Disha Gupta
Call centers, whether remote or in a physical office, are integral to customer service and help desk teams. Despite the technological advancements we have become accustomed to in recent years, customers still prefer speaking with live support agents over automated systems, whether on a live phone call, a real live chat support agent, or on social media.
Effective call center management resolves support issues, improves customer satisfaction, maintains high operational efficiency, and drives overall business performance. Call center involves navigating a complex landscape of technology, HR operations, and customer expectations.
Call centers have also changed drastically over the past few decades, evolving from simple phone call support operators to more holistic contact centers with hands-on service agents through various support channels, such as live website live chat, email, video calls, and more.
This article explores the complex world of call and contact centers, including best practices for managing physical and remote call centers and contact centers, the team roles that support call center operations, and critical contact center KPIs and metrics.
What Is Call Center Management?
Call centers are centralized offices for handling customer phone calls from customers seeking to resolve issues or have their questions answered. Contact centers handle customer interactions through a variety of communication channels in addition to phone calls, including emails and chats. In some organizations, these centers also conduct telemarketing or market research activities.
Call center management is the oversight and coordination of all these activities and related business functions, including IT, personnel management, quality assurance, and, of course, customer experience. The overall outcome of effective call center management is premium, efficient customer service.
Different Roles In a Call Center
Successful management of a call center relies on team members in different roles working together. Here are some of the most critical roles involved in a well-structured call center team:
Call center manager
What they do: Call center managers oversee overall operations and serve as a touchpoint between the call center, the organization’s larger customer service team, and the organization as a whole. Managers set expectations for employee performance, establish goals for the call center, and handle broader strategic planning.
Key responsibilities: Here are five key responsibilities of a call center manager:
- Overseeing the recruitment, training, and management of call center staff.
- Regular monitoring of call center operations. This involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as call wait times, call resolution rates, and customer satisfaction scores.
- Developing strategies to enhance customer experience, handle complaints and escalations proficiently, and implement feedback mechanisms to gather insights from customers.
- Managing budgets, controlling costs, and ensuring efficient use of resources.
- Providing regular training, mentoring, and coaching to staff.
Call center supervisor
What they do: Call center supervisors, also called team leads, have a more direct connection to agents and day-to-day operations. They manage the activities of agents and are well-versed in services and product offerings, so they can step in if customer service issues need to be escalated to the managerial level. By following the direction of follow the direction of the manager to ensure the productivity and success of employees and customer support teams.
Key responsibilities: Here are five key responsibilities of a call center supervisor:
- Addressing any issues or conflicts that arise within the team, fostering a positive and collaborative work environment.
- Supervisors conduct regular performance evaluations, provide feedback, and offer coaching or training sessions to agents who require additional support.
- Ensuring that all interactions with customers meet quality standards and comply with company policies and regulations.
- Creating schedules, managing shift swaps, and arranging cover for absences to ensure adequate coverage at all times.
- Handling escalated calls from customers who have complex issues or are dissatisfied with the service they have received.
Call center agents
What they do: Call center representatives, also called agents, interact directly with customers to answer questions and provide support. They sometimes handle outbound customer service as well, reaching out to current and prospective customers to make sales, conducting market research, and circling back to customer issues to ensure they’re resolved. Agents also specialize in different components of customer service, such as product services or technical support.
Key responsibilities: Key responsibilities of call center agents include:
- Managing both inbound and outbound calls professionally while maintaining a positive and helpful demeanor.
- Providing accurate information about products, services, or company policies to the customers.
- Ensuring that customers feel heard, valued, and respected during every interaction.
- Updating accurate customer information in the company’s database during or after calls.
- Adhering to the company’s scripts and guidelines to ensure consistency and quality in customer interactions.
Related Resources
18 Best Practices for Effectively Managing a Call Center
Call centers function smoothly only when managed strategically and effectively. Keep reading to learn about some best practices for call center management.
1. Provide your call center agents with contextual onboarding
Contextual onboarding involves equipping agents with the necessary tools and information specific to their roles and the situations they will encounter in their job roles. This type of onboarding focuses on practical, scenario-based training, allowing agents to understand and adapt to real-world customer interactions efficiently.
Utilizing a digital adoption platform such as Whatfix can significantly enhance this process. Whatfix specializes in creating interactive guides and walkthroughs within the software applications that agents will use. By integrating Whatfix, new agents can receive step-by-step guidance directly within their work environment, such as in CRM systems or call-handling software.
The contextual information can be tailored to the specific tasks and challenges an agent might face, making the learning process highly relevant and immediately applicable. This not only speeds up the onboarding process but also helps in building confidence and competence in handling customer queries and issues from the very start, leading to improved performance and customer satisfaction.
