Call Center Calls

Depending on their size, call centers make dozens to thousands of calls every day to make sure that customers are happy. In the previous post, we covered the differences between two basic types of calls.

• Inbound calls, i.e. calls received by your call center agents
• Outbound calls, i.e. calls that are made by your call center agents

The first type may be familiar to those who contact customer center hot lines – if you contact a call center to get information (e.g. delivery date, current status of your complaint, the reason for a TV signal blackout…) or assistance (technical assistance, solution to a problem with order dispatch, changing delivery address or pick-up point…).

If you are contacted by a person who offers products or services (kitchenware, nutrients, trips…) or carries out a customer satisfaction survey, this is called an outbound call.

• Automated call is a specific type of call, which includes voicemail and automated IVR. 

Call center metrics

One of key elements of call center success are data that help you find out what works fine and what should be improved. You can use the following metrics to measure call center performance:

1.    Average call duration, where a golden rule applies – shorter doesn’t always mean better. It’s true that excessively lengthy calls decrease agent efficiency, however, agents should make sure that the caller receives all the information they needed. In some cases, it’s better to ask additional questions instead of finishing the call in a hurry.
2.    Response time, meaning the time that the customer spends waiting on hold before they are connected to an agent. Research has shown that more than 30% of callers on hold hang up within one minute and two thirds of callers hang up within three minutes.
3.    Average abandoned call rate, which expresses the number of callers that hang up before they are connected to an agent. Customers usually end the call in the IVR menu or in a call queue. A simple rule applies – the quicker you answer the call, the lower the abandoned call rate.

If you want to know more about call center metrics, read this article on metrics for successful benchmarking or this article on how to improve call center metrics.