Call Center Productivity: Ultimate Guide to Metrics, and Strategies (2024)

As a contact center manager, are you struggling to maintain your call center productivity?

Are agents often failing to serve customers, and as a team lead, do you spend time resolving queries they can't handle?

In this detailed guide, we will discuss everything you need to know about call center productivity - from key productivity metrics to tools and strategies you can leverage to improve productivity.

This essential Call Center Productivity Guide was put together by our team of researchers and customer service practitioners with over 25 years of contact center experience, you're in good hands.

Topics we'll be covering:

• What is Call Center Productivity
• How to Calculate Call Center Productivity
• Call Center Productivity Metrics
• Importance of High Call Center Productivity
• Reasons for Low Productivity in Agents
• Strategies to Boost Call Center Productivity
• How to Amplify Your Call Center Productivity

What is Call Center Productivity?

Call center productivity refers to the efficiency with which a call center operates.

Productivity in the contact center reveals how well agents handle customer interactions while maintaining customer satisfaction and meeting organizational objectives.

Depending on your call center's objective, that output can be the number of outbound calls call agents make, ticket resolutions, appointments set, etc. By improving call center productivity, you can enhance customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and achieve better business outcomes.

Various call center KPIs exist, such as average speed of answer (ASA), first call resolution (FCR) rate, average handling time (AHT), service level, agent utilization, etc. These KPIs will help you track your agents' productivity and provide insights into their performance.

How to Calculate Call Center Productivity

To calculate call center productivity at a high level (the 10 metrics we list give a more granular view of what's affecting productivity) we need to combine two key metrics,

Call Resolution Rate + Ratio of Output to Input

1. Call resolution rate

Call Resolution Rate measures the percentage of customer calls that are resolved during the first interaction, reflecting call center efficiency.

Call Resolution Rate Formula:

Total number of resolved calls:

Have been closed end-to-end and do not require any follow-up. 

Total number of handled calls:

Entertained by the agents and distributed across talk, hold, and after-call work times

Example:

If your agents handled 100 calls and resolved 80 of them, your productivity would be 80%.

Call Resolution Rate is the most high level overview of a call center's productivity and is meant to be a leading indicator to dig further into individual agent performance metrics covered later in this guide.

2. Ratio of output to input

The Ratio of Output to Input in a call center measures the proportion of time agents spend actively handling calls compared to their total work time.

It helps managers understand how effectively agents utilize their working hours.

Ratio of Output to Input Formula:

Total output time:

‍Time spent on calls, after-call work, and other productive activities.

Total input time:

‍Total scheduled shift time for all agents.

Example:

If your agents worked a 10-hour shift and worked 8 hours out of this, their productivity would be 80% [(8/10) x 100]

This means 80% of the agent’s work shift was spent on work and the remaining 20% on non-work-related tasks.

If assessing your 'Call Resolution Rate' and 'Ratio of Output to Input' metrics yield less than satisfactory results, it's time to dive deeper into the call center productivity metrics listed below.

10 Call Center Productivity Metrics

Call center productivity metrics are key performance indicators (KPIs) that help contact center leaders evaluate and measure the productivity of their call center's operations.

The 10 call center productivity metrics listed below are the best ones for assessing agent performance and related outcomes.

^{(use the table below to jump to the call center productivity formulas)}

First Call Resolution (FCR) is a call center productivity metric that measures the percentage of customer issues resolved during the initial interaction, without the need for any follow-up.

High FCR rates indicate efficient customer service, leading to higher customer satisfaction by minimizing repeat contacts, reducing the workload on agents, improving contact center productivity.

First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate Formula:

Example:

If a customer service center received 100 inquiries, and 75 were resolved during the first interaction. The first call resolution comes out to be 75% (75/100*100)

Higher FCR showcases better efficiency in handling customer queries. Generally, any call center's first call resolution target should be around 70%, and anything above 80% is considered exceptional.

Important to note: Focusing on FCR as a singular metric, or pushing too hard to improve this metric, can impact CSAT as agents may not be able to deliver the best customer experience while trying to wrap up calls to increase their FCR.

