Call Center Performance Metrics

This assignment delves into the crucial topic of call center performance evaluation. It examines various performance metrics such as call quality, agent performance, and cost metrics, highlighting their significance in assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of customer service operations. The document emphasizes that achieving high customer satisfaction doesn't necessarily require a high cost per customer contact.

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Call Center Network Analysis
Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Task 1: Call Center Infrastructure Requirements
User Requirements
The user should be able to:
 Make a call to client
 Receive a call from clients
 Send a message to customer
 Chat on a user-friendly web interface
Telecommunication Network
The network interconnects the agent with a client. The requirements needed include:
 Ethernet switch
 Router
 Public switched telephone network
 Long distance carrier
 Contact server
 Modem
If the call centre is receiving and making calls outside to other regions, then the long distance
carriers between the areas will be interconnected by the international private leased circuit.

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Also, the call centre may decide to implement the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) which
can transmit data, voice, and fax to several locations via the internet protocol [1].
Hardware Requirements
The call centre will have state of the art hardware elements including:
 Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X Platform
 Intel core 2 Duo Processor (1.4GHz or higher)
 Minimum of 2GB RAM to enhance performance
 Minimum of 250GB ROM
 Super VGA monitor
 Minimum of 1024x768 screen resolution
 8MB minimum for video graphics card
 Citrix Presentation server with minimum of 2.0 GHz, 2GB RAM, HTTPs connectivity
to the TPx service environment
 Citrix ICA Client workstation with minimum processing speed of 1.2GHz, 128 RAM,
8 MB minimum RAM for video graphics card, and network connectivity
 Desktop for agents
 Predictive Dialer

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 Automatic call distributor
 Local area network
 Interactive voice response
 Computer technology integration
 Web integration
 Fax-on-demand, messaging, and Voice logging
When all these components are integrated it forms a simple, easy to use, sophisticated, and
efficient call centre platform.
Software Requirements
Software requirements include:
 Customer relationship management software
 Web browser
 Operating system
 Outlook (required for contact directory)
 Sun Microsystems Java Runtime edition
Software requirements form an essential part of setting up a call centre. A customer
relationship management software to help agents collect client (who are online) information.
The software facilitates separation o clients into distinct categories and identifying the value

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of every class. Also, the call centre will require an operating system to manage the services
[2]. Depending on the user requirements the following operating system may be installed:
Mac OS, Linux, Unix, Windows OS.
Task 2: Call Center Network Design

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Logical Network Design for the Call Center
The purpose of the Cisco unified mobile agent is to allow agents using broadband VPN
connection and PSTN phone to operate as if it were a unified CCE agent. CTI ports are used
as proxies for the caller phone and endpoints (mobile agent phones). The ports are needed for
each agent that has signed in and takes the position of the Cisco IP phones controlled and
monitored by Unified JTAPI. The local CTI port DN is utilised by the agent to sign in, and it
is where clients are directed when the agent is chosen.
The remote CTI port notifies the operator when chosen for a call-by-call interconnection or a
nailed linkage. Cisco unified mobile agents allow system admins to setup operators to use
either nailed connection or call-by-call dialling [3]. Also, agents can be configured by the
admin to select the type of communication during login. For call-by-call dialling, the remote
phone of the operator is dialled for every call coming through. The operator’s phone is
disconnected when the call end and prepared for the next incoming call. The agent after
logging in to nailed connection, the line remains open via several phone calls.

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The Cisco unified mobile agent (CUMA) tone notifying connection gives a two-beep
notification in nailed connection when the call is connected. The operator will hear the tone
after receiving the call. CUMA can connect to any unify CCE by the use of any PSTN phone
that allows routing to a Cisco Voice Gateway. Registration of the voice gateway can be done
using the same or different Unified CM cluster [4]. For CUMA to operate, it needs desktop
agent application in addition to the phone.
If the operator is using an IP phone on similar group related to agent PG, it is beneficial from
the view of the performance of Unified CM to allow the agent to use extension mobility rather
than the feature of the mobile agent [5]. Nevertheless, the JTAPI user has to be linked with
the IP phone, and there is a little efficiency hit for making the linkage on Unified CM.
In the diagram below, 1A and 1B voice gateways are both registered on cluster 1, and
gateway 2 signup on cluster 2. An incoming call to 1A can be redirected to any of the
operators. Cluster 2 has no PG, and IP phones for mobile operator 4 is not controlled or
monitored by JTAPI.
Mobile Operator Call Scenarios

