What Are Key Performance Indicators? For inbound contact center services, KPIs reflect customer service quality, agent efficiency, and overall business success. These indicators help us understand how well we are performing, identify weaknesses, and find ways to improve. The ability to analyze and utilize KPIs is crucial, as such analysis provides a complete picture of operations, optimizes processes, and ultimately ensures a high level of customer satisfaction.
In this article, we will explore six of the most important inbound contact center metrics that will help you stay on top of your business performance and make informed decisions for its growth.
What Is Answer Rate (AR) in an Inbound Contact Center?
The Answer Rate (AR) metric represents the percentage of incoming calls or inquiries in an omnichannel contact center that agents successfully handle within a given period, compared to the total number of calls or inquiries. If the inbound contact center processes only phone calls, this metric may be referred to as the Call Answer Rate, indicating the percentage of inbound customer calls that were answered.
Answer Rate Formula and Calculation Example
The Answer Rate metric in an inbound contact center is calculated using the following formula:
Example Calculation: if 1,000 customers call the contact center, 900 successfully connect with an agent, while 100 hang up due to long wait times, the Answer Rate will be 90%.
The Importance of Monitoring Answer Rate in an Inbound Contact Center
This metric directly impacts the customer experience: the lower the AR, the more customers fail to receive assistance, leading to increased dissatisfaction. A high Answer Rate ensures that most customers receive timely support, strengthening their trust in the brand.
Beyond customer loyalty, AR is a critical indicator of a contact center’s efficiency. Optimizing it helps reduce potential customer loss, minimize repeat inquiries, and enhance overall service quality.
What Is a Good Answer Rate?
Great question! For inbound call centers, an Answer Rate of 80%-90% is generally considered good. However, every inbound contact center should strive to answer 100% of customer calls, eliminating Abandoned Calls—which brings us to our next metric.
What Is an Abandoned Call?
An Abandoned Call is a call that a customer initiates but hangs up before connecting with an agent. This metric is measured as a percentage, representing the share of abandoned calls out of the total number of incoming calls.
Example Calculation: if a contact center receives 1,200 inbound calls, and 150 callers hang up before speaking with an agent, the Abandoned Call Rate will be 12.5%.
Why Is It Important to Monitor the Abandoned Call Rate?
A high Abandoned Call Rate indicates service accessibility issues such as long wait times, insufficient staffing, or ineffective workload management. This leads to a negative customer experience, decreased loyalty, and potential customer loss.
Reducing abandoned calls isn’t just about improving statistics—it directly impacts a company’s reputation. Process optimization, increasing agent availability during peak hours, and implementing IVR or a callback widget on the website help retain customers and enhance service quality.
What Is Average Handle Time (AHT) in an Inbound Contact Center?
Average Handle Time (AHT) is the average time an agent spends handling a single customer interaction, including talk time (Duration), hold time, and after-call work (ACW).
Example Calculation: if an agent handles 50 calls during a shift, spending 200 minutes on calls, 30 minutes on hold, and 20 minutes on after-call work, then:
Why AHT Is More Than Just Processing Speed?
On the one hand, a low Average Handle Time (AHT) may indicate agent efficiency. However, overly fast service can mean insufficient attention to the customer. If an agent focuses too much on reducing AHT, it may result in incomplete issue resolution and repeat calls, ultimately increasing the overall workload of the contact center.
Recommended reading: Is Average Handling Time (AHT) Still Relevant In The AI Era?
Moreover, AHT plays a crucial role in workload forecasting and staffing optimization. If the average handling time is too high, it may indicate a need for automation or skill improvement among agents. Conversely, an extremely low AHT may suggest poor service quality, negatively impacting the overall customer experience and First Call Resolution (FCR) rate—something we will discuss next.
First Call Resolution (FCR) in an Inbound Contact Center
First Call Resolution (FCR) refers to the percentage of inquiries that are fully resolved during the customer’s first interaction with an agent, without the need for follow-up calls or escalations or call transfer to another agent.
First Call Resolution vs. First Contact Resolution – What’s the Difference?
