Estimated reading time: 6 minutes | Target users: Supervisors

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are performance measurements that help you evaluate the success of your business. Based on these metrics you can monitor your business performance and tweak your operations in order to improve your results.

These are some the most important KPIs we suggest to consider if you are running a contact center. To learn more about other, equally important metrics, read our article on our blog on the issue.

1. First call resolution

• Definition: First call resolution shows when a customer’s need is properly addressed and solved by the customer service team during the first contact. A proper first call resolution rate improves customer satisfaction and reduces operational costs. If you want to improve your First call resolution rates, visit our article on what might hinder your business performance.
• Where to find it: Global inbound statistics

2. Cost per call (Call cost)

• Definition: Cost per call is an essential call center KPI that allows call centers to calculate the total cost involved in handling calls during a specific period of time. To learn more about calculating cost per call, visit our guide on the topic.
• Where to find it: You can find it as Call Cost in Global and Project-specific call statistics.

3. Success (%) (Conversion rate)

• Definition: This KPI defines the Number of calls that receive a Success disposition / The number of Reached calls over a given period of time. It is a useful metric to see the ratio value of successful calls (e.g. a sale has taken place) / established calls with potential customers. To learn more, visit our guide on dispositions.
• Where to find it: Global call statistics

4. Efficiency

• Definition: Efficiency within a given period. It is a value shown as minutes in a format where 60 min is considered as 100% efficiency. It is calculated as per the following formula: total time spent in Call status / Total Login Time. This parameter includes breaks, so ‘time spent in Call status’ / ‘Login time excluding breaks’ results in a higher number. This is an important efficiency measure. For Manual dialing mode, it should be approx. 20 mins, for Predictive dialing mode it should be approx. 30-45.
• Where to find it: At global call statistics (as Efficient Time), Project-specific call statistics or in Dashboards.

Tip: You can create your own custom KPIs that would appear in dashboards and spreadsheets as columns. Custom KPIs can be set up in VCC Live > Contact Center.

5. Average time in available status

• Definition: The average length of Available status. It is based on ‘total time spent in Available status’ / the amount of occurrences of ‘Available status’. It is advised to keep this KPI as low as possible.
• Where to find it: You can find it as Avg. Available in Global and Project-specific call statistics.

6. Average abandonement rate

• Definition: One of the most important call center metrics is the average call abandonment rate. In other words, the number of customers hanging up the phone even before speaking to an agent. It is crucial to keep this rate low, as a customer who hangs up in frustration is unlikely to be a satisfied one.
• Where to find it: At Weekly Inbound Statistics

7. Average handle time

• Definition: This metric shows the average time of handling a call from start to finish. There might be instances where some agents take too long to handle (e.g. they don’t communicate fluently enough) or there might be cases where an agent closes a call too soon. As neither of these is suitable for your business, you should consider the average handle time, and pay attention to the extreme values that differ from it.
• Where to find it: Global call statistics (as Avg. Handle Time)

8. Customer satisfaction

• Definition: Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) is a frequently used key performance indicator used to determine and measure how satisfied your customers are with your products or services. Unsatisfied customers may decide to stop working with your solutions, therefore it is essential to pay attention to this metric and improve your operations based on the results.
• Where to find it: As this is an abstract metric with no strict rules on how to measure it, you might wonder where to start measuring it. Luckily, we have a guide to introduce the main steps for measuring CSAT, and how to integrate it with VCC Live – check out our guide here.

9. SLA metrics – calls, emails, chat

• Definition: Service Level Agreement (SLA) metrics are your company’s commitments to your customers. These include values, that your service provides in order to maintain customer satisfaction. Therefore, measuring whether your company’s performance meets your predefined SLA values is key.
• Where to find it: You can set up customized SLA widgets on your real-time Dashboard. Learn how to set them up in this tutorial.