Contact Center Operations
May 23, 2024
Productivity is a key indicator of success in your call center. It is also one of the most challenging goals to measure and optimize, as it depends on effective agent performance, efficient processes, smart workforce management, and the seamless integration of technology into your operations.
Leaders are making a game-changing move by adopting generative AI in call centers to track and achieve their productivity goals. According to Deloitte, 81% of contact center executives are investing in this technology to improve agent experience and operational efficiency.
In this post, we share our favorite strategies to improve call center agent productivity with AI-powered tools and best practices.
Table of Contents
What is agent productivity in a call center?
Agent productivity in a contact center is the ability to balance efficiency in handling customer calls with delivering high-quality service. It determines:
How fast and accurately agents handle phone calls
How qualified they are to resolve customer issues on the first contact
How well they adhere to assigned schedules and compromise with operational tasks
How satisfied customers feel with these interactions
Monitoring contact center productivity allows businesses to optimize agent performance, improve operational efficiency, and increase customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores.
How to calculate agent productivity in a call center
As agent productivity relies on broad factors like quality and efficiency, performance metrics are crucial to calculating individual and team effectiveness.
Top call center productivity metrics
Here's a breakdown of the metrics call center managers use to evaluate agent productivity:
The ideal key performance indicators (KPIs) for your strategy depend on specific goals and priorities. If your team offers high-quality service but struggles with long calls, reducing AHT may be critical. Tracking these metrics helps you identify which aspects of agents' performance need improvement, such as communication skills, time management, and script adherence.
Call center agent productivity formula
Even though you can't rate agent productivity by using a single formula, a common approach considers a balance between call volume and successful resolutions. Here's an example:
Agent Productivity (%) = (Total Calls Handled x FCR) / Total Time Spent
This formula defines a productive agent as someone who handles a high number of calls and resolves them on the first contact in the shortest amount of time. It's a clear indicator of call center efficiency, but notice that it excludes relevant factors like CSAT scores and the complexity of calls handled. So, remember that calculating productivity also requires capturing the entire picture of how well your agents deal with common customer issues.
How to improve agent productivity in a call center with gen AI
Generative AI has become a powerful resource for increasing efficiency in contact centers due to its strong capacity to automate demanding tasks and analyze customer data. A survey by PwC reports that 68% of CEOs from the United States believe gen AI will increase their employees' efficiency in the next 12 months.
Follow our top four AI-powered strategies to enhance call center agent productivity:
1.Automate scoring of 100% of your calls
Replacing manual call reviewing with automated scoring helps you evaluate the entire performance of your agents without random sampling. With gen AI, you set up smart goals on QA scorecards and evaluate calls with no risk of bias. Automation has many benefits for agent productivity, including:
Faster feedback: AI-driven solutions like Echo AI provide real-time feedback, allowing agents to improve their performance after each call.
Motivation: Ongoing feedback contributes to a better understanding of agents' strengths and fuels initiatives for boosting motivation, such as flexible work schedules, promotions, and bonuses.
Mapping training needs: Based on call reviews, managers help agents set new career goals, like improving communication skills, product knowledge, or conflict resolution.
2.Leverage analytics for consistent evaluation
Optimizing agent performance requires a deep dive into performance metrics to monitor progress and ensure consistent efficiency. With call center analytics software powered by AI, you keep track of productivity KPIs through real-time dashboards and reporting, so you can better:
Evaluate agents with AHT above the average, which may indicate difficulties with adherence to scripts or call protocols
Detect agents consistently exceeding high after-call work time, potentially needing additional training on post-call tasks
Identify high transfer rates from a single agent, which could be a sign of a lack of confidence in handling specific topics or inefficient call routing
3.Use customer sentiment for in-depth insights
Customer sentiment analysis is a powerful tool that extracts insights into agent productivity from qualitative data you collect from interactions. With AI, you transcribe and analyze calls instantly, uncovering:
Reasons for high or low scores
Lack of clear communication or empathy
Use of inappropriate language
Good examples of problem-solving to inspire the team
Compliance violations
Causes of long wait times
These insights provide a deeper understanding of the most frequent issues agents deal with and how efficiently they handle customer inquiries. Use them to create training programs, provide feedback, and tailor strategies to address gaps that hold your team's productivity back.
4.Customize QA scorecards to meet productivity goals
Creating a quality assurance (QA) scorecard is a strategy to assess call center agent performance while ensuring the best service for your customers.
With AI call center quality assurance software, you customize scorecards to meet specific goals for individuals and teams. If an agent from your team needs to improve their active listening abilities, you add to their QA scorecards questions like "Was the agent an active listener?" to track performance considering this goal. AI tools help you improve productivity by:
Tracking progress by comparing QA scores in different weeks or months
Getting notified when agents are behind their goals for days or weeks
Providing data-driven feedback to improve agent behavior
Rewarding employees based on productivity KPIs
Updating processes that are roadblocks for efficiency
Enhance customer experience with our best practices to create QA scorecards.
Boost contact center productivity with Echo AI
Improving agent productivity is a process that takes time, but you can streamline it in your contact center with Echo AI. Our conversation intelligence platform collects and analyzes millions of customer interactions in real time, enabling you to extract valuable insights into employees' performance.
Here's how Echo AI boosts contact center efficiency to drive agent productivity:
Consistent performance monitoring with conversation analytics and reporting
Automated call reviewing and scoring to evaluate all your calls instantly
Custom scorecards to set individual and team goals for more productivity
Sentiment analysis to uncover hidden insights that fuel your agent development strategy
Constructive, personalized feedback after each call to engage your talents
Maximize call center agent productivity with Echo AI. Ask for a demo now.
