TL;DR
- Call center metrics are the numbers that tell you whether your team is actually helping customers, staying efficient, and hitting business goals.
- This guide walks through 23+ essential metrics from CSAT and FCR to AHT and cost per call plus how to improve them without gaming the system.
- You'll also see how AI platforms like SuperU can automate metric collection while keeping your team focused on real conversations.
What Are Call Center Metrics?
Means: Call center metrics are the measurements that track how well your support team handles customer interactions. They answer questions like "Are we fast enough?" "Do we solve problems?" and "Are customers happy when they hang up?"
Why they matter: Without metrics, you're flying blind. You might feel like things are going well, but the data could tell a different story. A team that looks busy might be stuck on hold half the day. A fast response time means nothing if customers have to call back three times. Good metrics help you spot problems early, make smarter staffing decisions, and prove ROI to leadership.
The trick is tracking the right metrics the ones that actually move the needle on customer experience, team performance, and cost efficiency.
23 Metrics Most Teams Track First
Let's break down the metrics that matter, organized by what they tell you.
Customer Experience Metrics
1. CSAT: Customer Satisfaction
What it is: CSAT measures how happy customers are after an interaction. You've probably seen this yourself after a call or chat, you get a survey asking "How satisfied were you?" with a 1–5 scale.
Simple formula:
CSAT % = (Number of satisfied responses ÷ Total responses) × 100Most teams count 4s and 5s as "satisfied."
Survey timing matters: Send the survey immediately after the call while the experience is fresh. Wait a day, and response rates drop and so does accuracy.
Good practices to lift CSAT:
- Coach for empathy, not just scripts. Customers remember how you made them feel, not whether you followed the script word for word.
- Arm agents with better knowledge. If your team has to say "Let me check on that" five times per call, CSAT will tank.
- Focus on FCR (more on that below). Solving the problem on the first try is the single biggest driver of satisfaction.
2. NPS: Loyalty Signal
What it is: Net Promoter Score asks one question: "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?" on a 0–10 scale.
- 9–10 = Promoters (your fans)
- 7–8 = Passives (neutral)
- 0–6 = Detractors (at risk customers)
NPS formula:
NPS = % Promoters − % DetractorsSo if 50% of respondents are promoters and 20% are detractors, your NPS is +30.
When to use NPS vs CSAT:
CSAT measures satisfaction with a single interaction. NPS measures loyalty to your brand. If you want to know whether that call made the customer happy, use CSAT. If you want to predict churn or referrals, track NPS.
3. FCR: First Contact Resolution
What it is: FCR tracks the percentage of issues resolved in a single interaction no follow up calls, no escalations, no "let me get back to you."
FCR = (Cases resolved on first contact ÷ Total cases) × 100Why leaders rank it top:
FCR is the holy grail of call center metrics. When you fix problems on the first try, customers are happier, your team handles more volume, and costs drop. SQM Group research consistently shows FCR is the strongest predictor of customer satisfaction.
Common ways to measure FCR:
1. Post call survey: Ask "Was your issue fully resolved today?"
2. System tracking: Flag accounts that contact you again within 24–48 hours about the same issue.
3. Agent tagging: Have agents mark tickets as "resolved" vs "partial" at close.
How to improve FCR:
- Root cause analysis. If 30% of calls are about password resets, build better self service or simplify the reset flow.
- Give agents authority. Transfers kill FCR. If your team has to escalate every refund over $20, you'll never hit high FCR.
- Invest in knowledge management. A searchable, accurate knowledge base means agents spend less time hunting for answers.
Service Level & Accessibility Metrics
4. Service Level
Definition: Service level is the percentage of calls answered within a target time. The most common standard is 80/20 answer 80% of calls within 20 seconds.
Service Level = % of contacts answered within X secondsTarget examples:
- Premium support: 90/15 (90% answered in 15 seconds)
- Standard B2C: 80/20
- Low urgency queues: 70/30
Balance speed with quality:
Hitting 95/10 sounds impressive, but if agents are rushing through calls and FCR drops, you've created a "fast but bad" outcome. Always pair service level with quality metrics like CSAT and QA scores.
5. ASA: Average Speed of Answer
What it is: ASA is the average time a customer waits before an agent picks up. It's measured in seconds.
ASA = Total wait time ÷ Answered callsImpact on abandonment: Long ASA drives abandonment. If customers sit on hold for 90 seconds, a chunk of them will hang up before you even say hello. Industry data shows abandonment spikes sharply after 60 seconds of hold time.
6. Abandonment Rate
What it is: The percentage of callers who hang up before reaching an agent.
Formula:
Abandonment Rate = (Abandoned Calls ÷ Total Incoming Calls) × 100Why it spikes:
- Understaffing during peak hours
- Long wait times (see ASA above)
- Poor IVR design customers give up navigating confusing menus
- Callback options that don't work or aren't offered
Benchmark note: Most call centers aim for abandonment under 5%. If you're consistently above 10%, you have a staffing or routing problem.
Agent Performance Metrics
7. AHT: Average Handle Time
What it is: AHT is the average time an agent spends on a call, including talk time, hold time, and after call work (notes, system updates).
