This document outlines key performance areas and questions for assessing the effectiveness of a contact center. It covers 20 topics within 5 categories: leadership, policy and strategy, partnerships and resources, people, and processes. The questions probe how the center is managed, planned, supported technologically and through partnerships, trains and motivates employees, ensures customer satisfaction, and measures performance metrics and business results. The comprehensive review is intended to identify strengths, challenges, and opportunities for improvement across the full scope of the center's operations.

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Contact Centre Assessment
Key Performance Areas for Review

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Leadership
1. How does call center management (supervisor/team leader and above) ensure effective 2-way communication
with all employees of the center regarding, but not limited to, such things as: overall business
direction/strategy/key business objectives; values; schedules/forecasts; soliciting employee input for action and
improvement?
2. How does call center management (supervisor/team leader and above) ensure that all employees are motivated?
What incentives, recognition – team & individual, monetary and non monetary, on-the-spot as well as formal
programs based upon objective criteria; celebration; or others are used?
3. Describe the process for call center performance review (e.g., what is reviewed {which specific business results
and are they viewed in an integrated manner}, how often are they reviewed, who conducts the reviews and at
what levels, what actions are taken for improvement based upon the review, how are employees informed of
and involved in actions flowing from the review process).
Policy & Strategy
4. How is operational planning (e.g., scheduling/staffing/forecasting) and strategic planning (e.g., establishing key
business objectives or strategies for growth and profitability) carried out at the call center? Who is involved?
What information is used for planning purposes and how good (actionable, objective, useful) is the
information? Where are the challenges or difficulties in planning today? How are they being addressed? How
do your key business objectives for this center align with overall organisational or business unit objectives?
Are there any inconsistencies that make it difficult to manage your business while contributing to the
achievement of overall organisational or business unit objectives? If so, how are these being addressed?
Partnerships and Resources
5. Describe your contact handling software system. How effective and efficient is the system? Does it meet the
requirements of the users (agents/representatives) and internal customers who receive output from the system?
Is it user-friendly? Is there a short learning curve to become proficient?
 How does the system contribute to reducing average handle time, increasing first call resolution as well as
customer and employee satisfaction?
6. What databases do the representatives use most? How easy and quick is it to move from one to another? Do
representatives have access to all the databases they need to be responsive to customers and enhance first call
resolution?
7. Who are the key suppliers/partners (internal or external to the center) you depend upon for critical inputs
(information, tools, systems, people, other) to ensure caller satisfaction/transaction effectiveness and
efficiency? How do you manage the relationships with these suppliers/business partners? How do you
evaluate their performance and give them feedback for improvement?

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People
8. Please describe your hiring and selection approach. What seem to be the most critical requirements for a
successful representative? (note: describe the characteristics or behaviours of a successful representative first)
How successful has your hiring and selection approach been and what data do you use to evaluate it? What is
your average turnover percentage? What are you doing to reduce it? What is the average tenure of your
representatives currently?
9. Describe your employee training and development process (e,g, new employee training, on-going training,
cross-training, use of rotational assignments, job enrichment, career pathing, performance evaluation).
{Review copies of new employee training material, job descriptions, performance evaluations (key job
elements) and how the performance evaluation process works}
10. What is done to empower employees so they are able to do what is in the best interest of the customer? How
do you keep the representatives motivated (e.g., in particular, what recognition approaches are in place – on an
individual or team basis, the criteria used, the role of the representatives in defining the approaches used and
any data supporting their effectiveness – either formal or informal)?
11. Describe your approach to employee participation in this center. Do you use teams? If so, what teams do you
have and what is their focus? Do you engage in constructive competition between teams? If so, how does it
work and has it been effective? How do you know? How do you ensure teamwork throughout the center –
vertically and horizontally – avoiding “turf” battles and resulting in becoming “all one team” as a centre -
everyone supporting one another?
12. How do you assess/measure employee satisfaction? What is the morale/employee satisfaction of the
representatives in this center? What has been the trend over the past 24-36 months? What are the top
employee dissatisfiers? What are the factors that you believe determine employee satisfaction and how are you
performing in these areas for this center? What actions are you taking or plan to take to improve employee
satisfaction?
Processes
13. What are the key processes of this center? Have they been mapped? How do you evaluate their effectiveness?
Are there standard operating procedures? Does everyone have a copy of them? Who is responsible for
updating these procedures? Do these procedures relate to the center’s business processes?
14. How do you ensure caller satisfaction? How do you measure it (describe your approach)? What has been your
trend in performance over the past 24 – 36 months? Where are improvements needed? What do you do best
based upon the caller (customer) satisfaction data? How do you compare to the competition or other centres
within your organisation or outside of it? How do you know?
15. What do you believe are your caller’s (customer’s) critical requirements and expectations of this call center (in
ranked order)? Have these been validated? How often and by what method are these critical requirements and
expectations updated? What actions are taken based upon this knowledge?
16. What do you believe are the key customer dissatisfiers with this centre as well as your organisation’s products,
services or support? Which of these dissatisfiers would you rate most severe and why? What is being done to

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address them? What are the “drivers” of satisfaction with your centre and your organisation’s products,
services or support?
17. What are your guidelines/procedures for issue or problem escalation? Are the escalation guidelines or
procedures consistently followed? How do you know? What percentage of issues are escalated? What are the
reasons for escalation?
Results
18. What are the key business objectives for this centre? How are you performing in achieving them (current
performance and trend)? (financial; employee; customer; service quality; operational; others as appropriate)
19. How are you performing in meeting senior management’s expectations and your business unit’s requirements
(currently and trend performance) of this call centre? Where are the opportunities for improvement? What are
you doing best? How does cost/minute fit in? How important is cost/minute? Aside from call statistics, what
other daily operating measures do you use to manage the centre?
20. What are your key ACD statistics that you use to manage this center and why are they important (how do they
help you manage more effectively)?
21. If relevant, what is your “first call resolution” percentage?
22. If relevant, what is your average cycle time to resolution of an issue/problem/complaint/inquiry?