Understanding Utilization: The Key Efficiency Metric for Contact Centers
Utilization, the balance of productive and available time against paid in-office hours, offers a nuanced view of efficiency, emphasizing the diverse needs and regulatory factors influencing time use in contact centers.
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Utilization is the obligatory efficiency metric for contact centers. It’s calculated by adding productive time and available time, then dividing by the total paid in-office time. Productive time includes all activity handling customer interactions.
The remaining time is spent on tasks such as coaching, training, meetings, administrative work, or paid breaks and lunches. Categories can be value add vs. non-value add or controllable vs. non controllable.
The focus should be on how paid time is used, which can vary depending on factors like location or individual needs. While everyone requires coaching, the amount may differ, and some countries mandate longer paid breaks.
As with many metrics, both high and low values can be problematic. Typically, 86% is considered as the standard benchmark.