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Metrics have always been an incredibly important part of every contact center. Without them, there is no way to conduct quality assurance or evaluate the performance of your agents. But in recent years, the key metrics used to measure and judge the success and effectiveness of a call center have changed. Here, we’re outlining how and why. 

In the past, efficiency was the name of the game for call centers. The faster they could answer calls and the faster they could wrap them up, the better. The metrics used to measure efficiency included things like Average Handle Time, Hold Time, Average Speed of Answer and Abandonment Rate. It was generally believed that the agents were to spend as little time on the phone with a customer as possible so that they could move on to the next one. The more calls that were completed, the better. While efficiency is still incredibly important—customers are more impatient than ever—it is not the most important thing anymore. Instead, the most important thing is the customer’s experience.

Why? First, customers have more options than ever. If they have a poor experience with an agent, even if they are relatively happy with the product or services otherwise, they may cut ties with the company in an effort to avoid an equally unpleasant interaction with an agent in the future. Second, with the proliferation of social media and similar channels, it’s incredibly easy for customers to share bad experiences that they have with a company and for other prospective customers to see these communications. In short, the quality of the customer experience when they are speaking with an agent (no matter the mode of communication) now has the power to directly impact a company’s bottom line. 

Therefore, metrics have shifted to better measure the customer experience, of which there are a few key aspects that are worth measuring. First is the success of the interaction itself in resolving the customer’s inquiry, which is measured with metrics like First Call Resolution and Customer Satisfaction. Next is whether the customer actually had an enjoyable (or at the very least, pleasant) interaction with the agent. This is an element of customer interactions that was rarely considered in the past, looked over in favor of focusing on efficiency, but that has become increasingly important of late. Customers expect agents, especially those they speak to on the phone, to be empathetic, active listeners who make an effort to build a rapport with the customer. This is measured using tools like sentiment analyses. Finally, there are the metrics that look at the customer’s experiences with the company outside of the agent interaction. These are metrics like Net Promoter Score and Customer Engagement Score, which look at how likely the customer is to recommend the product and whether or not they are actively engaging with the company outside of their initial purchase of products or services.

All that said, customers still want their issues resolved in a timely manner, carving out a place for the efficiency-based metrics of the past. The best path forward is one that keeps efficiency in mind while centering the customer’s experience as the most important aspect of every interaction. It’s clear that this can make or break a company’s relationship with a customer, especially if the inquiry is not resolved after the first interaction. If you want to keep your customers engaged with the company and more likely to become repeat customers, they must be the most important.

In our cloud-based call center software, CallShaper employs numerous built-in quality assurance mechanisms that combine critical efficiency metrics with equally as important customer-centered ones. To see for yourself, request a demo today.