Benchmarking/Service Levels: Help...

[RonG]

Hey guys,

we are in need of the expertise and critical thinking I see everyday in this forum.

We are a 24/7/365 inbound call center, anywhere between 50 and 60 thousand calls per month originating from about 15 clients.

With about 50 CSR's to handle the incoming calls, we are totally without any benchmarking, or service levels. The only data we use is the ASA (has to be under 30 seconds), and the average ACD time.

Need help in coming up with some sort of industry guidelines, benchmarking, or service levels to which we could hold our quality control. Weare trying to hold our CSR's to some sort of benchmarking to effect efficiency.
The fact we are inbound, lends to a very difficult task in trying to analyze call flow that fluctuates severely across any given day. Peak periods range from 7:00 am and could last until 2:00pm

Your assistance with this would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,
RGE

[caneuman]

Most call centers look at service levels of 80% of the calls answered within 20 seconds. Some are going lower--80% of calls answered w/i 30 seconds or even 70% of calls answered within 20 sec.

Best formula, which takes into account abandons and ASA

Service Level = (Calls Answered Within X Seconds) / (Total Calls Received)

[Thomas Williams]

RGE,

Service Level and ASA targets are widely used by most companies. Service levels vary based on the importance of call types. 80% calls answered in 20 seconds is a common goal that is used in contact centers.

for you questions on service levels for agents, that is a difficult task due to the randomness of calls in an inbound call center. The best way to get strong results in meeting service level and ASA requirement is:

Planning/forecasting optimal schedules based on historical trends and holding the Agents to Schedule adherence and compliance standards. Ensuring you have a strong plan and executing to the plan is the best deliverables to meet your service level and ASA goals. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 770-974-1820

[ALFAGTV-6]

Ron

80% in 20 seconds is a good rule and a popular metric. For inbound centers receiving calls from customers wanting to purchase goods or services, use this over ASA. ASA is an average for THE DAY and does not properly simulate a customer experience as well asn service level. I have signed contracyts with clients using both. ASA is less costly.

If your inbound center is tech support... then 80/20 is certainly not the rule as customers have a higher level of wait tolerance to get serviced and using 80/20, without an inbound call that generates revenue, but is cost, such as Tech support call can bankrupt you fast. For TEch support we use serive level of 80$ within 2 minutes...

You may want to get a copy of the latest Purdue University Benchmarking Report from Dr. Jon Anton at www.benchmarkingportal.com. It is an expensive report but is very thorough and covers many industries.

[JIM WYATT]

Ron,

You dont go out into the bush (as us Aussies say) without a map. Your Call Centre operation is like the "bush". You need to have a set of maps or "plans" to help you get to where you want to go.

One of the most important plans is a Performance managment plan. This covers what you regard as the critical measurement indicators which will show how well your operation is progressing towards its goals (aims or organisational imperatives).

A part of these indicators are those covering how well you are delivering service to your customers and undertaking the functions of your Centre. This includes ASA and Grade of service. But there are a wealth of other measures you must consider to manage the optimum level of performance, standards and productivity from your operation.

I would be happy to send you a template copy of a Performance managment Plan that you could use to begin to set out steps on monitoring and managing quality, productivity, efficiency and capability for the future.

Drop me a note at WYATTJM@bigpond.com

[ttw27]

Some additional metrics that can be valuable (depending on what is important to your center's performance) can also include:

Average call length
time on hold (after call has been answered)
Average talk time
Available time per agent
Wrap-up time (time spent wrapping up call before next call)

Some of the metrics you may choose to collect are limited by switch reporting constraints.

Another metric you may or may not want to include is customer satisfaction. In most cases your performance metrics - if "good" generally lead to customer satisfaction - unless, of course your measurements or targets are driven by financial considerations only without any consideration as to customer service.

You can decide at what level to track and report the metrics. I've seen agent level reporting posted daily as well as some managers/supervisors who only share agent level stats with the agent. I've also seen centers who post group or team metrics rather than individual.

Hope this helps.

[Erlang]

A few items I would suggest:

I would use the service level formula listed earlier on this thread as your main department measure, do not use ASA. As far as the percentage of the service level target, tailor this to the needs of your business. Factor in customer tolerance, and nature of business. For instance, 911 needs to be 100 % in zero seconds, highly competitive products such credit cards typically in the 90 percentiles, 20-10 seconds or less, Etc.

For measuring your Reps, I would use schedule adherence and call quality. Stay away from Calls-Per-Hour. Reps do not have control of how many calls they take an hour, unless your occupancy is way too high(calls constantly in queue). There are many other reasons why CPH is not a good way to measure productivity.

I would suggest investing in Communico's "Magic" for your reps soft skills training. This is a very measureable quality assurance program that we have implemented and have had considerable success with. * I do not work for Communico*

Best of luck

[smack]

RGE-

Can you break down the calls from client to client? This is important in understanding what your bench should be for each one. As you mentioned, you have 15 clients and 50-60 reps so I am sure you schedule according to volume. Without a doubt it is important to put your players on the field, and not on the bench. Understanding each reps available time and their ability to adhere to their schedule will make sure they are there for the action.

I would recommend that you use average handle time of a call based on their talk, hold, and wrap up time. Each of these areas can be involved in the quality of the interaction and can be coached to improve not only the quality but also the efficiency. Calls per hour can lead to inadequate handling of concerns and number chasers who do not have the best interest of the customer at heart.

Well, that's my $.02.