Call center management: Best practices and top KPIs to elevate operations

What’s the quickest way to make or break a customer relationship? A single phone call. That’s why mastering call center management isn’t just important—it’s essential for business success.

With the phone remaining a popular support channel for complex inquiries, your inbound call center plays a vital role in shaping the customer experience (CX). Meeting higher expectations necessitates effective call center management, which involves continually reviewing and improving processes and agent capabilities. In this blog, we’ll explore best practices for successful call center management, including leveraging AI to enhance your operations. Read on to discover how to elevate your call center to new heights.

More in this guide:

• What is call center management?
• How does a call center work?
• Call center roles and responsibilities
• 20 call center management best practices
• Best KPIs for effective contact center management
• Frequently asked questions
• Improve your contact center management with Zendesk

What is call center management?

Call center management involves overseeing the daily operations of a call center to ensure efficient and effective customer service. This includes managing staff, processes, technology, and strategies to optimize performance and meet business goals. Key aspects of call center management include:

• Staffing and training: Recruiting, hiring, and training agents to handle customer interactions professionally and efficiently.
• Performance monitoring: Using metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to assess agent performance, call quality, and customer satisfaction.

• Technology integration: Implementing and maintaining software and tools, such as customer service software, call routing, and AI-powered analytics, to streamline operations.

• Process improvement: Continuously reviewing and refining call center processes to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

• Customer experience: Ensuring that customers receive timely, accurate, and helpful responses, thereby improving overall satisfaction.

• Compliance and quality assurance: Ensuring adherence to industry regulations and maintaining high standards of service quality.

• Resource management: Managing call volumes, scheduling shifts, and ensuring that the right number of agents are available to handle customer queries.

“Call center management” and “contact center management” used to be different terms, but now they’re synonymous. Consumers are increasingly connecting with companies over digital channels such as email, chat, messaging apps, and social media. Companies began using the term “contact center” to mark this transition to omnichannel customer service.

How does a call center work?

A call center functions as a dedicated team managing customer interactions across multiple communication channels, primarily focusing on phone calls. It operates through three main elements: people, process, and technology.

• People: Well-trained call center agents are crucial for delivering effective and empathetic customer experiences. Call center managers should minimize agent burnout by ensuring teams can take time off, recognizing high performers, and fostering skill development for career growth.
• Process: Effective call center management requires establishing efficient processes. This includes setting service level agreements (SLAs), defining escalation procedures, and designing workflow automations to streamline operations.
• Technology: Call center managers provide agents with the tools and resources needed to deliver solutions efficiently. This includes software with robust customer profiles for personalized interactions, AI-powered tools to enhance efficiency, and more.

Call center roles and responsibilities

Like other organizations, call centers have a hierarchy. The number of roles in that hierarchy depends on the company’s size.

Call centers typically include managers, supervisors, and agents or representatives, with roles varying based on the size of the call center.

• Call center managers and administrators: Lead and manage the call center team, set performance goals, oversee call center operations, optimize technology and tools, and collaborate with upper management to ensure excellent customer service and achieve company objectives.
• Call center supervisors: Oversee a team of agents, handle escalated support issues, manage daily operations, and report team performance to the call center manager.
• Call center agents: Interact directly with customers to resolve issues, provide product information, and offer exceptional support while adhering to company procedures and guidelines.

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20 call center management best practices

Call center agents balance the stress of supporting the occasional angry customer with the need to meet their team goals. Effective call center management means giving them the tools to find that middle ground. We break down the best contact center best practices below.

1. Enhance call center efficiency with AI

Our Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2024 shows that 65 percent of CX leaders see AI as a strategic necessity rather than a passing trend, rendering previous CX operations obsolete.

Automated call transcripts and summaries exemplify how AI can enhance call center efficiency. Instead of requiring agents to manually summarize calls, AI can generate concise summaries automatically, highlighting key points, action items, and customer sentiment. This not only frees up valuable agent time but also ensures consistent and accurate documentation.

2. Schedule agents effectively with workforce management tools

Workforce management (WFM) tools are like having a crystal ball for call center managers, leveraging AI to forecast future staffing needs based on historical data.

These tools automatically schedule agents to optimize staffing levels. For example, WFM software can predict peak call times during holiday seasons or product launches, ensuring sufficient agents are available to handle increased volume, thus reducing wait times and avoiding overstaffing costs.

WFM metrics also highlight problem areas and successes across teams, ticket types, and individual agents, providing further insights for scheduling staff effectively.

3. Conduct periodic quality assurance checks

Quality assurance checks help managers chart an improvement plan for underperforming agents. This supports agents who might not understand why they fall short of expectations.

