Managing a call center well requires a lot of careful decision-making and even more data to back it up. At the same time, though, it can be extremely difficult to know which KPIs and metrics matter the most to your specific business.
There are three types of call center reports you can rely on to get a clearer view of your operations: call center reporting, agent reporting, and customer reporting. Each can provide useful insights for different situations—and different kinds of call centers.
3 Types of Call Center Reporting
Call center reports are like a compass to guide decisions, and good managers know how to read the analytics. In other words, by making sense of the data and performing a bit of quality monitoring, you can optimize your call center’s performance, increase agent productivity, and boost your customer satisfaction rates.
Call Center Reporting
Call center reporting is a top-level overview of your call center’s operations. The KPIs in these reports are ideal for optimizing staffing decisions, streamlining processes, and improving response times.
The best call center services make it super easy to track these metrics.
Here are some of the reports you should be looking at:
Call Direction Reports
What it tells you: Call direction reports depict the ebb and flow of inbound and outbound calls across various channels within a specified timeframe. The patterns they reveal can help you navigate and understand the kinds of conversations that are taking place.
How to use it: You can track call volume trends on different days and times, pinpoint peak call periods, and uncover the most active channels. If you find your call center drowning in more calls than it can handle, these reports can be a lifesaver. With this data in hand, you can optimize agent staffing and availability, fortify your self-service options, and hone your marketing efforts.
Service Level Agreement (SLA) Reports
What it tells you: SLA reports measure the percentage of calls answered within a predetermined time frame. The industry benchmark is set at answering 80% of all calls within 20 seconds.
How to use it: SLA reports are your guide to ensuring timely responses. Use them when the clock is ticking and when you feel like you may be short on agents. If you’re lagging in this area, find ways to deploy more agents at peak times or reconfigure your self-help options to provide customers with a first point of contact other than your agents.
Average Handle Time (AHT)
What it tells you: AHT tracks the average duration of customer interactions. It indicates how effective your agents are at resolving customer issues and managing their time.
How to use it: Compare your team and individual AHTs to industry benchmarks to identify high and low performers. Consider this alongside other metrics like first call resolution (FCR) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) to strive for a balance between speed and quality of service.
Abandonment Rate (Call Abandonment Rate)
What it tells you: Tracks the percentage of callers who hang up or abandon their calls before reaching an agent.
How to use it: CAR provides insights into your call center’s wait-time management effectiveness. A high abandonment rate can indicate long wait times or inadequate staffing levels, which can both lead to frustrated customers and potential business losses. By monitoring the abandonment rate, you can identify patterns and make adjustments to reduce wait times and improve customer satisfaction.
Agent Reporting
Call centers that need to optimize their people operations should look into agent reporting because it considers both individual and team performance to spot trouble issues and benchmark agent performance. Ultimately, it can inform you of certain areas where you need to provide targeted training.
Agent Availability Report
What it tells you: These reports reveal the real-time location of your team members within your call center. They track when and how often agents are available, busy with calls, on breaks, or away from their desks.
How to use it: For managers, the agent availability report is the key to ensuring that the right people are in the right place at the right time. These reports will also help you balance agents workloads and plan training sessions based on their availability.
Agent Activity Report
What it tells you: This report breaks down the day-to-day actions and interactions of your agents, providing insights into their daily performance.
How to use it: Refer to the agent activity report when coaching sessions are on the horizon or when you need to fine-tune the performance of your call center staff. They’re good for everything from identifying agent strengths and weaknesses to evaluating customer interactions and adherence to scripts.
Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
What it tells you: Measures the average time it takes for your agents to answer calls. It provides insights into the efficiency and responsiveness of your call center in addressing customer inquiries and issues.
How to use it: Customers don’t like waiting for an answer, so long ASA times may frustrate them and lead to abandoned calls. Monitor ASA to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your operations and take action to reduce caller wait times.
Occupancy Rate
What it tells you: It measures the percentage of time call center agents spend handling customer interactions compared to their available or scheduled work times. A high occupancy rate indicates that agents consistently engage with customers, maximizing their productivity. However, an excessively high occupancy rate can also lead to agent burnout and decreased service quality.
How to use it: Use these metrics for workforce management by identifying potential staffing gaps and overloads. Adjust staffing levels and redistribute workloads as needed to maintain a healthy and productive environment for agents.
Agent Adherence to Scripts
What it tells you: Measures how well call center agents follow the recommended scripts and guidelines, allowing you to see if they are providing accurate and consistent information.
How to use it: Call center managers often listen to recorded conversations to gauge this metric. This helps them spot any areas that could use improvement. If needed, managers can give agents feedback, take corrective action, or provide extra training to correct lapses in performance.