Formula:
AHT = (Total Talk Time + Total Hold Time + Total After Call Work) ÷ Total Calls HandledWhen reducing AHT hurts quality: AHT is useful for capacity planning, but don't turn it into a whip. If agents rush to hit a 3 minute AHT target and customers have to call back, you've saved nothing. Always track AHT alongside FCR and CSAT.
8. QA Score
What QA covers: Quality assurance (QA) scores measure whether agents follow best practices:
- Accuracy: Did they give the right answer?
- Empathy: Did they acknowledge the customer's frustration?
- Process: Did they collect required info, offer self service, follow compliance rules?
How to run fair, repeatable QA:
1. Use a scorecard. Define clear criteria (e.g., "Did the agent verify account info?" Yes/No).
2. Calibrate regularly. Have multiple QA reviewers score the same calls and compare notes to stay consistent.
3. Coach, don't punish. Share low scores with agents and show them what "good" looks like. QA should improve performance, not just document failures.
9. Schedule Adherence
What it is: Schedule adherence tracks how closely agents stick to their assigned schedule breaks, lunches, start/end times.
Formula:
Adherence % = (Time Worked as Scheduled ÷ Total Scheduled Time) × 100Why it drives service level and cost:
If 10 agents are scheduled but only 7 show up on time (or take long breaks), your service level collapses and customers wait. High adherence = predictable coverage = happy customers.
10. Occupancy & Utilization
What it is: Occupancy is the percentage of an agent's shift spent actively handling calls vs waiting for the next call.
Formula:
Occupancy % = (Total Handle Time ÷ Total Logged In Time) × 100Set healthy ranges to prevent burnout:
Occupancy above 85–90% means agents have almost no breathing room between calls. That leads to burnout and high turnover. Aim for 70–85% to balance efficiency with mental health.
Resolution & Productivity Metrics
11. ART: Average Resolution Time
What it is: ART tracks the total time to fully resolve a customer's issue, including follow ups and escalations.
Difference vs AHT:
- AHT = time per interaction (one call, one chat)
- ART = time per case/issue (might span multiple interactions)
If a customer calls Monday, you escalate, and close the case Friday, ART is 4 days even if each call was only 5 minutes.
How to reduce ART without re contacts:
- Reduce escalations by empowering frontline agents
- Use automation to route complex cases to specialists faster
- Close the loop: don't leave customers waiting for callbacks
12. Recontact / Repeat Contacts
What it is: The percentage of customers who contact you again within X days (usually 7–30) about the same issue.
Spot product or process issues: High recontact rates often mean:
- Your product has a recurring bug
- Your process creates confusion (e.g., "We'll email you in 48 hours" but the email never comes)
- Agents are giving incomplete answers
Track recontact by issue type to find the root cause.
13. Transfers & Escalations
What it is: How often agents transfer calls to another team or escalate to a supervisor.
Why it matters: Every transfer adds time, frustration, and risk that the customer has to repeat their story. High transfer rates signal:
- Agents lack knowledge or authority
- Your IVR is routing calls to the wrong team
- You need better training or decision making tools
Keep decision rights and knowledge at the edge: Give frontline agents the tools and authority to solve common problems without escalating.
Cost & Volume Metrics
14. Cost per Call
What it is: The average cost to handle one call, including labor, technology, and overhead.
Simple formula:
Cost per Call = Total Call Center Costs ÷ Total Calls HandledModel fixed vs variable costs: Fixed costs (salaries, software licenses) don't change with call volume. Variable costs (overtime, temp staff) scale up and down. Understanding this split helps you forecast budgets and plan for growth.
Use CPC with FCR and CSAT: A low cost per call means nothing if customers are unhappy or calling back. Pair CPC with quality metrics to avoid "cheap but bad" service.
15. Calls Handled & Arrival Rate
What it is:
- Calls Handled: Total number of calls your team completed.
- Arrival Rate: How many calls came in, usually measured by 15 or 30 minute intervals.
Track by interval; feed workforce planning:
Knowing you get 500 calls a day is useless for staffing. You need to know you get 50 calls between 9–10 AM, 80 between 10–11 AM, etc. That granular data feeds your scheduling and real time adjustments.
16. Peak Hour Traffic
What it is: The highest call volume in a given time window (hour, day, week).
Set staffing and IVR deflection for peaks:
If Monday mornings crush your team every week, you need extra staff scheduled or IVR self service options to deflect simple calls. Miss your peak hour planning, and abandonment skyrockets.
Digital & Omnichannel Metrics (If You Handle Chat/Email/Social)
Many call centers now handle multiple channels. If that's you, track these:
17. First Response Time (FRT): How long before a customer gets their first reply (chat, email, social).
18. Time to Resolution (TTR): Total time from first contact to full resolution across any channel.
19. Containment/Deflection in self service: What percentage of customers solve their own problems via knowledge base, chatbot, or FAQ before reaching an agent?
AI & Automation Metrics
AI is no longer optional it's how modern call centers scale. Here's what to measure:
20. Bot Containment Rate: Percentage of conversations fully handled by a bot without human handoff.
21. AI assisted AHT Reduction: How much faster agents work when AI suggests answers, auto fills forms, or summarizes previous calls.
