Measuring success in the contact center can be challenging. Business is doing well? Are you contributing to that success? Or, maybe business is doing poorly? Is that because of your contact center? The only way to know is to monitor the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Which KPIs should you be concerned with and why?

Some KPIs, like those we’re about to discuss, measure customer feelings. Are they satisfied? Are they loyal? Did they enjoy the customer experience? Other KPIs are more granular and allow us to gauge our performance, costs, and other factors that contribute to the customer experience.

The following 3 customer experience KPIs are critical to measuring your contact center success:

• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) – CSAT scores are a standard in measuring customer sentiment and gauging customer retention. Often difficult to calculate, CSAT scores can be as easy to determine as “happy vs unhappy” from a smiley face survey or simple star rating. Generally, it is determined by the following formula:

CSat = Sum of all Respondent Scores / Quantity of Respondents X 10
For example:
John Doe scores the call an 8.
Jane Doe scores the call a 6.
Joe Doe scores the call a 10.
CSat = (24 / 3) x 10 = 80

Measured on a scale of 0 to 100 with 100 being total customer satisfaction, CSAT scores are often factored into consideration with other KPIs to get a holistic view. Generally speaking, it’s much like averages. 70 is an average. Is that a good CSAT score? Good question.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – The NPS is considered a metric of loyalty in the customer satisfaction experience. Users are surveyed on a scale of 0 – 10 (11 point scale). Respondents are grouped in to categories of 0 – 6 “detractors”, 7 – 8 “passives”, or 9 – 10 “promoters”. The formula is generally accepted as:

NPS = Promoters – Detractors / Total Respondents x 100
For example:
John Doe scores a 6 (detractor)
Jane Does scores a 7 (passive)
Joe Doe scores a 9 (promoter)
Jenny Doe scores a 10 (promoter)
NPS = ((2 – 1) / 4) x 100 = 25

By the way, if you have an NPS of +25, you are succeeding in customer loyalty and satisfaction. Measured from -100 to +100, anything over zero is good. +25 would be considered very good. +50 would be considered excellent.

• Customer Effort Score (CES) – CES is just what it sounds like. What effort did it take on the part of the customer? The goal, obviously, is an effortless customer experience. The question is simple: The company made it easy for me to do . And the answers usually range on a scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. In simple terms, it was either “Easy”, “Neither”, or “Difficult” to do business. The formula is generally accepted as:

CES = % of easy – % of difficult
For Example:
500 Respondents Total
234 responded “Easy to do business”
101 responded “Difficult to do business”
The remainder were neutral.
(234/500 x 100) – (101/500 x 100) or 46.8% – 20.2% = 26.6 CES score

Using a 3-point, 5-point, or 7-point scale are some options to get a baseline CES score. Obviously, if 234 out of 500 think it’s easy then we want that number to go up. And, if 101 felt it was difficult we certainly want that number to decrease. If you need to cut out the middle ground, you can go with an even numbered scale. Pick a scale that makes sense, get a baseline, and work on it.

As they say, the devil is in the details. The KPIs listed below measure the work, the agents, and the environment. How are you succeeding in your efforts to manage the workforce effectively, reduce operating costs, enhance the customer experience and contribute to profitability?

The following 5 performance KPIs are essential to the customer experience scores discussed above:

• Abandon Rate – The number of calls that hang up before connecting to an agent. Abandoned Rate = Abandoned Calls / Total Incoming Calls. The faster you can connect the customer with the agent, the better.
• Average Handle Time (AHT) – This is Average Talk Time + After Call Work. The average amount of time an agent interacts with a customer combined with the time that agents takes after the call to wrap it up becomes the Average Handle Time. Things to consider are talk time vs wrap up time. And, overall customer satisfaction related to the handle time. The ultimate goal is increased satisfaction while lowering AHT.
• First Call Resolution – This is just as it sounds. How many issues can you resolve on the first call? It’s easy to calculate. If 9 out of 10 calls are resolved on the first call then your FCR is 90%, which would be outstanding. Quick resolution leads to better CSATs, NPSs, and CESs. They also save time and money.
• Adherence to Scheduling. Attendance, and Staffing – How much time is an agent actually working vs the amount of time they are being paid for. Are agents on time, late, absent? Are you forecasting staffing requirements? Total scheduling adherence is almost impossible. However, through effective workforce management you can achieve higher levels of adherence and attendance, thereby contributing to profitability.
• Call Quality – How well do your agents deal with customers? This metric has been in use as a scoring system for many years. It’s calculated as Number of Criteria Met / Number of Total Criteria. You can increase your insight by implementing analytics. Speech analytics and data analytics can increase your agents ability to provide a quality call from first interaction to complete satisfaction.

AVDS specializes is contact center solutions leveraging business intelligence, intelligent automation and AI. From consultation, through design, into implementation, and providing ongoing support for success, we bring our core values to every project. We don’t just create customers, we create partnerships. Call on someone you can trust. Call AVDS Today! We make it easy to do business.

Written by:
Brian Barnett
Director of Sales & Marketing, Engineer, Photographer, Storyteller, Decent Cook, Family Man…
www.avds.com