Plotting down Help Desk Outsourcing Metrics

When you work for a call center, you will certainly deal with help desk outsourcing metrics at one point in time or another. Yes, these metrics are indeed very common in the call center industry. This is primarily because such indicators are used in evaluating just how far along the call center is towards the achievement of corporate objectives and goals. Key performance indicators would then be used, in the implementation of such metrics. Ultimately, the performance of the help desk would be determined, to see if it is indeed performing as it should.When you want to optimize the performance of your help desk in terms of manpower and resources, then effective performance management measures should be implemented. These are the metrics themselves, which are quantifiable measures that gauge the performance of all members of your workforce. What are these performance management measures, you might ask? There are actually a number of these that you should keep in mind. The typical ones include the constant monitoring and evaluation of your agents’ performance, the proper formulation of objectives, the apt training of your agents, and the implementation of an appraisal system, to gauge and recognize which of your agents are performing beyond the required standards of the call center. To determine all of these, KPIs or key performance indicators should be implemented.How important are KPIs, you might ask. Well, these are very important. Picture the many calls that a call center receives every single workday. What do you think can assist agents in gauging just what calls should receive top priority? And what about how these calls should be processed? The implementation of KPIs will greatly assist any call center here. Still, you should remember to choose only relevant KPIs to include as metrics. When you are tempted to include as many KPIs as possible, do not give in to this temptation. This would just make the analysis and interpretation of data all the more confusing. Thus, choose only the significant ones. This way, you are sure to have metrics that will measure what you want to measure.Of course, these KPIs should also be in line with the goals and objectives that your company has prescribed during its very foundation. This way, the present performance of the help desk and all other departments in the company will be clearly determined.For the most part, here are some KPIs that are currently used by help desks all over the world: call cost, customer satisfaction, first call resolution, overall call center performance, and agent efficiency. Call cost pertains to the costs entailed for each call that is received by the help desk. Customer satisfaction is measured through the conduction of Customer Satisfaction, or CSAT, surveys. First call resolution is the agent’s ability to resolve the customer’s issue within that first call made and received. Agent efficiency pertains to the abilities of the individual help desk agents. And overall call center performance pertains to all of the aspects that are in play towards the overall success of the call center itself. These are just some of the help desk outsourcing metrics that you just might want to use, should you be the proprietor of a certain call center.