22. AI assisted QA/Compliance Lift: AI can score 100% of calls (not just a random 2%), spot compliance risks, and flag coaching opportunities in real time.
23. Guardrails: track CX impact alongside efficiency: Don't let automation tank your CSAT. If your bot frustrates customers or hands off messy context, it's doing more harm than good.
At SuperU, we've seen companies deploy voice AI agents in under 2 days for specific use case. With ~500ms latency and 100+ languages, these AI agents handle inbound support, outbound follow ups, and even cold calls while streaming every interaction into your CRM for metric tracking.
Teams report ~35% cost savings compared to traditional setups, and they free human agents to focus on complex, high value conversations. The result? Better metrics across the board lower AHT, higher FCR, and improved CSAT because AI handles repetition and humans handle empathy.
How Do These Metrics Work Together?
Here's the thing: no single metric tells the whole story.
Leading vs lagging metrics:
- Leading metrics predict future performance (e.g., schedule adherence, training completion).
- Lagging metrics show past results (e.g., CSAT, cost per call).
You need both. Leading metrics help you prevent problems. Lagging metrics tell you what happened.
Quality vs speed trade offs: Service level and AHT measure speed. FCR and CSAT measure quality. Push too hard on speed, and quality suffers. Ignore speed, and costs explode. The best call centers balance both.
Create a "balanced 5" dashboard for weekly reviews: Pick five metrics that cover the full picture:
1. Service Level (accessibility)
2. FCR (quality)
3. CSAT (customer experience)
4. AHT (efficiency)
5. Cost per Call (financial health)
Review these weekly with your leadership team. When one metric moves, ask why and check the others for ripple effects.
What's a "Good" Target?
This is the question every call center manager asks and the answer is: it depends.
Use historical data + business goals: Start by looking at your own baseline. If your current abandonment rate is 12%, don't immediately shoot for 2% aim for 8%, hit it consistently, then tighten further.
Sample ranges to start with, then tune:
- Service Level: 80/20 (retail/B2C) to 90/15 (premium support)
- Abandonment: Under 5% baseline; tighten to 2–3% for high priority queues
- FCR: 70–75% is average; 80%+ is world class
- CSAT: 85–90% (4s and 5s on a 5 point scale)
- AHT: Varies wildly by complexity tech support might be 8–12 minutes; order status might be 2–3 minutes
- Occupancy: 70–85%
Calibrate the rest against your mix:
Complexity, channels, and staffing model all matter. A 24/7 outsourced center has different targets than a 9–5 in house team handling specialized B2B support.
How to Improve Metrics Without Gaming Them
Metrics can be gamed. Agents can rush calls to hit AHT targets, even if it kills FCR. They can avoid tough customers to protect their CSAT. Here's how to avoid that:
Fix root causes before scripts
If recontact rate is high, don't just tell agents to "do better." Dig into why customers are calling back. Is your product confusing? Is your process broken? Fix the system, not just the symptom.
Knowledge management and decision authority
Empower agents with searchable, accurate knowledge bases and the authority to make decisions. Transfers and escalations kill efficiency so keep answers and approvals at the frontline whenever possible.
Workforce planning: forecast → schedule → intraday adjust
Use historical data to forecast call volume by interval. Build schedules that match predicted demand. Then adjust in real time as the day unfolds. This is how you hit service level without overstaffing.
QA for coaching, not policing
Use quality scores to identify training gaps and celebrate wins not just punish mistakes. Agents improve when they understand why something matters and see examples of excellence.
Pair every speed metric with a quality metric
AHT without FCR is dangerous. Service level without CSAT is meaningless. Always balance efficiency with outcome.
Conclusion
Look, tracking call center metrics doesn't have to feel like homework. Start small pick five numbers that actually matter to your business, watch them weekly, and dig deeper when something feels off. The goal isn't perfection; it's progress.Balance speed with quality, use data to coach your team (not punish them), and remember that every metric tells part of the story. With the right approach and smart tools that handle the repetitive stuff you can build a call center where customers leave happy, agents don't burn out, and leadership sees real ROI.
FAQs
1. What's the difference between AHT and ART?
AHT (Average Handle Time) measures the time spent on a single interaction one call or chat. ART (Average Resolution Time) measures the time to fully resolve an issue, which might span multiple interactions or days.
2. FCR vs CSAT: which should I target first?
FCR. Solving problems on the first try is the biggest driver of customer satisfaction. Fix FCR, and CSAT usually follows. Chase CSAT without FCR, and you'll just have happy customers who still have to call back.
3. What's a normal abandonment rate?
Under 5% is a solid baseline. If you're consistently above 10%, you have a staffing, routing, or wait time problem that needs immediate attention.
4. Should I chase a universal Service Level like 80/20?
80/20 is a common starting point, but adjust based on your business. Premium support might aim for 90/15. Lower urgency queues might be fine with 70/30. The key is consistency hit your target reliably, then refine.
5. How often should I review targets?
Review weekly for trends and monthly for deeper analysis. Revisit targets quarterly or when your business changes (new product launch, seasonal spike, team restructuring).
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