We have a lean team of 12 full-time agents who take approximately 10,000 calls per month. Volume is growing much faster than headcount or tools can offset it. While we continue to report on our group and team core statistics (hold time, wait time, average business day (ABD), etc.), we are having a hard time developing a balanced scorecard that reflects the utilization of each agent throughout the day. In particular, the mix of non-phone work (service requests), calls and day-to-day tasks is hard to put in a single picture for management.
We have two agents scheduled solely for email and other non-phone work, and we are now measuring them on their own.
How can we develop a call center monitoring scorecard that encompasses all our agents and their daily utilization, and what should be included?
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Your question is a complex one that is a bit tricky to address in a brief response in this forum. I will offer a few key points here for your consideration, and suggest you create a bigger project around your call center monitoring scorecard development and how to address the nuances of the various roles in your call center.
Scorecard development should start with strategy -- tying what you want to achieve with the goals of the organization. You should ensure a balance of productivity measures with quality, financial, customer satisfaction and other appropriate factors for your business. And you should ensure the things you measure and the targets or ranges you put in place are appropriate for the level and accountability of the call center staff -- from leadership to the agents in the trenches.
Once you have a framework of what should be measured, who should be accountable for what, and how to use the information, you can more readily address the differences between the various media and functional roles in the call center. I would suggest you get that strategic framework defined first, and then you can more readily create that balanced "snapshot" scorecard that presents what really matters in your environment.
This was first published in September 2007