Even though the contact center industry has been around for decades, it’s still hard to define, manage, and meet Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Beyond the fundamentals – e.g., total contacts, service levels, abandons, handle times, et al – management is concerned about:
- First Contact Resolution
- Business Outcomes (sales, saves, conversions, etc.)
- Cost per X (contact, customer, etc.)
- Customer Experience (Voice of the Customer/Customer Satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score)
If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to take a fresh look at your metrics strategy. Here are a few key messages that I’d like you to keep in mind…
Your metrics strategy must align with corporate goals and include several factors:
- Agent handling across channels
- Self-service across channels
- A balanced view that reflects efficiency (productivity), effectiveness (customer experience), and financial indicators, at a minimum
Putting metrics strategy into practice means defining:
- KPIs and appropriate accountability at each level (agents, supervisors, management)
- What to monitor and what to measure (set targets)
- What information each user needs (content, frequency, timeframes) to assess progress and meet defined goals, tactically and strategically
- The technology tools, processes, and resources to pursue the goals effectively
Centers must move beyond accessing and delivering reports to creating scorecards/dashboards that pull data from multiple systems. They need to analyze the data and create actions based on what the information reveals.
Based on what we see re: putting metrics into practice today:
- Traditional metrics (e.g., service level) that focus on efficiency and productivity remain important to planning and managing the center. They’re simply joined by metrics that focus on corporate expectations for optimizing the customer experience.
- There is no one “silver bullet.” While things like NPS, cSat or VoC, and now CES have their place, they are not enough to manage and measure the customer experience, center operation, and financial performance.
- The various channels, evolving use of self-service, customer segmentation strategies, and complexity in routing, skills, and call flows have a significant effect on metrics and targets.
- Knowledgeable business analysts are a key to success, bringing contact center understanding, their skills, and training together with the tools to drive insights and action.