Are you tired of firefighting calls and feeling like you’re pushing a rock up a hill? Does setting a benchmark goal, monitoring key metrics, and making incremental improvements sound better?
Welcome to taking the first step toward improving your call center’s service level.
Before we get started with key performance indicators and tactics for improvement, let’s make sure we’re on the same page.
What Is Call Center Service Level?
Service level is the percentage of calls answered within a target time frame. When more calls are answered during this time period, the service level percentage increases. When fewer calls are answered, the service level percentage decreases.
For example, let’s say your agents are answering 80% of your calls in 30 seconds. A good service level is around the 80/20 mark, which means that 80% of your incoming calls get answered within 20 seconds.
What’s considered a bad service level could vary. Some call centers classify everything that misses the 80/20 mark as bad. But there may be some cases where 70/30 is deemed acceptable. For example, retail call centers may experience higher call volumes when processing returns after the Christmas holidays.
There could also be variations in service levels, depending on these contributing factors:
- Industry sectors
- Customer types
- Call volumes
- Agent experience
A lot of this is about customer expectations. For example, when you call American Airlines to book a flight, you’re greeted with a message that states it may take X minutes to answer your call. Due to the sheer volume of calls the airline receives, it would be impossible for its service level to hit the 80/20 call center industry standard.
However, you can bet the company measures its service level and continually takes steps to improve it.
Customers have different expectations across different industries. In the healthcare industry, for example, callers may feel an urgent need to get diagnoses for their ailments or prescriptions for medications.
How to Measure Service Level
Some call centers have a service level agreement (SLA) that guarantees a certain threshold of service. You may choose to have an SLA for internal use to measure your call center’s performance.
Use this simple formula to calculate your call center’s service level:
Calls answered within the specified time ÷ total calls × 100 = service level percentage.
Example: If 800 out of 1,000 calls are answered in 30 seconds, the service level is 80%.
Why Service Level Matters to Your Customers
There is a clear correlation between service level and customer satisfaction, as measured by your CSAT score. If you fail to respond to callers promptly, they will become frustrated. That frustration leads to poor metrics related to customer loyalty and retention and potentially to recurring revenue.
When your call center maintains high service levels, your customers experience shorter wait times, abandon fewer calls, and get their problems solved more quickly. In contrast, poor service levels can frustrate customers, causing dissatisfaction and increasing the likelihood of their turning to competitors.
Maintaining efficient call handling while enforcing your quality standards must be part of your customer service strategy. This means there can’t be a trade-off between fast call responses and excellent customer experiences once calls have been picked up.
In the not-so-distant past, some call center managers were guilty of prioritizing metrics like service level to the point where in-call experiences suffered. By rushing existing calls to unsatisfactory conclusions, agents were able to quickly answer the next inbound calls — thus improving their service level at the previous customers’ expense.
Key Metrics You Should Track
Average speed of answer
When you’re tracking service level, the average number of seconds it takes to answer a call is your hero metric. To calculate your average speed of answer (ASA), divide the total length of customer wait time by the total number of calls answered, then multiply the result by 100.
You may also choose to track average handle time in conjunction with ASA. This measures how long each call took once it was answered.
Abandonment rate
Abandonment rate is the percentage of calls that are given up on before they’re answered. For example, a customer lets the phone ring for 30 seconds, doesn’t receive an answer, hangs up, and plans to try again later.
To calculate the abandonment rate, divide your number of abandoned customer calls by your total number of calls, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage. If you miss 50 calls over the course of a week and receive a total of 500 calls, your call abandonment rate is 10%.
First call resolution
First call resolution (FCR) is the percentage of issues resolved during the customer’s initial call. You may refer to this as first contact resolution in omnichannel contact centers, where you’re managing various channels in addition to voice.
FCR is used to measure how many customer interactions get resolved on the very first contact, eliminating the need for any follow-up. This metric gives managers a way to gauge a call center’s efficiency in resolving customer issues.
A high FCR rate indicates a well-functioning customer service team that can adeptly handle customer inquiries.
Factors That Can Impact Service Level
Understaffing
Not having enough agents leads to long wait times and abandoned calls. While it may be tempting to run a lean call center operation to cut costs, you must consider the impact this could have on customer experience.
