ReferenceContact center metrics, defined
What each common contact center measure means, how it is calculated, where people go wrong comparing it, and what publishers report. Every formula is the one our tools use, read from their published methods.
Metrics
- Average handle timeThe average time an agent spends on one contact from the moment it is answered to the moment the agent is free for the next: talk, hold and the work after the conversation.
- First contact resolutionThe share of customer issues resolved on the first contact, with no need for the customer to come back about the same thing.
- Service levelThe share of contacts answered within a set time, written as a pair: the share to answer and the time limit in seconds.
- Average speed of answerThe average time callers wait in the queue before an agent answers.
- Abandonment rateThe share of callers who hang up in the queue before an agent answers.
- Offered load (Erlangs)The work arriving in an interval, counted in Erlangs: the number of agents who would be busy every moment if contacts arrived perfectly evenly.
- OccupancyThe share of time agents logged in to the queue spend handling contacts, against waiting for the next one.
- ShrinkageThe share of paid time agents are not available to take contacts: breaks, meetings, coaching, training, time off, absence and system downtime.
- Schedule adherenceThe share of scheduled time agents spend doing what the schedule says, at the times it says.
- Cost per contactThe full cost of running the contact center over a period divided by the contacts it handled.
- Agent attritionThe share of agents who leave in a year, usually departures over average headcount.
- Forecast accuracyHow close the contact volume forecast came to what arrived, measured interval by interval.
- Containment and AI resolutionThe share of contacts a self-service or AI channel finishes without an agent. Vendors and centers define it in several ways.