Call Abandonment Rate is a call center productivity metric that measures the percentage of inbound calls abandoned by callers before they are connected to an agent. This rate is important as it reflects the efficiency of call handling systems, indicating issues such as long wait times, understaffing, and ineffective call routing systems.

Call abandonment rate points to:

• how long customers need to wait before getting assistance
• the possibility that the call center is understaffed
• ineffective call routing systems
• low productivity levels of contact center agents

The call abandonment rate fluctuates throughout any working day and is affected by service level performance and queue strategy. 

Call Abandonment Rate Formula:

Example:

if a call center agent receives 200 calls a particular month and only 175 are handled, the call abandonment rate is about 12.5% (200 - 175 = 25; 25/200 = 12.5%).

Average Time in Queue is a call center metric that measures the average duration customers wait in a queue or on hold before being connected to a customer service representative. This metric is important for assessing the efficiency of call handling and the level of customer service provided. It helps identify potential issues with staffing levels, call routing efficiency, and overall call center management.

Average Time in Queue Formula:

Here's a breakdown of the components:

Total time in queue:

The cumulative time customers spent waiting in the queue before being connected to a call center agent.

Total number of customers served:

Total number of customers who received service during the specified period.

Example:

A customer service center served 200 customers over a given period, and the total time customers waited in the queue was 1000 minutes. The Average Time in Queue is 5 minutes per customer (1000 minutes/ 200 customers). 

Lower Average time in queue means shorter wait times for customers, leading to improved CSAT scores.

The average hold time across various sectors lies between 4.3 and 5.5 sec.

The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a metric used in call centers to gauge customer satisfaction with service interactions. It is typically measured through post-interaction surveys where customers are asked to rate their satisfaction on a scale from 1 (highly dissatisfied) to 5 (highly satisfied).

The CSAT score is then calculated as the percentage of customers who respond with the top satisfaction ratings (usually 4 or 5), providing insight into overall customer satisfaction and service quality.

Collecting responses from several customers will help measure the overall satisfaction rate more accurately.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) Formula:

Example:

If 150 out of 200 respondents indicate they are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with a product or service, the CSAT score in this example is 75%.

Average Handling Time (AHT) is a call center productivity metric that measures the average duration a customer service representative spends on a single customer interaction, from the beginning to the end of the call.

This includes the time spent talking to the customer, resolving their issues, and completing any related administrative tasks.

Average Handle Time (AHT) Formula:

Average Handle Time Components:

Talk time:

Actual duration of the conversation between the agent and the customer

Hold time:

‍Time during a call when the customer is on hold

After-call work:

‍Tasks a call center agent does after the call, which includes updating customer records, processing requests, or administrative work related to the call

‍AHT benchmarks depend on the type of industry and call complexity. Across industries, the average handling time varies from 1:02  to 4:05.

Important note: As with First Call Resolution over-focus on the Average Handle Time metric could yield a quantity over quality situation yielding lower CSAT. Balance is key.

Service Level is a call center productivity metric that measures the percentage of incoming calls answered within a specified target time frame.

Service Level reflects the efficiency of a call center in managing customer demand and providing timely service.

Service Level Formula:

Service Level Components:

Number of calls answered within target time:

The total number of incoming calls answered by a customer service agent within the specified target time frame

Total number of incoming calls:

The total number of calls received by the call center during the specified period

Service Level is often accompanied by a target response time. An industry-wide standard service level target is:

Answer 80% of inbound calls within 20 seconds.

The Percentage of Blocked Calls is a call centers productivity metric used to measure the proportion of incoming calls that are blocked or disconnected before reaching an agent. Blocked calls occur when customers cannot reach a call center agent. They are then greeted with a busy signal or an automated message indicating that all agents are busy.

This scenario occurs due to high call volumes or insufficient resources to handle the calls.

A high percentage of blocked calls indicates:

• Understaffing 
• Inefficient call routing
• Inadequate technology infrastructure

Percentage of Blocked Calls Formula:

Example:

If a call center receives 1000 incoming calls in a day and 50 are blocked due to high call volume, then the percentage of blocked calls is 5%

Cost per Call is a key call center productivity metric to measure the average cost incurred by a company for handling each customer call.

