There is one question that has always driven my approach, both when I was in contact center leadership and now in my consulting practice. It is a provocative question, and I encourage you to ask yourself: If I were a customer calling my contact center, would I be satisfied with the experience?
You do not need a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey to answer this. Deep down, you know.
For me, the answer to that question consistently led me to find solutions to enhance the customer experience (CX) for my clients. It did not matter what type of contact center: whether it was an IT service desk, a hospitality reservation center, a medical benefits consulting practice, or a car rental agency. The obstacles that hinder performance and productivity are remarkably the same.
Think of performance as the outcome you are seeking from each customer-agent interaction.
Of course, these are subjective terms, and they look different in each environment. Many contact centers do not periodically evaluate what their performance and productivity benchmarks should be. Instead, they tend to evolve organically over time, and often in a non-strategic way. But this can create frustration for both supervisors and agents.
Typically, performance and productivity are linked to the operation’s metrics. The goal is always to improve performance and increase productivity, demonstrating to leadership (and sometimes shareholders) that “we are running an effective and efficient business.” Therefore, it is crucial to prioritize these areas.
This article offers strategies to improve both performance and productivity, ultimately aiming for a better experience for your customers and agents.
#1 Performance: Sprinting Toward Excellence
Think of performance as the outcome you are seeking from each customer-agent interaction. Sports analogies can be useful here. In sports, performance metrics depend on the type of game. Is it a timed event, like a 400-meter race? Or a judged event, like gymnastics?
If it is a timed event, like a track race, then seconds count, and measuring average handle time (AHT) becomes crucial. Other time-based metrics might focus on agent availability. These are easy to measure, and agents can understand their success based on a concrete number.
However, if you are aiming for judged performance - like gymnastics - success is more subjective. There are nuances to the interaction. One customer might view it positively, while another might not, similar to the varied scores from judges. This subjectivity creates challenges in consistency: customers’ moods can be unpredictable, and agents may say phrases with good intentions that do not land as intended.
The first strategy to create high performance is determining which metric is most important: time or satisfaction. Both cannot be equally prioritized, as this tends to confuse agents. Focusing on one often enhances the other. In my experience, operations that prioritize quality first often see improvements in speed over time.
Creating Gold Medal Performances
One effective tactic is creating model or mock calls to showcase best practices for agents. With technology, it is simple to record these scenarios. If confidentiality allows, consider using real calls. Store these recordings in a resource library accessible to supervisors.
Studying calls can demonstrate specific performance expectations, model effective tool use, and show ideal ways to engage with customers. This should be a core part of ongoing agent development and can make a meaningful project for supervisors.
...a culture of ongoing improvement through mock calls and coaching will drive notable performance gains.
A side story: when I was a training manager long ago, we used real customer calls as examples of what not to do, highlighting agents’ mistakes and the customers who were the most challenging to work with. Looking back, this approach was probably unfair to both customers and agents. It is like using a belly flop to teach Olympic diving: entertaining, perhaps, but not ideal for skill-building!
Side-by-side coaching is another tried-and-true tactic for improving performance. While it is time-intensive, the immediate feedback allows agents to make adjustments right away.
Many leaders rely too heavily on quality assurance (QA) to identify issues and note poor patterns, but QA feedback often arrives too late for agents to make real-time connections. With side-by-side coaching, agents receive feedback instantly, and this timeliness is the most effective way to encourage behavioral change.
Whether your goal is improving time-based or judged performance, a culture of ongoing improvement through mock calls and coaching will drive notable performance gains.
Retaining Your Gold Team
One final tip here: prioritize retaining your best agents. True, some agents may reach a point where it is time for a lateral move or even separation if they have lost their passion for customer interactions.
But in most cases, the top-performing agents are your longest-tenured employees. This might mean revisiting their compensation to remain competitive in today’s employee-centric job market. The investment in retaining a high-performing agent often pays off far more than the time and resources needed to replace them.
#2 Productivity: Maximizing the Sprint
Productivity depends on how it is defined within your operation. Productivity goals are impossible to achieve if agents are not clear on what success looks like in measurable terms.
Production metrics could relate to the number of customer contacts completed in a day or first contact resolutions (FCRs). Setting these benchmarks is essential because, while everyone feels busy, being busy does not always mean being productive.
You can train your AI to make it smarter and route the contact to a human faster.
For my clients, productivity means agents spend their time efficiently while on the clock. This includes effectively managing interactions, so customers aren’t kept on the line any longer than necessary. The goal is quick, effective resolution.
Tackling the Tough Stuff
Another boost to productivity is to identify the top five semi-complicated issues customers frequently raise. Focus on the difficult ones because simpler questions - often the focus of training - are typically accessible through digital tools like apps or web sites. By training agents to handle these more complex questions effectively, you will empower them to resolve challenging issues more efficiently.
AI: Your Digital Sprinter
If you are using artificial intelligence (AI) to automate initial interactions, regularly review it to ensure its information, processes, and policies are up to date.
Many centers now use initial bot chats, which can be helpful, but overly complex bot responses often frustrate customers. If customers become aggravated before speaking with an agent, this frustration affects both productivity and the CX.
I experienced this firsthand when contacting my credit card company regarding an overcharge. After 45 minutes of IVR and bot interactions, I finally reached a live agent, but I was understandably irritated.
This initial mismanagement meant the agent had to work to restore the relationship before resolving the issue, a step that drained both time and energy. You can train your AI to make it smarter and route the contact to a human faster.
Staffing: Your Support Team
Proper staffing is vital to productivity. While workforce management generally relies on historical data, a more agile approach may help. In some cases, temporary support from staffing agencies specializing in contact centers might be beneficial.
Also, consider whether the tools and resources your agents use are helping or hindering their productivity.
I once saw an organization shift from a mainframe to a Windows-based system because cumbersome workarounds in the form of multiple macros were eating up agents’ time. Yes, it was a significant infrastructure investment, but time is money, and by extension satisfaction. Customers expect fast answers, and slow systems only undermine this expectation.
Concluding Thoughts
I hope these tips help you rethink performance and productivity in your contact center. The best experience occurs when a customer’s question or issue is answered kindly, correctly, and quickly: that is true high performance and productivity.
These improvements do not happen on their own; they require dedicated effort from leadership at all levels. From senior leaders who design systems and allocate budgets to mid-level supervisors coaching agents, improvement is possible: and worth pursuing.
Remember, in the “contact center Olympics,” every interaction is a chance to go for gold!