Both terms refer to resolving a customer’s issue on the first attempt, but with a key distinction:
- First Call Resolution (FCR) applies specifically to phone inquiries, meaning the issue is resolved within the first call.
- First Contact Resolution (FCR) applies to all communication channels (chat, email, social media), ensuring the inquiry is resolved within the first interaction, regardless of the channel used.
Why FCR Is a Quality Indicator, Not Just an Efficiency Metric?
A high FCR rate means customers get the answers they need the first time, improving their experience and reducing repeat inquiries. This is beneficial not only for customer satisfaction but also for reducing agent workload, as every repeat call adds additional operational costs.
However, blindly pursuing a high FCR can have negative consequences. For instance, an agent might try to resolve an issue at any cost during the first interaction, spending excessive time on a single call. This can increase AHT and reduce line availability for other customers.
For a deeper understanding of first-contact issue resolution, we recommend reading our comprehensive guide on FCR.
Average Speed of Answer in an Inbound Contact Center
Average Speed of Answer (ASA) is the average time a caller spends in the queue waiting for an agent’s response. This metric is measured over specific time intervals (e.g., 15 minutes, an hour, a day) and helps assess how quickly a contact center responds to incoming inquiries.
The ASA calculation is fairly straightforward: if a contact center receives 200 calls in a given period, 150 of which are answered, and the total wait time for all customers in the queue is 3,000 seconds, then:
This is a fairly good result. The optimal wait time can vary depending on the complexity of the inquiry and the industry. However, trends show that customer expectations are constantly rising—people are becoming increasingly impatient. Research indicates that only 20% of customers are willing to wait more than 60 seconds for a response.
How Does ASA Impact Customer Experience?
It’s clear that the longer a customer waits, the more frustration they experience, leading to decreased trust in the service. This is especially critical for financial support, medical contact centers, or technical support, where response time can directly impact security or business operations.
How to Reduce ASA with the Contact Center Technology?
Reducing ASA is possible through contact center automation and efficient call distribution:
- Using IVR to route calls and resolve simple inquiries without an agent.
- Implementing AI chatbots and self-service tools to reduce call volume.
- Optimizing Workforce Management (WFM) to properly schedule agents based on predicted call traffic.
Why Speed of Answer Matters?
ASA is a critical performance indicator. When ASA increases, more callers lose patience and abandon the call before connecting with an agent. This leads to a higher Abandoned Call (AC) rate, which in turn lowers the Answer Rate (AR) and worsens the Service Level (SL). As a result, the contact center not only serves fewer customers but also receives negative feedback.
What Is Service Level (SL) in an Inbound Contact Center?
Service Level (SL) measures whether a contact center meets customer expectations, as it represents the percentage of calls answered by agents within a specified wait time. For example, an 80/20 SL metric means that 80% of calls should be answered within 20 seconds.
In the outsourced call center and contact center industry, different service level agreements exist, such as 80/20, 70/30, or 90/15, but actual performance depends on the specific business needs.
Service Level in an Inbound Contact Center
A high SL indicates that a contact center is operating efficiently, responding to inquiries quickly, and minimizing customer wait times. This is particularly crucial for businesses in highly competitive industries, where fast support directly impacts customer loyalty.
If Service Level drops, it may signal a shortage of agents, poor shift planning, excessive contact center workload. In such cases, it is essential to review Workforce Management (WFM), implement automation tools (IVR, chatbots), and improve workload forecasting.
Conclusion
Regular analysis of key inbound contact center metrics not only measures performance but also identifies service gaps. Metrics like Answer Rate, Service Level, First Call Resolution, and Average Handle Time help determine how quickly and effectively customers receive assistance. Without detailed monitoring, it becomes challenging to manage call volume efficiently and maintain high service quality.
If you aim to enhance customer service, optimize resources, and integrate advanced technologies into your contact center operations—trust the professionals! Global Bilgi offers inbound contact center outsourcing to help your business operate more efficiently while delivering world-class customer service. Get in touch with us via the Contact Us form today!
