Despite the ease of finding information online, many customers still want to speak directly with an agent when they have an urgent problem to solve. As an IT provider, when your clients set up a new call center or even simply transition over to a new communications provider, reporting can have a surprising impact on the purchase decision.

Because “what gets measured gets improved,” clients need to know if their customer service or sales teams are hitting the KPIs – and they can find all this information in call center reports.

How Every Department Utilizes Call Reporting

We know managers of a call center utilize these reports the most often, tracking the minutes on hold and the time an agent is not on a call. But every department can find a use for the reports offered inside their VoIP platform.

Marketing

While it may take some time to learn the terminology and build the best reports, the marketing department benefits significantly from reviewing call center data.

First, they could analyze the locations their customers call from, learning what cities have the highest demand or respond well to their promotions. Marketers are also interested in campaign details from their call center to determine the return on investment on a promotion. Agents can report if a customer called because they saw a TV ad or a sponsored post on Facebook.

A marketing team would also look at business outcomes (average sales per agent or revenue per call) compared with operational data. For example, they need to ensure their agents don’t miss opportunities to upsell by trying to keep average call length short. Adjusting this focus can lead to more income for the business overall.

Marketers also review abandoned call rates to discover where they lose customers during the process. Adjusting a script or the attendant prompts could keep customers on the phone longer.

Executive

The executive team takes a higher view of call center reports, comparing them to the overall goals of the business. Many times, executives don’t need real-time data, but instead, want to pull the same report each week to track improvement and identify long-term trends in performance.

An executive report would combine the call center data with sales and marketing to see where each department fits in the budget. A call center can be a significant expense – between staffing and IT infrastructure – and managers need the data to prove the investment is worth it.

Personal Productivity

Unless they work in a call center, most employees overestimate the amount of time they spend on the phone during a typical workday. With a report of their own phone usage, users quickly learn how many calls they made or received during the day, and the total time they spent talking on the phone.

Tracking phone usage throughout the workday can help employees manage their productivity and plan their days for fewer interruptions. Users can even record their calls to evaluate their performance and improve on their tone of voice, inflection, scripting, and sales skills.

The Best Reports for Call Centers

While customer service is always a top priority for businesses, a call center needs to focus on a few other metrics in order to meet their goals. However, managers should balance agents’ operational data with the overarching business goals to get a full picture of the service they provide.

Back to Basics

When a company plans to build a call center, determining the number of agents can be tricky. With trend reports on the time and day most calls come in, they can decide to staff more people during those times.

After hiring new agents, the manager tracks the average talk time, hold time, and after call work to make sure the new hire has been trained well to answer questions quickly. Managers also consider how long the agent has been on the phone that day in case they need a break to handle calls more efficiently.

Advanced Reporting for a Call Center

Customers want their questions answered quickly and usually prefer to talk to an agent over an auto attendant, but the right questions can still get them to the right place without giving up on the call. While abandonment rate doesn’t impact an agent specifically, the report can benefit the company overall.

Call center managers also incentivize their team with real-time data and rewards for job performance. These reporting dashboards can empower agents to improve through competition between groups or individuals.

Viirtue just released ViiBoards, an advanced dashboard with customizable dashboards featuring data cards for each reporting feature. With stats available as line graphs, gauges, tables, or grids, your client can see all their information with a glance.

Multiple boards can be created – whether they need to track the entire call center, a group, or even a single user. Then the client can share the board to make sure the right people are all on the same page.

If you’re managing a call center for your client, contact Viirtue about creating Viiboards and providing the best reports for your users.