Inbound contact centers are amassing more data now than ever before. On average, they take about 1,000 calls per week, with each one generating information from customer demographics, agent notes, call recordings, and more. This means there’s not just a lot to manage—but a big opportunity to dive in and learn what your call center is doing right (or wrong).
Not all data is “essential”, of course, it depends on your organization and its specific goals. By selectively analyzing inbound call center metrics in relation to your goals, you can enhance the overall efficiency of your call center and the quality of customer experience you provide.
In this article, we’ll cover 16 essential inbound call center metrics you can use to shape and improve your operations.
CSAT measures how satisfied customers are with their experience, based on a survey conducted immediately following an interaction. It gives customers a chance to provide direct feedback and shines a light on their perception of your service quality. In super simple terms:
High CSAT score = Happy customer, the interaction was handled well.
Low CSAT score = Not-so-happy customer, there’s room for improvement.
How do you improve this inbound call center metric? Focus on the underlying metrics that make up your overall customer experience (like FCR and AHT) and make sure you listen to customer feedback. Giving your team tools to easily access customer information, and regularly reviewing calls as part of your QA process, can also help improve interactions across the board.
NPS gauges customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your products or service to others. Responses fall into three different categories:
Promoters are willing to go out of their way to recommend your business to friends and families.
Passives are usually satisfied with your service, but aren’t enthusiastic enough to be a promoter.
Detractors tend to rate your service the lowest, expressing dissatisfaction, and they might even spread negative word-of-mouth.
This key metric provides invaluable insights into long-term customer sentiment and helps predict future business growth. Collecting (and acting on) customer feedback, factoring NPS into your training sessions, and encouraging agents to go above and beyond in their interactions can all help improve Net Promoter Score.
FCR, as the name implies, measures how often customer issues are resolved at the first point of contact. It’s a clear indicator of efficiency and effectiveness in your call center operations. High FCR means better CX and reduced operational costs, as less repeat calls are needed.
You can improve first call resolution rate by ensuring customers get sent to the right agents (or departments) through intelligent routing. Providing agents with easy access to customer information can help too, as they’ll be better equipped to deliver efficient resolutions. Effective coaching and training is also vital, so your agents can learn how to resolve issues ASAP.
Your repeat call rate tracks the percentage of customers who call back, within a specified timeframe, for the same issue. It’s closely related to FCR, but it highlights the other side of the spectrum: calls that weren’t fully resolved (or were mishandled) so customers need to call back, perhaps multiple times.
When customers have to call repeatedly, it not only frustrates them, it also piles extra stress on your employees in an already high-pressure working environment, risking potential agent burnout.
To reduce RCR, you need to investigate why issues aren’t being resolved immediately. This will require the use of several approaches:
Targeted training and coaching
Stronger self-service options
Root cause analysis
And more
Make sure your agents have the right tools at their disposal—like up-to-date knowledge bases and CRMs so they can access customer history with ease.
Call abandonment rate measures the percentage of customers that hang up before reaching an agent. It’s a crucial metric that highlights customer frustration, and helps to uncover the reasons behind it, such as long wait times or confusing processes. A high abandonment rate is detrimental to your brand’s reputation and will lead to lost business opportunities.
To decrease this inbound call center metric, focus on the reasons why customers are disconnecting and provide solutions.
Examine agent schedules and optimize staffing during peak times
Add a callback option so customers don’t have to waste time on hold
Improve self-service tools so they can resolve issues on their own
ASA is the average time it takes for an agent to respond to an incoming call.
Low ASA means your team is responsive, which is essential for keeping customers happy and delivering an exceptional experience.
High ASA, on the other hand, can indicate inefficiencies that are negatively impacting CX.
The approach for improving this particular inbound call center metric shares some overlap with our previous suggestions for a better call abandonment rate. Again, more efficient scheduling, better self-service options, and a callback option can make a difference.
Additionally, real-time monitoring and analytics within your QA software can help identify bottlenecks that slow down service, so you can step in where necessary to keep your average speed of answer as low as possible.
Service level measures the percentage of calls answered within a predetermined timeframe. It’s a direct reflection of your call center’s ability to meet customer expectations and adhere to performance goals.
In a way, this is a unique inbound call center metric, as it's often tied to contractual obligations with a third party. In an industry like business process outsourcing (BPO), for example, service level adherence will likely be near the top of the priority list.
Enhancing service level starts with aligning your staffing plans with call volume forecasts, ensuring you have enough agents on-hand to meet demand. Embracing omnichannel can also help you serve more customers while also improving CX, as you’re giving them the option to choose their preferred method of communication.
AHT tracks the total time that agents spend on a call, including talk time and after-call work. It’s a key indicator of efficiency, but getting it right is a balancing act. You want to make sure you’re delivering the best possible CX, not just powering through the call as fast as possible.
