Call Center Scorecards

April 2010

Call Center Scorecards, Balanced Scorecard or simply scorecard exist to enable call center managers to review overall call center performance. The scorecards also assist top management in their quest to understand the value and performance of the call center. Too often top management views the call center as a cost center and does not understand the value that the call center brings to the organization. In addition, when a call center manager has to explain how well the call center is performing numerous statistics, charts, graphs and reports are provided which end up confusing top managers. A balanced scorecard provides a single easy to read and understand Excel file that focuses on a few key performance indicators rather than 100s of statistics. Furthermore these KPIs are weighted and compared against either the company goals or industry benchmarks.

The Balanced Scorecard

Performance Metric Cost /Call Customer Satisfaction FCR Agent Utilization Agent Turnover ASA Call Abandonment Rate Metric Weightin g Goal $2.5 25% 3 30% 20% 10% 5% 5% 5% 100% 75% 60% 80% 4% 340 4% N/A Actual Performanc e $3.57 45% 30% 70% 5% 450 6.30% N/A Metric Score 29.13% 60% 50% 88% 20% 24% 63.49% N/A Balance d Score 7.28% 18.00% 10.00% 8.75% 1.00% 1.22% 3.17% 49.43%

Each industry has its own set of KPIs that should be used to create a scorecard. However, just using the industry standards may not be enough for your business.

Each call center needs to review their needs and adjust the scorecard so that it is most effective for the business. Below is a list of KPIs that call centers have used to create a scorecard. Daily revenue Cost per contact Abandon Rate (consider using a total abandon rate including IVR, Email, Chat) ASA FCR CSAT Agent Utilization Service Level Ticket close ratio Call Quality Adherence Average Handle Time Agent Turnover Agent Training IVR Completion Rate Agent punctuality Absenteeism Industry Scorecard KPIs will differ by industry. What one industry would focus on is not the same as what another industry might focus on. Here are some examples of KPIs by Industry. Your contact center may want to focus on some different KPIs, but this can be used as a start. Utilities Customer Satisfaction First Call Resolution Service Level Abandon Rate Agent Training Agent Utilization Government Cost /Call Customer Satisfaction Abandon Rate Service Level ASA Call Quality Insurance Agent Turnover Customer Satisfaction First Call Resolution Agent Training ASA Abandon Rate Cost / Call Agent Utilization Financial Customer Satisfaction ASA First Call Resolution Abandon Rate Agent Training Agent Utilization Agent Turnover

Healthcare Agent Training Customer Satisfaction Service Level Abandon Rate Agent Utilization ASA Call Back Time

Retail Sales Revenue AHT ASA Abandon Rate First Call Resolution Customer Satisfaction Cost / Call

Help Desk Ticket Close Ratio First Call Resolution Customer Satisfaction Abandon Rate AHT Call Quality Cost / Call Agent Training Agent Turnover

Within each call center these scorecard KPIs could change. For example, an insurance based call center that has a group that takes calls for policy cancellation calls and another group that handles new policies may not have the same goals on abandon rate and ASA. The KPI goal and benchmark may differ for each group and it would be inappropriate to use the same for each group. The Call Center Manager needs to review what is important to each business unit and what will affect performance when deciding on which KPIs to score. Using 3 to 8 KPIs is ideal for the balanced scorecard. Fewer than 3 KPIs and any change to a single KPI changes the overall scorecard value quickly. A significant change to a KPI is not seen in the total score when there are more than 8 KPIs are evaluated. The weighted value of each KPI needs to be considered as well. Too much weight on a single KPI will affect the outcome of the scorecard quickly. Determining the weight to put on each KPI is up to the call center and its purpose. There are industry standards for each KPI but each call center is unique and these standards may not apply. In most cases Customer Satisfaction, First Call Resolution and Cost / Call are more heavily weighed than Service Level, ASA and Agent Training. There are many types of scorecards for a contact center to consider and use. Agent Scorecard: A select group of metrics showing how an agent is performing

Team Scorecard: A scorecard for the skill group. Because skill groups have different goals it is not beneficial to use the same goals for each skill group. Summary Scorecard: An accumulation of team scorecards or agent scorecards. Weekly, Monthly, Yearly Summary report: This is a summary scorecard for each type of scorecard. For example a weekly scorecard report for the Contact Center Scorecard. Contact Center Scorecard: A select group of metrics showing how the entire contact center is performing.

Should the scorecard use company goals or industry benchmarks to determine the performance? Both are valid methods for determining performance. A company new to scorecarding may want to look at its own company goals first to become acquainted with using the scorecard. This trial period will also help determine if the KPIs that are being used in the scorecard are appropriate. Once the company is comfortable with the scorecard looking to industry benchmarks can provide insight into where the company is in relation to the industry average. A properly built scorecard is a very effective tool for the call center manager. With a single report the manager is able to determine how well the contact center has functioned that day. By trending these reports a manager is able to show how performance is improving within the call center. The scorecard will also assist the manager in finding the areas where performance is weakest and needs the most improvement. For more information about Call Center Scorecards contact Spectrum or visit our website. Dan Boehm Spectrum www.specorp.com +1 713 986 8839