The modern KPI’s or the key metrics for success.

Everyone has business goals, and they are what we determine as success. The call center is a tricky matter that costs the business with every call coming in. In the modern age, there are many factors that make and break a call center and they are not traditional to a business that has been around for 50 years.

But now companies need to move forward in order to succeed, and that is why I’m talking about modern KPI’s. They still have the core factors, but with technologies attached. Many ideas such as social customer service, cloud software and live chat services help the agent to give support and for the customer to get fast and accurate service.

Co-founder and CEO Konstantin Kishinsky of brightpattern.com said quite frankly, most call centers are not reaching their goals.

They may hit some metrics, but most are trying to:

– Improve customer satisfaction (via surveys, retention, etc.)

– Improve agent productivity.

– implement technology that lower their costs and saves time.

They are squeezing blood form a stone with legacy systems. That’s why Gartner says that 75% of the contact center infrastructure will have to be replaced in the next few years just to keep up.

Sadly that’s why I left an established player I was working at and founded Bright Pattern: To start over and build a cloud contact center that allows Telcos and retail and customer support organizations so that they can reach their real goals, not just a few metrics while missing the big picture.

You can see from what Mr Kishinsky says, that it’s actually vital for businesses to embrace innovative customer service tools and software to bring results. Do whatever it takes. Do some research and see what’s best for you.

I also spoke to Sarah Borton of LaunchSquad.com. She had some important comments that proved that technology has a huge part in the KPI’s being met. She said that’s It’s been thrown around recently as a buzzword in tech and business, but we’re also seeing real results from major companies and businesses who use meaningful competitions and contests in their customer service and call centers – both for engaging customers and keeping agents motivated and fulfilled. The technology and out of the both thinking is a key factor in success.

So once I talked with industry people, I came to some conclusions which may seem simple, but need to implement in order for success. So what are they?

Stay on top of the game and be aware of your market

Learn and adopt technologies for your business

Go social – yes that’s an obvious one, but gold!

Take care of your agents – if they are happy, so will your customers

Good luck and to learn of other ideas I have talked about in the past, check them out here.