Last Updated: September 23, 2025
06 Jun
Summary
Call centers act as a middle ground between businesses and their customers, offering support services and handling customers’ issues. In this business, one of the top priorities is to ensure that the support teams handle all the required calls during their shifts. However, customer satisfaction cannot be traded with the call center productivity and vice versa. If an agent fails to address the customers’ needs, leading to high dissatisfaction and affecting the overall business.
Introduction
The customer experience (CX) and agent performance go hand in hand. Over the years, contact centers have evolved solely from calling agencies to the digital media space. Live chat, email, and social media support have increased in numbers compared to regular voice-call assistance. The call center metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) assist in creating an impact on the daily performance rate and customer satisfaction level. Positive customer feedback relies on the degree of service offered by call center leads.
The call center metrics weigh the agent’s performance level. The call center managers are using the metrics to induce team productivity. It is a concrete way to increase the numbers and enhance customer retention.
Let’s dive into detailed information on contact center metrics to keep track of for long-term customers.
Meaning and Understanding
Define CX Metrics and KPIs
CX Metrics are quantitative benchmarks that keep track of customers’ perceptions, their interactions, and their reviews about the company’s products and services. These metrics shed light on the company’s operations meeting customer expectations, offering value, and promoting trust.
CX KPIs are goal-specific subsets of metrics that are implemented to track and evaluate success against any set objective. In other words, these are subset metrics that are somehow related to the business goals.
Essential Customer Experience Metrics and KPIs in Call Centers
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
What it measures:
- The CSAT score is one of the metrics used to measure customer satisfaction level after the customer-agent interactions.
- This score is measured by collecting data from post-interaction surveys with a rating of 1 to 5.
With this metric, it is easy for the team in contact centers to identify the strong and weak areas where they can work in the future to multiply the number of customers.
Why it matters:
- A high score means that most customers are delighted, whereas a low score means gaps in quality services.
How to Implement:
- Add a short survey at the end of every interaction through calls, mails, or chats;
- Example: “How satisfied are you today?” (1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied);
- Keep track of CSAT trends.
As per Salesforce’s “What Is a Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)?” article, the average CSAT stood at 78% .
Call Quality Score (QA Score)
What it measures:
- QA score measures the level of interaction between agent and customer.
- This includes evaluating how call center agents are handling the interactions.
Why it matters:
- This metric ensures consistent and high-quality services;
- It highlights improvement areas and the need for specific trainings;
- It relates agents’ call performance with operational outcomes.
How to Implement:
- Define evaluation criteria by creating a scoring rubric and explaining the scoring categories. For instance, 10% for greeting, 20 for empathy, 30% for resolution, and so on.
- Track all agent-customer interactions.
- Score every call of every agent.
- Offer feedback and training.
In short, the QA score monitors the agents’ performance on established standards, including accuracy, empathy, and problem resolution.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
What it measures:
- This metric measures customer loyalty and probability to recommend your company’s products and services to others.
- It is measured on a 0–10 scale and categorizes the responses as Promoters (9–10), Passives (7–8), and Detractors (0–6).
Why it matters:
- NPS is directly related to long-term loyalty and work-of-mouth marketing.
- It predicts how likely customers are to advocate for the company and support organic growth.
“To calculate: NPS = % Promoters – % Detractors.”
How to implement:
- Conduct a survey and ask the customers “How likely are you to recommend us to someone, on a scale of 0-10?”.
- For deeper insights, categorize NPS based on customer type, product, or region.
“As per Zoho’s FAQs on an actionable implementation of NPS survey, on average, NPS over 70 are considered top-performing companies. ”
Customer Effort Scores (CES)
What it measures:
- CES defines the efforts customers put in to reach the customer support team and get their issues resolved.
“Servion, in its report ‘How to improve your Customer Effort Score’ states that 96% of the customers are more likely to leave the brands if they have to put in high efforts (iii).”
Why it matters:
- High efforts lead to frustration, ultimately increasing the churn rate.
- Customers want convenient and quick resolutions, turning them loyal.
- This metric tracks the customers’ efforts and ensures that CES is minimized.
How to implement:
- Conduct a survey and ask, “Whether connecting with the support teams was easy?”
- It is measured on a scale, including “Strongly agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly disagree.”
- Analyze trends by issue type, channel, or team.
First Contact Resolution (FCR)
What it measures:
- FCR measures the customer issues resolved on the first interaction, without any follow-ups.
“As per GetVoip’s “Call Center Workforce Management: Benefits, KPIs & Tips” article, the global FCR benchmark ranges from 70% to 75% (iv).”
