In the era of big data, leading contact centers are taking a hard look at their use of analytics. However, with the increasing tsunami of contact center data available at your fingertips, knowing which data-dots to connect in order to reveal the underlying business insights can be challenging at best.
Instead of wasting time and energy in an attempt to boil the data ocean, many contact centers are starting to adopt a “measure smarter, not harder” approach towards analytics. So how can you cultivate this mentality to uncover those stronger business insights hiding amongst all your data? Read on for a few simple, yet powerful tips.
Shift Focus from Purely Quantitative to Qualitative KPIs
Historically, contact center metrics focused on cost-reduction by measuring “occupancy rates” and “agent call-handling efficiency.” The data used to measure these turned them into largely punitive Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)—indirectly discouraging Agents from attempting to create a more rewarding customer experience.
For example: In an effort to increase the number of calls an Agent can process, it is common to measure “average handle time.” However, a KPI like this often does more harm than good as it promotes a “get them in, and get them out” mentality among Agents who strive to hit aggressive call-handling time targets. While this kind of quantitative KPI is used with the intention of promoting efficiency, it actually achieves the opposite—leading to a greater number of unresolved inquiries and countless repeat customer calls.
Purely quantitative metrics, like the above, reflect a mindset that continues to define contact centers as “pure cost centers.” This is especially true for contact centers focused on customer support. Categorizing contact centers of any kind as “pure cost centers” diminishes any expectation of a contact center reaching its true potential as a serious value-generator for a company.
To learn how shifting contact center analytics can lead to stronger business intelligence, download the white paper.
