Outbound Call Center Efficiency: the KPIs You Don’t Want to Miss

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Understanding what metrics to track is essential if you want to lead your team to success. KPIs (key performance indicators) can show you the real picture of what’s happening in your call center. Whereas you don’t need to track them all, you must monitor the ones that best represent the work of your agents.

The importance of tracking the right KPIs

What KPIs to track is totally up to you. However, you want to make sure that you monitor those exact performance indicators that directly influence the end result of your business. In other words, keep in mind your business goals if you’re hoping to accomplish them.

Obviously, there is no practical purpose of following the performance indicators that tell you nothing about the progress of your team. Your task is to determine what call center KPIs are suitable in your case. Provided that you make a good choice, you’ll be able to view all the necessary numbers, identify the performance gaps, and address them immediately.

Below, we’ve listed the 5 key performance indicators tracked by some of the most efficient telemarketing companies. These are the metrics that will assist you in managing your call center teams and securing the highest performance.

  • Abandoned Call Ratio

This is a standardized KPI tracked by all outbound call centers regardless of what their business does. The abandoned call ratio is the number of abandoned calls divided by all calls (the call is "abandoned" when a prospect hangs up before connecting to the real agent). It’s critical that this number remains low because it directly affects the overall performance of a call center. This indicator is particularly important for the USA, Canada, Great Britain, and some other countries, where an acceptable abandonment rate should not exceed 3% per 30 days (or 5% for Canada) by law. If it oversteps the permitted threshold, there must be something wrong with the dialing speed and you might want to slow it down.

  • Average Waiting Time

This is a fairly recent KPI for outbound call centers. Similarly to an abandoned call ratio, it has to do with automated dialing. Sometimes, agents cannot cope with a high dialing speed, and when such a situation takes place, prospects find themselves stuck on hold. This is a very awkward situation because you make people wait until an agent finds time to sell them the product they might not even need. Prospects should never be in queues for too long, but if it’s an outbound call, they should never be in queues, period. In addition, this KPI is also regulated by law, and if you see that an average hold time is unusually lengthy, you should reduce dialing speed.

  • Ready vs. Not Ready Time

Monitoring agent statuses is a useful managerial activity because it enables you to identify time management issues and performance inconsistencies. This metric tracks the amount of time each agent spends waiting on calls, attending training sessions, and taking breaks. Therefore, if somebody is slacking off work, their overall  “Not Ready” time will immediately show it.

  • Sales Conversion Rate

This KPI reflects the number of customer interactions that end up with a sale. You shouldn’t ignore the sales conversion rate because it directly affects the bottom line of your company. Also, this metric helps you discover damaging habits and practices that affect the work of sales agents. If you pay attention to the performance of each call center rep, you’ll be able to detect weaknesses in their work and help them make the necessary improvements.

  • Average call duration and Agent Call Connects

These indicators will help you spot unusual tendencies among call center agents. When someone shows substantially different results, this needs closer attention. For example, if an agent has more conversations but a much lower average call duration, you might want to listen to some of their calls. Maybe, this person has trouble closing. Similarly, if someone has fewer conversations with a much longer call duration, it’s a good reason to open some call records. Perhaps, this agent goes far beyond the talking points or puts customers on hold too often.

On a Final Note…

The key performance indicators described above are just some of the metrics, tracking of which can significantly improve the performance of your outbound call center. With our Voiptime Cloud call center solution, you’ll be able to combine efficient dialing, tracking of the most important KPIs, and even more. Don’t miss the opportunity to boost your business. Become a proud user of our software now!

RELATED: Call Center KPIs and Metrics [GUIDE]

Tanya Gonchar

Expert in call center process automation, Head of Marketing at Voiptime Cloud. Interested in customer service, B2B sales, marketing, business analysis.

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