Why it matters:
- This metric is directly linked to customer satisfaction.
- Companies measure it to know how satisfied their customers are.
- Here, a lower FCR rate means repeat interactions, whereas a high FCR rate means issues resolved in first interactions.
“To calculate FCR (%) = (Cases resolved on first contact ÷ Total cases) × 100.”
How to implement:
- Track total cases and cases resolved in the first go.
- Companies must identify repeat issues and provide appropriate resources and training.
Agent Performance KPIs That Elevate Call Center Efficiency
Some KPIs directly enhance the role of the agents in resolving the queries efficiently. The agents work closely with the customers and resolve the inquiries in one or multiple attempts. To enhance productivity and real-time performance, we’ve listed some of the best KPIs that play an important role.
Average Response Speed (ARS)
What it measures:
- This metric measures the time taken to connect with the agents, i.e., the queue time before connecting.
- It is also referred to as Average Speed of Answer (ASA).
“As per Salesforce’s “The State of Service” report, about 85% of the companies track ARS (v).”
Why it matters:
- Longer waiting periods irritate customers and decrease the satisfaction rate.
- ARS tracks response time and identifies operational efficiency. This ensures quick connection and minimizes queue time.
“The formula to calculate ARS: total wait time for answered calls/number of answered calls.”
How to implement:
- Track the response speed separately, based on different channels, i.e., phone, chat, and email response.
- ARS can be minimized by implementing effective call routing, adjusting staff, and providing call-back options.
Average Call Time (ACT)
What it measures:
- ACT evaluates the total time of the customer call from the instance call started until it ends.
- This includes the overall time, i.e., talk time and hold time.
“Talkdesk 2025 KPI benchmarking report states average hold time and average talk time to be at 13s and 2m 47s (vi).”
Why it matters:
- By tracking ACT, companies can gain insights on efficiency and call complexities.
- Short calls mean efficiency; however, too short calls mean rushed services.
- Long calls indicate a requirement for a better agent or complicated issues.
“To calculate ACT, divide the total time spent on calls by number of calls handled.”
How to implement:
- Categorize and track the ACT based on team, issues, and agent.
- Implement benchmarks for the outperformers and underperformers.
- Offer specialized training to agents for quickly resolving the customers’ issues.
Average Resolution Time (ART)
What it measures:
- ART measures the average time taken to solve the customers’ queries from first interaction to closure.
- It includes follow-ups, escalations, and callbacks.
Why it matters:
- Customers want quick responses and resolutions.
- High ART means operational and agent inefficiencies, whereas low ART shows empowered agents and efficient operations.
“Formula: ART = Total resolution time/Number of resolved cases.”
How to implement:
- Track all agent-customer interactions from first contact till it ends.
- Provide authority to the agents for resolving the issues without escalation.
- Establish knowledge bases and provide access to the agent for quick resolutions.
- Optimize workflows and call routings.
Conclusion
The pathway to enhance CX and satisfaction is long, and organizations with high dedication can walk it. By monitoring metrics such as CSAT, FCR, ACT, etc., call center managers can identify improvement areas and make data-driven decisions to enhance overall efficiency and customer experience. To streamline this process and further elevate call center performance, NEQQO QA software comes to the rescue.
NEQQO QA platform is a powerful tool that monitors and evaluates agent-customer interactions and call quality. By implementing NEQQO, call centers can optimize their service quality, track KPIs in real time, and provide significant insights. Ultimately, this leads to improved agent performance, higher customer satisfaction, and a successful call center operation.
Frequently Asked Questions Call Center Metrics
1. How does the NEQQO QA platform support call centers?
Answer: NEQQO is a digital QA platform that monitors interactions, tracks KPIs in real time, and automates QA processes. It also identifies improvement areas, optimizes operations, and enhances overall interaction quality.
2. What are the overall benefits of monitoring KPIs?
Answer: The benefits include:
- Balancing productivity and satisfaction;
- Identifying improvement areas;
- Supporting data-based decision making;
- Enhancing operational quality and business growth.
3. What is the difference between CX metrics and CX KPIs?
Answer: CX KPIs track and evaluate the success against any set objective, whereas CX metrics measure customer perception in a broader range.
4. Which call center metrics are tracked to improve CX and satisfaction?
Answer: To enhance customer satisfaction and experience, businesses must track:
- CSAT;
- FCR;
- CES;
Sources:
What Is a Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)?”
FAQs on an actionable implementation of NPS survey
How to improve your Customer Effort Score
Call Center Workforce Management: Benefits, KPIs & Tips
Talkdesk 2025 KPI benchmarking report