This includes expenses like employee salaries, infrastructure costs (such as phone lines and equipment), technology costs (such as call center software), and other overheads.

Calculating Cost per Call helps assess the economic efficiency of their call center, and overall profitability while maintaining high-quality customer service.

Cost Per Call Formula:

Example:

The total cost of handling calls is $14,000, which has the following breakdown:

• Total salaries of customer support agents: $10,000
• Total cost of phone lines and equipment: $2,000
• Total cost of call center software subscription: $1,500
• Other overhead expenses directly related to handling calls: $500

During that month, the company handled 2,000 customer calls. The cost per call is $7, which means that, on average, the company incurs $7 in expenses for each customer call it handles.

If the cost per call is high, it could be because your employees are taking fewer calls, which means they are less productive.

The Average Speed of Answer (ASA) is a call center productivity metric that measures the average time taken by agents to answer a customer's call. ASA is indicative of the efficiency and responsiveness of a call center, reflecting how quickly agents are able to address customer needs.

Monitoring ASA helps ensure that customer wait times are minimized.

Average Speed of Answer Formula:

Example:

Suppose a call center receives 100 calls in a day, and the total time customers spend waiting in the queue before their calls are answered is 500 minutes.

The average speed of the answer is 5 minutes per call. This means that, on average, customers wait 5 minutes in the queue before a support agent answers their calls.

According to industry standards, 8-9 seconds is a decent average answer speed for call center agents across industries.

Occupancy Rate is a call center productivity metric that measures the percentage of time agents spend actively handling customer interactions against their total available time. This metric is important for assessing how effectively agents utilize their working hours.

A higher Occupancy Rate indicates that agents are spending a larger portion of their time on productive work, such as taking calls or completing related tasks.

Occupancy Rate Formula:

Occupancy Rate Parameters:

Total handle time:

Is the time agents spend on calls, including talk time, hold time, and after-call work

Total available time:

Is the time agents are scheduled to be available for handling calls

Example:

An agent spends 6 hours handling calls during an 8-hour shift. The occupancy rate for this agent would be 75%.

If the occupancy rate is high, the agent portrays better utilization of time, but excessively high occupancy rates will lead to burnout, decreasing agent effectiveness.

Importance of Call Center Productivity For Your Business

The health of your call center's productivity KPIs directly impact costs, customer satisfaction, wait times, resource utilization, SLA compliance, employee satisfaction, and data-driven decision-making.

Below are 6 key benefits highlighting the importance of productivity in the contact center:

1. Reduce operational costs

Many contact centers have a large agent count. The more efficiently agents can handle calls, the lower the cost per call.

2. Reduced wait times

A highly productive call center will have shorter customer wait times and respond to inquiries swiftly. Long hold times and extended queues causes customer dissatisfaction, resulting in lost business and/or negative reviews.

Almost half of all customers (46%) want companies to reply to their queries faster than 4 hours. 12% of customers expect a response within 15 minutes or less. ⁽³⁾

3. Enhance customer satisfaction

High call center productivity ensures that customers spend less time waiting in queues and receive timely assistance from agents. Customers always appreciate quick responses and resolutions, which positively impact their perception of your company and boost loyalty.

45% of consumers want their issues resolved in the first interaction. ⁽¹⁾

4. Boosting agent morale

Employee burnout is a common concern in the call center's highly competitive environment. 

High call center productivity levels can contribute to a positive work environment by reducing stress and workload for call center agents.

According to a Cornell University study, 87% of contact center agents said their job causes stress. ⁽²⁷⁾

5. Maintaining client relationships 

Consider a business process outsourcing (BPO) call center which provides customer support services for multiple clients. Meeting service level agreements (SLAs) is critical for maintaining client satisfaction and retaining contracts. 

SLAs specify the expected level of service in terms of response times and resolution rates.

By closely monitoring KPIs that impact call center productivity, you can proactively address any performance issues with agents.

Top Reasons for Low Productivity in Call Center Agents

There are many causes of low productivity among call center agents.

As a call center manager its important to understand and pay attention to all the factors that can negatively impact agent performance.

