Call Center Metrics

Measurement is key to determining efficiency and effectiveness but choosing the right metric can mean everything when it comes to accurate evaluation. A recent webinar at DataInfoCom examined the switch that Dell made from measuring average customer call times to measuring the rate at which issues were solved on the first call. Although call center cost is directly tied to the length of calls, there is certainly something to be said for tracking the number of calls by a single customer in order to resolve a single issue. The results of Dell's decision to track the new metric led to an increase in the average customer call time, but over the same period the number of issues solved on the first call improved by 20%. Although not specifically stated, this would almost certainly improve customer satisfaction since multiple calls to resolve issues were less frequent.

In an effort to further improve customer satisfaction, Dell also implemented an IVR survey at the conclusion of technical support. This allowed them to collect immediate feedback and pass the information on to the call center operators quickly so that they could modify their approach to achieve maximum effectiveness. The overall concept of this plan could easily be applied to any self-service IVR system. Customer satisfaction with self-service IVR systems is typically very low so it would logically follow that a system that could easily assist a customer in resolving an issue in one call, without the help of an operator, would improve overall customer satisfaction. This type of plan would simply require the IVR system to quickly and easily allow customers to resolve common issues themselves in as short a time as possible. There are some aspects of an IVR system that are harder to control than others, such as the speech recognition components, however the layout and menus can and should be designed for optimal customer use. It is not the "magic bullet" in the realm of customer satisfaction, but it could be a relatively easy method to achieve better results.