Calls Per Hour

Author: CCa2z

Date: 14th November 2004

Calls per hour is a useful indicator of efficiency levels right down from call centre to advisor level.  However, that is all it should be an indicator, and not in isolation, a key target.  Typically calculated as follows:

TOTAL
Time
07:30:00

ACD
Calls
100

CALLS
per hour
13:30

At call centre level, it indicates overall call capacity and occupancy levels, at team level it can indicate the efficiency of teams, but what does it do at advisor level?

It could be a measure of efficiency and in an ideal world it could be, when forming part of a suite of key performance indicators (KPI) including quality measures.  However, many call centres still utilise calls per hour (or calls answered daily) in isolation, to monitor advisor performance.  Needless to say this is bad practice.

If you ask advisors to deliver 60 calls per day, by and large, they will.  There will be roughly be 3 groups of advisors:

  • The ones that are not target focused and spend as much time with the caller as they choose.
  • The ones that are target focused and will adopt call control skills to meet call volume requirements.
  • Then there are the ones who will use all means available to deliver and exceed targets.

The latter group will know all the tricks in the book to maximise their call rate, such as:

  • Being abrupt with callers to keep calls short.
  • Handling the call but not updating systems or fulfilling caller requirements.
  • Cutting off callers after connection, the smart ones will even report to their team leader that there may be a fault, should their ploy be discovered.
  • Advisors agreeing to call each other.

Sometimes we pressurise our advisors, which means the less able or more scrupulous will be forced down this route, particularly where we display leagues of poor performance.

ACD 'short' call reports will indicate, by advisor, the number of short calls in their calls answered.  The short call threshold can be set and this would usually be around 10 seconds.

Calls per hour is a useful indicator for non-erlang capacity planning

TOTAL
Time
375:00:00

ACD
Calls
6000

CALLS
per hour
16:00

Staff
FTEs
50

TOTAL
Calls p/h
800

The above table indicates that with 50 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff, call capacity is 800 per hour.

See Normalised Calls Per Hour
 


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