11 Essential Call Center Metrics And KPIs (2024 Guide)

Are your customers happy? Are you providing better support and service than your competitors? Do you have the right people and technology in the right places? These are important questions and the answers are constantly changing. Call center metrics are a vital source of truth when it comes to finding these answers as they change over time.

Call center metrics allow you to measure your call center’s performance and identify where you can improve. They can help you determine each agent’s strengths and weaknesses and identify top performers. That way, you can provide individualized coaching and training for each agent, and schedule staff more intelligently. You can also identify problems with your technology, such as the need to tweak your call center solution to accommodate changing call volumes.

Call center metrics can also help you understand your customer experience. In general, customer satisfaction levels tend to fall if customers have to contact the organization or explain their problem multiple times. Customers also aren’t keen on waiting or providing information that they think you already have. That’s where call center metrics come in—they help you identify what is and isn’t working for customers, so you can tailor the best experience possible.

The call center metrics that matter most are unique to everyone. The metrics that are important to a call center that provides IT support are going to be much different than one that serves customer complaints for retailers. Even within a given organization, the value and importance of a given call center metric varies from job role to job role. So, unfortunately, there isn’t a list of metrics to monitor and a decision tree to follow.

With that said, there are some metrics that are universally helpful, and will no doubt be relied on to answer some of your most important business questions. Let’s explore them below.

Call Arrival Rate

Call arrival rate measures the frequency of inbound calls over a given period of time. This is a fundamental call center metric that can help you determine peak hours and seasonal calling trends, so you can hire and schedule staff intelligently.

Percentage of Calls Blocked

Percentage of calls blocked tells you how many inbound callers get a busy tone. You want this number to be as low as possible, because it means all your customers are able to reach you. When customers reach a busy tone, it has a negative impact on their customer experience, which puts your relationship at risk.

If you have a high percentage of blocked calls, it can be a signal that you need to adjust staffing levels, increase agent productivity or the underlying technology is unable or not properly configured to support your current call volumes.

Average Call Abandonment

Average call abandonment measures the number of callers who hang up before reaching an agent. This is another call center metric that you’d like to see at zero (or as close to it as possible). High average call abandonment rates are a symptom of the same problems that cause a high percentage of calls blocked—understaffing, poor performance, technology, and poor processes.

First Response Time (FRT)

FRT measures the average amount of time that a customer waits before speaking with an agent. A “good” FRT varies by industry, but in general, the lower your FRT, the more likely that your customers will be satisfied with the experience. A high FRT can indicate problems with staffing levels or technology capabilities.

Average Handle Time (AHT)

Average handle time gives you a general idea of how long it takes an agent (or group of agents) to help a caller. Some measure AHT from the moment a caller connects to the moment they are disconnected, while others will also include the time it takes to complete post-call tasks, such as filing a form or updating the CRM.

In general, the lower your AHT is, the better. However, an AHT that is too low can also be a signal that something isn’t right. While customers value fast service, they loathe having to call again—especially about the same problem. The idea is to create the greatest outcome possible in the least amount of time, with an emphasis on creating the greatest outcome possible.

Not only does AHT help you establish baselines for how long it should take to address a given issue, but it also helps you measure each agent (or groups of agents) against those baselines. Agents who spend too much or too little time on particular calls may require additional coaching and training. It can also reveal problems that go beyond agent capability, such as difficult or convoluted workflows and clunky technology experiences.

Agent Utilization Rate

Agent utilization rate metrics help you understand how agents are using their time throughout their shift. Think of it as a more granular version of AHT. Whereas AHT measures everything from beginning to end, agent utilization rates look at the percentage of time workers spend completing any given task(s) from the instant they pick up the phone, until after they have hung up and completed any necessary post-call tasks.

The ideal agent utilization rate varies by industry and type of call. This is a metric you will need to monitor over time. But once you’ve solidified processes that yield desirable outcomes and identify the proper agent utilization rates for your call center, it is very useful for setting goals and providing the coaching and training in the areas where agents need to improve their performance.

