4 Call Center Benchmarks You Should Pay Attention To

It is becoming increasingly clear that benchmarking is essential for contact centers. Although measuring and understanding metrics is a major challenge for call center managers, many benefit from looking at industry standards and benchmarks to help track their success.

Here are 5 call center benchmarks from Dimension Data’s 2013/14 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking that I found interesting. For more thoughts and information on call center metrics, watch today’s live online roundtable, The Future of Call Center Metrics, at 4:00 PM ET.

1) Cloud-Based Call Centers

77.6% of cloud technology users agree it has helped reduce costs.

Takeaway: I wrote about cloud-based contact centers when we published the “Top 12 Contact Center Trends”. One trend illustrated that cost reduction was a key motivator for cloud-based technology – it’s clear now that companies are actually experiencing these benefits. Consider your current infrastructure and if a change would help.

2) Web Chat

Web chat has become the top channel priority for 50.6% of contact centers, and the number of deployments that are planned has gone up 27.2% over the past 12 months.

Takeaway: When it comes to multi-channel, you need to be keeping up with industry peers. This has a direct effect on the customer experience, as it serves consumers when and where it’s convenient for them.

3) Customer Satisfaction Levels

Customer Satisfaction (CSat) scores have dropped from 82.1% in 2011 to 77.6% in 2013/14.

Takeaway: This is your chance to outshine the competition. Don’t allow your CSat numbers to dwindle away, like these declining numbers. Your mission as a call center is to keep service costs low, while maintaining high caller satisfaction – ensure that you stick to that.

4) First Call Resolution

First Call Resolution (FCR) rates are declining from 85.2% in 2009 to 73.1% in 2013/14.

Takeaway: Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet to improving this metric. You need to listen to the types of complaints that are driving repeat calls and examine your people, processes, and product to see what you can do to improve first call resolution.