Benefits of Benchmarking

Call centre benchmarking can be defined as the measurement and comparison of call centre practices and standards.

Results can be compared with another call centre operation or facility internally, or with other operations externally.

Where it works well, benchmarking can encourage call centre management to adopt suitable and effective management practices. And it can promote better decision-making.

It is probably not surprising that benchmarking is so big in call centres for obviously, call centres, typically, are environments that are very suited to strenuous measuring.

Normally, the purpose of benchmarking is to define a vision in measurable terms.

The core questions that any call centre benchmarking study has to face in one way or another, are:

• How can the call centre increase productivity in sales, marketing and service?
• How can the cost per order be reduced?
• How can the call centre increase market coverage and/or customer retention?

Of course, no matter what the questions and what the issues may be, the human element of the call centre should never be overlooked. Too much measuring of seconds and calls can have a debilitating effect on agents.

Even where benchmarking is carried out, managers need to have a commitment to the premise that each person has a huge potential, and, if encouraged effectively, can perform well beyond normal expectations.

Of course, for nearly all managers and supervisors, pursuing such a ‘people positive’ work style can be hard work. It is a rare breed who really has a handle on developing people and encouraging growth.  But where it works well, productivity increases of more than 100% are not uncommon.

To make a commitment to carry out comprehensive benchmarking is quite an undertaking. It involves all aspects of call centre life, including operations, physical characteristics, IT and telephony infrastructure, HR, recruitment and training practices and financial information.

However, there is still much to be gained from benchmarking even when it is done on a smaller or more low-key scale. Even just selecting areas to focus on and gathering the required data can be a valuable management exercise in its own right. After all, such research may highlight areas that have not been previously considered on a regular basis.

In the first instance, benchmarking nearly always requires a data collection phase.
The benefit here is that for the data to be collected accurately, staff need to have a detailed understanding of the call centre operation. This activity can be a learning process for individual staff members involved. They can become more knowledgeable about the call centre and better equipped to take on increased responsibilities.

After data collection, there needs to be analysis of the information.
Having extra data, is no great advantage, in itself. Careful evaluation must be conducted to identify strengths and weaknesses. The evaluation can force call centre people to come to terms with the realities of their facility. They may be better than they realised which might mean that unexpected opportunities open up. Or their performance may be poorer than they believed, and in this case, the benchmarking provides them with hard evidence. And it is better to confront unwelcome news rather than know nothing about it.

Ultimately, benchmarking has to result in action, ie, improvements of one kind or another in overall call centre performance.
Clearly, this is the part where the game is won or lost. If benchmarking and careful analysis lead to better management practices, then the business benefits and expands, and, in turn, that leads to better outcomes for customers. Better outcomes for customers, logically lead to a greater likelihood of that all-important positive word-of-mouth advertising, and further expansion of the business.