How to Measure Call Centre Productivity

A call center is not just about calling or answering calls, it is about resolving customers’ queries with results and boosting overall credibility of an organization. However, around 71% of customers expect to resolve their query on the first call, and 76% got frustrated when an agent failed to deliver. Therefore, it’s important to maximize productivity to effectively manage the call center. To achieve better productivity levels, the teams should adhere to some standard regulations, such as an average answer calls within 28 seconds, recording every conversation, and providing ethical solutions.

However, call centers often find it challenging to balance productivity and customer satisfaction. Employee monitoring software can help to counter these issues. It automatically monitors agents, encourages them to follow the clean desk policy, and provides real-time insight into their productivity.

In this blog, we will explore how you can effectively measure operational productivity of your call center to optimize workflows, improve ROI, and make informed decisions.

What is Call Centre Productivity

Call center productivity is the effective management of customer queries by a call center agent. It is about timely help, solving issues, and customer satisfaction. It’s not merely about receiving calls but also receiving them promptly.

For example, an efficient call center would respond quickly to calls, solve issues at pace, and be polite. It not only keeps customers happy but also facilitates smooth business running.

What are Key Metrics to Measure Call Centre Productivity

Key metrics in monitoring how well a call center is doing. The figures indicate the speed and efficiency with which agents respond. Businesses can identify areas of improvement by monitoring these measures and ensure that customers receive the best service. They also assist in balancing speed, quality, and customer satisfaction.

• Average Call Handling Time (AHT)

Average Call Handling Time (AHT) is a metric of the time an agent takes to handle a customer call, including speaking, holding the caller, and follow-up. A lower AHT means quicker service, but it’s important not to hurry.

The aim is to resolve issues clearly and respectfully within a reasonable timeframe. Monitoring AHT allows call centers to become more efficient and prevents lengthy waiting times.

• First Contact Resolution (FCR)

First Call Resolution (FCR) is an important measure of customer care quality, which reflects the extent to which a customer’s concern is resolved in the first call without necessarily having to make further contacts with the call center. High FCR reflects fast and correct responses, minimizes stress, and less repeat calling, minimizing the workload and enhancing productivity for agents.

Monitoring FCR facilitates the detection of process faults or knowledge gaps, thus enhancing customer satisfaction and call center performance.

• Queue Time

Long queues lead to frustration and hang-ups. Short queue times enhance customer satisfaction by showing priority and timely treatment. Call centers must track this metric to determine peak hours and realign staff timetables. Reducing queue times enhances customer confidence, reduces complaints, and ensures a seamless and professional service experience for everyone who calls.

• Agent Occupancy Rate

The Agent Occupancy Rate is a statistic of an agent’s work time spent on call and call-related activities. Busy agents are reflected by high rates, and low rates reflect wasted time. A good balance enables managers to schedule shifts, workloads, and breaks, keeping agents fresh, engaged, and ready to provide better service.

• Call Resolution Time

Call Resolution Time is a measurement that captures the amount of time spent resolving a customer’s problem, including the call and follow-up calls. Decreased resolution times improve customer satisfaction, but compromising on service quality should not happen.

Tracking this metric will provide insight into the typical delays and areas of opportunity, as well as guarantee that agents have proper tools and training to solve issues quickly, assuring customer and agent satisfaction.

Proven Strategies to Boost Call Centre Productivity and Customer Satisfaction

Increasing call center efficiency is not only about working harder; it’s about working smarter as well. The right approaches can assist agents in handling calls more effectively, decrease waiting times, and make customers smile. Small adjustments such as improved monitoring, a tidy work area, AI assistance, and a distraction-free workspace can go a long way.

• Agent Monitoring for Real Time Data

Real-time agent monitoring allows supervisors to observe agents’ performance in real time while on calls, enabling them to detect problems early and provide feedback in a timely manner.

This facilitates managers to make rapid decisions, for example, increasing the number of agents during busy hours. Monitoring helps agents resolve problems more quickly, resulting in improved call quality, quicker resolutions, and an improved customer experience.

Read More: Call Centre Screen Monitoring Use Cases & Benefits

• Clean Desk Policy

A clean desk policy urges agents to have a neat work area, avoiding distractions and keeping them on customer calls. It safeguards confidential information and is professional, particularly in home or remote environments.

Clean desks engender a clear mind, improved work habits, and effective handling of calls, enhancing productivity and the call center environment.

• Collaborate and Enable AI-powered Agents (Virtual Agents)

Virtual agents powered by AI take care of routine work, such as responding to FAQs and order status checks, so that human agents can deal with complicated customer problems.

AI collaboration operates 24/7, decreases waiting times, and increases call center effectiveness. AI collaboration saves time, effort, and money, enabling quicker and more precise responses to customers, improving productivity.

• Create a Productive and Distraction Free Environment

A distraction-free workplace is essential for agents to remain alert and composed during peak call hours. Call centers may employ noise-cancelling headsets, quiet areas, individual workspaces, flexible break schedules, and wellness programs.

Promoting a dedicated home workspace can also enhance concentration, translating to quicker handling of calls, fewer errors, and improved service, ultimately yielding customer satisfaction.

wAnywhere: Enhancing Agent’s Workflow and Productivity

wAnywhere is a one-stop platform, offering solutions in productivity monitoring, compliance management, and workforce management—helping call centers to improve workforce productivity and ensure compliance security. Managers gain real-time views into agent performance, call management, and productivity patterns, supporting quicker decision-making during peak times.

It provides functionalities such as real-time time tracking, attendance management, activity monitoring, and more—enabling managers to get enhanced visibility into how and when their team works. In addition, wAnywhere’s AI compliance security solution helps you to maximize data security, enforce clean desk policy and comply with enterprise-grade security regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, ISO, SOC, and more. It runs in the background of computer systems, identifying multiple persons, unknown persons, or no-desk scenarios with live locations to prevent data breaches.

With wAnywhere, managers can receive detailed reports on crucial productivity and compliance metrics in real-time to understand work behavior and patterns of the call center agents. The software also offers visual data of workforce analytics, from micro to macro level—helping managers identify productivity bottlenecks, improve workflows, and make data-driven decisions.

Conclusion

Call center management is beyond just answering calls; it is about providing satisfactory resolution to customers and improving productivity to ensure sustainable growth. However, many agents fail to provide satisfactory results. It is crucial to measure KPIs such as AHT, queue time, answer time, aux, and break time of agents to evaluate call center productivity.

AI powered employee monitoring software like wAnywhere can help businesses measure productivity—creating a streamlined atmosphere for agents to excel at the highest level, providing prompt and professional service to customers.