Inform new agents that random calls will be recorded for performance reviews. Seasoned agents can also assist managers in reviewing calls. If multiple agents encounter the same issue, it may be necessary to update call center policies.

Customer service scorecards are useful for managers to review customer interactions and assess support quality. However, manually reviewing every call is impractical. AI-powered quality assurance (QA) software, such as Zendesk QA, can review 100 percent of your calls, providing instant insights into support performance and customer sentiment. This allows you to quickly address gaps and prevent churn, while also saving time and reducing operational costs.

4. Continuously train agents

Our 2024 CX Trends Report revealed that four out of five consumers expect agents to assist them with any issues or questions. With rising consumer expectations, call center training must be an ongoing practice, not just a one-time onboarding activity.

Prepare diverse training formats, including videos, text, and quizzes, to accommodate different learning styles. Host workshops and allow new agents to shadow experienced agents to learn best practices.

Additionally, quality assurance (QA) software can further enhance training by providing valuable insights into agent performance and identifying knowledge gaps. Systematic feedback enables you to offer specific performance guidance to your team. Provide one-on-one coaching or schedule additional training sessions for struggling agents to ensure everyone’s skills remain sharp and up-to-date.

5. Provide agents with robust customer profiles

You can’t give personalized customer service without knowing who you’re talking to. Equip agents with a 360-degree view through comprehensive profiles within your call center software. These profiles should include contact information, purchase history, account type, loyalty status, past interactions, and any other relevant data to tailor each call to the customer’s needs. With a unified view, agents are up-to-speed from the first “Hello.”

Imagine an agent greeting a customer with, “Good afternoon, Mr. Garcia. I see you recently upgraded to our premium subscription. How are you enjoying the additional features?” This level of personalization immediately sets a positive tone for the call.

But it’s not just about pleasantries. Comprehensive customer profiles enable agents to anticipate needs and offer proactive solutions. With the right data at their fingertips, they can spot patterns in a customer’s history, identify potential upsell opportunities, or flag recurring issues that need special attention.

The goal isn’t to recite a customer’s entire history but to use select details that add value to the interaction. When done right, personalized calls lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as more efficient problem-solving.

6. Collect customer feedback

It’s in a company’s best interest to remain proactive and connected to its customers’ needs and wants. Failing to do so could mean finding itself on the receiving end of a PR nightmare.

Send surveys after each support interaction to gauge customer satisfaction. Frequent complaints might reveal that your agents need better training or an issue with your product or service. Make sure your call center software can send surveys, collect data, and display the information in a dashboard for analysis.

Empower your agents to be feedback collectors, too. Train them to listen for subtle cues during calls and encourage them to document valuable insights. This frontline intelligence can reveal issues before they become widespread problems.

7. Analyze call center data

Monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), analyzing trends, and using these insights to make data-driven decisions are essential for effective call center management. Utilize call center reporting tools that provide real-time data, allowing you to quickly identify areas for improvement and implement targeted strategies.

Say your agents spend an average of 20 minutes resolving issues—five minutes longer than last month. This increase could mean your agents have trouble accessing resources that speed up resolution time. A unified dashboard and fast, easy access to customer data will improve your agents’ service and your contact center management.

8. Invest in intuitive call center tools

Clunky, dated call center software isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a drag on productivity, morale, and customer satisfaction. Unintuitive tools lead to frustrated agents, who don’t deliver exceptional service.

Think of it this way: Would you expect Bob Ross to paint happy little trees with a dried-up palette and brittle brushes? Of course not. The same principle applies to your call center representatives. Invest in intuitive, user-friendly tools that empower them to do their best work.

Modern call center software offers many features designed to streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and provide agents with the information they need at their fingertips.

9. Don’t neglect agent burnout

You want your agents to deliver their best. However, call center burnout risks turning even the most patient employees into irritable, unproductive versions of themselves.

Burnout occurs when managers don’t anticipate peak hours, employee ability, and customer needs. Look for increasing absenteeism, high turnover rates, and declining customer service metrics like handle times.

You can limit agent burnout with a few strategies:

• Give your employees the time they need to recharge.

• Offer the support they need to do the job well.

• Consider mixing veteran agents and new hires on a shift.

• Re-energize your team with small gestures of appreciation like surprise treats or off-site team-building activities.

10. Leverage call routing

In our recent CX Trends Report, 60 percent of consumers report being frequently transferred to another agent or department on phone calls. This frustrating experience underscores the need for intelligent call routing (ICR) in call centers. ICR transforms the traditional call center model by eliminating the aggravating maze of robotic prompts and endless transfers.

ICR leverages sophisticated algorithms to analyze incoming calls based on factors like caller history, location, reason for calling, and past interactions with the company. It then matches each caller with the most suitable agent based on skills, expertise, and availability.

