Methods, formulas and ways to calculate service levels in your call centre. For the most part, it's quite easy to calculate — however, getting your measurements correct is the tough part.
If your company has answered 100 calls within your service threshold of 20 seconds, whilst answering 125 overall — then your Service Level is 80%.
Start with weekly figures, then move to daily and hourly stats. Take a broad view of daily volumes for an entire month to spot patterns. Blue Telecoms customers can use the "Inbound Report" within the management interface.
Use your inbound report for hourly stats rather than simply dividing the daily total. Most companies receive higher volumes at different times of the day — simply dividing could leave you understaffed at peak times.
AHT = Average Call Duration + Average Wrap Up Time. Use your PBX, dialler software or ACD system to obtain exact stats.
Most call centres aim to answer inbound calls within 20 seconds, 80% of the time. This becomes even more important in telesales where Ofcom regulate dropped call percentages.
Shrinkage relates to time agents should be available but can't be — holidays, sickness, toilet breaks. It's always best to factor in some level of shrinkage so your statistics show true values.
Now that you have incoming volume, tested period, AHT, service level, target answer time, and shrinkage — use a free Erlang calculator to get your figures.