Service Level - formula question

[jpshuf]

What is the standard formula used to calculate the service level (80% of calls answered in 20 sec or less)? Should it be number of calls answered within 20 sec divided by the total number of calls (including abandoned calls) or, number of calls answered within 20 sec divided by total number of ANSWERED calls?

[Hans B]

Hi jpshuf,
If you deploy IVR you measure SL against NCO (number of calls offered) which is the sum of NCHA and NCA (or calls offered total minus IVR).
Hope that helps.

[larryboy0637]

There is no standard... it depends on a lot of things like Costs, staffing, clients, customer staisfcation goals and those are just a few. Some of the SL's that I have seen are

80%/40 secs - Cell phone cust service
70%/30 secs - Cable cust service
70%/120 - DSL tech support
90%/5 secs - banking


Sorry I could not be of more help.

[n_meghanath]

The numerator for sure is the no of calls answered within the defined threshold (20 secs in your case), however the denominator would be the No of calls Offered on ACD. The total no of calls offered usually doesn’t include those short abandoned (example, we had a contract where we set any calls abandoned within 5 secs are not counted as calls offered for the calculation of SVL.

[sengupta_uttam]

Well regarding the SL formula...there is no standard claculation method.

Generally Call Centers works on 80/20 SLA which means 80% of the calls offered should be answered within 20 sec.

However some of the call centers works on 70/30, 75/25 and even 90/10.

Its been the call center and the business area how the contract has been signed. From my experience, one the call center i worked.....we never have taken the calls getting abdn within 10 sec. Coz we use to take them under short abdn calls.

So in general we can say SL = No. of calls answered within "x" time / Total call offered.

"x" time means - whats has been designed to get the call picked up for best customer satisfaction.

If you would like to write then plz mail me at sengupta_uttam@hotmail.com

[TLombard]

You can also use a calculation to measure SL (or Total Service Factor) of:

(calls within service level+calls abandoned within service level)/(total calls + total abandoned calls).

The idea being that you are not taking a hit for a caller that didn't hang around long enough for someone to answer it (if someone realized after the first ring they dialed the wrong number or were interrupted, etc.).

[mhaqqi]

Hello there,

With respect to your question, There are a number of methods that ACDs use to calculate service level. Some systems allow you to specify the calculation that you prefer.

1. (Total calls answered+total calls abandoned in Y seconds) / (total calls answered+total calls abandoned) <---- I prefer this calculation It provides a complete picture of what is happening.

2. Total calls answered in Y seconds / total calls answered

3. Total calls answered in Y seconds / (total calls answered + total calls abandoned)

4. Total calls answered before Y seconds / (total calls answered + total calls abandoned after Y seconds)

I hope this information is helpful to you.

[tche]

How can you calculate service level using handle time, call volume, and the number of actual agents in an excel spreadsheet?

[Charles Alvear]

Originally Posted by mhaqqi

1. (Total calls answered+total calls abandoned in Y seconds) / (total calls answered+total calls abandoned) <---- I prefer this calculation It provides a complete picture of what is happening.

2. Total calls answered in Y seconds / total calls answered

3. Total calls answered in Y seconds / (total calls answered + total calls abandoned)

4. Total calls answered before Y seconds / (total calls answered + total calls abandoned after Y seconds)

We use method #2 in our call center to measure service level but I like the idea of method 4 that you present here. I don't think our ACD captures the 'total calls abandoned after y seconds' data though.

[Charles Alvear]

Originally Posted by tche

How can you calculate service level using handle time, call volume, and the number of actual agents in an excel spreadsheet?

What are you defining as service level in your center?

The common definition is some representation of calls answered within a defined time parameter compared to total calls (with our without abandons).

With the data elements you provided, I'm not sure of a way to calculate service level.