Recap of CallTalk.TV OnLine Radio Show with Adam Cincoski of Optum Health discussing Service Level/ASA

Our October 28th episode of CallTalk focused on what I call the "grand daddies" of call center performance metrics: Service Level and Average Speed of Answer, or ASA. With my guest, Adam Cincoski, we explored whether the traditional emphasis is still relevant. We drew on fresh research data from a large number of respondents that showed the following high level information:
- 95.2% of all call centers track Service Level or ASA
- 73.6% of call center managers said that ASA is one of the criteria on which they are judged; in fact 10.5% said they "live and die" by their Service Level ASA metrics.
- 78.3% of all managers reported that they normally achieve their ASA targets.
So it is clear that the importance of the metric lives on, and is a major KPI (Key Performance Indicator) weighing on the minds of most managers. How the ASA is determined, however, seems to be evolving.
"In the beginning, there was Service Level, and the best practice Service Level was 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds".
Still today, over 20% of call centers report that the original 80/20 rule rules them!
However, the nuance in determining the appropriate service level for one's own industry sector and enterprise is getting greater and, it appears, more customer-driven:
- Almost 12% of respondents indicated that they do statistical analyses against customer satisfaction, meaning that they calibrate their target ASA levels according to customer feedback. This would cause them to have more stringent Service Level if that were required to keep satisfaction high, or conversely, allow them to relax Service Level (and save money!) if feedback showed that customers did not mind waiting a few extra rings, other things being equal.
- Over 12% of respondents indicated that they do statistical analyses against abandon rates. This allows them to test their callers' patience by stretching ASA, as long as their callers stay with them. Again, this would allow them to potentially save money. Naturally, the analysis should include call value, since abandons may cancel the opportunities for real revenues. In fact, it should be noted that almost 7% of companies provide faster-than-normal response times for strategic and economic reasons. These are centers who have determined that the staffing costs that accompany aggressive ASA's pay for themselves in real financial returns.
- Over 9% benchmark against industry peers to determine a competitive ASA.
What this tells us is that a notable minority of today's call centers are not just accepting the dictums of the past. They are seeking to optimize this KPI in the context of other metrics (caller satisfaction, abandon, average call value, etc.) so as to balance the costs and benefits of their Service Level.
Naturally, there are also many managers who would like to be more analytical and optimal in determining ASA, but are simply working hard to keep up with the calls they receive using the agents they are given. In fact, 16% said that their service level is mainly the result of their budget and staffing, rather than a strategic choice.
Overall, however, it appears that this most venerable of metrics is being put under the microscope and is being placed in context of other KPIs, rather than on a solitary throne to rule by itself. For our part we encourage this as a best practice approach to managing Service Level/ASA.

CallTalk.TV Online Radio Show and The Importance of Email Metrics

*Guest Speaker: John Chatterley, Industry Expert

This episodes topic:
Unlocking the mysteries of e-mail metrics: what are best practices standards

Dear Community Members,

For this episode of CallTalk, Bruce Belfiore will be interviewing John Chatterley regarding e-mail metrics. We will ask the questions:

• What email metrics should you be following?
• What are current averages for these metrics?
• What are best practices for these metrics?
• How can I benchmark myself against my industry for these metrics?

Bruce and John will weave in the results of the One-Minute Survey on email practices that BenchmarkPortal launched last week, so the data will be fresh and interesting.

As always, this show will be hosted by Bruce Belfiore, Senior Research Executive for the Center for Customer-Driven Quality (founded at Purdue University), and will be aired without the participation of vendors so that topics will be free from their influence and guided by the listeners.

John Chatterley is known to many of you as the author of numerous research papers, benchmarking reports and books, including Offshore Outsourcing Opportunities with Dr. Jon Anton. With over 25 years experience in contact center operations and research, John has evaluated email centers for BenchmarkPortal and is able to discuss email traffic in the overall context of contact center operations.

Broadcast bi-weekly directly over the Internet to your desktop, CallTalk covers informative and educational topics impacting the call center today.

Special offer- Each person that calls in will receive a free call center book from Anton Press and 1 person will be randomly selected to receive a FREE In Depth Reality Check ($1,500 Value). The winner will be announced at the end of the show.

