Efficiency

[baltichell]

Management here is cracking down and trying to gauge efficiency based on number of calls taken and that's it (oh my god you are thinking) - no consideration for the type of calls taken and no appreciation of call centre dynamics either.

i know there are many calculations out their to effectively manage effiency rates of agents/consultants - however, I can't remember then -

Does anybody have an ideas on this for what works and doesn't work...?

Cheers

[wrundquist]

One of the widest used is cost per call, per transaction, per minute. Unfortunately efficiency measurements are generally implemented or driven by a focus on cost of running the center. These metrics rarely take into consideration customer satisfaction.

Consider, it cost 9 to 11 times more to attract a new customer as it does to retain an existing one. Clearly, if you can calculate the value of each customer, then you have an argument to mitigate the purely financially driven efficiency measurements.

What is a correct range for your particular operation will in great part be determined by what you support and who your customer are.

[JoeB]

You could certainly measure efficiency based on calls per agent, if the quality of the answers they provide doesnÂ’t countÂ… It is not uncommon for management, who doesnÂ’t understand the dynamics and the (often conflicting) parameters influencing the operation of the help desk, to focus on a single and easy to understand metric. You can find a white paper describing the theory of call center operation on http://www.diagnosticstrategies.com/papers.htm which might help you educate management and agree on metrics that consider both the company and customers as well as the well being of the help desk staff.

When identifying metrics and performance criteria, I suggest that you use industry benchmarks very cautiously. Recent study we conducted shows that many often quoted “industry metrics” are not reliable enough to be applied without sufficient background as of how they were obtained . The results of this study are also published at http://www.diagnosticstrategies.com/papers.htm.

I hope this will help you in your effort,

Joe

[freja]

The original post from Baltichel asked what works and what does not work - well, purely measuring cost per call absolutely DOES NOT work if taken alone.

As the other replies have mentioned, you need to manage with a balanced set of measurements that measure efficiency (number of calls, average handling times, adherence to schedule etc), effectiveness (number of sales or resolved queries, value of sales, number and percentage of queries completed in first call etc), customer satisfaction, financial costs, operator satisfaction, turnover and sickness and impact on other areas of the business (e.g. number of calls resolved by the helpdesk that then reduce the need for a field service call) - and probably some other measures that are specific to your industry or department.

The theory of balanced scorecards can be found in most recent general management books - or the original articles by Kaplan and Norton are in 'Harvard Business Review on Measuring Corporate Performance'. It is easy stuff to read and do - and should equip you for a realistic dialogue with 'the management'. For specifically call centre related measures, see 'Call center management by the numbers' by Jon Anton or 'Call Center Management on Fast forward' by Cleveland and Mayben for some good ideas.