Contact center management: A handbook for success

Contact center management is the art of coordinating people, processes, and technology to build an exceptional customer service system. 

It’s not too dissimilar to being the conductor of a busy orchestra. 

Every player, from agents to tech systems, has a crucial role — and, just like a conductor cues the strings to swell and the brass to hold steady, you wave a metaphorical baton to make sure your team hits the right notes (which could be quick resolutions or a personalized service). 

Here, we’ll highlight what contact center management is, what it involves, and how you can keep your team playing together in absolute harmony. 

What is contact center management? 

Contact center management is how a business runs its call center in a way that meets customer needs and supports contact center staff in their busy roles. 

“Good” contact center management goes beyond making sure calls get answered. It also involves balancing people, technology, and strategy to deliver excellent customer service every time.   

As you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts. There’s hiring and training skilled agents, scheduling shifts to handle demand, setting performance metrics, tracking those metrics, using tools to streamline workflows, and much, much more involved in keeping a call center running as it should — especially if you’re juggling outbound and inbound calls, social media messaging, self-service support, and chatbots. 

Effective management also means making sure agents have the resources and support to handle high call volumes and solve customer problems without costs getting wildly out of control. 

Contact center roles

Every role within a contact center plays a key part in keeping ops running smoothly. Here are some of the most common and what they do. 

• Agents: The frontline team that handles customer interactions in real time. Agents answer questions, solve problems, handle call routing, and represent your brand during every conversation.
• Managers: Oversee the overall operation, from call monitoring, quality assurance, and setting goals to selecting tools, managing team performance, and improving agent productivity and retention. Managers look at the big picture and make sure the center meets its objectives.
• Supervisors: Act as a bridge between agents and managers. A call center supervisor provides guidance to agents, monitors their performance, and offers coaching to help them succeed.

Key elements of contact center management 

Effective call center management involves juggling multiple priorities that bridge the customer experience and the satisfaction of your employees. 

Here are some key elements that make up effective contact center management. 

Recruiting and training 

The foundation of any great contact center is a skilled and engaged team. Finding the right people and giving them thorough, ongoing training equips them with the skills to handle customer inquiries confidently and consistently.

Customer satisfaction 

Delighting customers is such a huge part of contact center management — the entire premise hinges on the notion that you’re solving customer queries and questions, and you need to deliver a great experience to keep those satisfaction levels high. 

Workflow management

Smooth operations depend on well-designed workflows. From ticket routing to escalation processes, having clear, efficient systems in place prevents bottlenecks and keeps your team focused on helping customers.

Implementing and managing technology 

Technology is the backbone of a lot of contact centers as it can automate and take on much of the repetitive work. Running a contact center involves choosing and managing the right tech solutions and experimenting with automation, whether that’s AI tools that suggest relevant replies, call center software that tracks tickets, or apps that help with onboarding and employee engagement. 

Monitoring agent performance

Regularly reviewing how your agents are doing (both individually and as a team) helps you spot trends, address challenges, and celebrate wins. You can use metrics like first-call resolution and average handling time to see what’s working and what’s not. 

Workforce management 

One thing that’s certain in the world of call centers is demand fluctuation. A large part of managing this involves balancing schedules, forecasting demand, and making sure you have the right people in the right place at the right time. 

Staying compliant

Whether it’s privacy laws, industry regulations, or internal policies, staying compliant protects your business and builds trust with customers. This means keeping up with changes and making sure your team members understand and follow the rules.

Contact center management best practices

The thing with contact centers is they’re always changing. There’s always a new technology to try or a change in consumer expectations. As a result, you constantly have to be on the lookout for ways to improve. 

But with so much going on (hello, many moving parts), it’s important to focus on practices that have the biggest impact on your team and customers.

Here are some tried-and-tested best practices to get you started. 

