Productivity is less about getting through as many calls or tickets as possible and more about making every interaction count.
The problem is, today’s customers aren’t willing to wait around. If your team is stretched too thin or bogged down by repetitive tasks, service suffers (and so does your bottom line).
When your team works efficiently, customers get faster and more helpful resolutions, which keeps satisfaction high. At the same time, you get to cut operational costs and improve agent retention.
The good news is productivity isn’t a fixed metric. It’s something you can measure, track, and continuously improve. By understanding the right metrics and using strategies that make life easier for both your team members and your customers, you can create a call center that runs smoothly and delivers better service.
In this article, we’ll walk through exactly how to measure, track, and improve call center productivity.
True productivity comes from balancing efficiency with effectiveness. That means resolving customer issues quickly while delivering a great customer experience.
To measure how successful you are at doing that, you need to analyze both quantitative and qualitative factors. This is why both customer-centric metrics (like satisfaction and resolution rates) and operational metrics (like response time and occupancy rate) matter.
If you focus too much on speed, you risk cutting corners and frustrating customers. If you focus only on satisfaction, you might overlook inefficiencies that make things like scaling difficult.
A well-rounded approach to measuring productivity will help you spot pain points and make smarter decisions, be it adjusting staffing levels or adopting AI-driven tools to reduce the number of repetitive tasks your team has to do day to day.
If you want to improve something, you need to measure it. The right key performance indicators (KPIs) help you understand where your call center is thriving and where it’s struggling, giving you the data you need to make informed changes.
Here are some of the most important productivity metrics to track.
What it is: FCR (sometimes known as first contact resolution) measures the percentage of customer issues resolved in a single interaction, without requiring a follow-up. The higher your FCR, the more efficient and effective your team is.
Why it matters: Customers don’t want to call back multiple times for the same issue. A low FCR often means agents don’t have the right call center software, training, or authority to resolve issues on the spot.
How to improve it:
What it is: AHT tracks the average time it takes for an agent to handle a customer inquiry, from start to finish, including hold time and after-call work.
Why it matters: A lower AHT means customers get faster service, but speed shouldn’t come at the cost of service quality. If agents rush through customer interactions, they may miss important details, leading to follow-ups and lower satisfaction.
How to improve it:
What it is: This metric shows the total number of calls that go unanswered because agents are unavailable.
Why it matters: Every missed call is a missed opportunity to help a customer. A high number of abandoned calls can frustrate customers, drive them to competitors, and damage your brand reputation.
How to improve it:
What it is: Occupancy rate measures the amount of time an agent actively handles customer calls or works on related tasks, compared to idle time.
Why it matters: A healthy occupancy rate means agents are using their talk time well without being overwhelmed. If occupancy is too low, there’s a good chance agents are left twiddling their thumbs. If it’s too high, they risk burnout.
How to improve it:
What it is: CSAT measures how happy customers are with their interactions, typically measured via customer feedback through post-call surveys.
Why it matters: High CSAT scores signal strong customer loyalty and service effectiveness. Happy customers are more likely to stick around, recommend your business, and spend more over time.
How to improve it:
Low productivity is usually the result of unclear processes or outdated tools paired with external pressures (like high call volumes or customer expectations).
Here are some of the biggest culprits behind poor call center productivity.
Agents can’t perform well when they don’t know what’s expected of them. If they’re simply told to “handle inbound calls efficiently” but aren’t given specific performance metrics to aim for, how can they possibly know whether they’re doing well?
Some might rush through calls to clear their queue, while others might spend extra time on each customer, resulting in inconsistent service and a confused team.
Agents regularly have to flit between different tools. If those tools are out-of-date or clunky, they might struggle to find what they’re looking for. This wasted time adds up, frustrating both the agent and the customer.
Productivity tanks when agents are rushed off their feet. It quickly leads to mistakes, longer handling times, and an acute risk of burnout. If you’re not properly staffed for peak times, agents are forced to handle back-to-back calls with no breaks.
Too many agents on a shift is a waste of resources. Too few, and you can end up with long wait times and stressed-out staff. Well-run call centers use historical data and AI-powered scheduling to predict demand so the right number of agents are on duty at the right times.
Agents won’t know what to improve without proper monitoring. Some agents might struggle with long call times, while others might repeatedly fail to resolve issues on the first try. If you only review agent performance once a month, it might be too late to fix by the time an agent gets feedback.
There are two parts to boosting call center productivity:
Improving your team’s productivity will depend on what they’re struggling with. Even the smallest of changes can lead to major improvements, but it’s a good idea to start with high-impact solutions first and work your way back from there.
Use historical data to schedule the right number of agents depending on call volume. This keeps response times low and prevents burnout, regardless of whether you’re experiencing peak demand or having a midweek lull.
Assembled’s accurate forecasting feature uses past data to predict how many agents you’ll need at any given time.
AI tools can take care of repetitive tasks like ticket categorization, call routing, status updates, and even simple case resolutions. They can also sort inquiries by urgency, directing high-priority tickets to the right agents while handling common requests without human intervention.
Knowledge bases and FAQs are good, but they can also slow agents down if they can’t find what they’re looking for. AI copilots like Assembled’s can give instant, contextual recommendations during live interactions.
Clothing brands Honeylove and Poshmark both use Assembled Assist to give agents quick access to customer history, policy details, and suggested responses. In both instances, it has dramatically reduced their handling times and increased productivity. Poshmark has enjoyed a 15% increase in team productivity and Honeylove has reduced ticket escalations by 20%.
Agents need ongoing training to stay up-to-date on the latest tools and to learn (and re-learn) the latest customer support strategies. Use a performance management tool to track key metrics for each agent and give them targeted, actionable feedback instead of generic coaching sessions.
Efficiency is just one part of productivity. The other part involves getting callers the help they need as quickly as possible. Tracking metrics like FCR rates and CSAT scores will help you align your operations with changing customer needs.
Your agents are the backbone of your contact center. They work much faster, smarter, and with less frustration when they have the right tools at their fingertips. As a knock-on effect, you get happier customers and a more efficient operation overall.
This is where Assembled comes in. With AI-powered automation, real-time assistance, and data-driven forecasting, Assembled helps you smooth out operations, banish burnout, and improve customer satisfaction. It’s a win-win. And you can do all of this while keeping up with the constantly changing demands of a modern call center.
See Assembled Assist in action. Get a demo today and see how AI-powered support automation can completely transform your call center.
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