General Call Centre Metrics
In our previous articles, we discussed a few important topics about call centre metrics, including why it is important to track metrics and the difference between inbound and outbound call centre metrics. However, general call centre metrics are applicable to both inbound and outbound call centres:
Calls per hour
You can track calls per hour with two separate metrics – number of calls and talk time. The number of calls will be the total amount of calls made or received, and the talk time is the time spent in an active call. You can calculate a ratio from these two numbers to track whether the number of calls is a good reflection of the productivity of the call centre.
Average handle time
Average handle time can be considered the talk time for answered calls. Depending on the nature of your business, you can measure what the optimal handling time should be against what it actually is. You should track two metrics here – the average handle time per agent as well as the average handle time of the whole centre. This will show you if certain agents are way out in their handling time.
Cost per call
The cost per call is actually more than just the amount your voice provider charges you per minute. Other elements you should include in your cost per call are:
- Agents’ salaries
- The cost of the hardware the agents use
- Electricity used by your call centre
- Rent of the office space
- Licencing fees for the software
When you want to calculate your profitability, these are the expenses you need to subtract from your average income per call.
Other important factors
Two other things you should also be aware of in your call centre (that don’t really count as metrics) are line quality and absenteeism.
Hello? Can you hear me now? This line is terrible, I can't hear a thing you're saying...
Line quality
Bad line quality is bound to get a few complaints. Most call centres run on VOIP, and sometimes the internet connection is just too slow for the number of agents. If you experience bad line quality, consider switching to fibre. Fibre will give you the most stable connection and avoid voices getting lost over the line.
Absenteeism
When your agents don’t show up for work, the work can’t be done. If you notice that some of your agents are absent a lot, you should address the issue.