Addressing the factors listed below will require investing in training, updating technology, promoting a positive work culture, and providing support to agents.

1. Inadequate training for agents

Imagine starting a job without getting proper onboarding and not knowing exactly what you're supposed to do or how to do it. 

Ineffective training for call center agents is one of the primary reasons for their low productivity.

“The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.”

~ Sybil F. Stershic

Unstructured training programs can hamper the growth of your existing employees, while entry-level agents may feel lost, impacting morale and retention.

2. Distracting work environment

Can you concentrate on a conversation with a customer while someone's blasting music or chatting loudly nearby?

Loud coworkers, malfunctioning equipment, or uncomfortable seating distractions can make it difficult for agents to focus on their calls and deliver quality service.

Call center agents usually work in noisy and distracting environments that may hinder concentration and focus. 

3. Outdated technology

Another reason for call center agents' low productivity is outdated technology. 

Call centers that lack the tools to monitor and improve agent performance suffer from lower productivity than contact centers that have these tools in place.

4. Inefficient Call Handling

Complex or outdated call-handling processes, such as cumbersome scripts or multiple systems that agents must navigate, will increase call-handling times and reduce productivity.

5. High call center turnover

High call center turnover creates a consistent cycle of training new agents, taking time and resources away from handling calls. 

If experienced and productive agents keep leaving due to job dissatisfaction or burnout, it lowers team morale, leaving the agents still employed to handle the workload of the agents who left for other positions.

6. Low staffing levels

If call center manager's expects an agent to handle calls equivalent to the bandwidth of two agents, it will soon lead to burnout for the agent. 

Understaffing makes agents feel overworked, and overwhelmed by the flood of incoming calls.

7. Lack of recognition

Working in an atmosphere where one doesn't feel appreciated and motivated for a long time is soul crushing.

Agents will become disengaged and less productive without a sense of purpose or recognition for their efforts.

8. Lack of support from leadership

Lack of support, guidance, and direction from supervisors and managers negatively impacts agent productivity.

If expectations aren't communicated or agents don't receive constructive coaching feedback on their performance, it will lead to decreased productivity.

76% of employees who experienced empathy from their leaders reported they were more engaged in their work. ⁽³⁴⁾

Strategies to Boost Your Call Center Productivity

Boosting call center productivity has to be achieved from all aspects of the contact center. 

Below are some of the strategies you can use to combat the reasons for low productivity in call center agents.

1. Provide comprehensive coaching

By providing the right type and form of coaching to your call center agents, you will equip them with the skills and knowledge to do their jobs efficiently. Effective coaching is the number one way to improve performance and productivity outcomes.

It's important to coach agents from real-life, day-to-day situations, support them in dealing with different types of customers.

Chewy, an online pet food retailer, transformed its coaching processes by leveraging AI-Enabled Coaching

Before using AI-Enabled Coaching, managers manually spent hours from their working day on report preparation and documentation for conducting the coaching session. Chewy saved 30% of coaching prep time each week taking only 5.8 hours instead of 8.25 hours.

2. Setting clear goals and expectations

Establish clear performance goals and KPIs for each contact center agent that are aligned with organizational objectives. Managers and supervisors should transparently communicate these goals and expectations to agents and provide performance feedback at frequent intervals to keep them motivated and focused.

Keep track of call center productivity metrics like average handle time, and first call resolution.

3. Prioritize employee engagement

Prioritize employee engagement through teamwork, collaboration, and cultivating a sense of belonging among your frontline agents.

Avoid comparing the KPIs of high-performing agents with low-performing employees. This has a demotivating effect. When evaluating their performance, include them in the process, allowing them to self-reflect.

68% of business leaders feel there is a direct correlation between employee enablement and business growth. ⁽³²⁾

Engagement tip: You can ask agents who are performing well to share their routines, tips, and experiences with other team members. Appreciate both top performers and agents who are working on their shortcomings.

4. Gamify coaching and learning

When planning the training and development programs for your call center agents, opt for a performance enablement platform that makes learning fun and not dull. 

