Call centers are busy, noisy, bustling places where agents commonly field a fusillade of non-stop calls. This can lead to agent burnout and an unsatisfactory customer experience. It can also reduce productivity.
The good news is that, by tweaking processes and mindsets, and incorporating background noise cancellation, call centers can become less bogged down and efficient. Here’s how to increase call center productivity.
Determine Your Current Productivity
Before you do anything, you must figure out current productivity levels. One way is by using the formula: Call Center Productivity = (Total number of resolved calls/Total number of handled calls * 100.
If your reps handled 100 calls and resolved 70 of them, for example, productivity would be 70%.
You could also use the ratio of output to input, which considers the amount of time agents spend on calls as well as their overall work time.The formula for that is: Call Center Productivity = (Total output time/Total input time) *100.
Be sure that when you’re figuring out the overall number of calls handled, you’ll get a solid agent productivity figure if the number of calls are broken down into talk, hold, and after-call work times.
Improving Call Center Productivity
Get the Most from Current Processes
Processes that are well designed and managed not only improve productivity, but they permit scalability and extract friction.
To optimize your processes, review them all with an eye toward any delay-causing impediments. Put a premium on processes with the most operational impact and create a path to improvement.
Make sure you separate essential from nonessential tasks, correct efficiency flows where needed, and maintain improvements by promoting a culture of improvement. For consistent execution, be certain to document optimized plans.
Employ the Proper Technology
Determine whether any of your existing systems possess limitations that hinder productivity.
If so, technology that improves forecasting, speeds up resolution times, and uses automation to reduce redundancies can drive productivity.
Just make sure your new solutions are right for your process requirements. The best tools are those that are tailored to your improved workflows. Such solutions can include:
- Call monitoring tools for improved customer interactions. These quality assurance tools provide real-time feedback.
- Interactive voice response and automatic call distribution to route customers to the proper agents. This reduces transfer and speeds up handling times.
- Knowledge bases offer call center reps quick and easy access to pertinent info and lessen the time spent on research. They also can improve first-contact resolution.
- Interfaces that are easy to use can keep agents on track and in control rather than battling software.
Develop Customized Strategies
Call centers should tailor solutions based on their operations’ type and size. For example, smaller centers can benefit from regular staff feedback, fundamental routing rules, and online training resources.
As for medium-sized centers, they should employ scalable cloud-based solutions for monitoring and routing while offering flexible scheduling and opportunities to develop.
Larger centers can target specific teams by incorporating advanced automation tools and leveraging analytics.
Assess Agent Productivity
To stay abreast of agent productivity, keep an eye on handle times, schedule adherence, and resolution rates.
Rather than arbitrary objectives that can exhaust staff, set reasonable goals based on data and research. Make certain your reps know that productivity tracking promotes collective improvement.
To rally agents around a shared goal, post real-time dashboards to show team and individual performance. You may want to consider incentives such as paid time off or gift cards to encourage high productivity scores.
If you want to get the most from your call center, you should consider the above ways to boost productivity while keeping agents and customers satisfied. After all, growing your call center performance can improve your bottom line.
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