Call Center Performance Metrics 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In an outbound sales call center, which metric most directly measures campaign effectiveness?
- Conversion rate (Correct answer)
- Average Speed of Answer
- Abandonment rate
- Hold time
Correct answer: Conversion rate
Conversion rate measures the percentage of outbound contacts that result in a sale or desired outcome.
Question 2: A center's NPS survey returns 40% promoters, 35% passives, and 25% detractors. What is the NPS?
- 15 (Correct answer)
- 40
- 75
- -15
Correct answer: 15
NPS equals promoters minus detractors, so 40 minus 25 gives a score of 15.
Question 3: Agent utilization differs from occupancy because utilization typically compares productive time to what?
- Total paid or scheduled time, including shrinkage (Correct answer)
- Only time spent on hold
- Time spent in after-call work only
- The busiest hour of the day
Correct answer: Total paid or scheduled time, including shrinkage
Utilization measures productive time against total paid time, while occupancy uses only logged-in available time.
Question 4: A team's average after-call work (ACW) time doubles after a new CRM rollout. What should a manager investigate first?
- Whether the new system is slower or agents need more training on it (Correct answer)
- Whether customers are calling less often
- Whether the queue threshold should change
- Whether NPS surveys are being sent
Correct answer: Whether the new system is slower or agents need more training on it
A sudden ACW increase after a system change usually points to tool inefficiency or a training gap.
Question 5: Which metric pairing best reveals whether a center is trading speed for quality?
- Average Handle Time alongside First Call Resolution (Correct answer)
- Service level alongside seat count
- Abandonment rate alongside trunk lines
- Login time alongside break time
Correct answer: Average Handle Time alongside First Call Resolution
Comparing AHT with FCR shows whether faster calls are coming at the expense of actually resolving issues.
Question 6: Erlang C calculations are used in call centers primarily to determine what?
- How many agents are needed to meet a service level given call volume and AHT (Correct answer)
- Which agents deserve bonuses
- The ideal script for each call type
- The customer satisfaction target
Correct answer: How many agents are needed to meet a service level given call volume and AHT
Erlang C models predict required staffing from forecast volume, handle time, and the service level goal.
Question 7: An agent's schedule adherence is 98% but their conformance is only 85%. What does this suggest?
- They follow their schedule timing closely but worked fewer total hours than scheduled (Correct answer)
- They answered 98% of calls within threshold
- Their QA scores dropped 13 points
- They transferred 15% of their calls
Correct answer: They follow their schedule timing closely but worked fewer total hours than scheduled
Adherence tracks timing against the schedule while conformance tracks total hours worked versus scheduled, so the gap indicates missing hours.
Call Center Performance Metrics 5
In an outbound sales call center, which metric most directly measures campaign effectiveness?