Call Centres - that is of itself Inside-out. How you may be measuring the wrong things.

When you say "call center" what do you think of?

Yes just that somewhere to receive and process calls from that most inconvenient of sources - the customer. To compound matters we then measure the efficiency of a call center based on production/factory metrics that tell us how quick/slow/effective/productive we are in dealing with calls. Doh.

The call center is just another customer interaction point, or Moment of Truth and should be optimized accordingly. Is everything going on in there helping to achieve a Successful Customer Outcome (SCO)? or we just trying to maximize calls per hour, average handle times, abandoned rates, increase associate productivity, and so on.

A recent discussion in a thread purporting to be about the customer experience suggested these following measures for the enlightened call centre. How many are factory output measures, and how many are actually constructively helping to achieve a SCO?
Try marking in red factory and green for SCO. Yes I know, hopeless isn't it?

Next time we will review a case study of someone operating an Outside In Customer Experience Centre. I like that - what about you?

Typical measures in a call centre...
Average Handle Time
Adherence to Schedule
Quantity/Quality of Work (Errors)
Occupancy
Service Level (Thresholds for Volume, Average Speed of Answer, ABD%)
Call Quality (Score)
First Call Resolution
Voice of Customer
Self-Service Usage (vs. Inbound Usage)
Cost Per Call
Training Hours (% of Working Hours)
Labor Turnover
Forecast Accuracy
Revenue Generation
Span of Control
360 Degree Satisfaction (Engagement)
Leadership Effectiveness
Succession Planning