By implementing ICR, businesses can:

1. Boost first contact resolution rates.

2. Reduce wait times and call abandonment.

3. Increase agent productivity and job satisfaction.

4. Prioritize high-value customers.

11. Prioritize security and compliance

Our 2024 CX Trends Report found that 70 percent of consumers won’t purchase from a company they view as having lackluster security measures. That’s a significant chunk of potential revenue walking out the door.

Call centers are privy to troves of sensitive data—credit card numbers, addresses, Social Security numbers—and protecting customer data privacy is a non-negotiable.

Call centers must abide by national and international privacy guidelines. Protect your agents from accidental violations by reviewing call center guidelines regularly. For example, some states require all parties (customer and agent) to agree to call monitoring or recording. Make sure your agents know to ask for permission when chatting with customers in particular states.

12. Create self-service resources for agents

Tired of fielding endless questions about customer issues, schedules, and PTO requests? Free up your time (and your sanity) by giving agents the tools to help themselves.

Create a well-stocked knowledge base with FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and best practices. Additionally, incorporate interactive elements such as video tutorials, decision trees, and AI agents, an advanced chatbot, to assist employees in finding quick solutions.

Update these resources regularly to ensure they remain relevant and useful. Arming agents with the tools they need to help themselves create a proactive, not reactive, workforce. Self-service resources are a win-win for everyone. Agents are empowered to find answers independently and provide better customer service, managers can focus on strategic initiatives while saving time on repetitive questions, and customers enjoy faster resolutions.

12. Establish call center etiquette guidelines

While agents shouldn’t sound fake or disingenuous, they should offer respectful support. Set call center etiquette rules so every agent offers empathic customer service.

Call center etiquette is especially important when dealing with angry customers. To help agents de-escalate tense situations, suggest using positive phrases such as:

• “I can certainly check on that for you.”

• “Let me see if I can find a way to make this right.”

• “Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.”

14. Offer performance incentives

A recent report from Achievers states that agents who feel supported and valued will stay in their roles. Specifically, employees who receive recognition at least monthly are more productive, engaged, and loyal. This recognition, paired with performance incentives, can improve call center performance.

Encourage high-performing agents to stay by recognizing them for meeting performance goals. For example, say you send a customer satisfaction survey after each call, and one agent averages the highest score for six straight months. Acknowledge their accomplishment by giving them an extra day of vacation, a bonus, or another reward.

15. Draft call center SOPs and SLAs

A standard operating procedure (SOP) guides a department’s or company’s day-to-day operations. Call center SOPs help agents follow expectations, optimize workflows, and meet performance objectives.

Call center SOPs should contain the following:

• Human resources policies, which describe attendance requirements and how to request time off

• Call center software user guides, which reinforce agent training on critical support tools

• KPIs, which reiterate call center standards for call resolution time and etiquette

While SOPs focus on how things get done, customer service service level agreements (SLAs) define your expected results. They set the bar for your team’s performance, outlining specific targets for things like:

• How quickly should calls be answered?

• How long should it take agents to resolve customer issues?

• What kind of customer feedback are you aiming for?

Managers may need to update SOPs and SLAs as legislation and policies evolve. Tell agents each time new documentation is available.

16. Lower call volume with self-service for customers

Empower customers to solve problems independently by offering customer self-service options. These may include:

• Interactive voice response (IVR): An IVR guides customers through a menu of options to find the answers they need, even without ever needing to speak to an agent.
• Knowledge base: Knowledge bases help customers find quick answers online so they don’t need to call support.
• AI agents: These sophisticated chatbots lower call volume by providing personalized customer service over digital channels. In fact, our 2024 CX Trends Report found that more than half of consumers said they prefer interacting with bots over humans when they want immediate service.

Self-service tools free up your call center agents for questions that require a human touch, optimizing your resources and reducing wait times.

17. Give agents visibility into their schedules

Agents calling in sick, last-minute shift swaps, and time-off requests can throw a wrench in even the most meticulously planned schedule. Empower your agents and reduce scheduling headaches by giving them full visibility into their schedules.

With transparent agent scheduling, agents can plan their lives both in and outside of work. They’ll know when to expect high-volume periods, allowing them to mentally prepare for busier shifts. This foresight reduces anxiety and improves focus during peak times.

For managers, transparent scheduling opens up communication channels. Agents can proactively discuss conflicts or concerns, enabling smoother call center workforce management. It also allows for more efficient resource allocation, as managers can easily identify gaps or overlaps in coverage.

18. Give customers the option for a callback (or text-back)

Ever been stuck in an endless phone queue, listening to the same hold music on repeat, only to be interrupted every two minutes by an automated message telling you how important your call is? It’s enough to make anyone hang up in frustration.

