How do you manage the effectiveness of your outsource call center? Presumably the same way businesses everywhere manage most departments: Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs. An article by Shelby Faris explores contact center KPIs from a different angle. She examines the best team metrics to monitor in addition to individual agent analytics. In a broad sense, the article dives into how to use dashboards to accurately monitor inbound and outbound call volumes and how the agents are managing their time. To learn more, check out the article here!
Bots and machine learning are revolutionizing contact centers. They’re making agents more efficient and enabling companies to provide faster service to more customers. Still, the odds are pretty good your contact center isn’t fully automated. You still have humans coming to work every day with the primary goal of making real connections with customers and providing a positive face for your company.
Part of building a consistent, productive contact center is measuring agents’ efficiency through KPIs such as average handle time (AHT), customer satisfaction (CSAT), and numerous other stats. However, it’s important to keep in mind that just because agents are assisted by automation and bots, they are not machines and should not be treated as such. No matter the amount of technological assistance you provide, agents will still have an element of human emotion in the mix with their daily tasks.
People have bad days no matter how much money they make and how much they love their job. We all know what it’s like to miss a goal only to have the disappointment compounded by a boss piling on negativity afterwards. It’s important to find a balance between meeting demanding KPIs and creating a welcoming work environment. The more supportive management is, the easier it is for employees to deal with bad days and maintain motivation.
In addition to being supportive and empathetic, contact centers can provide balance by making the atmosphere more fun with contests and games. One example of this is to set a goal for a team KPI (for example, overall customer satisfaction) for a month. If the team collectively meets the goal, they are rewarded with a party. It’s just one of many options, but the general idea is to create a positive work environment while maintaining company objectives. KPIs provide an objective measurement of many aspects of employee performance, but they’re not the only thing that matters. In order to achieve quality metrics, you’ll need to have employees that feel valued and supported.
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