Above: In-app employee guidance created with the Whatfix Digital Adoption Platform
Whatfix’s DAP empowers organizations with a no-code editor to create in-app guided flows, onboarding tasklists, pop-ups, tooltips, alerts, reminders, self-help wikis, and more to enable employees to use software better. Enable your employees to become proficient in new applications faster, create interactive process documentation, guide users through process changes, assist employees through infrequent tasks, and provide self-help performance support on your CRM, ERP, HCM, or any desktop, web, or mobile application.
2. Enable agents with reinforcement training in the flow of work
Enabling call center agents with reinforcement training in the flow of work involves integrating continuous learning opportunities into their daily activities. This method helps in solidifying their skills and knowledge without pulling them away from their primary responsibilities.
Reinforcement training involves machine learning technology that teaches agents by adjusting learning scenarios based on real-time feedback and areas that need improvement. Through positive reinforcement, this type of training helps agents learn by doing to strengthen their skills and promote continuous improvement.
3. Support your agents with self-help in the moment of need
Avoid roadblocks by enabling agents to help themselves through issues by giving them access to the tools and information they need to do so. With in-app support software, team leaders can curate content for knowledge repositories or libraries and provide in-the-moment prompts that provide them with access to the information they need right when they need it. This keeps agents productive and reduces the need for supervisor intervention when it comes to easily resolvable issues.
Integrating a digital adoption platform can be instrumental in achieving this. Whatfix enhances the agents’ work environment with interactive, on-demand guidance and support directly within their software applications. For instance, if an agent encounters a complex customer issue or a new situation, they can instantly access step-by-step guides, FAQs, or best practice tips through Whatfix overlays on their screen.
This method reduces the time spent searching for information or waiting for assistance from supervisors. Whatfix can be programmed to offer contextual help based on the task the agent is performing, ensuring that the support provided is relevant and efficient. This approach not only fosters a culture of self-reliance and continuous learning but also ensures that help is readily available when agents need it the most, without disrupting their workflow.
Above: Example of contextual help and user support built with a Digital Adoption Platform.
Whatfix’s Self-Help overlays on to any web application, desktop application, mobile app, or website. It provides contextual help to users and integrates with your FAQs, support center, LMS, user documentation, and more. Users are presented with common issues and help content for their contextual area in the application, or they can use an open-ended search to find the specific help content they’re looking for. These help support cards often prompt in-app guidance, walking users through the specific workflow they need help on.
4. Invest in cloud call center software
Cloud call center software routes inbound and outbound customer communications using online services and centralizes all your call center-related documents and services. Cloud-based solutions ensure greater flexibility and accessibility, allowing agents to access the system from anywhere, which is particularly beneficial for remote work scenarios or geographically dispersed teams.
Most cloud platforms come with advanced features like call routing, interactive voice response (IVR), and automatic call distribution, which streamline call handling and reduce wait times for customers
These platforms also offer robust analytics and reporting tools, giving agents and managers valuable insights into call patterns, performance metrics, and areas for improvement.
5. Integrate your call center application(s) with other software
By integrating call center software with other operational software, call centers can improve efficiency, streamline processes, and reach their most essential goal: positive customer experience outcomes. Call center applications integrate with widely used business software like CRM and IT help desk systems, knowledge management tools, communication platforms, and data analytic tools. Integrating these software allows users to conduct business functions with less redundancy and enables more personalized and informed interactions with customers, improving both service quality and customer satisfaction.
6. Provide product or service knowledge training
Employees should be subject matter experts on the products or services they will be discussing with customers. Providing in-depth product knowledge training on your organization’s products and services to call center agents is essential in equipping them with the expertise required to assist customers effectively.
This type of training ensures that agents can confidently provide detailed information, make informed recommendations, and guide customers through complex processes or troubleshooting steps. Additionally, well-informed agents are better equipped to identify and cross-sell or upsell relevant products or services, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and potentially increasing revenue.
7. Analyze your agent performance with data
Analyzing agent performance with data is a critical aspect of effective call center management, as it provides objective insights into both individual and team performance. Utilizing data analytics allows managers to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and other call center metrics such as call handling time, customer satisfaction scores, first-call resolution rates, and adherence to scripts.
By closely monitoring these metrics, managers can identify trends, pinpoint areas of strength, and more importantly, areas needing improvement. This data-driven approach enables targeted training and development efforts, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently to enhance skills where they are most needed.
Additionally, analyzing performance data helps in recognizing high-performing agents and understanding the practices that contribute to their success, which can then be shared and implemented across the team.
