Expert Tips for Optimizing Common Contact Center Analytics

Every business needs a high-performing contact center – one that’s responsive, efficient, and staffed with knowledgeable agents who provide exceptional customer service. But without solid contact center analytics to guide your efforts, building a well-oiled customer experience machine remains a pipe dream.

Why are contact center analytics so important?

Tracking a few key statistics allows you to measure how well your contact center performs and provides important insights into existing issues. Contact center analytics can also serve as the basis for defining performance goals for your team and help you quantify their progress. This takes the guesswork out of management and helps you make objective, strategic decisions.   

There are so many ways you can measure your contact center performance, so we’ve put together some expert tips for the most common metrics. These are simple, easy-to-manage starting points to get your contact center in alignment with your goals! And once you start optimizing your platform, you can always call on the S-NET experts to help you achieve even better results.

#1: Average Hold Time 

What It Measures 

This is one of the most utilized metrics in customer service. It keeps track of how long customers wait on average for an agent to answer their call.   

How It Is Used 

Contact center managers use it to assess the efficiency and accessibility of their team. It is an important metric because no customer wants to wait on hold for hours or wade through four to five IVRs to get an answer to a simple question. Long hold times can hurt your customer’s overall experience with your brand. Delays in answering calls can even cost you lost business when clients get tired of waiting and abandon the call.  

Many organizations aim to have 80% of inbound calls answered in 30 seconds or less, commonly referred to as the 80/30 rule. But while this industry benchmark may provide a helpful starting goal, we encourage you to find your own hold time “sweet spot”. Contact center analytics make the biggest difference when they are customized to your unique industry, business model, and goals.  

Expert Tip 

The best way to improve this metric is by setting a motivating and achievable goal for your team. Being specific about the number of calls they should aim to answer in a certain timeframe will help clarify your expectations. Set an attainable goal that ensures each agent knows how many calls they should strive to answer while providing the best customer service experience.

#2: Average Abandon Rate 

What It Measures 

This metric measures how many callers either hung up or got disconnected prior to reaching one of your contact center agents.   

How It Is Used 

The Average Abandon Rate is used to judge the effectiveness of your current workflows and reveal what areas might need improvement. When a contact center has a high Average Abandon Rate, it is usually an indication that customers are frustrated. Perhaps they don’t like how many IVR steps they must go through to access customer support. Perhaps they waited on hold too long. Whatever the issue may be, an increase in the Average Abandon Rate is a red flag that you should not ignore. 

Expert Tip 

To lower your Average Abandon Rate, make sure your call flows are as seamless and logical as possible for the customer and your agents. Consider working with your contact center vendor to help design call flows that connect customers to the right agent for their needs as quickly as possible, while also aligning with your business goals and objectives.

#3: Average Talk Time 

What It Measures 

This KPI measures the average length of time agents spend on a call from the moment they answer to when they hang up.   

How It Is Used 

Average Talk Time provides important insights into the efficiency with which your agents resolve customer issues. It helps you compare your employees’ performance, identify high-performing team members, and set goals for the rest of your staff. 

The recommended Average Talk Time will vary based on your business and the complexity of the customer issues your agents are resolving. Benchmarks can vary significantly from one organization to another and even from queue to queue.  

Expert Tip 

To assess your team’s efficiency, Average Talk Time should be calculated over a longer period of time. This will allow you to account for differences between the various calls your agents are handling. When used correctly, this metric can be a great tool to ensure that all calls are conducted efficiently, with respect to the customer’s schedule and the agent’s time. 

#4: Realtime Agent Data 

What It Measures 

Realtime Agent Data includes several metrics: agents logged in, agent statuses, when agents logged out, and how many calls each agent received, answered, or missed.  

How It Is Used 

This collection of metrics allows administrators to easily oversee remote workers and manage distributed staff. The advantage of a modern, cloud-based contact center platform is that it’s well-adapted to remote work and can be customized to the specific needs of your business. 

Expert Tip 

To fully optimize Realtime Agent Data, review your contact center workflows with your platform vendor. They should be able to advise you on the best call flows, help identify opportunities for enhancing the customer experience, and configure your platform to support your goals.

Contact Center Analytics Made Easy 

Tracking contact center analytics may seem like a lot of work, but it doesn’t need to be. Keeping an eye on a few simple metrics is enough to provide you with important, actionable insights into the performance of your contact center, agents, and overall customer experience with your brand. When you have a finger on the pulse of your contact center analytics, you can address red flags before they turn into significant issues and continuously improve your team’s performance with each new goal set.  

Leading contact center solutions such as S-NET Engage allow you to review all your key stats in one place across Voice, Chat, Email, SMS, and social media channels. S-NET Engage is a feature-rich platform that provides you with all the insights you need to manage your team, build a high-performance contact center, and offer unparalleled service to your customers. And when you work with a provider like S-NET, we ensure your platform is aligned with your goals and offer white-glove support to help you optimize your contact center performance at each stage of the customer journey.