All contact center professionals are familiar with the phrase “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Metrics are not only critical for staff management, benchmarking your KPIs against other organizations is the first step in becoming an industry leader.
Why Is Benchmarking Necessary?
The most obvious answer is that companies need to know how their performance compares with their competitors. Benchmarking gives not only vision into the metrics, but also keeps you current with which KPIs correlate to top performance, sales, and customer satisfaction. These are the actionable numbers that can drive ingenuity, process change, and continuous improvement.
Benchmarks Need More Frequent Examination
Companies could benefit from more frequent assessment and analyses of benchmark data
Changes in Management—Are you continuing to measure the same numbers, in the same way, as your predecessors? When were the KPIs last revisited and goals adjusted?
New Types of Contact Center Interactions—Have you added web chat, website/mobile navigation assistance, or new product skills to your contact center? Each change is an opportunity to set new targets that align with business goals. It’s even valuable to periodically rethink call and email interaction goals as the business changes. Benchmarking provides the focus and the means to align contacts and customer expectations with results.
Ongoing Process Improvement—is there a practice of regular self-evaluation in place? A benchmark analysis provides the opportunity to identify quantifiable gaps between actual and desired results, as well as the metrics to measure progress.
How MNET Can Help
We will work with your team and business leaders to tailor a benchmarking study to your needs.
With first-hand contact center operations, technology and workforce management experience, our Advisory Service teams can provide the assistance you need to help you compile the relevant data, understand the standard calculations, and analyze your team’s performance compared to similar contact centers. We can also provide recommendations for the most meaningful KPIs to measure and how to affect change if the desired goals are not being met.
Efficiency
How quickly is your staff able to locate answers for customer questions? What types of interactions could be decreased with self-help options? What percentage of interactions are resolved on the first contact?
Accessibility
How long do your customers wait in queue? What is the average wait tolerance before abandoning? What options do you give customers in lieu of waiting to speak with your staff? How do you schedule for your peak interaction volume periods?
Customer Experience
Efficiency and accessibility are part of customer satisfaction. We will also measure quality management, customer feedback and employee satisfaction, to provide a holistic view of this critical component.