To join us for this week's show, Wednesday, November 11:


Existing Users:

Just login on Wednesday at 1 pm EST/ 10 am PST

Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

New user's to BenchmarkPortal or CallTalk.tv can register here:

Use the link provided or go to www.calltalk.tv to register

You will get a username and password

Use this to login on Wednesday at 1 pm EST/ noon CST/ and 10 am PST

Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

During the call we invite you to ask questions via email at calltalk@benchmarkportal.com or call in your questions at (347) 857-3117

It is that easy! See you on Wednesday!

For more information and to register please visit: www.calltalk.tv

CallTalk.TV OnLine Radio Show with Adam Cincoski of Optum Health discussing Service Level/ASA

Dear Community Members,

*Guest Speaker: Adam Cincoski of Optum Health



Join Bruce Belfiore, host of CallTalk for a session devoted to the grand daddy of all metrics: Service Level / ASA. We will ask the questions:

• Does the old 80/20 rule still rule? (80% of calls in 20 seconds)
• If not, how should we set our ASA target?
• How does industry sector affect service levels?
• What other metrics should we consider when looking at ASA (e.g. abandon and caller satisfaction)?

Bruce will be interviewing Adam Cincoski, Senior Director of Workforce Management for United Health Group and a veteran of the call center sector. Adam will share his perspectives on ASA and how this metric fits into best practices for today's call center.

One Minute Survey (OMS) on: Average Speed of Answer - or Service Level, which is the oldest and most venerable of metrics for call center managers.

This One-Minute survey seeks to find out how today's call center manager views Average Speed of Answer (ASA). Bruce and Adam will review the results of the new One-Minute Survey on ASA

Click below, take the survey, and you will receive the results within 10 days.

Take Survey Here

As always, this show will be hosted by Bruce Belfiore, Senior Research Executive for the Center for Customer-Driven Quality (founded at Purdue University), and will be aired without the participation of vendors so that topics will be free from their influence and guided by the listeners.

Broadcast bi-weekly directly over the Internet to your desktop, CallTalk covers informative and educational topics impacting the call center today.

Special offer- Each person that calls in will receive a free call center book from Anton Press and 1 person will be randomly selected to receive a FREE In-depth Realitycheck ($1,500 Value). The winner will be announced at the end of the show.

To join us for this week's show October 28th: Service Level: Does the old 80/20 (80% of calls handled in 20 seconds) still apply to everyone?


Existing Users:

Just login on Wednesday at 1 pm EST/ 10 am PST

Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

New users to BenchmarkPortal or CallTalk.tv can register here:

Use the link provided or go to www.calltalk.tv to register

You will get a username and password

Use this to login on Wednesday at 1 pm EST/ noon CST/ and 10 am PST

Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

During the call we invite you to ask questions via email at calltalk@benchmarkportal.com or call in your questions at (347) 857-3117

It is that easy! See you on Wednesday!

For more information and to register please visit: www.calltalk.tv

Calltalk.tv October 14th with JR Hardenburgh and Firct Contact Resolution

We would like to invite you to a special episode for this week's CallTalk. This week's episode of CallTalk is dedicated to First Call Resolution, or FCR. First Call Resolution means that the caller's issue or question is resolved on the first contact, with no call backs needed. It is a key performance indicator for both efficiency (high FCR keeps costs lower) and quality(there is a high correlation between FCR and caller satisfaction).

As always, this show will be hosted by Bruce Belfiore, Senior Research Executive for the Center for Customer-Driven Quality (founded at Purdue University), and will be aired without the participation of vendors so that topics will be free from their influence and guided by the listeners.

Please join us for this fun and information-filled show, featuring Bruce's guest, JR Hardenburgh.

Broadcast bi-weekly directly over the Internet to your desktop, CallTalk covers informative and educational topics impacting the call center today.

Special offer- Each person that calls in will receive a free book covering call centers from Anton Press and 1 person will be randomly selected to receive a FREE In Depth Reality Check ($1,500 Value)

To join us for this week's show October 14th 2009: First Call Resolution: How important? How to measure?

