HTHTS April TeleConference Workshop Leader Call Center Math: Managing by the Numbers Presented by: Penny Reynolds is a Founding Partner of The Call Center School where she heads up curriculum development. She develops and teaches courses on a wide variety of call center topics, including workforce management, performance measurement, and call center technologies. Penny is a popular speaker at industry conferences and association meetings and a frequent contributor to industry trade publications. She is the author of Call Center ing: The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management, Call Center Supervision: The Practical Guide to Managing Call Center, Power Phrasing, and The Power of One and has also co-authored the five textbooks for University of Phoenix s call center certification program. An honors graduate of Vanderbilt University, Penny was one of the first recipients of Call Center Magazine s prestigious Call Center Pioneer award. Workshop Overview In this workshop, you will learn to: Define the most common performance measures and numbers to understand in the areas of service, quality, efficiency, and profitability. Identify ways to analyze, interpret, and report call center performance numbers. Solve several common call center math problems. What Numbers Should You Watch? Key Concept: Three Stakeholder Perspectives Who are the three groups of people you need to keep happy each day? 1
Stakeholder Perspectives Stakeholder Perspectives Who are the main stakeholders? 1.. 3. Stakeholder Group Customers Management Main Concerns Performance Measures What does each care about? Frontline What do you need to measure? Other Who Cares About What? The Numbers Customers Service Quality Management Efficiency Profitability Agents Workload Work environment Service Availability (Are we there?) Speed of answer (How fast?) Quality Quality (How well?) Efficiency utilization (Do we match workforce to workload?) Contact handling (How long does it take?) Profitability Conversion and/or up-sell rate (Are we selling?) Cost per call (What are costs and margins?)
Service Availability Measures Availability Measures: Hours and days of operations Hours of Operation Example Consider Simple Scheduling Solutions for Better Coverage. Time Period -:3am Cost per Call Comparison Number of Calls 11 Number of 19 Cost per Call $ 3.4 Blockage and abandons 8-8:3am 34 $ 3.9 Self-service options -:3pm 44 6 $.9 Note: All periods staffed to 8% in second service level. Evaluating Abandons How would you use the following abandon statistics? Another Availability Measure Self Service Availability: Time to Abandon 3 sec 3 6 sec 6 1 sec 1 18 sec 18 4 sec 4 3 sec Percent Abandoning 3% 1% 1% % % 8% IVR or Web Percent of customers that use Percent of contacts that complete there Exit points 3
Speed of Answer Measures Activity Speed of Answer Measures: Service level (x % in y sec) Arrival Number 1 3 4 Time of Arrival 8:. 8: 8:3.6 8:4.3 Handle Time.6. 3. Time Call Began 8:. a 8: b 8:4.6 a 8:. b Time Call Ended 8:4.6 8:. 8:6.6 8:8. Delay of Call 1..7 Service Level: in < sec 8:6.6 8:6.6 a 8:9. Average speed of answer (ASA) 6 7 8:6.8 8:7. 3. 8:8. b 8:9. a 8:1.6 8:1. 1.4 1.8 8 8:1.1 1. 8:1.6 b 8:11.8. 9 8:1..8 8:1. b 8:1. 1 8:17..6 8:17. a 8:19.8 11 8:18.8 1 8:1. 6. 13 8:4. 4. 14 8:6. 1 8:8. Actual View of Service Level Analyzing and Reporting Service Level Arrival Number 1 3 4 6 7 8 9 1 11 1 13 14 1 Time of Arrival 8:. 8: 8:3.6 8:4.3 8:6.6 8:6.8 8:7. 8:1.1 8:1. 8:17. 8:18.8 8:1. 8:4. 8:6. 8:8. Handle Time.6. 3. 3. 1..8.6 6. 4. Time Call Began 8:. a 8: b 8:4.6 a 8:. b 8:6.6 a 8:8. b 8:9. a 8:1.6 b 8:1. b 8:17. a 8:18.8 b 8:1. a 8:4. b 8:7. a 8:8. b Time Call Ended 8:4.6 8:. 8:6.6 8:8. 8:9. 8:1.6 8:1. 8:11.8 8:1. 8:19.8 8:1. 8:7. 8:8. 8:9.6 8:3.6 Delay of Call 1..7 1.4 1.8. 1.. Service Levels: 9 of 1 (6%) in < sec 1 of 1 (67%) in < 3 sec 13 of 1 (87%) in < 6 sec Time of Day 6: 7: 7: 8: 8: 9: 9: 1: 1: 11: 11: 1: 1: 1: 1: : : 3: 3: 4: 4: : : 6: Call Volume 8 9 9 14 18 19 16 18 1 14 1 Daily % 4.%.%.% 8.% 1.% 1.% 9.% 1.% 1.% 11.% 8.% 6.% SL (in sec) 1% 9% 9% 9% 7% 7% 8% 8% 6% 7% 8% 8% 4
The Numbers Quality Measures Service Availability (Are we there?) Speed of answer (How fast?) Quality Quality (How well?) Efficiency utilization (Do we match workforce to workload?) Contact handling (How long does it take?) Profitability Conversion and/or up-sell rate (Are we selling?) Cost per call (What are costs and margins?) Internal Measures Monitoring scores Error and rework First call resolution External Measures Customer surveys Complaints and praise Data Analysis Data Analysis Measures of Central Tendency Three Types: Mean (average) Median Mode Measures of Distribution Standard Deviation: Describes dispersion of results Shows how results are clustered around mean Is square root of the variance Beware of averages need to understand distribution too! Data Set 1 Data Set Low 1 1 Med 3 1 4 High 1 Mean 3. 3. Standard Deviation 1.88.87
