What to Include on a Call Center Outsourcing Scorecard

Jul 6
13:04

2008

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

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A call center outsourcing scorecard is something all call centers should have. The metrics on the scorecard can ensure the productivity and success of the call center.

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The call center industry is just about one of the most successful industries in today's business sectors. In fact,What to Include on a Call Center Outsourcing Scorecard Articles if you would take time to look at stats and figures, you would see the emergence of call centers in countries all over the world. This is a strong indication that these call centers are certainly doing something great, to maintain such a strong and successful stance in the professional realm. But what do these call centers have in common? A number of experts just might say that this successful stance can be attributed to the proper and effective implementation of a call center outsourcing scorecard. And for every scorecard developed, there would also be call center metrics implemented.You may notice the mention of ‘every scorecard’ above. So, there are different scorecards implemented for every call center? Even if they are of the same industry? Yes, such is the case because even if call centers pretty much operate in the same manner, they would still have individual differences that would greatly help in identifying one from another. Thus, there would certainly be different metrics implemented on the scorecards of each of these call centers. Of course, there would still be similarities, since they do belong within the same industry.However, here are some of the typical call center metrics that make their way onto the scorecards of a number of call centers.One such metric is blockage. This is actually an accessibility measure that call centers typically use. What this metric does is show the rate at which incoming customers do not have access to the call center at a certain time. This is mostly attributed to the network facilities being inadequate in accommodating all of the incoming calls. This occurs whenever all of the trunks, or the customer service representatives, are currently occupied, thus, they cannot accommodate any more calls. Clearly, call centers should measure this, so that they can come up with certain measures to avoid having to deal with blockage. Customer satisfaction is at stake here.Another metric that should deserve mention is abandon rate. This is still related to blockage, only that the customers are still able to contact the call center; however, because the reps are still occupied with other calls, then the customers end up abandoning their calls. This is still detrimental to customer satisfaction, as well as to retention and revenue. But for call centers that cater to email services, abandon rate would not be a relevant metric here. Emails are not really discarded, should they not receive prompt response.One of the most important metrics that should make the call center scorecard is service level. This pertains to the rate of calls that are answered within a specific wait threshold. This metric is very important, since this can be used in measuring the call center’s speed of answer.These are just some of the metrics that should be included in the call center outsourcing scorecard. The important thing to remember is to choose metrics that are relevant to your purpose. Employing many metrics would only defeat the purpose, as this can make analysis and interpretation rather confusing.