Ask The CRM Expert: Questions & Answers

Call center benchmarks for a small call center

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I was a call center manager for a 200-seat call center taking two million calls per year and now I am managing a call center that takes roughly 165,000 calls per year and I'm finding it much harder. Should the benchmarks I used at the large call center (service level, average speed of answer) be used at my new small call center? Are there better options for a smaller center?
Most call center benchmarks used for call center performance are not driven by the call center size, but by other factors such as business goals, caller expectations and staffing budgets.

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Service level and other metrics can remain the same, however, they may be harder to achieve and manage (more volatile) with a smaller pool of representatives. Occupancy will be lower in a smaller call center with the same service level.

While service level goals can remain the same for smaller call centers, some often take into account the volatility of a smaller queue by softening the target to be an acceptable range rather than a fixed target. As an example, rather than setting a hard service level target, an acceptable high and low or range is established that allows for flexibility of call volume and inflexibility of staffing levels.