Last Updated: September 2, 2025
19 May
Summary
Despite being complicated, the operational services provided by the call center are crucial to business growth. Metrics and KPIs are tracked to gauge customer experience (CX) and find ways to improve group productivity. Moreover, these metrics are those numbers that shows the real story of the overall operations, agents’ performance, and customer satisfaction. While it is complex to satisfy customer needs, well-structured standards improve performance and operational effectiveness.
Introduction
A successful call center is based on two pillars, i.e., art and science, as it requires a combination of data-driven and human-centered strategies. Call center metrics are those data points that are tracked to measure the competence and quality of the overall processes. The executives handling customer queries use metrics and KPIs to leverage their performance rates.
For a vast CX, supervisors monitor the performance rate and focus on operational issues. This blog breaks down the call center metrics and KPIs to improve agents’ performance, customer satisfaction, and the overall organizational workings.
Meaning and Understanding
Call Center Metrics
The call center metrics provide a quantifiable way to assess customer service and agent productivity. These metrics allow the supervisors to maintain a balance between cost, customer satisfaction, and productivity.
Why Call Center Metrics Are Essential?
Mismanaged operations result in longer waiting periods, irritated customers, and negative reflection on the company’s image. However, with call center metrics, businesses can ensure making data-based decisions and identify operational gaps to improve overall team performance. Call center metrics offer answers to various questions, which are:
- Are customers being served quickly?
- Are customers satisfied?
- Are agents resolving the issues quickly?
- Is the CX improving over time?
Essential Call Center Metrics and KPIs to Improve CX
A satisfying CX has a significant long-term impact on the call center industry. Effective and efficient interactions can highly impact the customers’ behavior towards the brand. For longer customer retention, it is necessary to understand the complex issues and use metrics to resolve them.
First Contact Resolution (FCR)
First Contact Resolution (FCR) is one of the first call center metrics on the list, as this measure ensures issue resolution in the first go. Through FCR, call centers can manage the customer satisfaction rate and the overall operational cost.
In short, FCR depicts the issues resolved at the first customer-agent interactions. It shows that the team is performing well and tackling the issue within the time frame. To calculate the FCR,
“Divide the total number of calls resolved on the first attempt by the total number of calls received.”
In both instances, in the first approach, the calls received and resolved at the first attempt create an FCR. It shows that the team is performing well and tackling the issue within the time frame. The second approach includes the number of calls resolved at the first attempt, excluding repeat calls. To calculate the FCR,
divide the total number of calls resolved on the first attempt by the number of calls received. Divide by the total number of calls resolved on the first attempt.”
“As per Salesforce’s sixth edition State of Service report, the first call resolution rate stood at 80%.”
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The NPS is another metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction. The customers rate the services on a 0–10 scale. The Promoters are the ones who provide the message with the highest rating and spread it among others. Passive customers are the ones who sometimes use the services and switch. The detractors are customers with the lowest reviews about the service.
“The total NPS is the difference between the percentage of customers who are promoters and those who are detractors.”
Based on Zoho’s ‘FAQs on an actionable implementation of NPS survey,’ companies with 30+ NPS are considered well performing
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Like the NPS, the CES is a trustworthy metric. Here, it evaluates customer responses via a closed-ended survey method about the efforts put into resolving a query. The system tracks responses to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction.
The feedback can range from “low effort” to ‘very high effort. The rating scale uses numbers from five to seven. And to calculate the CES,
“Sum of all customer ratings/total number of responses.”
Salesforce’s ‘State of the Connected Customer’ reported 43% of the customers stopped dealing with the brand after poor CX.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Among the popular call center KPIs and metrics, the Customer Satisfaction Score is one of them. This customer experience (CX) metric system is simple to evaluate, comprising a rating scale from 0 to 5. The lowest rating is 0, and the highest rating is 5. For accurate total scores, it is evident to use the highest ratings, which are 4 and 5, and assess the scores based on them. The feedback based on these scores is precise for calculating customer retention.
To get the CSAT score,
“divide the number of satisfied customers by the number of survey responses multiplied by 100.”
“Talkdesk’s ‘2025 KPI benchmarking report’ states CSAT to be at 4.5 out of 5 ”
Inbound Call Metrics and KPIs
Average Response Time (ART):
Customer time is precious. ART metrics gauge the amount of waiting time before connecting with the support agent. To calculate the ART, “divide the total response time by total responses. “Freshworks’ ‘Customer Service Benchmark Report 2025’ states response time to be less than 20 seconds across chat channels ”
Number of Blocked Calls:
The metrics can calculate the number of blocked calls and record the data for further usage. If there are a lot of declined calls, then it is evident that it is time to identify the issues and take appropriate steps. For total calls blocked, “divide the number of calls that agents didn’t attend by the total number of calls received, multiplied by 100.”
