Is Your Call Center Solving Issues? Or Just Answering the Phones?

A credit union’s call center is its busiest and largest branch, the primary channel current and prospective members will use to ask questions or resolve issues.

How can a credit union optimize its call center to be both effective in handling member concerns and efficient in its use of resources? There are many metrics to consider when running a call center, but there are seven I feel are the best. The first group is the basics – these measure efficiency. The second group is even more important – these measure quality and effectiveness. Effectiveness means that when you answer the phone, you actually meet and exceed the needs of your members.

The Basics

1. Average Speed of Answer (ASA): This measures the time it takes for an agent to answer a member’s call. This is an important measure, but do not focus too much here. You can answer the phone quickly and still fail your members.

2. Call Abandonment Rate: This is simply the rate at which calls are unanswered. The higher the rate, the more missed opportunities a credit union has for serving members. An ideal abandonment rate should be around 3 percent.

3. Call Handle Time: This is the amount of time an agent spends talking to members plus time spent following up on calls, emails or voicemails. This is a better measure than just call times. They will be spending time taking action on member calls, too.

4. Cost Per Contact: This is a measure of how efficient the call center is operating from a pure cost standpoint. Your credit union’s cost per contact should be between $3.18 and $5.30 per call.

Advanced Metrics

1. First Call Resolution Rate (FCRR): The best predictor of member satisfaction, FCRR is the percentage of calls resolved on the first call without being transferred to another agent. Credit unions should aim for an FCRR of 90 percent or higher.

2. Call Quality: This is the measure of an agent’s ability to do their job. A high call quality drives member loyalty and helps credit unions not just stay in business, but grow and thrive.

3. Agent Utilization: How productive is your call center staff? This is determined by looking a how much of an agent’s paid time is spent on member service. While few credit unions currently measure this, the ideal utilization is around 80 percent.

My next few blogs will explore each of these in more detail with real world credit union examples. Let me know if you have other ways of measuring your call center not listed here.