Drive excellence in telecom call centers—establish KPIs that matter

In today’s fiercely competitive telecom marketplace, reducing customer churn is a top priority. A 2022 survey revealed that nearly half (46%) of respondents had canceled a telecom service in the previous year. The main culprit was broken omnichannel flows. A staggering 44% of customers jumped ship after repeating themselves to multiple agents, while 23% canceled after being transferred between service channels.

Excellent customer service is crucial to keeping customers on board. But here’s the catch: measuring call center and overall customer service success isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. Many telecommunications companies are either tracking the wrong KPIs or misinterpreting the good ones. Importantly, individual KPIs don’t tell the whole story, and a specific KPI could mean one thing to one organization and something totally different to another. Context is important when uncovering areas that need improvement.

Call center KPIs in isolation 

When it comes to call center health, looking at individual KPIs can lead to bad reporting and misdiagnosed challenges and breakdowns within the system. If you’re looking to improve the overall health, you don’t want to chance investing in fixes to the wrong problems. Below are a few common metrics and their limitations when evaluated in isolation.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS is a popular metric for gauging overall service quality. But here’s the thing: NPS is all about a customer’s willingness to recommend your company to others, and that sentiment isn’t solely based on their call center experiences. Factors like infrastructure challenges, pricing, and the quality of your products and services all play a role. If the NPS score drops, that may not mean the problem resides in the call center, but could be an indicator of broader pain points in the customer experience.

Average call time

As customers, we all want our issues resolved quickly, right? But while average call time is important, this stat doesn’t tell you whether the customer’s problem was actually solved. A call could be short because the customer got frustrated and ended the call before the agent could resolve the issue. Plus, if your self-service channels are working well, agents should be dealing with more complex issues that naturally take longer to resolve. Longer average call time isn’t necessarily a red flag. In fact, it could be a sign that things are working well. 

Number of call transfers

Ideally, telecommunications companies want fewer transfers and more first-call resolutions. But some complex problems require multiple experts. Looking at this metric alone doesn’t give you the full picture of your call center’s health.

Don’t make any conclusions from an isolated statistic. To truly understand your call center’s performance, you need to look at a variety of metrics in context.

Strategies for improving call center KPIs

Now that we’ve established why isolated KPIs can be misleading, let’s explore some strategies to boost your call center’s performance and get a more holistic view of its health through multiple perspectives.

1. Define what it means to be “done”

The million-dollar question for any call center is: “Was the customer’s problem resolved?” This should be a simple yes or no question, right? But it’s often not that easy. Defining what it means to be “done” is trickier than one might think.

Each organization needs a clear, standard definition of “done” that aligns with its business goals. This could mean different things for different services. “Done” could mean that interrupted service has been restored, or it could mean the customer acknowledged a billing issue as resolved. For a new, confused customer, “done” could mean that their cellular service is finally activated. Whatever the definition, make sure the definition of “done” is complete in the customer’s eyes and it’s useful for achieving broader business objectives like lowering call center costs, reducing churn, or increasing NPS.

KPIs that matter

But remember, while “done” is crucial, it’s not the only KPI that matters. You’ll want to track a mix of metrics to track customer satisfaction, agent performance, and cost optimization. 

KPIs that you should consider tracking—and evaluating in concert with others—include:

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT): Customer satisfaction surveys can provide numerical scores on a scale to indicate their satisfaction with the resolution of their problem. These surveys can also ask customers about how much effort they had to put forth to get the issue resolved—the less work the customer has to do, the better for the company. Finally, keep tabs on the call abandonment rate, which measures the percentage of calls that are abandoned before an agent answers. If it’s high, there are likely more calls coming in than agents can handle in a timely manner.

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• Agent performance: Two stats are commonly used to track agent performance. The agent utilization rate measures the percentage of an agent’s time that is spent on productive work. If it’s low, it’s worth investigating why agents’ time is being wasted. The second is average after-contact work time, which measures how long it takes an agent to finish tasks related to the call after the customer has disconnected. This KPI may uncover opportunities for automation to increase productivity and efficiency.
• Cost optimization: The cost per call calculates how much the average call costs the company—obviously an important measure. Also pay attention to the number of repeat calls, which may indicate that problems are not being solved the first time around. 

2. Leverage unassisted channels

Generally, the more customers can solve issues on their own, the better. But don’t assume that all self-service use is positive. Some customers might be avoiding your call center due to past negative experiences.

Track website analytics to understand how customers are using your knowledge base, FAQs, and chatbots. Benchmark calls against these unassisted channels to see if improvements lead to decreased call volume. And don’t forget to research customers who exclusively use self-service options to ensure they’re not just dodging a call to your agents.

3: Enable tier-one agents to solve problems

In many large organizations, the initial call center identifies the problem and then transfers it to specialists. But as we noted above, customers being passed from one agent to another is a major reason customers jump ship.

Invest in tools and training that empower your tier-one agents to solve low-level problems that are too complex for self-service, but don’t require a specialist. This investment can pay off in improved satisfaction and reduced churn.

When transfers are necessary, ensure all functions have the information they need to pick up where the last agent left off. The goal is a seamless, omnichannel experience where customers don’t have to repeat their story.

4: Leverage proactive communications

The best customer service call is the one that never needs to happen. Clear, proactive communication can prevent many issues from escalating to a call.

Start with your billing. Many telecom bills are complex and incomplete. Investing in clear, transparent billing can significantly reduce billing-related calls.

Next, be proactive about known issues. If there’s a service outage, don’t wait for customers to notice. Send out clear, informative messages across multiple channels to keep them in the loop.

Improve call center effectiveness with data-backed insights

Measuring call center performance effectively is possible, but requires a holistic approach. By looking at a variety of KPIs within context and implementing these strategies, you can get a clearer picture of your call center’s health and improve customer satisfaction.

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The key is to continuously evaluate and adjust your approach based on your specific business needs and customer feedback. With the right metrics and strategies in place, you can transform your call center from a potential churn point to a powerful tool for customer retention and satisfaction.

Think Company has worked extensively with large telecommunications companies to assess call center performance, identify issues, and create digital and organizational solutions. If you’re ready to improve your call center operations, contact us.