Calls Abandoned:
The long waiting times for the customers must be reduced by the call centers. This KPI tracks the abandoned calls and helps in identifying the reasons for such abandonments. For calculating the number of calls abandoned, “divide the difference between the number of incoming calls and the number of calls handled by the number of total calls made, multiplied by 100.”
Active Call Waiting:
The metrics measure the amount of time the call is on hold. It keeps track of the missed calls and the calls the agents make. “Talkdesk’s ‘2025 KPI benchmarking report’ states average waiting time to be 2m35s ”
Operational Metrics to Track Call Center Performance
The call center KPIs and metrics keep tabs on the performance of the customer executives. The calls received and made have an impact on the performance rate. The leads and managers can identify real-time calls, pending calls, and closed instances and work on optimizing the goals.
Calls Handled:
The metrics handle the number of calls received and made. It records the number of calls made in an hour, a day, and a month. “As per Salesforce’s ‘Sixth Edition State of Service report,’ about 84% of the companies track average handle time ”
Call Arrival Rate:
This metric gives an insight into the total number of calls. There are no unrecorded calls in the metric system. It includes each and every call. To calculate the call arrival rate, “find the total number of incoming calls in a specified time.”
Peak Call Time:
This metric can calculate the peak call time by accessing the volume of the calls. The team leader prepares for peak hours by following this metric.
Average Hold Time:
This metric also measures the longest hold time. Based on the call length, performance is impacted. For the average call time, “divide the total call time for complete calls by the total number of calls.” “As per Talkdesk’s ‘2025 KPI benchmarking report,’ average hold time stood at 13 seconds ”
Query Age:
The metric helps identify how long it takes to find a solution. To find the query age, “Divide the sum of days or hours of open instances by the total number of cases.”
Number of Repeated Calls:
The number of repeated calls lets companies understand why agents were not able to solve the issues in the first instance. To get the total number of repeated calls, “by dividing the number of calls regarding specified queries by the total number of incoming calls.”
Channel Mix:
Nowadays, there are multiple channels through which customers reach out with queries. The metrics and KPIs let companies access data across omnichannel, such as online and mobile. Live chatbots are one example.
KPIs to Measure Agent Productivity
The customer support agents handle the calls and resolve the queries efficiently. For smooth functioning, KPIs must be evident.
Agent Utilization Rate:
The call center KPIs are essential in measuring agent utilization too. The agents must take up the calls and solve them within the stipulated time.
Get the agent utilization rate by
“Dividing the (average number of calls handled by agents in a month*average call handle time) by (working days in a month*working hours per day) multiplied by 100.”
Adherence to the Schedule:
Adherence to the scheduled time means that the agents take up the maximum number of calls and utilize their on-the-job time. The KPIs impact the overall annual performance rate. To calculate the adherence to the schedule,
“Divide the handling time plus available time by paid hours.”
Response Speed:
Call center outsourcing requires KPIs to be followed. It identifies the response speed of the call agents. Divide the total waiting time for attended calls by the total number of attended calls.
Conclusion: Tracking the Right Metrics for Call Center Success
Monitoring the operational services is a crucial task for the contact centers. Metrics and KPIs are tools to assess performance trends and customer experiences. Contact center interactions have a high impact on customer value and businesses. Call center managers require ample data to address opportunities and setbacks. The metrics ensure the tracking of every interaction between the agents and consumers.
The leading call center groups look beyond the single interaction and focus on ultimate customer satisfaction. The goal is to increase the number of customers in the long run. The survey and feedback are the media for understanding the customer’s behavioral patterns.
As the contact center’s operation is changing rapidly, it is evident to keep a close watch on the core metrics and KPIs. Though it is significant, choosing the right metrics is a must.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) What are call center metrics?
Call center metrics are measurable data points that help evaluate how well call center operations are performing.
2) What are the most significant call center metrics?
The most significant call center metrics include:
- CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)
- FCR (First Call Resolution)
- NPS (Net Promoter Score)
- CES (Customer Effort Score)
3) Do call center metrics enhance the satisfaction rate?
Yes. Well-tracked metrics guide effective, streamlined operations and customer support, which improves customer satisfaction.
4) What is the difference between call center metrics and KPIs?
Call center metrics are measurable data points used to track performance, while KPIs are the specific metrics tied to a business’s goals.
Sources
FAQs on an actionable implementation of NPS survey
State of the Connected Customer