A call center produces a lot of data. The trap is to look at everything, and so decide nothing. Here are the metrics that, together, tell you what matters.
The answer rate
The share of calls answered out of calls received. It's the first number, the one that tells you whether your customers can reach you. A rate that drops at the same times each day points to an understaffed peak.
Wait time
How long a caller waits before being answered. The average lies a little: also look at the longest wait, because that's the one that makes people hang up and leaves a bad impression.
The abandonment rate
The share of callers who hang up before being answered. Cross-referenced with wait time, it tells you whether you're losing customers in the queue, and after how long.
Performance by agent
Calls answered, average duration, availability. Not to monitor people, but to balance workload: one agent overwhelmed while another waits is an organizational problem, not a personal one.
- Answer rate: can your customers reach you?
- Wait time, average and maximum: are they waiting too long?
- Abandonment rate: where are you losing them?
- By agent: is the workload well balanced?
These figures apply to queues, but also to direct calls outside any queue, which often get forgotten in the count. What matters is reading them every week, not once a year.
These few numbers get read every week, and they're enough to decide where to add resources.
Talk to us about itRunning a floor with no clear dashboard?
Show us your reports, we'll tell you which indicators to track and which ones to ignore.