Tracking agent performance, productivity, and engagement used to be simple.
Supervisors could simply pop into an office and check to see if everyone was on-task from time to time. These days, in the age of remote and hybrid work, it’s not as easy. When your team members are distributed across multiple locations, it’s hard to see when they’re burning out, or losing interest.
Now that companies are adapting to a new age of work, it’s important to know which signs and metrics you need to track if you want to examine employee productivity and performance.
Here are some of the most common warning signs that your agent could be struggling with.
1. Slow Answering Speeds and Abandonment
Speed is key in a contact centre.
Customers need to speak to an agent fast, and they hate waiting in a queue. In fact, queuing is so frustrating, that many people end up abandoning calls entirely when waiting too long.
Sometimes, you can check agent productivity by looking at the number of abandoned calls in your contact centre. If your agent is taking too long to process calls, this could be because they’re not pushing themselves to do more. If average abandoned call rates and the time your customers spend waiting in a queue are high, it might be time to assess how quickly your employees are picking up calls. Are some employees slower than others?
You can use things like contact centre tracking tools to get an insight into how much time your agents generally leave between one conversation and the next. If the time to pick up a new call is slow, find out why. Does your agent need help to automate admin, or are they just under-motivated?
2. Apathy and Disengagement
Apathy is a common problem among contact centres. When agents don’t feel engaged and challenged by their work, it’s easy to fall into a mode of simply striving for “good enough”. Unfortunately, this doesn’t pave the way for excellent customer experiences.
A good workforce management tool or contact centre analytics system should give you an insight into how each of your employees is performing. You may be able to see trends of activity as they change over time. For instance, maybe your best agents are gradually dealing with a higher number of calls, a higher percentage of resolved calls on the first contact, and so on.
Generally, agent performance metrics should either be constant or improving. If your employee seems to be seeing a drop in performance, this could be a sign that they’re disengaged, or simply apathetic about their job. Guidance from a supervisor, combined with wallboard metrics and insights could help. When agents can see their performance matched against the performance of team members, they’re more likely to strive to reach similar levels.
3. Average After-Call Time is Increasing
The most productive work an agent usually does often involves interacting with a customer or client. Unfortunately, there are often other components to the agent’s role too. Many professionals need to spend time entering information into a system or updating notes after each call.
To determine whether your agents are spending too much time on tasks after the call, look at the total working hours of your employees each day, how much time they spend on calls, and how much time is devoted to breaks. The rest of the time in your employee’s day should be focused on things like admin and repetitive tasks.
If the amount of after-call works your agents are doing is growing, it might be time to invest in some tools that can reduce this workload. Automation tools that can record information on the agent’s behalf will allow them to jump back into action and take another call much quicker. Automation can even improve the accuracy of your data insights, reducing the risk of employees making mistakes as they rush to enter details between calls.
4. Handling Times are Increasing
A high average handling time can be a complex metric to evaluate in the contact centre. Sometimes, more time spent on a complex call indicates that the agent has gone above and beyond to solve a difficult problem. This kind of work often shows up in the form of higher customer satisfaction ratings and NPS numbers.
Alternatively, high handling times could also mean that your agents are spending too much time trying to find information or respond to questions. If your employees are having a hard time finding the solution to a problem or finishing a transaction for a customer, then the whole workflow slows down. The goal of most customer service reps is to reduce average handle time and keep customer satisfaction rates high.
If average handling times are particularly high, it might indicate that your employees need more help finding the right information. Look into virtual assistants and bots which can track down valuable information for your employees faster.
5. Reduced First Time Resolutions
Declining first call resolution times are another indicator you may need to examine employee experience. If your employees can’t find the information they need because the technology they’re using isn’t good enough, it might be a sign that you need to improve your CCaaS solution or deliver new technology.
If your contact centre IVR system isn’t up to scratch, then it might be sending customers to the wrong agent, which means more transferring and time spent on hold for your customers. If your agents aren’t getting the calls they’re most equipped to handle; they can’t deliver their best work.
You might notice that your agents who aren’t getting the best results commonly complain about the technology or the routing system. Upgrading your contact centre technology and adding CRM integrations for smarter routing could be a good way to boost your chances of happier, more engaged employees. When your employees are capable of working at their best, your clients get better experiences, and your brand reputation improves.
