Effective data use can separate the preeminent contact centers from the rest of the pack. As you work to leverage your center’s data, consider these three tactics to elevate your contact center to the next level.
1. Define Key Performance Indicators


Key performance indicators (KPIs) can be invaluable to enhancing your operation and aligning it with the corporate vision. KPIs can be particularly helpful in measuring each employee’s ability to help customers.
Among the most widely used metrics for this effort include:
- Number of times phone calls are transferred
- Length of phone calls
- Amount of times customers call about the same issue
- Satisfaction survey results
KPIs involving such data can be especially effective during employee reviews to guide discussions about areas for improvement, as well as to identify and reward top performers. It is also important to align KPIs with the company’s business objectives. If your company prioritizes customer satisfaction, be sure to use indicators that measure the satisfaction of customers who interact with your call center. And if your center falls short, you can take action and easily justify changes to company executives by sharing the relevant KPI data.

2. Utilize Voice of the Customer Applications

Voice of the customer (VoC) programs provide one of the most powerful mechanisms for a contact center to use data.
Today’s technology allows a center literally to capture the voice of the customer to ensure a team is using the right tone and language. Based on the data, you can improve scripts and share best practices with clear, call-based examples.
For instance, if an employee uses a first-call resolution tactic and tweaks the script to increase efficiency, you could apply the new language across the entire operation. VoC programs can also help expedite the training process for new-hires and capture successes that you can share with the team and executives to boost morale.
3. Scrutinize Corporate Policies
Contact centers can employ data to strengthen corporate function. For example, you can use data to understand and deal with your department’s turnover rate. While relatively high turnover is expected at contact centers, it is critical to find and maintain an acceptable turnover rate. If a center is disproportionately stretching already limited resources to manage the onboarding process, efficiency will suffer. Using data to increase new-hire longevity will allow the center to focus on its mission and bottom line.
You can also leverage data to measure how a company policy change impacts the department. If budget cuts lead to staff cuts in the contact center, it would make sense to share with executives relevant data measuring the efficiency change that may result from the cuts. If a call center operation includes multiple locations, data can be used to evaluate how branches interact with each other. Sometimes, a problem in one branch has already been resolved elsewhere, but a lack of data sharing has inhibited corrective efforts elsewhere. In addition, data can play an important role in supporting efforts to build competition among employees or branches.

Data Is Essential
Contact center leaders who effectively use data will see their operations stand apart from other departments and will improve overall business results. Quantitative data is truly essential to make the necessary qualitative changes that will meet both customers’ and the company’s needs.