First Call Resolution (FCR)

FCR measures the percentage of calls wherein the agent is able to resolve the customer’s problem in the first call, without having to transfer, escalate, pause or return the call. Basically, it shows you the frequency in which you create ideal outcomes. Remember, customers are unhappy when they call a company multiple times to resolve a problem, and it can impact future spending—the higher your FCR, the better.

Some may choose to measure repeat call rate (RCR), which gives you an inverse look at FCR. Instead of measuring how many customers have their problems resolved on the first call, RCR measures how many customers required multiple calls to resolve their problem.

Cost per Call (CPC)

Aptly named, CPC allows you to see how much each call costs on average. You take the total cost of all your calls (labor, technology costs, general business expenses to support the call center, and so on) and divide it by the total number of calls. The ideal CPC is dependent on your company’s size, the complexity of your product and buying process, and the nature of the service you’re providing. With that said, you want to minimize your CPC as much as you can.

A high CPC indicates inefficiency somewhere along the line. It could be that the underlying technology is expensive to support and maintain. It could be that agents aren’t helping customers fast enough. It could be both.

At the end of the day, call centers are also cost centers. Therefore, it’s important for call center managers to keep costs as low as possible. CPC metrics help them accurately measure just how much everything costs, as well as make accurate forecasts about future costs, too. These metrics can also highlight areas where costs can be cut.

Perhaps the most valuable call center metrics are collected by surveying the customer. Who can tell you better what it’s like to be your customer than your customers themselves? If they are happy with your business after dealing with your call center, then it’s a good signal that you’re fulfilling their needs.

It’s important to note that, while these metrics are collected through, centered on and used to improve call centers, they are also collected through, centered on and used to improve other parts of the business.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT is used to measure how satisfied customers are with a business, including its products and services, and dealing with its customer service. CSAT scores are calculated using the results from simple surveys about the customer’s experience with the call center.

There is no single CSAT survey template or scoring methodology, because each call center operates differently, and thus needs to ask about and weigh responses differently. But one way you can calculate CSAT would be to ask customers how satisfied they were during different stages of the process on a scale of one to five, with one being very unsatisfied, and five being very satisfied. The CSAT is the percentage of satisfied customers (answer four or five) from the total.

Since there is no standard methodology for calculating CSAT, there is no “ideal” score. The important thing is that you come up with a model that accurately reflects CSAT, so you can make the best decisions possible, and then take steps to improve that score.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES measures how easy it is for customers to resolve their issues. The more effort a customer has to put in, the more of a negative impact it will have on their experience and feelings towards your company.

CES is an even simpler metric to calculate. A CES score is determined by asking customers a single question—typically along the lines of “on a scale of one to five, with one being very difficult and five being very easy, how easy was it to handle your issue?”. The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of those who said it was easy (select four and five) from those who said it was difficult (select one and two). A high CES is good because it shows that more customers find it easier to work with you than customers find it difficult to work with you.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS allows you to gauge how loyal and satisfied your customers are with one question: “On a scale from one to 10, with one being unlikely and 10 being likely, how likely are you to recommend this business to a friend?”

You separate the responses into three segments: promoters (those who select nine or 10), passives (those who select seven or eight) and detractors (those who select six or below), then subtract the total number of promoters from the total number of detractors. As with other customer experience call center metrics, the higher your NPS, the better.

Call center management and CRM solutions aren’t just about making the job easier for customer service reps and call center agents. They’re also valuable sources of data that can help you measure your call center’s performance, identify and rectify problems with technology, processes and people, and better understand your customers.

Call center metrics are only half of the solution when it comes to optimizing your call center and increasing customer satisfaction. It’s up to you to decipher the data, come up with a plan, implement changes when and where it’s necessary, continually coach staff and ultimately meet your business goals.