Passing the test
Call center KPI tracking often involves exhaustive call testing; voice call quality testing, call connection testing, remote agent connection testing, latency testing, and symmetrical and asymmetrical collaborative tool testing, to name but a handful. You have to ask yourself what time and resources you have available to devote to the collection and analysis of KPI metrics.
If you don’t have the wherewithal to devote to the labor-intensive, ceaseless work of full-spectrum KPI scrutiny, read on. We have some suggestions on the most critical KPIs to focus on to improve call center quality assurance as well as guidance on how automated call testing offers the best path to achieving your QA objectives.
The right KPIs for the job
Let’s take a look at the specific KPIs that will enable us to fulfill our quality assurance objectives and discuss the testing strategies that will reveal them to us.
Average Speed of Answering (ASA)
ASA (also called average delay of calls) measures how quickly the call center took to answer a call. Specifically, ASA measures the time that the phone rings for and not the time customers spend in a queue or speaking to an interactive voice response (IVR) system. How this metric is measured may vary from business to business but it is always an important metric because customers that experience a long wait to have their call answered will likely hang up and may never reach out to you again.
Number testing gives a call center the information it needs to tackle its ASA issues and improve how it handles calls. Spearline’s own automated Voice Assure connectivity and voice call quality testing tool can test call connection from any toll or toll-free number in any U.S or Canadian state and across 83 countries, with no installation and no setup on your side.
First Call Resolution (FCR)
This KPI is one of the most important metrics you can measure. FCR tracks whether your agents resolved customer issues on the first call or if multiple interactions were required.
Our Voice Assure suite will verify your toll and toll-free numbers, and provide objective, scientific PESQ audio scores along with guidance to help you understand and resolve any issues as they present. Voice Assure will also assist you in benchmarking your performance against your own historical scores in this area.
Our IVR testing tool, meanwhile, can provide you with valuable insights into your customer-facing IVR systems. Working to your own testing schedule, our tool transcribes and maps your customers’ every interaction with your IVR, making it easy to spot FCR issues and attend to them immediately.
Average Handling Time (AHT)
Average Handling Time is a KPI that does exactly what it says on the tin; it tells us the average time it takes to handle a call and bring it to a positive resolution. The QA aim here is to find a balance between AHT and customer experience (CX) by devoting the right amount of time to truly resolving customer issues and not just rushing to get them off the call.
Spearline can help you to strike this KPI balance and achieve the universal quality assurance imperative of maximizing CX. Our Voice Assure suite automates calls across all of your numbers to reveal problems with connectivity, latency, poor audio, and DTMF and CLI presentations.
Our Agent Assure remote agent connection test takes things a step further, enabling remote agents to run their own tests to determine barriers to optimal AHT. No waiting for IT support, no pressure on stretched IT departments, and immediate, actionable results and guidance.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
This is the big one. The gold standard. This metric encapsulates the values from your AHT, FCR and AHS KPIs and, really, any other KPI you might employ that impacts your quality assurance goals. Your NPS measures the likelihood that your customers will recommend your brand to others. It is the ultimate customer commendation, so it’s worth aiming for.
Using Spearline’s always on Voice Assure suite of voice call quality testing, connection testing, and remote agent connection test solutions, you have everything you need to extract valuable learning from your NPS score. You can delve into your high-scoring calls to better understand what made them successful and deploy this knowledge to other aspects of your call delivery and training initiatives.
The wrap up
There are a multitude of KPIs you can measure, so how do you separate the essential from the superfluous? We have an easy to remember piece of parting advice – data is wonderful but don’t be beleaguered by a blinkered dedication to KPIs. Measure only what you can, only what is useful, and automate where possible.
Why not let Spearline help you to measure your KPIs and boost the efficacy of your call center quality assurance objectives? Get in touch today and together we can optimize the impact of your most important performance metrics.
New to Spearline?
Spearline provides quality assurance tools for business communication services, allowing you to proactively manage your inbound and outbound voice, SMS and fax services. Our latest WebRTC products offer testing, monitoring and support for web-based communications.
We work globally across business sectors, supporting contact centers, conferencing services, and more to successfully connect with their customers and employees. For further information, or if you have any further questions please get in touch.
