What Your Contact Center Metrics Aren’t Telling You

Companies often get into the rut of overanalyzing efficiency metrics. A more insightful approach is to analyze performance-oriented measures that reveal opportunities for customer retention and growth.

Some may call Headsets.com’s contact center strategy nontraditional; others may view it as cutting edge. The company’s CEO and President Mike Faith, believes it’s just common sense.

That’s because the company doesn’t measure call time—one of the most commonly used contact center metrics. “I believe that what you measure is what you get tempted to change, and we don’t ever want our team rushing a customer. It’s not about call length; it’s about customer satisfaction,” Faith says.

One of Headset.com’s often-used metrics is an “excellence ratio.” This is determined after customers complete a survey and they rate the agent from “poor” to “excellent.” For every “non-excellent,” the agent receives a negative mark, even if the rating was “good.” The number of “non-excellent” ratings is then counted against the number of “excellents” ratings to determine the ratio. The ratio of “excellent” to “non-excellent” should be above 10. If not, the agent will receive additional training. “Do we have high standards? You betcha. Maybe that’s why we’re growing and why we’re profitable in what many consider to be a competitive industry,” Faith says.