Do call centres adopt flawed benchmarks?

Swimmers set themselves personal benchmarks for each stroke over varying distances.   They calibrate their achievement by hundredths of seconds.

The food ‘lift-out’ in a Melbourne newspaper recently examined the Country Women’s Association’s expectations on the height and texture of sponge cake.

These benchmarks are meaningful and important to the people involved with them.  But what if swimmers started benchmarking their performance on the number of spectators at a meet?  Or the CWA measured the incidence of diabetes amongst sponge-bakers? Both are clearly ludictrous measures of the performance and output that should be the focus

Similarly, benchmarking in call centres should be all about best practice.  We need to examine the key elements that impact on performance.

Quality and cost are two variables that fight with each other.  By drilling down and closely examining the elements of each, managers are better able to use management levers to keep the two in harmony.

Smart managers must be inward looking to start with.  It is important to create a hit list of key variables to measure.  Each business is unique, but you can pretty much guarantee that cost per call, handling time, call volume and accessibility will be amongst the key performance indicators for call centres. 

Sales centres will want to measure the sales ratio, help desk centres will need to focus on customer satisfaction.  HR managers will need to monitor attrition figures, staff opinion, OH&S data and salary structures.

So far so good.  All are meaningful, useful measures that allow the relevant areas of management to make assessments on where to set the benchmark.

This is when we start looking outward.  Now we know how our numbers stack up, let’s see how we perform against other call centres.  Warning: risk of meaningless benchmark comparison looming. 

It is sometimes very difficult to benchmark ourselves against another “like service” centre.  There is absolutely no point comparing the sales ratio benchmark of an inbound centre with that of an outbound.  Attrition will be another ‘fudgey’ figure.  Once you find a competitor with a similar operation, keep track of it.  This can be your yard stick. 

Now we get to what might be generally interesting information but not overly useful for benchmarking comparison.  The industry level view.

Industry performance benchmarks are easy to compare where several large players operate.  The major banks, insurance companies and telecommunications companies are all good examples.  They are in a better position to compare their cost structures, staff opinion and customer satisfaction data.

The sheer volume of transactions of large industry players and their “like” status enhances industry level benchmarking.

For smaller centres, focus on ‘apples with apples’ comparisons.  Inbound with inbound comparisons might be possible in the telephony area and in workforce management and staff satisfaction.

Keep your finger on the pulse of your own centre’s benchmarks.    Have a thorough understanding of the component elements of each benchmark so you can effectively adjust your strategy or processes.

Meaningful benchmarks are there as a guide. Keep them relevant and achievable for staff.  And don’t forget to celebrate individual performance.