Call center performance management: Top five buzzwords

Discover the top five call center performance management terms here. Start with these important call center definitions, and for more detailed information, visit SearchCRM.com's Call Center Performance Management Learning Guide.

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Table of Contents

Top five call center performance management buzzwords
 

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1. Key performance indicator
2. Average handle time
3. Occupancy
4. First call resolution
5. Service level management
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Top five call center performance management buzzwords

More on call center performance management
Call center agents and managers, test yourself on improving performance and learn about the call center performance management software trend in this quiz.

 Key performance indicator (KPI) is a business metric used to evaluate factors that are crucial to the success of an organization. KPIs differ per organization. KPIs are above all else, a set of indicators to measure data against, a sort of enterprise success gauge. Ultimately, they help an organization assess progress toward declared goals. Find out about using KPIs in the call center in this expert answer: Quality metrics for the call center from Lori Bocklund.

 Average handle time (AHT) is a call center metric for the average duration of one transaction, typically measured from the customer's initiation of the call and including any hold time, talk time and related tasks that follow the transaction. AHT is a prime factor when deciding call center staffing levels. Find out more on average handle time in the call center with this expert answer: Quick tricks for lowering call center agents' average handle time from Lori Bocklund.

 Occupancy is the percentage of time that call center agents actually spend handling incoming calls against the available or idle time, which is determined by dividing workload hours by staff hours. Occupancy is often used as a statistic in calculating call center productivity. Get more detail on occupancy with this expert answer: Call center terms -- attrition, utilization, occupancy, shrinkage from Lori Bocklund.

 First call resolution (FCR) is properly addressing the customer's need the first time they call, thereby eliminating the need for the customer to follow up with a second call. Talk time (the average time an agent spends on each call) is a common call center performance metric. In general, fast talk time averages are desirable. However, fast talk time averages accompanied by poor first call resolution rates are a sign that customer calls are not being answered satisfactorily. Read about practical methods of finding FCR in this expert answer: Tips for calculating first call resolution (FCR) in the call center from Lori Bocklund.

 Service level management is the monitoring and management of the quality of service of an entity's KPIs. Service level management involves comparing actual performance with pre-defined expectations, determining appropriate actions, and producing meaningful reports. A service level agreement (SLA) enables an organization to be assured of a defined amount of stability, reliability, and performance for the IT infrastructure. Find out more on SLAs in this expert answer: Targets for a service level agreement in an inbound call center from Lori Bocklund.

 


This was first published in March 2007

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