• Review your daily operations: Regularly take a step back and assess how things are running. Are your workflows efficient? Are there bottlenecks or gaps in coverage? A periodic review helps you spot opportunities for improvement and stay ahead of potential issues.
• Use workforce management software: It can be overwhelming trying to forecast demand, schedule shifts, and keep things running smoothly. Workforce management tools simplify the process, helping you match staffing levels to demand while avoiding burnout or overstaffing.
• Focus on the customer experience: Happy customers are the goal. Make sure your team understands how to prioritize empathy, quick resolutions, and clear communication. Gather customer feedback and use it to refine your processes and train your agents.
• Prioritize upskilling your agents: Your agents are your most valuable asset, and investing in their growth pays off. Regularly offer training to improve their product knowledge, problem-solving skills, and familiarity with new contact center software.
• Set and monitor KPIs and call center metrics: Metrics like first response time, call resolution rate, and customer satisfaction scores give you a clear picture of how your center is performing. Use these numbers to identify what’s working, adjust what’s not, and celebrate your team’s wins.
• Implement AI: AI tools can handle repetitive tasks like routing tickets or suggesting replies, freeing your team to focus on complex customer issues. AI can also help predict customer needs, spot trends, and improve efficiency across the board.

Contact center management KPIs to track 

There are many pros to tracking call center performance. But to do it well, you have to know what to track. 

This is where KPIs (key performance indicators) come into play. 

The important thing to remember is that not all KPIs are created equal — not for you, anyway. The ones you focus on should reflect your goals, whether that’s faster resolutions, omnichannel customer support, happier customers, or just more efficiency across your entire call center operations. 

Here’s a closer look at some KPIs worth your attention. 

Transfer rates

Your transfer rate measures how often customer inquiries are passed from one agent to another or escalated. High transfer rates can frustrate customers and waste time, often signaling a lack of agent training or unclear workflows. 

Average handle time (AHT)

AHT tracks how long it takes to resolve an issue, from the moment a customer connects to when the interaction ends. While shorter times can indicate your ops are more efficient, don’t sacrifice quality for speed. The goal is to strike a balance between resolving issues thoroughly and avoiding unnecessary delays.

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

CSAT is a direct measure of how happy your customers are with the service they receive. The most typical way to “gather” your CSAT is via post-interaction surveys where you ask customers to give you a rating out of 10. High CSAT scores indicate your team is meeting or exceeding expectations, while low scores can highlight areas needing attention.

Abandonment rate

This KPI shows how often customers hang up or leave a chat before reaching an agent. A high abandonment rate often points to long wait times. The easiest way to tackle this issue is to improve staffing levels or streamline workflows. 

First call resolution (FCR)

FCR tracks the percentage of issues resolved in the first interaction, without needing follow-ups or transfers. High FCR scores mean your team is skilled, efficient, and empowered to solve problems. This KPI is often directly tied to customer satisfaction because the quicker an issue is resolved, the happier customers tend to be.

Cost per call (CPC) 

CPC measures the average cost of handling a single customer interaction. It’s a useful metric for keeping an eye on budget efficiency. If your CPC is high, look for ways to speed up or automate processes, invest in better tools, or optimize staffing.

Service level (SL) 

Service level measures how well your team meets specific performance targets, like answering a certain percentage of phone calls within a set time. It’s a critical KPI for evaluating your ability to handle demand and manage customer expectations.

Occupancy rate

Occupancy rate reflects how much of an agent’s time is spent on active work, like handling calls or chats, versus idle time. Striking the right balance is key — call center agents who are too busy risk burnout, while a glut of agents who are sitting around twiddling their thumbs may indicate overstaffing.

Customer effort score (CES)

CES measures how easy it is for customers to get their issues resolved. Obviously, the lower the effort required, the better. A low CES often translates to happier, more loyal customers who are less likely to churn.

Net promoter score (NPS) 

NPS gauges how likely customers are to recommend your company to others. It’s a good indicator of overall customer loyalty and satisfaction. High NPS scores often mean your contact center is providing exceptional service that creates lasting positive impressions.

How Assembled can help

Managing a contact center isn’t a small task. In fact, it’s quite a big task. Between juggling agent schedules, meeting customer expectations, and staying on top of performance metrics, it can feel like a constant balancing act. 

This is where Assembled Assist can make your life considerably easier. 

Assembled Assist is an AI-powered tool designed to bring together and optimize everything that goes on in your contact center. It does this by: 

• Automating ticket resolution with genAI, making it easier to manage tickets at scale with virtual agents available 24×7.
• Helping your agents succeed by automatically suggesting replies, eliminating manual data lookups, and reducing call transfers.
• Making it easy for your team to build workflows that help manage support operations.

Ready to see Assembled Assist in action? Book a demo today and discover how it can completely transform your contact center management