Wake Up Your Call Center: Tips on How to Motivate, Manage, and Inspire Today's Agents and Supervisors on the Phone and/or Face to F

Existing users:

• Just login on Wednesday at 1 pm EST/ 10 am PST
• Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

New user's to BenchmarkPortal or www.calltalk.tv can register here:

• Use the link provided or go to www.calltalk.tv to register
• You will get a username and password
• Use this to login on Wednesday at 1 pm ET/ Noon CT/ 11 am MT and 10 am PT
• Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

During the call we invite you to ask questions via email at calltalk@benchmarkportal.com or call in your questions at (347) 857-3117

It is that easy! See you on Wednesday! Please visit us at www.benchmarkportal.com

For more information and to register please visit: www.calltalk.tv www

September 30th CallTalk.TV On Line Radio Show w/ Joe Ordyna

Dear Community Members,

*Guest Speaker: Joe Ordyna from Surveynomics formerly with eBay

We would like to invite you to a special episode for this week's CallTalk. Under the current economic conditions, Call Center Managers from all across the United States are experiencing additional pressure to lower the operational costs and find ways to motivate manage, and inspire today's agents. Optimizing customer satisfaction measurements is a key area for businesses and mangers to focus on and measure. As always, this show hosted by BenchmarkPortal's CEO, Bruce Belfiore, will be aired without the participation of vendors so that topics will be free from their influence and guided by the listeners.

This will make it a fun and exciting on-line program for education and learning, for the customer service industry. This bi-weekly show, broadcast directly over the Internet to your desktop, covers informative and educational topics impacting the call center and customer service today.

Special offer- Each person that calls in will receive a free book call center book from Anton Press and 1 person will be randomly selected to receive a FREE All Industries Report ($1,500 Value). The winner will be announced at the end of the show.

To join us for this week's show September 30th: Optimizing customer satisfaction measurements

Existing Users:

Just login on Wednesday at 1 pm EST/ 10 am PST

Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

New user's to BecnhmarkPortal or www.calltalk.tv can register here:

Use the link provided or go to www.calltalk.tv to register

You will get a username and password

Use this to login on Wednesday at 1 pm EST/ 10 am PST

Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

During the call we invite you to ask questions via email at calltalk@benchmarkportal.com or call in your questions at (347) 857-3117

It is that easy! See you on Wednesday!

For more information and to register please visit:
www.calltalk.tv

www.benchmarkportal.com

CallTalk.tv September 30th On Line Radio Show

On Line Radio Show

We would like to invite you to a special episode for CallTalk- Optimizing Customer Satisfaction Measurement. As always, this show hosted by BenchmarkPortal's CEO, Bruce Belfiore, will be aired without the participation of vendors so that topics will be free from their influence and guided by the listeners.

This will make it a fun and exciting on-line program for education and learning, for the customer service industry. This bi-weekly show, broadcast directly over the Internet to your desktop, covers informative and educational topics impacting the call center and customer service today.

Special offer- Each person that calls in will receive a free book call center book from Anton Press and 1 person will be randomly selected to receive a FREE All Industries Report ($1,500 Value). The winner will be announced at the end of the show.

To join us for this week's show September 30th:Optimizing Customer Satisfaction Measurement

• Use the link provided or go to www.calltalk.tv to register
• You will get a username and password
• Use this to login on Wednesday at 1 pm EST/ 10 am PST
• Listen to the radio show and email or call in your questions

During the call we invite you to ask questions via email at calltalk@benchmarkportal.com or call in your questions at (347) 857-3117

For more information and to register please visit: www.calltalk.tv
Or visit www.benchmarkportal.com

The Need for Certification

As the customer service call center has become the most vital interface between a company and its customers, it has become critical that the call handling process be conducted both effectively and efficiently. Many companies now want a "third party" opinion regarding how well their call center is functioning in its strategic role of getting, keeping, and growing customers. This business need to rate the performance of a company's mission critical call center has lead to BenchmarkPortal's Certified Center of Excellence.

Since companies spend vast amounts of money implementing and operating call centers to ensure a competitive edge in customer service, it has become mandatory that the call handling process be conducted at best practice standards. This need to function at best practice levels has created the need for third-party certification that call centers are operating at this high level of call handling performance.

More company information: www.benchmarkportal.com

Recently Certified Companies-
Merrill Lynch
Farmers Insurance Group
Ameritas Group
Canon