If your AHT is too high, you probably have some inefficiencies to deal with. If your AHT is too low, you might be rushing customers, sacrificing CX in favor of speed. There are lots of different ways to improve average handle time, such as:
Adding intelligent routing options so customers always end up in the right place
Improving (or adding) an internal knowledge base that your agents can depend on
Reviewing and improving your call center scripts
Using QA software to see where agents are struggling or spending more time than they should
Cost per resolution calculates the average expense incurred to resolve a customer inquiry. This inbound call center metric combines operational costs, agent salaries, and any additional costs from the tech you use, painting a picture of your call center’s financial efficiency.
A low cost per resolution means you’re handling customer issues efficiently without overspending. High cost per resolution? You’re burning cash. (Well, maybe not, but you could be thriftier).
There are several ways you can improve this metric, from shifting to more cost-efficient cloud-based software, to offering better self-service and omnichannel options. Improving other efficiency-based metrics like FCR and AHT can also directly affect your cost per resolution.
Agent effort score, as the name suggests, measures how easy it is for agents to perform their jobs effectively, reflecting:
The accessibility of your systems
The clarity of your workflows
The availability of support for your teams
A higher score means your agents are facing fewer barriers, resulting in better service delivery and—crucially in a stressful industry—stronger job satisfaction.
You can improve agent effort score by listening to your staff and acting on their feedback. Try to find out what’s impeding their work or sapping morale and taking corrective action. Tech can help make the workload more manageable, too. Think AI-powered automation to speed up workflows and eliminate some of the more monotonous tasks.
Your call center’s transfer rate is the percentage of calls that get passed from one agent to another before resolution.
While transfers are sometimes necessary, a high transfer rate can indicate operational inefficiencies brought about by inadequate training, unclear routing protocols, and so forth. Plus, frequent transfers lead to lengthier resolution times and upset customers.
To lower your transfer rate, make sure customers get to the best possible agent when they connect—whether that’s through intelligent routing, interactive voice response systems, or self-service tools to weed out simple inquiries.
You can also use your QA program to identify the areas where agents struggle (resulting in unnecessary transfers) and provide targeted training and coaching.
Your self-service success rate measures the percentage of customer interactions successfully resolved via self-service tools (FAQs, chatbots, virtual agents, etc.). A high success rate means that customers can solve their own issues independently, reducing the burden on your call center agents (and improving efficiency).
When it comes to improving these inbound call center metrics, make sure you’re offering intuitive, up-to-date, and effective self-service options. Listen to customer feedback to see what common issues they’re facing so you can prep your self-service tools to fix them.
This measures the percentage of an agent’s working hours spent actively handling custom interactions (versus being idle or off-task). This call center inbound metric reflects the efficiency of your workforce and the effectiveness of your scheduling processes.
Finding the right balance is crucial—overworked agents can burn out, while underutilized agents can mean there are inefficiencies in your contact center.
To improve these rates:
Use forecasting tools to predict call volume and align staffing levels
Focus on morale and engagement to maintain agent productivity
Add AI tools to eliminate tedious tasks and allow agents to focus on rewarding work
Schedule adherence tracks whether agents are working during their assigned shifts, including breaks and login times. High adherence ensures your team is available to handle calls when customers need assistance, directly impacting service levels (and customer satisfaction).
To maintain strong schedule adherence, make sure you’ve established clear expectations and communicated the importance of sticking to schedules. Take advantage of workforce management (WFM) software to create realistic schedules that account for agent needs, including break time, and leave breathing room for sudden changes.
Regularly reviewing schedule adherence (and rewarding agents that commit to it) can help motivate your employees and ensure that your schedules are working as intended.
ACW covers the tasks that agents need to complete after a customer interaction, such as logging details, updating tickets, or following up on issues. While this work is essential, excessive ACW can reduce agent availability for incoming calls, leading to longer wait times.
In order to manage ACW effectively, minimize the work that agents need to do post-call. Using tools with AI and automation to speed up these tasks, creating templates within your CRM, and improving training around ACW can help speed things up.
QA scores measure the overall performance of agents during customer interactions, based on criteria like professionalism, issue resolution, and adherence to protocols. High QA scores are indicative of consistent service quality, which builds customer trust and satisfaction.
To improve QA scores, set clear evaluation criteria and use your QA software to track it. You can then build custom scorecards to measure performance and create targeted coaching sessions informed by the evaluation results, creating a continuous feedback loop.
Tracking call center inbound metrics is essential, but tracking alone won’t make a difference. To drive real improvement, you need to identify the factors influencing these KPIs and take action based on your findings.
Your QA platform can help unify all of this data, giving you a central hub for reporting (and analysis) of these inbound call center metrics. Your QA is there to improve your customer service, so why not take advantage of the deep insights it can uncover?
Scorebuddy is the best QA platform if you want to drive meaningful change. With AI-powered analytics, customizable scorecards, and 100% interaction analysis, you’ll get the full picture of how your call center is performing. Book a demo today and see how it works.