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CTI ports can be located anywhere because it is virtual. Caution should be taken when
locating CTI post for mobile agents. Supervisors at the call centre should make sure that VoIP
endpoints are colocated with the pair of CTI port when the operators are called [6].
Accountability of call admissions will be incorrect if mobile operators are allocated CTI ports
with varying location with the VoIP.
The configuration of the Unified CM should be done in a manner that ehn a remote CTI port
dials the phone number given by the operator at sign in, it directs to a Voice gateway in a
similar location as the operator CTI ports. Admission control accounting will work incorrectly
if otherwise [7]. Additionally, the configuration can be done such a way that there is a specific
gateway where CTI ports can go through without considering the called phone number. If the
company wants a dedicated gateway, then such configuration is recommended because it is
easy to manage. However, it cannot be regarded as an efficient type of configuration from the
view of utilization of PSTN trunk.
Sometimes the mobile agents are busy, and you want the clients to get entertained when on
hold like listening to music, then allocate MoH (Music on Hold) to the admission voice
gateway linked to the caller [8]. The source of the audio is determined on the local CTI port
setup. If the operator likes to hear music when put on hold, then allocated MoH to the trunk
linked to the operator. When there are no active calls in nailed connections, the operator is put
on hold.
Call Center Perfomance Metrics
Productivity: the call center should be utilizing the resources available to achieve its
objectives. Some main metrics include: Percentage of contact center operators who are
occupied in activities related to direct customer service and the number of inbound operators

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where low number shows underutilization of the operators; and a high value show better
scheduling and utilization
Service Level Metrics: these metrics are connected with scaling the level of quality of service
delivery by the center. Some of the essential metrics comprise of first, the ASA (Average
Speed of Answer). It is the total time waited by callers in line partitioned by several calls and
managed by live agents and IVR [9]. The metric is a scale of the contact center
responsiveness. It is used to monitor the compliance of service level under sets objective.
Secondly, is the response time and service level. All calls received by a live agent within
some seconds is known as service level. It is a measure of the contact center responsiveness to
the clients and measures compliance with the service under established targets. Response
time, on the other hand, is the calculation of time taken to finish 100 percent of the contacts.
These metrics are linked to the desired productivity in a contact center.
Thirdly, is the CAR (Call Abandonment Rate). It refers to the number of calls linked to the
ACD, but the caller disconnected it before the completion of the process or before the
connection of the agent [10]. It is an essential metric that scales the customer dissatisfaction
level with the service. A high Call Abandonment Rate leads to serious comments on the call
center services operation. Fourthly, is the accessibility. The measures associated with the
feature determines contact center accessibility to the client. Fifthly, is the longest wait in a
queue. It is a performance metric of real-time that calculates the longest call age. Other vital
metrics include Forecasting Accuracy, contact quality, Schedule Adherence and Self-service
accessibility.
Quality: measures for verifying quality level provided by the customer service relating to
process quality involved and issue actual resolution. Some of the important parameters
include first, customer satisfaction. It offers information on the current customer satisfaction
level. It should frequently be monitored. There are several methods to identify customer’s

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perceptions towards services of contact services [11]. They include through customer
complaints and praise, customer surveys and observation of interaction between staffs and the
customer. The surveys may be connected to issues resolved, expectations fulfilled, products,
and customer experience. High customer contentment is seen when there is a successful
practice of customer service and does not necessarily need to be held by high cost per
customer contact or high cost of customer service.
Secondly, is the call quality. Analyzing call quality assist the contact center to learn the
efficiency of its customer service practices. A contact center may establish its evaluation scale
to measure the quality of the call and may range from 1-100 based on specific parameters.
The criterion may consist of things such as quality of interaction, knowledge, professionalism,
smoothness of the process, agent responsiveness and trait, among others [12]. Other call
center performance metrics include agent performance metrics, cost metrics, and contact
handling metrics.

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References
[1]A. Kinder, W. Siegel, R. Bergevin and B. Simpson, Call centers for dummies. Hoboken,
N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2013, p. 228.
[2]T. Szigeti, End-to-end qos network design. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press, 2013, p. 943.
[3]L. Carvalho and O. Alves, Telecom management for call centers. Bloomington, IN:
iUniverse Inc, 2011, p. 125.
[4]T. Communications, "Hardware and Software Requirements for the Call Center Client -
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[8]R. Green, Cisco unified customer voice portal. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press, 2012, p. 302.

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[9]R. White and D. Donohue, The art of network architecture. Indianapolis: CISCO Press,
2014, p. 20.
[10]S. Geraghty, "11 Tools for Employing At-Home Call Center Agents | Talkdesk",
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at-home-call-center-agents. [Accessed: 29- Jan- 2018].
[11]G. Koole, Call center optimization. Amsterdam: MG Books, 2013, p. 93.
[12]J. McCabe, Network Analysis, Architecture, and Design. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science,
2010, p. 311.