Likewise, a lack of call center training for the agents you do have can contribute to a dip in your service level. If new or unskilled agents take longer than anticipated to resolve standard queries, it will seriously affect how quickly new incoming calls get answered.
Poor call volume forecasting
Misjudging call demand causes understaffing or overstaffing. When understaffing is the problem, the wrong number of agents may be available at the wrong times. For example, when making staffing plans, you may have overbooked agents for Fridays because you expected them to be the busiest days for inbound demand but underestimated staffing needs for other days of the week, which turned out to be just as busy.
Unexpected call spikes
There are, of course, elements outside of your control too. Sudden increases in call volume can overwhelm agents, resulting in longer response times.
You will have to make choices about whether to use overflow call center locations, BPO, and even on-call agents working from home. These could all reduce the unexpected call volumes and remedy your service level issues.
Agent turnover
High attrition leads to skill gaps, negatively impacting service levels and agent performance. Bad call centers are notorious for their revolving-door recruitment policies. If you hire unskilled agents, don’t invest in their improvement, and treat them poorly, you can’t expect them to stay.
This creates a vicious cycle in which you’re constantly looking for new agents. There’s little time to train agents to handle calls effectively and then swiftly move on to the next ones.
How to Improve Your Service Level
Use predictive forecasting
Analyze historical data and market trends to predict future call volumes and properly divide resources. Rather than going by your gut feelings or spending time manipulating data in an Excel spreadsheet, get instant insights based on real information from your call center.
Leverage workforce management solutions
Deploy workforce management (WFM) software to create precise staffing plans and to balance agent workloads with customer demand.
Implementing WFM strategies can help you:
- Reduce wait times: By ensuring the right number of agents is available at the right moments, you can minimize customer wait times and improve satisfaction.
- Improve resolution rates: By having the right agents handle the right interactions, you can improve first-call resolution rates and reduce the need for follow-ups.
- Boost operational efficiency: By forecasting and scheduling automation through call center software, you can save time and resources and enable your team to reduce queues and focus on serving customers.
Deploy call deflection
Adopting routing methods like interactive voice response (IVR) systems, automatic call distribution, or automated messaging ensures that simpler queries are resolved without involving agents. The introduction of self-service options often means customers no longer need to wait on hold to speak to call center personnel.
Providing digital messaging options via mobile channels while customers are in queue is an effective call-deflection strategy that also lowers call volumes.
- Have you tried this? Nextiva’s Omnichannel, Real-Time In-Queue Sidebar
Invest in self-help solutions
Reducing the number of calls to your business is a surefire strategy to improve your call center service level. By building robust self-service portals or mobile app features, you enable customers to resolve common issues on their own. If they can find the information they’re seeking with a few clicks, you’re providing the support they need without their having to call you.
When choosing a call center provider, make sure you ask what technology the company offers that can help customers before they contact you.
Use intelligent virtual assistants
Deploy intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) for routine inquiries to help lower your incoming call volume and improve efficiency. These assistants are software programs that use AI, natural language processing, and machine learning to give your customers automated and personalized assistance.
Like chatbots, these virtual agents can understand and respond to user requests, perform tasks, and make recommendations, simulating human interactions.
Offer omnichannel customer support
When you implement an omnichannel contact center, you open the door to a variety of communication channels (chat, email, SMS, and social media) for customers to choose from, reducing their reliance on phone support.
If calls are being most affected by high volumes and poor service levels, the introduction of other customer-favorite channels can quickly ease the burden.
Improve Your Service Level With Nextiva
You can’t skimp on service level when dealing with customers with high expectations. There must be no compromise between fast responses and superior service.
By introducing features like IVAs, call deflection, and omnichannel communication options, you take important first steps to improve your service level and delight your customers.
However, bolting on new tools one by one is rarely the most efficient or cost-effective solution. What you need is Nextiva’s robust contact center platform to ensure you’re showing up for your customers on every channel.
You get all the channels, self-help tools, and analytics you need to enable you to plan for a customer-first, high-performance contact center. Agents get a single, easy-to-use app for all customer communications and tasks.
Want to improve your call center service level? Check out Nextiva’s AI-powered contact center solutions.
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