The Numbers Efficiency Measures Service Availability (Are we there?) Speed of answer (How fast?) Quality Quality (How well?) Efficiency utilization (Do we match workforce to workload?) Contact handling (How long does it take?) Profitability Conversion and/or up-sell rate (Are we selling?) Cost per call (What are costs and margins?) Resource Utilization Agent occupancy Shrinkage Schedule efficiency Self-service utilization Contact Handling Average handle time (AHT) After call work (ACW) Hold times Transfer rates Occupancy Call Center ing Example Occupancy: Percentage of time an agent is actually involved in call handling during the hour versus sitting in the idle state waiting for a call Affected by economies of scale and service goal Calculation: Agent occupancy = Workload hours hours 17 calls per half-hour, minute AHT (8 talk/ acw) (9. erlangs) Number of 3 31 3 33 34 3 Average Speed of Answer 98 sec 17 sec 4 sec 3 sec 18 sec 11 sec Service Level (in 3 sec) 4% 46% 6% 74% 8% 88% Occupancy.97.94.91.88.86.83 6
Service and Occupancy Relationship Resource Utilization Remember the Balance: Service Workload = Occupancy As you build schedules, try and expand your mix: Full vs part-time mix Different shift lengths Days on/off mix Staggered start times Flexibility is the key. Efficiency Measures Forecast versus Actual What if calls take 3 seconds longer to handle? Contact Handling Average handle time (AHT) After call work (ACW) Hold times Time of Day 6: 6:3 7: Forecast Calls 8 31 3 Forecast AHT 3 3 3 Forecast 6 6 69 Actual Calls 8 31 3 Actual AHT 3 3 3 New 61 68 76 Net - -6-7 Transfer rates 7:3 38 3 7 38 3 8-7 System speed and availability 8: 4 3 8 4 3 9-8 8:3 4 3 88 4 3 96-8 7
The Numbers Service Availability (Are we there?) Speed of answer (How fast?) Quality Quality (How well?) Efficiency utilization (Do we match workforce to workload?) Contact handling (How long does it take?) Profitability Conversion and/or up-sell rate (Are we selling?) Cost per call (What are costs and margins?) Profitability Measures Conversion rate: Percent of calls resulting in a sale Percent of calls with add-on revenue Revenues Sales per call (or per agent) Sales per sign-on minute Impact of negative references Cost per call Revenue or Value per Call Value per Call Average amount of revenue or value per single contact Can be measured by agent, team, group, or for entire center. contacts to sell product/item Average value per item = $ Value per call = $ Value per Call Now Calculate for Customer Service Center: No direct revenue Customer retention annual value $1. million 1, contacts per month (phone and e-mail) Value per contact = $ 8
Calculating Efficiency Call Center Top Twenty Cost per Call Average cost to handle a single contact By queue or entire center Labor cost issues Wages only vs. loaded Variable vs. fixed Options Call blockage Abandon rate Service level or ASA Schedule adherence Agent occupancy Scheduled to actual staff Self-service percentage Average Handle Time (AHT) Transfer percentage Cost per call Error/rework percentage Hold time First call resolution(one and done) Successful sales percentage Successful upsell percentage Quality monitoring scores Employee retention Customer retention Employee satisfaction Customer satisfaction How may of these do you use? Top 1 List Suggested Base Measures 1.. 3. 4.. Your Call Center: 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. Service Responsiveness speed, abandons, transfers Availability hours, blockage, downtime Quality Internal measures monitoring scores External measures customer surveys Efficiency Cost per contact including everything Performance trends continuous improvement Profitability Direct revenue produced per contact Value provided to other departments Reserve the rest for unique business goals. 9
Some Final Truths For More Information You can expect what you inspect. If you don t measure it, you can t manage it. Just because you can measure it doesn t mean you should. Just because you should measure it doesn t mean you can (at least easily). If you torture numbers long enough, they will admit to anything! 61-81-84 penny.reynolds@thecallcenterschool.com 1