Offering a callback system gives your customers the freedom to go about their day. When agents become available, customers receive a call or text, eliminating the need for tedious waiting. It shows respect for your customers’ time and demonstrates that you value their business and understand their busy lives.

For those who prefer text communication, a text-back option caters to the growing preference for digital interactions. It’s perfect for simple questions or follow-ups, allowing customers to respond at their convenience.

19. Make your call center omnichannel

Gone are the days when a phone number was enough to satisfy customer service needs. Consumers crave choice and convenience. They want to connect with you on their terms—whether that’s a quick phone call, live chat support, or sliding into DMs. And if you’re not meeting your customers where they are, you’re missing out big time.

An omnichannel experience integrates phone, email, chat, social media, and even in-app support into a unified system. This integration allows agents to access a customer’s full history and key context across all channels, eliminating the frustrating need for customers to repeat themselves and enhancing personalization.

Efficiency can skyrocket in an omnichannel setup. Agents handle multiple interactions simultaneously, switching between channels as needed. This flexibility reduces wait times and customer satisfaction.

20. Encourage team collaboration

The call center environment, even remotely, can often feel like solitary confinement. Whether in an office or working from home, agents are tethered to their headsets, navigating customer issues one after the other. While essential, this constant focus on individual problem-solving can lead to a sense of detachment from colleagues and the larger team.

Breaking this isolation transforms the call center from a collection of individual problem-solvers into a cohesive, high-performing team. Create opportunities for agents to connect and collaborate. Set up regular team huddles where agents can share challenging contacts, brainstorm solutions, and learn from each other’s experiences.

Other ways to promote collaboration include:

• Implement a mentoring program, pairing seasoned agents with new hires.

• Encourage friendly competition through team-based goals or challenges.

• Organize team-building activities.

Best KPIs for effective contact center management

Successful call center managers keep their finger on the pulse of agent performance. So, managing a call center involves monitoring these key call center metrics.

Average handle time (AHT)

Average handle time is the average time it takes to fully resolve a customer call. It accounts for total talk time, customer wait time, and any follow-up time.

Say a call center manager notices that average handle times are increasing month over month. They should replay calls to pinpoint trends contributing to the rise. Managers may need to host a special training session to address the issue.

Transfer rate

Transfer rate is the percentage of inbound calls that agents transfer to another team member or department. A high transfer rate means you aren’t routing customers to agents with the right specialties.

You can mitigate transfer issues by giving customers a clear decision tree for reaching the correct agent the first time around. Improving your first contact resolution will improve the customer experience overall.

Call abandonment rate

Call abandonment rate gauges the number of customers who hang up while waiting to speak with an agent.

If you can’t ensure fast answers, you can give callers the option to request a callback. This way, customers keep their place in line without staying on hold. When a caller’s turn comes around, an agent will reach out to them.

First contact resolution (FCR) rate

First contact resolution (FCR) rate measures the percentage of customer calls that were resolved in one touchpoint. Repeated calls about one support request take up valuable time. A high FCR rate ensures your agents help more customers.

You can improve FCR with:

• Accessible knowledge bases

• In-depth agent training

• Customer feedback

• Proactive customer support

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score

CSAT scores gauge customers’ satisfaction with a product, service, interaction, or brand experience. The metric is measured via a survey that asks consumers, “How satisfied are you with [product/service/experience]?” Respondents provide a rating based on a five-point scale.

Average CSAT scores vary by industry, so you should try to stay above your field’s average. If your score is lower than you expected or below the industry average, you can improve your CSAT by:

• Being transparent about wait times

• Providing self-service options

• Empowering your support team with the tools they need to deliver great customer service

Cost per call (CPC)

CPC highlights the amount of money needed to handle a call. Quality support means investing in every customer service call. At the same time, a high CPC rate will drain your call center’s resources. As a result, successful call centers keep each call cost-efficient.

Managers can reduce cost per call by:

• Improving customer service training

• Optimizing related KPIs like first contact resolution

• Relying on easy-to-use software

• Using skill-based routing

Frequently asked questions

Improve your contact center management with Zendesk

Whether you run an inbound or outbound call center, start by investing in your agents. When you give them the resources to do their jobs well, they become brand ambassadors who grow your business. Set them up for success by providing robust onboarding, training, and best-in-class software.

Discover the benefits of Zendesk, an easy-to-use, flexible, and customizable call center management solution. With generative AI, workforce management and quality assurance capabilities, advanced call metrics, and omnichannel support, Zendesk transforms your call center management into a powerhouse of efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Try Zendesk integrated voice software and take your call center to the next level today.