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Why Occupancy Rate Is Critical to Call Center Analytics Reporting in Large Contact Centers

Occupancy rate is an incredibly important metric in any call center. A call center that wants to improve its efficiency.

Occupancy rate is an incredibly important metric in any call center. A call center that wants to improve its efficiency and overall customer satisfaction must develop a more holistic approach to the occupancy rate.

Occupancy rate represents the percentage of time that agents spend on calls against idle time. However, some call centers confuse this rate with the agent’s productivity, especially in large enterprises. This is because a well-equipped call center may have a low occupancy rate but still achieve high productivity. This article discusses the significance of occupancy rate and how contact centers can optimize it.

What Does High and Low Occupancy Rates Imply?

Occupancy rate is a measure of effectiveness in the call center. A low occupancy rate implies the call center isn’t operating optimally. Ideally, when the occupancy rate is low, likely it’s because the call center isn’t fully utilizing its employees.

On the other hand, a high occupancy rate puts the enterprise at risk of attrition. It could also mean that call center agents are overwhelmed and might be less productive. Also, if your contact center has a very high occupancy rate, queues can build up, leading to call abandonment.

For large contact centers that handle thousands of engagements, it’s best to maintain an 80 percent to 90 percent occupancy rate.

The occupancy rate should guide your company during capacity planning. Depending on your occupancy rate, it’s best to ensure you have the right number of personnel.

Why Is It Essential to Consider Occupancy Rate in Call Center Analytics Reporting?

Occupancy rate is a crucial metric for the following reasons:

1. Helps Plan Call Center Capacity

The occupancy rate is a great measure of your agent’s performance. When this rate goes high above 90 percent, it implies your agents might become burned out, and you need more staffing. Also, when it goes below 80 percent, it means you are paying more for less.

2. Helps Assess Agents Performance

In call center analytics reporting, you can compare the performance of different agents. It helps determine the agents who perform exceptionally, as well as the poor performers.

How to Maintain the Right Occupancy Rate

Call center managers should ensure consistent occupancy rates at all times. Some of the best ways to maintain optimal agent efficiency include:

1. Monitor Call Volume at Different Times

Call monitoring is an effective strategy to maintain call center occupancy rates. This is because call volumes fluctuate throughout the day, and measuring at specific times could be misleading. In addition, proper monitoring allows call center managers to plan staffing appropriately during peak periods. Deploying more staff during peak periods helps decrease customers’ waiting time.

2. Self-Service

You can set up self-service options with tools, such as IVR and chatbots, to ensure customers can self-serve for routine activities. This helps provide information while reducing the burden on agents.

3. Consider Partial Call Center Outsourcing or Hiring Remote Agents

Call center outsourcing will highly likely solve your occupancy rate inconsistencies. In addition, outsourced call centers are highly scalable and can easily adapt to your business needs, unlike in-house call centers.

An outsourced call center can manage call volume surges more efficiently. As a result, you don’t have to juggle between hiring during peak periods and laying off staff during low seasons.

You can opt to outsource the call center operations partially during peak periods. This helps accelerate customer service delivery while keeping customer service costs low.

Conclusion

The call center occupancy rate is useful in determining how well agents perform. Getting this metric right could be beneficial toward achieving your business goals.

SuccessKPI provides the ultimate call center analytics reporting dashboard to help gain insights into the key business metrics, such as occupancy rate. As a leading contact center tool, SuccessKPI allows you to analyze the key business metrics that define your KPIs.

Contact us today to revolutionize your call center analytics reporting.