8. Create a call center agent recruitment strategy that hires top-talent
Recruiting skilled and knowledgeable agents is an investment in the success of the call center as a whole. By hiring top talent, call center leaders can ensure higher customer satisfaction, better first-call resolution rates, and improved employee engagement, which all ultimately reduce turnover costs and improve brand reputation among customers.
Moreover, skilled agents require less training time and are often quicker to adapt to the dynamic call center environment, leading to faster ramp-up times and greater overall productivity.
9. Set up your remote call center agents for sucess
As in life, as well as managing remote call centers: planning and preparation will support your success. Sure, it’s essential to give your remote agents the knowledge to perform. But more importantly, they require the tools to do the job.
That means working equipment such as headsets, dual monitors, and a strong broadband connection to head off any risk of service disruption. Beyond that, ensure call center agents have appropriate security measures and advise them on setting up a dedicated workspace. This will help maintain employee performance in a remote call center environment.
Working from home also lessens the opportunities to interact with co-workers or talk with management. In this environment, agents can sometimes grow detached and demoralized. Your employees must have that extra support to do their job well. Thankfully, technology has filled the gap, and you can keep open lines of communication with your remote workers through various software tools for remote teams, like Slack, MS Teams, JIRA, Trello, Asana, Zoom, and more.
10. Stay on top of compliance laws and regulations
An essential component of call center management involves adhering to relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards at various levels to protect customers, uphold legal obligations, and avoid financial penalties. Call center leaders and agents should be well-versed in these laws and regulations, and this awareness should be integrated into the structure and operations of the call center. This includes complying with rules about the National Do Not Call Registry when contacting prospective customers.
11. Conduct monthly or quarterly performance reviews with your agents
Recruiting top talent is only the first step in developing an effective call center workforce. Agents should have a working relationship with their supervisors and meet several times each year to discuss performance. These reviews help agents understand how their contributions impact the organization’s goals and give them a chance to provide feedback. They also allow managers to recognize achievements and growth, ultimately contributing to transparency in the workplace and a higher level of employee engagement.
12. Reward your top-performing agents
Rewarding top-performing agents is a highly effective strategy in call center management, as it fosters a culture of excellence and motivation. Recognizing and rewarding high performers not only boosts their morale and job satisfaction but also encourages them to maintain and even exceed their current performance levels. This positive reinforcement can take various forms, such as bonuses, promotions, public recognition, or additional responsibilities and learning opportunities.
This practice sets a benchmark of success for other agents, creating a healthy competitive environment where excellence is valued and aspired to. It also helps in retaining top talent, which is crucial in an industry often plagued by high turnover rates.
13. Create call center scripts, SOPs, and guidelines
By developing standardized operating procedures, guidelines, and call center scripts, managers can bring their call centers toward goals of consistent, efficient, and high-quality service. By following well-defined scripts and procedures, agents can quickly identify customer needs and deliver accurate, consistent responses, enhancing the overall quality and efficiency of service.
Furthermore, in challenging situations, scripts and guidelines can serve as valuable support, helping agents navigate conversations confidently and effectively.
14. Promote your best agents to leadership positions
Opportunities for advancement keep employees motivated and engaged to be successful, knowing that their contributions will be not only valued but rewarded by team leaders. When agents are consistently excelling in their roles, give them opportunities to mentor their peers and promote them to leadership positions as they become available.
15. Collect feedback from your call center agents
Collecting feedback from call center agents provides management with critical insights that can help identify training needs and improve operations as well as customer experience. Team leaders can collect feedback in a variety of ways, like formal surveys and reviews, or simply taking notes in group meetings. The important thing here is to create an open and safe environment for employees to give feedback, and take it seriously. Ultimately, this will contribute to a culture of continuous improvement and help align the call center with larger organizational goals.
16. Track core call center metrics
Core call center metrics use hard data to gain insight into the performance of call center operations. These metrics, like First Call Resolution and Customer Satisfaction rates, directly reflect the effectiveness of call center services. Keeping track of these measurements will ensure that customers receive satisfactory support and that the call center is consistently moving toward its long-term goals. Here are some commonly tracked core call-center metrics:
- First Call Resolution Rate (FCR) is the rate of cases resolved at the first point of contact with an agent versus the overall number of open cases. Tracking and improving this metric will require the development of agents’ customer service skills and product knowledge via customer service training to ensure that they can resolve the majority of customer issues and inquiries as soon as they are encountered.
- Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) is the overall percentage of customers who feel their needs have been met after interacting with a call center agent. To track this, prompt callers to answer a quick post-conversation survey that allows them to rate different aspects of the interaction.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS) quantifies the likelihood that users will recommend your organization’s product or service after interacting with customer service agents. This can also be measured by surveys that simply ask customers whether or not they would recommend the company’s offerings to others. This can be used to gauge the degree of customer satisfaction with the organization, which builds on the question of whether or not they were satisfied with the interaction they had just had.
- Cost Per Call (CPC) is a measurement of the average operational call per agent versus the number of calls they complete over a given period. This metric is used to gauge the efficiency and productivity of call center teams as well as individual agents and gives leaders a good idea of call center performance.
17. Stay on top of technology trends to leverage new emerging tech
As new call center technologies emerge, investing in them can have drastic effects on call center operations. Whether it’s call center software, training software, or other call center tools, leveraging new technology can help agents adapt to changing customer expectations and provide support across a variety of channels simultaneously. Embracing technological evolution and innovation can help drive call centers toward success and improve employee and customer experience alike.
18. Provide soft skills training for your agents
Soft skills, like problem-solving, communication, and emotional intelligence, are known to contribute to customer satisfaction. By providing agents with soft skills training, they can communicate with callers more effectively and demonstrate authentic understanding when helping them through issues or resolving conflicts. By promoting the importance of soft skills in addition to providing agents with the necessary knowledge and technical expertise, managers can ensure that employees create positive experiences for callers, building brand loyalty, and contributing to the overall success of the organization.
Call Center Metrics & KPIs to Track
Call center metrics help evaluate how effective and productive your call center is. These customer support metrics and help desk KPIs provide contact center managers an inside look at how efficiently your team connects with and supports your customers, providing supervisors and managers a better understanding of overall call center performance.
Here are 27 critical call center KPIs to track to understand how your contact center performs today, and what metrics you need to improve on moving forward.
1. First Call Resolution (FCR)
First call resolution (FCR) measures the percentage of customer inquiries or issues resolved during the first customer interaction. Maintaining a high FCR keeps customer frustration to a minimum and reduces call volume — a sign that your customer service team is efficient and effective.
2. Average Handle Time (AHT)
Average handle time (AHT) is the average duration an agent spends on a call, including talk time, hold time, and any post-call follow-ups or reports. It’s a great metric for measuring productivity, but needs to be analyzed with context. Cutting AHT for the sake of better metrics could negatively impact customer satisfaction.
3. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a survey-based metric that measures customer satisfaction with your services. Customers rate their level of satisfaction on a 1 (low) to 5 (high) scale. Customer satisfaction surveys are a straightforward way to see how happy your customers are, but without additional context, it can be hard to know exactly where to improve.
4. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is another survey-based metric used to measure customer loyalty and how likely a customer is to recommend your brand to others. The NPS scale ranges from 0 to 10 and categorizes respondents as Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6). You find your final score based on the difference between the number of Promoters and the number of Detractors.
5. Call Abandon Rate
Abandon rate represents the percentage of incoming calls that are terminated by the caller before reaching an agent. A high abandonment rate is usually a sign that customers are waiting too long to get the support they’re after.
6. Call Volume
Call volume refers to the total number of incoming calls or customer contacts received by the call center over a specific period, often measured per hour, day, or month. Understanding call volume patterns helps in resource planning, staffing, and ensuring that service levels are met during peak periods.
7. Occupancy Rate
Occupancy rate is a measure of how efficiently call center agents are utilized. It’s calculated by dividing the total time an agent is actively engaged with a customer (including talk time and after-call work) by the total time an agent is available for work. A high occupancy rate can lead to burnout and reduced agent performance, while a low rate may indicate underutilized agents.
8. Service Level
Service level is a metric that measures the percentage of calls that are answered within a predefined target time. For example, a service level goal might be to answer 80% of calls within 20 seconds. This metric helps ensure that callers don’t experience excessively long wait times.
9. Cost Per Call
Cost per call is the average cost of a single call center interaction. Expenses include salaries, overhead, and technology costs. It’s standard to want to keep cost per call as low as possible without sacrificing call quality.
10. Agent Utilization Rate
Agent utilization rate measures the amount of time an agent spends doing work-related activities compared to their total available work time. This includes responding to customer inquiries, as well as any admin work. Agent utilization rate is a great metric for determining staffing levels.
11. Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
Average speed of answer (ASA) represents the average amount of time callers wait in the queue before their calls are answered by an agent. Measuring wait time can provide context to other metrics, like abandon rates and average time to handle.
12. Average After-Call Work Time (ACW)
Average after-call work time (ACW) measures the average time agents spend on post-call tasks, such as documentation, updating customer records, or preparing for the next interaction. It’s essential for ensuring that agents have adequate time for necessary administrative tasks and may also help you discover process inefficiencies that can be improved.