Call center gamification software, will make learning more engaging. Gamification when used thoughtfully has been proven to ultimately boosting agent productivity and customer satisfaction.

With the right gamification elements, contact center leaders can witness a 50% rise in workforce productivity and a 60% increase in employee engagement. ^source

5. Use technology

Gone are the days when managers manually handled, stored, and documented everything. Technology has created more avenues to monitor performance and gather key intelligence data. Use this to your advantage.

Voice/speech analytics adoption has increased from 62% in 2020 to 81% in 2022. ⁽⁵²⁾

Types of contact center technologies used:

• Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs)
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems
• Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Outbound Dialing Solutions
• Workforce Management (WFM) Software
• Quality Management Software (QMS)
• Cloud-Based Contact Center Platforms
• Speech Analytics
• Chatbots and Virtual Agents
• Performance Enablement Platform

How to AmplifAI Your Call Center Productivity

Although you don't need technology to increase you call center productivity, it sure helps.

Contact center leaders face mounting challenges including:

• Overwhelming data analysis
• Time constraints
• Complex customer interactions

The challenges presented to modern contact centers are exactly what AmplifAI resolves.

AmplifAI has transformed contact center productivity for industry leaders like The Home Depot, GoDaddy, Cox, Chewy, and Discover.

AmplifAI's Approach to Call Center Productivity

The thoughtful and comprehensive use of AI to relieve the burdens that AI and technology have created for contact center leaders.

Data-Driven Insights

Transforms the data you already have into actionable insights. AmplifAI uses your data to create High Performer Personas, and unified dashboards to give leaders a 360 degree view of their contact center.

Performance Intelligence

Role-based dashboards and views, created by ingestion of all your contact center data. No need to hunt for insights. The data, insights, and actions are at your fingertips in one dashboard

Data Driven Coaching

Unlike other tools that merely collect data (for you to review), AmplifAI provides team leaders with real-time, AI-driven insights into each agent’s performance, guiding them toward the next best action. Coaches are also graded on their effectiveness giving a

Gamification and Recognition

Gamify, recognize, and reward your top performers. Never miss a recognition moment with AI-driven gamification.

Quality Assurance

With tools like Auto QA, call summaries, speech analytics, and conversation intelligence tied into performance and coaching in one platform, team leaders don't have to try and find coachable moments. AmplifAI provides the insights and actions in one place, flagging compliance issues and customer sentiment.

Comprehensive Contact Center Transformation

AmplifAI comprehensively transforms your call center productivity pains into wins. AmplifAI is recognized by Gartner as a 'Cool vendor' unique in its employee-centric approach to tackle the real issues faced by contact centers leaders at all levels of the organization.

Call Center Productivity in 2025

The Generative AI revolution we've witnessed in the past decade has transformed contact centers. But the rapid adoption of multiple point solutions to resolve call center productivity pain points has created new challenges for contact center leaders in 2025.

CX leaders now face "AI overload" rather than strategic improvement.

As presented at the 2024 Customer Contact Week in Nashville, the question is no longer about AI replacing humans - that's impossible. Instead, the focus is on using AI intelligently to reduce administrative burdens in the contact center and enhance human capabilities.

AmplifAI, built by contact center veterans, leads this transformation with an employee-centric AI approach. AmplifAI is purpose built to streamlines processes, and provide actionable insights that drive meaningful improvements in call center productivity.

In 2025, don't get stuck with a Generative AI point solution that can create more problems than they solve.

Schedule your demo with the contact center transformation experts at AmplifAI today!

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Call Center Productivity FAQs

What is productivity in a call center?

Productivity in a call center refers to the efficiency and effectiveness of agents handling customer inquiries or requests. Call center productivity maximizes operational efficiency, enhances customer satisfaction, and drives business success.

What is the KPI for a call center?

While there is no 'one' KPI to track the productivity of your call center, there are several call center productivity KPIs that work cohesively. Depending on the industry, and your particular contact center's overarching productivity goals you can expect to be tracking any one or all of the following KPI's:

• Average Handling Time (AHT) 
• First Call Resolution (FCR) 
• Occupancy Rate
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) 
• Service Level 
• Abandonment Rate