Five Call Center KPIs To Ensure Customer Satisfaction
Before we get started with this analysis of key performance indicators vital to successful call center-related customer satisfaction, we all must accept the big elephant in the room — customers generally despise calling call centers.
Okay, now that’s out of the way, we can move on and begin understanding why this is such a common opinion held by customers everywhere. Then, we’ll review how your company can institute key strategic performance indicator goals to reverse the damage done by companies for generations.
The Root of the Problem
As we begin our journey, we must know where we’re starting from. As is the case with all epic adventures, it is the starting point and ending point that truly measure the grandeur of our endeavors.
Customer satisfaction with call centers across the spectrum of industries is generally low, with only a few notable exceptions. Companies that are known for providing exceptional customer service via call centers are often known more for this attribute than the products or services they provide.
This points to a larger and greater problem facing companies that utilize call centers. In other words, if high customer satisfaction with call centers is so rare that finding it proves to be a notable accolade, the issue is far too grossly widespread.
This results in customers having low expectations for satisfaction with call-center interactions. They pick up the phone expecting a poor experience. They quite literally prepare to be disappointed, aggravated, and inconvenienced.
The good news is this makes your goals of implementing a successful call center customer satisfaction strategy much easier. Why? Simple.
In this rare instance, you are not competing directly with your competitors and are instead competing with a preconceived notion that you can easily dismantle with the right approach and strategy.
To put it another way, the bar is already set so low in the mind of your customers that even making small strides will yield tremendous results.
Common Customer Complaints With Call Centers
Before we move on to the five call center KPIs you can implement to ensure customer satisfaction, let’s wrap up the root of the problem you need to tackle by looking at the most common customer complaints with call centers.
Wait Times
This is the mac daddy of them all. Wait times are the number one reason customers have low expectations for satisfaction. This is why most customers end calls with call centers unhappy. Wait times can create poor performance even when customer issues, problems, and complaints are satisfactorily resolved.
Multiple Touchpoints
As if rubbing salt in a wound, multiple touchpoints that often contribute to even longer wait times also create high customer dissatisfaction with call center customer support.
When a customer calls with a need, waits on hold, and finally gets an operator or customer service representative only to find they’ve chosen the wrong option, are in the wrong department, and cannot be helped, their frustration amplifies exponentially.
Automated routing systems employed by thousands of call centers can sometimes be too elaborate or vague for customers to navigate successfully. Being transferred multiple times, each with its own wait time is like pouring gasoline on a wildfire of disappointment.
Non-Resolution of Issue or Complaint
A byproduct, or child if you will, of these first two issues with call centers is an ended call without resolution.
Customers who wait too long for assistance, or get bounced from one representative and department to the next only to find zero assistance, will be left with compounding dissatisfaction that will be difficult to overcome as a company.
Let’s be honest; if they are calling in for help, they are already dissatisfied to some degree. Sure, the issue may not be one the company is directly responsible for, but to some degree, your product or service is not performing the way the customer expected it to. Add non-resolution to this, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Language Barriers
Many companies wisely choose to outsource some or all of their call center customer support and service to outside customer service experts, such as Awesome CX. However, many of these outsourcing partners utilize cheaper labor in foreign countries to provide these resources.
Consumers will tolerate, but don’t necessarily appreciate, speaking to a customer service representative who cannot fluently speak their native language.
Providing access to multiple languages is important, of course. However, if there is a difference in native languages between the support team and the customer base, you might have increased misunderstandings. This can lead to frustration on both sides.
Five Call Center Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) That Will Ensure Increased Customer Satisfaction
Alright, we can take a breath. Now that we’ve talked about the bad and the ugly, let’s take a look at the good things your company can start doing today to improve customer satisfaction and drive up your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with call center customer satisfaction.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics used by companies worldwide to evaluate the success of any given project or strategy. KPIs can be used for any program or development your company seeks to implement, including customer satisfaction.
Customer Retention at the Call Center Level
Oftentimes, when a customer calls a call center, it’s to seek a cancellation of service or return of a product. Many companies dedicate special call center teams, often referred to as customer retention teams, to prevent the customer from leaving.
After developing your strategy on how to combat poor customer satisfaction with your call center customer support, begin collecting and analyzing data on customer retention rates and compare them to your data prior to implementing your new strategy.
Wait Time Statistics
Wait time statistics are a critical data set to collect and analyze. As you begin implementing your new strategy, collecting and monitoring wait time reductions will be an important KPI in determining the effectiveness of your development and investment in increased customer satisfaction.
Net Promoter Scores (NPS)
Net Promoter Scores (NPS) gauge the likelihood of a customer recommending your business to others. These are essential business data sets and are major indicators of how satisfied your customers are with your company.
Deploying NPS surveys at the end of call center interactions will provide useful information relative to how well your new strategy is performing. In fact, if you haven’t been utilizing NPS surveys, it may be pertinent to implement them prior to starting your new strategy so that your team has relevant data for comparison.
Higher NPS will be a clear indication of how well your new call center strategy is performing and if changes still need to be made.
Call Center Employee Satisfaction
We talk a lot about customer satisfaction but let’s not forget employee satisfaction is also essential. Happy employees who believe in the role they play in your company’s mission will perform better than those that aren’t.
Increased employee performance will surely be a component of your new call center customer satisfaction strategy. It will be a priceless KPI for measuring your new development and investment success.
Increased Revenues at the Call Center Level
Lastly, increased revenue data generated from your call centers are another great KPI to measure your strategy's performance. Call centers are uniquely positioned to conduct sales in addition to customer retention.
Upselling and cross-selling are great tools at the disposal of your call center representatives. When a customer calls a call center, an opportunity is created to make a sale. This opportunity should not be squandered.
Part of your call center customer satisfaction strategy should encompass increased sales and revenue opportunity taking. Measuring increased revenues is a key indicator that customer satisfaction is increasing. Unhappy customers, after all, generally aren’t willing to spend more money with you.
Review: KPI Essentials
Determining what KPIs to measure to gauge customer satisfaction with your call centers will be an important aspect of our overall strategy, but it’s only one component. It is vital that your strategy addresses many of the common issues that frustrate consumers around the world with call centers.
Take an honest look at your company’s performance in these areas, find where improvement is needed, address the elephant in the room, and be willing to invest and sacrifice. You will soon experience success on a level you may have once thought unobtainable.
How We Can Help
We mentioned earlier that we are an experienced outsourcing partner that can provide the high-level customer experience your company is seeking with call center customer support. We make every effort as a company to emulate your company’s culture, mission, and goals and make them our own.
We provide our partner companies with straightforward up-front pricing, short and long contracts, and dedicated teams to ensure consistent delivery of services rendered. Our mission is to make your customers fall ever more deeply in love with your company.
We would love the opportunity to discuss how we accomplish this with your team. Give us a call, and let’s connect our teams to discover all the ways we can innovate your call center customer support!
Sources:
What is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)? KPI.org
Top 3 Things Customers Hate About Call Centers | Linkedin
What is a good Net Promoter Score? Here's what our data says | Survey Monkey