Price per call

[aborasky]

I am trying to find out the price per call for various call centers so that I can compare our costs to other centers. Does anyone know where I can get this information? I would prefer the utility industry but I will take any information that I can get.

[earhart]

Purdue University's BenchmarkPortal has the information you need. You can register for free and under Ask Dr. Jon you'll find these costs by industry, geography and country

[aborasky]

Thank you so much.

[JoeB]

Use any “industry” data with caution, especially when it comes to costs, because of the different ways companies calculate “costs”. For example, when you figure out fully-loaded costs, do you include IT and infrastructure costs? Utilities? Opportunity cost of real estate? How do you amortize IT equipment costs? Because BenchmarkPortal relies on data contributed by members, they have no way to control quality or consistency of the data. See the results of cost data comparison at www.DiagnosticStrategies.com/benchmarking.htm.

[mikael]

It always intrigues me when I see requests for "benchmark" data about contact center costs to be used in "comparisons." How can you "compare" your costs with everybody else's when you aren't sure that you have a handle on what you are actually paying?

One of the standard questions on my operational review procedure is to ask the center manager for a full financial statement. Almost invariably, the response is: Huh? I next ask for a Cost Per Operational Minute figure -- what does it cost you to run that facility per person/minute? That either gets another Huh? or some made-up number like: "Well, we spend about $19-$24 per call." How do you know? "Well, I asked Accounting, and that's what THEY told me."

A good starting point is to establish a reliable present value of the knowledge inventory stored in your rep's heads. And in the knowledgebase? What are you paying to maintain that inventory? Be hardnosed about this and keep digging until you have identified every last piece of the puzzle. If you had to start all over from zero tomorrow, what would it cost you to rebuild your center? What steps would you have to take, what items would be required.

If you really want to make reasonable comparisons, you have to start with getting reliable data on your own operation. Then, and only then, can you ask other groups about what they are spending in the various categories -- and once you've properly done your homework on your own costs, you'll understand why you can't trust any of the published "benchmarks."