What is Cost per Contact?
Cost per contact is the cost it takes to handle one call. It’s the sum of all costs involved in running a contact center divided by the total number of contacts handled.
This includes costs associated with:
- Labor: This includes salaries and additional benefits offered to agents, supervisors, and other individuals who directly support the call center.
- Recruitment: Total cost of recruiting, onboarding, and training new employees.
- Telephony: Cost of your phone system.
- Software: Software licensing for tools like workforce management and CRMs.
Additionally, you also need to consider fixed costs like office space rent and maintenance, internet charges, and refreshments.
Here’s the formula:
Cost per Contact = (Labor Cost + Recruitment Cost + Cost of Tools + Other Operational Costs) / Total Number of Calls Handled
Once you collect all cost-related data, you can easily spot areas to cut down costs while ensuring quality customer service.
To reduce cost per contact, you could:
- Optimize the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) so that it provides short and relevant menu options.
- Program IVR to disconnect the caller until there is an agent available to speak with them.
- Utilize skill-based routing to provide the best-suited agent for a quick resolution.
- Use call center workforce optimization tools like Talkdesk and Playvox.
- Provide self-service options such as customer self-service portals and live chatbots.
You could also take some proactive measures such as:
- Ensure that during onboarding, agents receive quality training to handle calls in minimal average handling time.
- Schedule your agents efficiently while considering peak call times and agents’ adherence level.
- Use real-time call monitoring to provide constructive feedback or help out agents solve complex issues.
