Call centers can be essential to any growing organization’s success. When it comes to resolving customer complaints, answering questions, and achieving optimal user experiences, the call center is most often tagged with handling these broad customer interactions. And the agents who staff them are typically your first line of defense during communication challenges.
A call center agent performance scorecard can make it easier to ensure your agents are achieving the results you’re trying to achieve, and it can be an invaluable learning tool when assessing the effectiveness of your agents.
This post will highlight some of the best practices we’ve seen in the industry, and our convenient free templates will help give you a starting point for integrating efficient performance monitoring into your management plan..
Agent performance monitoring is a crucial aspect of providing high-quality service that drives customer satisfaction and retention rates. Diligent performance oversight can help identify issues and inefficiencies within the call center itself, such as poor agent support software, which can then be addressed and corrected. Finally, performance monitoring can help improve individual agents' productivity and efficiency, leading to lower operating costs and happier customers.
The problem is that there are many hurdles that can make call center agent performance hard to track. Agents often handle a large number of calls, which can be difficult to individually monitor. They may also fulfill multiple professional roles – such as customer service, sales, and technical support – once again making it difficult to track their performance uniformly across the board without a unified scoring system.
It's important to understand that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to agent performance scorecards because every call center project is different. Each has its own unique set of goals, objectives, and KPIs, and companies can use them for vastly distinct reasons.
You'll get the most out of your scorecards when they're customized to fit your specific needs. For instance, you might benefit from building on scorecard templates that incorporate a few of the following versatile metrics:
One pitfall to avoid is thinking that these performance KPIs exist in isolation: Even though your call center will inevitably end up using some unique combination of metrics, they'll serve you best when you adopt a more holistic approach.
Call handling time tracking is a prime example of where a broader perspective can help. Many circumstances can impact how long it takes agents to close out conversations, so you'll want to go beyond just measuring their speed. No matter which performance indicators you choose, always remember to keep your ultimate goals in mind, like improving customer experiences and resolving problems satisfactorily – not just getting people to hang up quickly.
Inbound and outbound sales agents are often the primary points of contact for your interactions with the public. Whether they're taking calls or reaching out, these agents represent your brand to those who might not know anything about it – so they'd better make a positive impression!
So what KPIs should your sales agent scorecards include? It's smart to begin with some form of soft skills tracking, but you'll also want to gain insights into the concrete productivity factors that determine success in a fast-paced customer service environment. At a bare minimum, this might include handling time, compliance, schedule adherence, and complaints.
Although it may seem like focusing on sales statistics is the obvious way to manage sales agents, you should also recognize that a lot goes into closing a deal. You need to take a big-picture view of as many factors as possible, and using a thorough scorecard definitely helps.
Support agents handle some of the trickiest communication challenges and brand interactions that are out there. These agents are the ones who have to calm upset customers down, figure out how to solve technical problems remotely, and must manage their own internal stress levels effectively.
Support agent scorecard monitoring practices can include some of the same metrics we've already mentioned, but some specialization may also be in order. Also consider tracking:
Building from predefined templates is often the easiest way to get started tackling any complex challenge. At Agents Only, our certified Project Coordinators often start with templates such as these to help build the unique algorithms that accompany every new Agents Only project.
Remember, every project is unique. The agent results and behaviours that you’re trying to achieve will be most impactful if they are aligned with your broader company goals. Start with a proven template, such as one of our agent monitoring scorecards, and then iterate by adding and removing elements that more closely align with your goals.
