Live from Future Call Center Summit: 3 Ways to Approach Call Center Metrics

All businesses are not created as equals. All businesses are not managed equally.

Why, then, would we expect businesses to assess performance against identical benchmarks?

The simple answer: we should not.

While abstract concepts like improving customer satisfaction, building loyalty and increasing revenue are fundamental goals for all businesses, they lack the nuance needed to drive day-to-day strategy.

They say nothing specific about a business’ identity. They say nothing specific about a business’ core philosophies and values.

They say nothing about how a business should focus its effort in order to wholly realize its potential.

Granted, no singular, blanket concept will ever be sufficient to describe a business’ motivations. Run by different leaders and positioned for different customer bases, all organizations will approach their challenges—and evaluate their success—in accordance with slightly different conceptions.

Certain classifications can, however, more precisely capture the nuance of business motivation than stratospheric objectives like revenue and customer satisfaction. They can identify a more intermediate goal a business attempts to achieve when launching a new product, investing in a new technology or adopting a new customer service strategy.

In their joint presentation at Call Center IQ’s Future Call Center Summit, MicroAutomation and nowanalytics identified three such classifications: product leadership, customer intimacy and operational excellence.

Conscious of the fact that all businesses want to increase satisfaction and revenue, the classifications instead describe means of achieving those big picture objectives. They refer to a business’ fundamental focus when devising, implementing and grading a customer management strategy. They also refer to a business’ key source of competitive advantage.

Distinct in their conceptions of the customer experience, the three classifications naturally require distinct sets of performance metrics:

Product Leadership – Creating differentiation based on the quality or uniqueness of a product.

Success conception: Businesses demonstrate successful product leadership by creating an appealing product that garners sizable market penetration and favorable reviews from customers.

Essential metrics: Customer satisfaction score, Conversion rate on marketing/sales efforts, Adoption rate, Retention rate

Customer intimacy – Creating differentiation based on the level of engagement with the customer.

Success conception: Businesses demonstrate successful customer intimacy by creating valuable experiences throughout the lifecycle.

Essential metrics: First call resolution, customer effort score, service level

Operational Excellence – Creating differentiation based on the efficiency of the customer engagement process.

Success conception: Businesses demonstrate operational excellence by delivering expedient, low-cost customer service experiences.

Essential metrics: cost per call, average handle time, self-service completion rate