Mastering Contact Center Reporting: Insights for Success

In today’s business world, customer interactions are everything. Contact center reporting is the backbone of successful customer experiences. It’s not just about counting calls; it's about understanding customer behavior and making data-driven decisions to improve your bottom line. The right reporting can transform a struggling business into a thriving one.

Understanding the importance of contact center reporting

Tracking the right contact center metrics is crucial for optimizing your reports and improving overall operations. By focusing on the most impactful metrics, you can fine-tune your reporting strategy for maximum effectiveness.

Call volume and patterns

This metric provides crucial information on staffing. Analyse overall call volume and call arrival patterns to optimize resource allocation. It helps you understand inbound calls answered and how to staff accordingly.

Average handling time (AHT)

Average handling time (AHT) measures the total time spent on each call, impacting agent productivity and customer satisfaction. Current research suggests an AHT industry standard of 6 minutes and 3 seconds (CMSWire, 2024). Efficient AHT improves responsiveness, contributing to business outcomes and customer loyalty. This helps improve average wait time, and makes the time customers are waiting for assistance more bearable.

First call resolution (FCR)

First call resolution (FCR) measures how often issues are resolved on the first contact. This metric reflects problem-solving proficiency, improving service quality and customer satisfaction. This will lead to more satisfied customers and give actionable insights to management. Current research suggests FCR industry standard between 70-79% (SQM Group, 2024).

Customer satisfaction (CSAT)

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) reveals how happy customers are with their interactions with industry benchmark falling between 75-85% (CMSWire, 2024). This feedback helps you understand what’s working and where there’s room for improvement in customer experience. You can easily understand quality management by seeing what your customers think about their interactions with your agents.

Best practices for effective contact center reporting

Using contact center reports effectively drives results. Here’s how successful companies maintain improvements and make use of valuable data insights.

Regular reporting and analysis

Regularly reviewing data, ideally daily or weekly, enables you to identify emerging trends and proactively adjust workforce management plans. This early visibility into performance not only improves staff morale by demonstrating the impact of their work but also provides valuable key performance indicators (KPIs) for continuous improvement.

This was key for Kent County Council. Their legacy phone system lacked real-time reporting, hindering their ability to effectively manage customer interactions. This resulted in high call abandon rates, poor customer service, and frequent call transfers. By implementing Luware Nimbus, Kent County Council gained access to comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities. The results were impressive. Kent County Council saw a remarkable 44% increase in answered calls thanks to improved efficiency, customer service, and agent experience.

Data visualization

Data visualizations bring contact center data to life. Clear dashboards facilitate the identification of trends and areas for improvement within customer experience (CX) analytics. By leveraging this data effectively, you can establish meaningful performance indicators to gain a comprehensive understanding of contact center operations.

Gone are the days of relying solely on IT to interpret complex data. This comes as a relief for IT who would have to spend a lot of time evaluating calls. Emmi has experienced first-hand the benefits of data visualization with Luware Nimbus. Luware Nimbus empowers all employees with the ability to understand and utilize data effectively. "Employees can view and evaluate statistics themselves with the dashboards," says Jörg Burmann, ICT System Architect at Emmi. This not only improves efficiency but also frees up valuable IT resources from time-consuming data analysis tasks. "We are very satisfied with Luware Nimbus," says Burmann. Impressed by the solution's capabilities, Emmi has expanded its use beyond reception desks, successfully migrating their IT helpdesk to the software.

Integrating data sources

Integrating your contact center software with CRM and other relevant systems provides a 360-degree view of the customer. This unified data source unlocks valuable insights for reporting tools and streamlines the reporting process. Furthermore, integrating with platforms like Power BI enhances data accessibility and provides access to a wider range of data sets, including valuable metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS).

With Luware Nimbus, Microsoft Teams has been seamlessly integrated with the CRM system to quickly identify callers. Using availability-based routing, customers can now be connected to one of their two personal advisors provided they are available. For customers who are not yet registered in the system, parameter and skill-based routing enables targeted routing to the appropriate consultant. This ensures a personal and efficient service. See how Credaris can quickly and efficiently connect customers with the right agent here. 

Luware's approach to contact center reporting

Luware empowers teams with the data they need to excel. As demands on businesses and expectations for service quality continually rise, access to real-time data and insights becomes crucial. Luware's robust reporting tools provide the necessary information to optimize operations and improve response times, ultimately enhancing the customer experience.

Contact center metrics have a significant impact on key business areas, including sales, customer retention, operational efficiency, and risk management. To achieve continuous growth and stay ahead of the curve, real-time insights are crucial. By leveraging these insights, businesses can identify trends in KPIs such as average abandonment rate, wait time, and average handle time, enabling proactive adjustments for improved customer experience and overall business success.

The contact center report provides insights based on various session types. To effectively analyze the data, carefully examine each tab, considering the relationships between parent and child sessions and the impact of user states.

Furthermore, be mindful of how filter adjustments and time period selections influence the calculated results.

Finally, account for any service adjustments made during the reporting period and investigate potential discrepancies between projected and actual key performance indicators. You can find more about these KPIs and others here.

Conclusion

Contact center reporting is crucial for your customer service strategy. This guide provided actionable insights into key metrics, best practices, and the power of data visualization and integration. Use these insights to address your specific needs. 

Discover more about analytics and reporting for Microsoft Teams with Luware Nimbus and book your demo to see it in action.