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27 Must-Track Call Center Metrics in 2024

Published: October 6, 2023
Updated: April 12, 2024

Andrew Dennis

For many businesses, call centers are one of the only opportunities to connect one-on-one with customers. But unfortunately, they’re also one of the most overlooked opportunities for improving the customer experience.

Creating a better support experience can go a long way in building loyal, long-term customers. But making improvements starts with collecting data.

Call center metrics can show you where your areas of opportunity are and provide you with benchmark data to improve your CX-related KPIs.

Here are 27 call center metrics to track in 2024 and how to get the most out of your support data.

What Are Call Center Metrics?

Call center metrics help evaluate how effective and productive your call center is. These customer support metrics give you an inside look at how efficiently your team is connecting with and supporting your customers, giving supervisors and managers a better understanding of overall call center performance.

Tracking these metrics is especially important if you are using a contact center as a service (CCaaS) or remote call center.

27 Call Center Metrics to Monitor

What metrics are worth measuring for call center management? Here are our top.

1. First Call Resolution (FCR)

First call resolution (FCR) measures the percentage of customer inquiries or issues that are 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 to measure how satisfied customers are with your services. Customers rate their level of satisfaction on a 1 (low) to 5 (high) scale. CSAT is 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. 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 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 queue at the end of the month. A high number of tickets tells you that your team cannot keep up with inquiries.

27. Self-Service Accessibility Rate

Self-service accessibility rate measures the percentage of customer inquiries or issues that are resolved or addressed through self-service channels, such as an FAQ section on a website or through AI-based chat solutions. A high rate lets you know your self-service solutions are getting the job done.

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Benefits of Tracking Call Center Metrics

There is a lot of talk about data and analytics these days, so it’s hard to know what metrics are worth tracking — but call center metrics are some you don’t want to skip out on.

Here are the biggest benefits of tracking your call center metrics.

1. Enhanced customer satisfaction

Customers don’t reach out to a call center when they’re happy with their product or service; they call when there is an issue. A poor customer experience can be enough to push those customers away for good. Call center metrics help identify areas that may negatively impact customer satisfaction so that you can make improvements.

2. Improved agent performance and efficiency

Tracking agent-related analytics can highlight where your team can improve performance or productivity. Tracking the right metrics can help you create better call center agent training or implement tools and call center software that support them in doing their job more efficiently.

3. Streamlined operational efficiency

Metrics and analytics can tell you if your team is overworked or overstaffed. Keeping an eye on call volume trends or response times will help you identify when your team might need additional support and ensure you allocate your resources appropriately.

4. Informed decision-making

Your call center metrics can provide valuable insights into what customers are doing, experiencing problems with, and what solutions they’re looking for. Collecting data can help your team make better decisions in everything from how you provide customer support to the product features you offer.

5. Identification of training needs

Call center analytics make it easy to identify gaps in your team’s current skill levels so you can provide adequate training. You can measure performance-related metrics on both the team-wide and individual levels to provide more personalized coaching opportunities where necessary.

6. Better resource allocation

Call centers experience busy times when new products or updates are released or during certain times of the year. Rather than overstaffing to be prepared when these periods come up, metrics can make it easier to forecast when busy periods are coming so you can appropriately allocate your resources.

7. Increased cost-effectiveness

Overstaffing and underutilized technology can be expensive. Metrics can help you find where money is wasted so you can reduce overspending and improve your return on investment (ROI).

8. Enhanced quality assurance

Consistency is key when delivering customer support. Metrics gathered through regular monitoring, reporting, and feedback can give you a better idea of the level of service your team is delivering.

9. Predictive analytics for proactive solutions

Analytics allows you to identify upcoming opportunities or threats to make more proactive decisions. Keeping an eye on trends or changes in customer behavior lets you refine your strategy to stay ahead.

Related Resources

How to Manage a Remote Call Center in 2024

15 Must-Track Help Desk Metrics & KPIs (2023)

24 Customer Service Training Ideas in 2024 | Ultimate Guide

Challenges in Measuring Call Center Metrics

While tracking call center metrics can be highly beneficial, it can also create challenges. Understanding the problems that may arise before you start will give you a leg up on tackling them.

1. Data inaccuracy

Inaccurate data could influence you to make unnecessary changes with negative consequences. System errors, data entry mistakes, or discrepancies between systems can all lead to inaccuracies that might misinform team decisions.

2. Over-reliance on quantitative data

Getting too invested in the numbers can prevent your support staff from building genuine customer relationships. Staying too focused on quantitative data, like call volume or response time, might cause you to miss out on something more significant.

3. Failing to update metrics with changing business needs

As a business evolves, its goals, priorities, and customer expectations change. Failing to adapt call center metrics to align with these evolving needs might mean the data you’re collecting is no longer relevant.

4. Interpreting metrics in isolation

Your call center metrics don’t exist in a silo. To get the full data story, you need to add context to your numbers. Knowing details about who the caller is and why they are calling will lead to better insights and decisions.

5. Resistance from employees to metrics-driven approaches

Tracking metrics might make employees feel like their performance is all about hitting a specific number. This can be discouraging and lead to resistance and employee unhappiness.

6. Technological limitations

Outdated or inadequate technology can prevent you from collecting and analyzing the right data or mean that the data you’re looking at is outdated. A lack of real-time, comprehensive data can impact performance.

7. Lack of comprehensive training on metrics

Call center agents and supervisors need to understand how metrics work and how their performance is measured. When employees aren’t informed on how the data collected will be used, it can lead to confusion and even resentment.

8. Balancing quantity and quality of calls

Striking the right balance between handling a high volume of calls and providing high-quality customer service can be challenging. Metrics may inadvertently encourage agents to prioritize speed over quality, impacting customer satisfaction.

9. Misalignment of KPIs with business objectives

Metrics should align with the broader goals of the business. If key performance indicators (KPIs) don’t align with the company’s strategic objectives, the company may end up making decisions that move it further away from its goals.

How to Improve Your Call Center Metrics

Here are some ways you can improve the call center metrics that aren’t where you want them to be.

1. Invest in Regular Training Programs

Ongoing customer service training and development programs ensure your call center agents are up to date on products, services, and customer service skills. Even if you don’t have product updates to train your team on, a refresher course can keep agents’ skills sharp.

2. Engage in Continuous Feedback Loops

Create a culture of continuous feedback within the call center. Establish regular check-ins, assessments, and performance reviews to work through issues and ensure agents are delivering a superior customer experience.

3. Streamline Operational Workflows

Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your call center processes. Look for opportunities to use automation, including completing repetitive administrative work and routing calls to the appropriate agents. You could also consider outsourcing with a BPO call center.

4. Utilize Customer Feedback for Insights

Use surveys, reviews, and direct interactions to gather and analyze customer feedback. Look for patterns, recurring issues, or common pain points to find opportunities to improve.

5. Incentivize and Motivate Agents

Keep agents engaged by offering bonuses, awards, or other incentives to your high-performing team members. Gamification strategies also work well to keep your team motivated.

6. Regularly Review and Update Metrics

The metrics you choose to track now don’t have to be the metrics you measure forever. Make adjustments to your metrics to ensure they align with changing business goals, and you’re able to collect valuable insights.

7. Prioritize a Customer-Centric Approach

Put the customer at the center of all your call center operations. Ensure agents reply with empathy and understanding and prioritize delivering a superior customer experience. You should also provide customer self-service support methods for customers to resolve their issues, as well as proactively educate customers to deflect support tickets.

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