Running a call center is stressful! You have to manage hundreds, if not thousands, of calls, all while maintaining the highest customer service standards. To discover if you’re doing so effectively, you’ll have to search for and examine the most relevant outbound call center metrics.
The Most Critical Outbound Call Center Performance Metrics
Choosing the right KPIs that pertain to your call center can be difficult. That’s why we created a call center metrics definitions list that should help you understand which are most important for you and your business.
1. Answer Success Rate (ASR)
Answer Success Rate, or Answer Seizure Rate, is the percentage of the successfully connected calls to the number of attempted ones. A “good” call center’s ASR is 40-50%, and if it’s above 60% — the services exceed expectations.
To maximize your ASR, take advantage of CommPeak’s LookUp that ensures you call valid numbers only. You can also bolster this KPI by adopting local dialing numbers.
2. Average Handle Time (AHT)
To better understand your agents’ efficiency, you should track their Average Handling Times. AHT is essentially the time it takes for an agent to complete a phone call or a “session.” A shorter AHT typically indicates that your agent is an effective communicator.
Both the CommPeak Dialer and Cloud PBX integrate with a wide variety of CRMs, keeping your agents focused instead of searching for essential customer information.
3. Occupancy rate
Occupancy Rate is the percentage of time agents spend on call-related activities compared to idle time. This metric defines an agent’s pace of work and efficiency — when the occupancy rate is low, the pace of work is low.
If you want to increase your call center’s Occupancy Rate, consider using the CommPeak Dialer to create customized dialing ratios, automatically connecting agents with the next live customer.
4. Calls per Agent
The Calls per Agent KPI helps to identify how often your agents are on task — it determines how well the agents can cope with the average number of calls being received.
5. Call Quality/Etiquette
Call Quality and Call Etiquette metrics are used to define how well agents deal with the customers. There are no industry standards for tracking call quality, but there are some guidelines the agents should follow during a call — how they start and end the call and how to navigate the caller to a resolution.
Enhance agent compliance and gain detailed insights today while saving your time by automatically transcribing phone recordings with our Speech-to-Text converter.
Tips for Optimizing Your Call Center Metrics
- Setting Benchmarks
You can use results from similar outbound call center campaigns that your business or another company in the industry executed. Industry-standard benchmarks are another excellent starting point for which to compare your business results.
However, after operating your business for a while, you should set your benchmarks based on past results, making the necessary adjustments to your campaigns and practices to reflect a desire to do better and close more sales.
- Constantly Monitoring Performance
CommPeak offers a vast range of custom-tailored call center communication tools that help you monitor and improve your call center performance. Contact sales to learn more.
- ASR
Answer Success Rates primarily indicate your network and lead quality. After evaluating your ASR, you should choose a VoIP provider with superior call quality and shorter routing. You’ll also want to make sure you validate your numbers before calling.
- AHT
One way to reduce your call center’s AHT is by optimizing the call routing process. With the help of the advanced Cloud PBX or CommPeak Dialer IVR, this should be no problem. Proper call routing ensures that your prospects and customers are connected to the most capable agents. In addition to reducing their hold time, this also helps reduce the AHT by ensuring that agents can deliver quick results, equipped with the relevant expertise for the issue at hand.
- Occupancy Rate
To maximize your agent’s Occupancy Rates, you should focus on examining call volumes and call routing. With the CommPeak Dialer, you can create groups of agents with specific skills and experience and assign the most suitable calls directly to them.
- Calls per Agent
Using our unique PBX Stats’ real-time dashboard and intelligent reporting system, you can track Calls per Agent, revealing this metric for your entire call center. You can also take advantage of the CommPeak Dialer for customized predictive dialing and call routing, optimizing the process of reaching customers, ultimately improving this metric.
- Call Quality/Etiquette
Whether you use the CommPeak Dialer or Cloud PBX, you have the option to have all of your agents’ calls recorded and stored directly in the cloud, accessible whenever you need. Moreover, with our Speech-to-Text, you can rapidly convert these recordings into text in the form of a script.
Let’s Get Evaluating!
Once you have a robust backlog of your call center’s KPIs and metrics, you can better plan your outbound marketing campaigns, making them more efficient and profitable. Moreover, you can create optimal outbound sales templates that can be used year after year to improve your conversation rates and customer retention.
With CommPeak’s leading cloud-based communication tools, you’ll optimize your campaigns in no time! What are you waiting for?
Get started today!