You are investing time and energy in your call centre operations, but are your efforts bringing any positive results?
For that you need to be consistently tracking your call centre KPIs.
In this guide, we’ll break down what call centre KPIs are, why they matter, and the key KPIs to track for driving business growth.
KPIs, which stand for key performance indicators, are data-based metrics that can be used to guide customer experience strategy and whether the strategy is working or not.
KPIs are important for your customer experience strategy as they not only give you an insider look into agents performance but also how well you are perceived by the audience.
Tracking KPIs gives you a clear picture of how your call centre is performing and how satisfied your customers are. For instance, keeping an eye on FCR and AHT helps you spot any roadblocks in the customer journey, so you can fix them quickly. Metrics like CSAT and NPS show how well your team is building loyalty and encouraging positive word-of-mouth.
KPIs also help your team make smart, data-backed decisions. They highlight areas where agents might need extra training, where technology could improve, or where processes could be faster.
CSAT, or customer satisfaction score, is a digital customer experience metric that directly measures how satisfied customers are with your contact centre support.Â
While the design of the CSAT scale can differ from brand to brand, here are some common formats you may find:
You can place these surveys strategically in any stage of the customer lifecycle—emails, phone calls, or in-app—to collect customer feedback.
Once the score is collected, divide all the satisfied responses by the total number of responses, then multiply by 100. The result shows you the overall percentage of satisfied customers at your business.
To smooth your workflow, you can also use tools like Mevrik CSAT, which can record every step of your customer's satisfaction journey. You can automatically deploy a rating meter in seconds after the contract ends and later, use the data visualisation dashboard to analyse survey keywords and satisfaction scores.
First response time, or FRT, is a measurement of how long a customer has to wait to get the initial response from a brand.Â
When the FCR score is high, it’s a sign that things are running smoothly. But when the score drops, it often leads to more repeat calls and, of course, higher costs.
FRT has a direct correlation with customer satisfaction, as customers expect their issues to be addressed quickly. If your business fails to meet these expectations, you are likely to bring down their experience with your brand.Â
However, you can easily tackle these issues with AI-powered tools like Mevrik CRM, which gives agents the real-time info they need.
Plus, offering self-service options—like knowledge bases—lets customers find answers on their own, which saves both customers and agents time.
Here is how you can calculate your first score resolution percentage:
The percentage of calls blocked is a key call centre metric that indicates the proportion of inbound calls that fail to reach an agent.Â
This typically occurs when call volume exceeds the number of available agents, leading to customers hearing a busy signal instead of connecting with a representative.Â
To figure out this number, you can use a simple formula:
This gives businesses a clear understanding of how many potential customer interactions are being missed.Â
Ideally, most call centres aim to keep this number below 2%, though it can fluctuate depending on various factors, including call volume spikes during holidays, business size, or industry.
To decrease the percentage block call rate, you can:
Average Speed of Answer (ASA) is a key metric that measures the time it takes to answer a call once it's routed to the contact centre.
ASA is an essential clause of a contact centre’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) that outlines what percentage of calls should be answered within a specified time frame.
Typically, the global average for ASA is around 28 seconds, and some companies follow the 80/20 Rule (80% of calls should be answered within 20 seconds). However, ASA expectations can vary by industry and customer expectations.
To calculate ASA, use the following formula:
These days ASA isn’t limited to phone calls; it also applies to other communication channels such as live chat, messaging apps, and social media, where customers often expect quick responses. So, monitoring and improving ASA across all communication channels is just as important.
To improve ASA, you can use a wide variety of tools and strategies, such as:
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how quickly a customer can connect with your business without any effort.Â
These days, your customer's perception of ease has more to do with accessibility, availability, and flexibility—in other words, the degree to which they can interact with your company however they choose. This can be in person, through the phone, by using email or social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) channels, or even through live chat.
To get your CES number, start by sending out surveys that ask customers to score how smooth their interaction was with your brand on a scale of “very easy” to “very difficult.”Â
There are several ways to present your CES surveys, but the two most common ones are numbered surveys and emoticon scales.
After gathering CES data, it's time to calculate your actual customer effort score. Each response should be assigned a point; for example, a negative response would receive one point, while a positive would be equal to five points.Â
Here's how you can calculate the CES from that information:
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If you’re using an emoticon scale, first use the above formula to calculate both positive and negative percentages. Make sure to ignore any neutral answers.Â
As an example, let's say your company sent out a survey that 800 people responded to. Out of these responses, 600 are satisfied, and 200 are dissatisfied. Using the above formula would give 75% satisfied customers and 25% dissatisfied customers. Now, subtract the dissatisfied percentage from the satisfied percentage. This will put your CES at approximately 50%.
Customer churn rate (also known as attrition rate) measures the percentage of customers who stop doing business with your company over a period of time—a month, quarter, year, or week.
The formula for this is a simple one:
The general rule of thumb when it comes to churn rates is the lower, the better. If your churn rate is high, it means more customers stop buying from your business, thus reducing your overall bottom line. On the other hand, a lower churn rate indicates that more customers have been retained.
When it comes to choosing the time frame, the answer is it depends. Churn rate looks different for every company. For example, a customer experience platform might track their churn rate every month, while another B2B company may track it quarterly.
Pick a time frame that fits with your industry standard, customer interaction frequency, and your business model. That way, you can measure your numbers against market benchmarks and make data-driven decisions.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is considered the gold standard measurement in customer experience. It predicts how likely (or unlikely) your customers are going to recommend your brand to others.Â
Typically, it is measured by collecting data from a single survey question that asks, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company’s product or service to a friend or a colleague?”.
After being presented with the question, respondents choose a rating between 0 (highly unlikely) and 10 (extremely likely).
Once all the responses have been gathered, they’re grouped into three categories:
Based on this score, just subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to find your NPS. The scores can range between -100 and 100, with scores above zero being considered good.
Coming up with literally dozens of customer metrics is surprisingly easy. Spend ten minutes searching for “contact centre KPIs" in Google, and you’ll see what I mean. But when it comes to metrics that actually work, it depends upon your company's needs.
The KPIs included in this blog are just the start. Use each one of them and then focus on the most important data that drive meaningful business results.
Ready to thrive on the customer experience and increase sales & support?