5 Must-Haves For Great Call Center Reporting

September, 2011

Reporting
Call center managers should be armed with the crucial information that allows them to make the best business decisions. Here are 5 requirements for a call center reporting package that actually does the job.

Driving through a tunnel wearing sunglasses is not a good idea. Pretty obvious, isn’t it? It inhibits your ability to see what’s up ahead and react to road conditions, and makes it more likely that you will run into trouble.

Running a call center with poor reporting capability is very similar. It stops you from identifying trends, reacting to achieved targets or breached thresholds, and quickly responding to opportunities for improvement. Managers should be armed with the crucial information that allows them to make the best business decisions. But many performance management software packages just don’t deliver the right information, at the right time.

Here are 5 important requirements for a call center reporting package that actually does the job:

  1. All data ready to view
    The distinction between real-time and historical data is false, brought on mostly by technical limitations. Actually, real-time data becomes historical the moment it arrives, and users need to navigate through all data with no separation, being able to display a seamless mix of past and present. Quantity of data should not be an issue: the number of report users, number of agents or volume of archived history should have minimal impact on performance.
  2. Customization by non-programmers
    Every contact center environment (and even every project) is different, and every supervisor/ manager requires a particular set of data. In order to service a wide range of needs, every aspect of a performance measurement package should be customizable by the average user (not a programmer); for instance, setting and remembering a preferred layout, storing a list of frequently accessed reports, create new metrics (even data types) by relating and combining other data.
  3. Import from and export to other systems (e.g. CRM/ MIS)
    To see how contact metrics relate to other business intelligence, users need an integrated, holistic view from all corners of the enterprise, and across all media channels, queues and locations.
  4. Interface – intuitive & easy-to-navigate
    Good reporting should take the pain out of finding what you are looking for. (The Google search engine is a great example.) It should enable you to dig, search and filter quickly and intuitively.
  5. Security – robust & comprehensive
    Joe, the average call center agent, probably should not have access to every detail of operation, but rather only certain queues, groups, campaigns or types of data. Fully customizable restrictions should be available to limit what each user can see.

Great call center reporting enables you to manage your business successfully by extracting maximum value from available resources. Anything less will almost certainly be costing you opportunities.