Customer Reporting
If you’re looking to identify pain points and boost customer satisfaction, try turning to customer reporting. This includes metrics that you can focus on to improve the customer experience.
First Call Resolution (FCR)
What it tells you: This metric tracks how often issues are being resolved during the initial contact—which is a huge indicator of call center success. This report is especially beneficial for inbound call centers looking to reduce repeat callers and wait times.
How to use it: For commodity businesses pushing to improve the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction scores, FCR reports can be used to identify problematic patterns that lead to repeat callers and issues. The agent data will help you fine-tune your strategies to resolve more issues, faster.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
What it tells you: CSAT provides valuable insights into how well your products, services, and support desk activities are meeting customer expectations.
How to use it: To make the most of CSAT, regularly collect customer feedback through surveys, feedback forms, or post-interaction inquiries. When analyzing the data, pay attention to both individual input and overall trends. Take the feedback seriously so you can implement positive changes at all touchpoints in the customer journey, such as product quality, timeliness of service, and agent effectiveness.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
What it tells you: NPS helps you understand your customers’ loyalty and if they are likely to recommend your service to others.
How to use it: You can use NPS by asking your customers a simple question like, “How likely are you to recommend our service to a friend?” Their response, which can be a number from 0 to 10, will help you categorize them into promoters, passives, and detractors. This information can help you identify when things are working and when they’re not.
Where Does the Data Come From?
The most well-integrated call center software platforms provide thorough and accurate data because all of their apps work in tandem. For example, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) surveys, and email or chat support can all contribute to the same analytics bank.
If your current setup is well-established and effective, you may not get lost when switching between software and consolidating all of your data. However, if your systems don’t play well together, you may not know what to do with the data from each one.
In this case, we recommend you look into call center software such as Nextiva, a standout player in the business VoIP sector—and the top of our list of recommended VoIP providers.
Call Center Reporting Done the Right Way
Since it’s a mostly automatic process, collecting call center quality data is the easy part—but call center reporting can provide so much more value than just visualizing data. When done right, you can use it to build a customer-centric call center with productive and happy agents.
1. Pick Your Power Metrics
Forget one-size-fits-all reports and instead choose call center KPIs that align with your own specific goals. If you need to boost customer satisfaction, then prioritize first call resolutions. If you need to empower your agents, focus on AHT trends and identify areas for improving your processes. Remember, your reports should work for you, not the other way around.
2. Trendspotting is a Super Power
Data rarely lies, but it often whispers. Watch out for trends lurking within the numbers. If you see spikes in call volumes, dig deeper to understand why. If you suspect that a specific product is driving complaints, take action to rectify the issue before it continues. At the end of the day, trends are your early warning system, so use them to identify opportunities as well as problems.
3. Let Your Customers Be Your Guide
Customers are more than just voices on the line, so treat them like partners. Use your call center reports to capture customer feedback whether it’s good or bad—and then do something with it. For example, adapt your scripts, refine your processes, and show your customers their voices are heard. That’ll lead your call center down a path of success for your customers, your agents, and your bottom line.
4. Empower With Agent Reports
Reports aren’t just for measuring failures, they’re for building up your team as well. Use agent performance data to identify training needs, celebrate individual and team wins, and offer targeted coaching.
Call Center Reporting Gone Wrong
Call center reports can sometimes be misleading. Of course, the numbers may still be accurate, but what you decide to do with them can sometimes negatively impact your call center’s performance.
Take SLAs (Service Level Agreements), for example. While it’s good to have goals and targets for average call handle times, too much focus on numbers can make agents rush through calls instead of prioritizing good service.
Without seeing the big picture, even the most straightforward reports can sometimes lead us astray.
Average Handle Time (AHT) Report
Agents walk a thin line between speed and quality customer service, so managers who place too much emphasis on AHT reports might negatively impact satisfaction scores.
Abandonment Rate Report
Abandonment rates, which reflect the percentage of calls ended early by customers, can be misinterpreted as a sole indicator of agent efficiency. Overemphasizing this metric may inadvertently drive agents to close calls hurriedly while neglecting to solve the issues.
Call Quantity Report
This report counts calls like trophies, rewarding sheer volume over quality conversations. If overvalued, agents may sprint through calls, leaving customers feeling rushed or unheard. Remember, it’s not about how many calls agents take, but the impact they make on each one.
Average Answer Speed
Sometimes answering the phone as quickly as possible can also mean answering it underprepared. Hence, the pressure to reduce answer speeds can often lead to missing information, frustrated customers, and overly stressed agents.
Final Thoughts
Remember, reports are just tools, so use them to guide your team, not define it. Focus on the stories behind the numbers and the human element that makes every call unique. Try to make educated, data-driven decisions to improve your call center—and if a report feels off, don’t be afraid to question it.