What should be the benchmark for call center recruiting?

One of the first major revolutions brought by digitalization was the rise in call centers. This allowed organizations to outsource their services to other countries, thereby greatly reducing their operational costs. However, the industry’s high attrition rate has always led to one question: What should be the benchmark for call center recruiting?

In 2017, a survey found that customers in the United States were better than ever. This means that any organization cannot slack off as customers would change their preferences to their competitors after a bad call center experience.

So, to ensure that a call center is performing optimally, benchmarks should be established that show how it is competing within the industry.

So, what should be the benchmark for call center recruiting?

How to hire for call center

Dependant and loyal employees 

One of the major problems for any call center is its high attrition rate. This is because the hiring process for these call centers is usually done haphazardly. This means that several employees leave the company in a short span of time. The reasons for this are many, but improper recruitment is at the top of the list.

So, hiring employees who want to make a career in client servicing should be identified and hired to minimize the attrition rate.

Also Read: What is Personality Assessment? How to adopt it in hiring

Penchant for problem-solving 

Another benchmark for call center recruiting should be hiring employees adept at problem solving. At the end of the day, the main aim of the call center is to provide client servicing, which means solving issues. A bad customer service experience can have serious repercussions on a company’s brand value.

According to a survey by job site Zippia, 91 percent of customers contemplate changing their companies after just one bad service experience. So, having employees who have a penchant for solving problems is a major benchmark for call center recruiting.

Ensure customers have the best experience 

However hard one might try, it is next to impossible to solve every customer’s problems. Sometimes, even a solution offered might not be up to the mark. Thus, organizations need to have employees who are empathetic and who ensure that customers get the best experience. While the service team may not have been able to solve the issue, if they give valid reasons for leaving the customers satisfied, it can go a long way in improving the service as well as the company’s image.

Also Read: Why is Governance For System Bias Important For Recruitment?

Types of benchmark 

Different benchmarks should be established depending on a call center’s aim. These could be competitive benchmarks or process benchmarking. Here are some of the metrics that can be used to analyze   a call center’s efficiency.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the gold standard of metrics for measuring any business. It calculates the percentage of time a task was successfully completed. This could be resolving a problem, solving an issue the customer was facing, or converting a lead. The global benchmark for conversion rate is around three percent.

Average duration of a call

Another great metric to measure the efficiency of a call center employee or team is average call duration. It measures the amount of time spent on a call, which could be for solving problems or attending a sales call. Another metric that can be used in conjunction with it is the first call resolution rate, which measures whether a problem or sale was made within the first call.

Also Read: What is Socioeconomic Bias? Steps to prevent it

Average handling time 

Average handling time measures the total time a customer spends trying to speak to a call center operative. This metric includes the time the caller spends trying to speak to an executive and the time he talks to the executive. The average handling time benchmark globally is around ten minutes. However, analyzing average handling time can be tricky as different services may require different handling times.

Agent turnover 

Agent turnover rate, in simple terms, is the attrition rate for call centers. It measures how many employees leave the call center within a year. According to the global benchmark, the agent turnover rate ranges from 30 percent on the low end to 45 percent on the higher end.

Call abandonment rate 

The abandonment rate is the number of callers whose calls dropped off before they could talk to a call center executive. It is an efficient metric for measuring employee performance. The abandonment rate varies from five percent to ten percent, depending on the industry.

Customer Satisfaction Rate 

Perhaps one of the most important metrics in the call center industry, the Customer Satisfaction Rate, measures whether the customer is satisfied with the service or not. This is mostly done through after call service through reviews asked through messaging or an after sales call. 

Average speed of answer 

The average speed of the answer is a metric which measures the average time it took for a call center executive to provide an answer. This is an important benchmark as it measures how efficient an employee is while resolving a query for a customer.

Also Read: What is Gender Bias in Hiring? Solutions to Prevent it

Complaint calls 

An important metric but one which is usually not correctly reported are the number of complaint calls that a call center receives in a year. Call centers usually under report it to ensure their annual report is more efficient. However, the global acceptance rate for this is around ten per cent.

Use BarRaiser to hire the best call center talent

We have already established how difficult it is to hire employees for a call center. So to improve the hiring efficacy companies can now use BarRaiser, the only AI intelligence interview platform that guarantees you the best of employees.

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BarRaiser provides a host of services that can take your hiring to the next step. Want your team to get trained on our tool? Opt for our interviewer training. What to use BarRaiser but want to Use our interview as a service option.

Using BarRaiser you will find a plethora of recruiter already trained on our tool that will hire the best and most fit candidate for you. So, what are you waiting for? Use BarRaiser for quick hiring and make your workplace better one hiring at a time.