13. Agent Turnover Rate
Agent turnover rate calculates the percentage of call center agents who leave their jobs over a specific period. High turnover can be costly and disruptive, affecting service quality and customer satisfaction. High turnover rates are almost always a sign that employees are unhappy in their roles and may indicate your employee experience needs to be improved.
14. Percentage of Calls Blocked
This metric indicates the percentage of incoming calls that are denied access to the call center because all available agents are busy. A high percentage suggests the need for additional staffing or improved call routing strategies.
15. Average Time in Queue
Average time in queue measures the average duration callers spend waiting in the queue before their calls are answered or abandoned. Reducing this time can enhance customer satisfaction.
16. Call Transfer Rate
Call transfer rate reflects the percentage of calls that are transferred from one agent or department to another. High transfer rates can indicate that agents aren’t equipped to handle the issues coming their way or that new calls aren’t being routed to the appropriate agents.
17. Schedule Adherence
Schedule adherence evaluates how well agents stick to their assigned work schedules. If agents have to deviate from their original plan — either working more or less — it could indicate that you’re either over or understaffing.
18. Response Time
Response time measures the time it takes for an agent to respond to customer inquiries or messages, such as emails or chat requests. Response time is similar to average time in queue and average speed of answer, but it also takes into account the amount of time between messages — not just that initial response.
19. Resolution Time
Time-to-resolution measures the duration it takes to resolve customer issues from the first contact to when the problem is solved. This includes any kind of post-call troubleshooting and follow-ups. Reducing resolution time contributes to higher customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
20. Percentage of Calls Answered
The percentage of calls answered measures the total number of incoming calls answered compared to the total number of incoming calls received. Your percentage of calls answered should be as close to 100% as possible.
21. Percentage of Calls on Hold
The percentage of calls on hold calculates the number of calls placed on hold at any point during the interaction. Placing a customer on hold is usually a sign of a bottleneck somewhere in your process and might indicate you need to increase the size of your staff or improve call routing.
22. Call Workload Per Agent
Call workload per agent measures the volume of calls or interactions that each agent is responsible for handling. Balancing workload ensures that agents are not overwhelmed and can provide quality service, and improves customer satisfaction by providing support more efficiently.
23. Customer Effort Score (CES)
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer needs to put in to solve the issue they’re calling about. Ideally, CES will be low, but there will always be issues that require a heavy lift from the customer. Measuring your customer effort score is typically done by collecting survey responses from inquiring customers.
24. Customer Churn Rate
Customer churn measures the number of customers who stop doing business with the company. While some churn is inevitable as customer needs change, a high churn rate could point to a larger problem. This is another metric that needs to be evaluated with context, but the problem could be the support provided by the call center.
25. Longest Hold Time
Longest hold time identifies the longest a caller has had to wait for a response from an agent or the longest time a caller has waited before abandoning the call. Tracking the longest hold time helps you identify and solve anomalies that have an impact on averages so you can more efficiently identify the source of the issue.
26. Ticket Backlog
Ticket backlog tells you the amount of tickets that remain in the support ticket queue at the end of the month. A high number of tickets tells you your team cannot keep up with inquiries.
27. Self-Service Accessibility Rate
The self-service accessibility rate measures the percentage of customer inquiries or issues that are resolved or addressed through self-service channels, such as a website’s FAQ section, knowledge base, AI-based chat solutions, or in-app resource centers like Whatfix Self Help. A high rate lets you know your self-service solutions are working.
Enable your call center agents to maximize productivity with contextual in-app guidance and real-time support with Whatfix
Enabling call center agents with contextual in-app guidance and real-time support, particularly through platforms like Whatfix, is a transformative approach to maximizing productivity and efficiency in a call center environment. Whatfix’s tailored, in-app guidance provides agents with immediate, relevant information and step-by-step assistance, right within their workflow. This real-time support drastically reduces the learning curve for new software and processes, allowing agents to focus more on customer interactions rather than navigating complex systems.
Moreover, the contextual nature of Whatfix ensures that the support is always aligned with the specific challenges and tasks at hand, enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of the guidance provided. As a result, agents can resolve customer queries faster and more accurately, leading to improved customer satisfaction and overall call center performance. Implementing such innovative support tools not only streamlines operations but also empowers agents, fostering a more confident, competent, and productive workforce. This, in turn, translates into a more robust, efficient, and customer-centric call center operation.
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Whatfix's digital adoption platform empowers your employees, customers, and end-users with in-app guidance, reinforcement learning, and contextual self-help support to find maximum value from software.
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