Customer service is constantly evolving due to technological advancements and changes in the needs and expectations of customers. To meet these changing preferences, it is important for call centers to stay on top of the performance of its employees and one of the ways to do so is use the right metrics for evaluating performance. Unfortunately, many managers today choose the wrong metrics to evaluate employee performance and to measure customer service, so they end up incurring more cost for the company without any major improvement in customer satisfaction.
With so many metrics available for use today, it can be difficult to choose the optimum option. The best way to start is with the value proposition of the company. The question is whether the company is competing on customer experience or cost, as the metrics for the former goal would be satisfaction-related measures while for the latter goal, it is efficiency and productivity. Once the value proposition is clear, the next step is to choose the high-level KPIs that affect the bottom line of the company and are in tune with the company's objectives.
Besides goal-oriented metrics, there are some areas that are common to all areas of business. These metrics can be broadly classified as operational metrics as they are important to satisfy both financial and satisfaction goals. These operational metrics include first contact resolution (FCR), escalation rates, response and resolution rates, cost to resolution and hold time. First contact resolution is the number of interactions that take place between a customer and the agent before the issue is completed, and in this measure, a lower value is better as it indicates faster resolution. Escalation rate is the rate at which issues are taken higher up, and the reasons for the same while the response and resolution time is the time it takes for an agent to respond to a customer and the time it takes to resolve the issue.
In short, it is important for managers to choose the right metrics to ensure the measures are in tune with the company's objectives.