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Contact Center KPIs: Less is More

9/15/2017
By Donna Fluss

Contact centers are typically complex operating environments that require many systems and applications to deliver an outstanding customer experience, cost effectively. The primary goal should be to provide a wonderful and meaningful service experience to everyone who interacts with your contact center, independent of the channel they choose. Most of us know that this objective is extremely difficult to achieve because there are so many “moving parts” – complex technology and a wide variety of personalities on staff. To achieve the essential goal of exceeding customers’ needs and expectations, contact centers need visibility into all aspects of their departmental activities and performance. Obtaining this information is difficult, as there is a great deal to measure, and things happen and change quickly in this fast-paced environment.

Since there are so many systems and applications used in contact centers, it’s easy to obtain key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics. The challenge is to come up with the right set of KPIs for each contact center constituency – executives, director/vice president, supervisors, agents, quality management (QM) managers, trainers and workforce managers. Figuring out what information each group needs and delivering the data in a timely manner that is easy to consume and understand is difficult, but necessary to keep the contact center on track to achieve its objectives.

It is better to give managers a limited number of actionable KPIs and metrics than to deliver dozens of reports. The goal is to find the right balance between useful information and data overload, and to give each group the real-time and historical data they need to accurately measure what they want to impact and promote their success. What makes this even more difficult is that the required KPIs change based on the purpose of the contact center; customer service and sales contact centers both care about the overall customer experience, but the sales team is rewarded for dollars earned while the service organization is recognized for doing an outstanding job of addressing customers’ needs and resolving their issues.

A second challenge is that many enterprises are measuring outdated KPIs that have become less relevant to their customers and agents over the years. DMG recommends that all contact centers audit, review and update their KPIs to ensure their contact center is keeping up with the needs of their customers and the enterprise. Contact center leaders should identify KPIs that measure the following activities: customer effort, customer satisfaction, revenue (sales and collections), agent effectiveness and engagement, and agent productivity.

To help you find the right KPIs for each constituency in your contact center, see DMG’s white paper KPI Guide for Omni-Channel Contact Centers.