Contact Center Articles

Understanding Contact Center Dashboards

Written by BenchmarkPortal | Feb 26, 2014

Empower your agents and increase productivity through good dashboards. Studies show that while over 60% of call centers have management dashboards, only 40% have agent dashboards. Research also indicates that when agents are properly trained, properly incentivized based on performance, and can see a dashboard with their key metrics, they tend to feel empowered and will self-promote positive corrective actions. Here are some key points to remember that can help make your dashboard initiative a success:

  1. Keep dashboards simple and clear – too much information causes confusion, especially at the agent level.
  2. Allow agents to see how their personal performance stacks up against the average of their team and/or the average of everyone else in the call center, but (unless you have an aggressive culture) don’t provide direct one-on-one comparisons, as that approach is apt to cause unwanted hostilities amongst agents.
  3. Don’t allow manual processes to undermine the effectiveness of your dashboard – dashboards whose information is updated through automation are more likely to maintain and display consistent information than those dashboards with information updated via manual processes.
  4. Real-time reporting is ideal for those metrics which reflect ongoing performance at a center or an individual level, such as average talk time, average queue time, sales closed etc.

Easy-to-read dashboards, which provide your agents with information they can use to adjust their performance to meet the needs of the center, are powerful aids to productivity and empowerment. If you do not have agent dashboards, consider the positive operational and financial impact you could generate by introducing an appropriate tool. If you do have a dashboard, be sure to review it periodically to be sure it is still supporting your objectives.

Tip of the week: Develop dashboards with metrics that reflect alignment with company goals. They should alert readers of poor performance, but also WOW readers when performance is good.

CallTalk™ Caramels: Sweet Snippets from BenchmarkPortal’s Best CallTalk Episodes
This CallTalk Caramel was compiled and edited by Bruce Belfiore and Kamal Webb. It was drawn from a CallTalk episode with Brad Odom, entitled “Dashboard Best Practices”. To listen to the archived episode click play below:

CallTalk is a monthly internet radio program featuring innovative managers and thought leaders in the customer contact field, interviewed by BenchmarkPortal CEO, Bruce Belfiore.  “Caramels” distills “Aha!” moments from these interviews into practical, bite-sized nuggets to inform and assist you as a contact center professional.
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