the CSAT score. It’s the most important because it’s a measure of (what should be) your contact centers main goal: to satisfy the customer. There are many different ways to measure it, be it a phone survey or email survey, but the bottom line is that this metric needs to always be top of mind.

5. ESAT

You may have heard the saying “Serve your employees to better serve your customers”, and in the contact center this is absolutely true. Treat your employees with respect, and give them the tools they need to do their job well, and be happy doing it. Be it employee turnover, attrition, or another common issue at contact centers, it can be easily solved by asking “How can I make my employees jobs easier, and their lives better?”

Are they any metrics you think should be on this list that aren’t? Are any of these completely off? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear your take.

Ben Payne is an Inside Software Sales Representative for KMS lighthouse, an Enterprise Knowledge Management and Customer Engagement management platform.