Information is everywhere – especially with all of the up-and-coming technology. What do we do with all of this information? We turn it into useful tools to measure our successes and where we need to improve. Multichannel Merchant recently posted an article describing the metrics that matter in the call center. A summary of that article is below:
Changing Landscapes for Consumers
The consumer landscape has changed and not only do consumers expect a quick response, but also a thoughtful and informative dialogue, says Michael Moseman, director of the customer contact center at Brooks Brothers. And those can really only be captured through customer satisfaction scores and first-call resolution type metrics.
First Call Resolution
“Without a robust monitoring program, you run the risk of being very efficient, but perhaps not very effective in truly supporting your customer,” Moseman says.
So it should not come as a surprise that the most important contact center metrics, according to the MCM Outlook 2014 survey results, involve making customers happy.
Customer Service
In fact, almost half (49.5%) of respondents said customer service scores are the most important contact center measurement they rely on. Last year, customer service scores ranked as second-most important, but at 34.7%
An interesting aside – 51.4% or B2C respondents said customer service scores were the most important metric, as did 50% split of B2B respondents. It was those who said they had an even split of B2B and B2C customers (38.5%) that brought the overall number down.
Service Level
Service level (48.4%) was the second-most important contact measurement, followed by first-call resolution rate (35.5%). Respondents who rely on first-call resolution rate nearly doubled from last year’s 18%.
“When agents feel pressured to end calls within a certain time limit, or pick up the phone as quickly as humanly possible,” wrote StellaService client development manager Chris Vodola. “They’re putting more priority on putting out fires and less emphasis on actually getting to the root of the customer’s problem by doing proper research on the issue and potential solutions. It’s not always about speed – successful interactions fully resolve all of the customer’s questions. ”
ROI
Return on investment also saw a big jump based on the 2013 MCM Outlook results. While 16.7% of respondents measured ROI in the contact center in 2013, 25.8% are measuring ROI in 2014.
Debra Ellis, founder of Wilson & Ellis Consulting, notes that those four metrics are not only gaining importance, but are closely related.
“Customer satisfaction and loyalty is directly tied to ease of service,” Ellis says. “First call resolution has the greatest effect on people’s willingness to return to a company and recommend it to others. This is good news for merchants because the solution that improves loyalty also reduces costs.”
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