The essential
- Statistical overview. Call center statistics reveal that phone calls remain the primary method of interacting with customer service.
- AI Adoption. Automation and AI technologies in call centers are expected to increase significantly over the next 5-10 years.
- Omnichannel expectation. Customers now demand fast and transparent service across all communications platforms.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on April 3, 2024 to include new data and information. Original content was written by Shane O’Neill.
Call centers are a brand’s hub for customer service issues and are essential to the success of a business. Using call center statistics is essential for developing effective customer support strategies.
Yet the word “call” may be a misnomer in our digital world. While most people still prefer the immediacy of a phone call to customer service, consumers can now contact brands through a variety of channels (omnichannel): phone calls, emails, text messages, social media messaging and online chatbots.
Regardless of channel, call center agents, analysts, managers and team leaders remain the gatekeepers of a brand’s relationships with customers. But they work in a space that is rapidly evolving with the rise of new call center KPIs and AI-based technologies like chatbots and virtual assistants. Keeping up to date with call center research, benchmarks and trends is essential to understanding customer expectations and developing a cohesive strategy.
That said, here is an overview of recent call center Statistics that define customer support in 2024 and beyond:
Key Call Center Statistics
Call centers form the backbone of modern customer service operations, serving as vital hubs for communication between businesses and consumers. Let’s take a look at some of the key call center statistics you should know.
- The average call center handles 4,400 calls each month, including 48 missed calls. (Live Agent)
- 61% of call center managers say call volumes have increased since the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, despite the availability of customer self-service solutions and AI-powered tools like chatbots. (McKinsey)
- 71% of consumers expect businesses to provide personalized interactions, and 76% of them are frustrated when this doesn’t happen. (McKinsey)
- 62% of Millennials and 75% of Gen Z customers prefer self-service (subreddit, Google search, or YouTube tutorials) almost all the time, even when they have the option to contact customer support. That compares to 19% of Baby Boomers and 43% of Gen X customers who say they would do the same. (Gartner)
Related article: Top Call Center Technology Trends
Call center performance statistics
Call center statistics can be useful when it comes to tracking operations, highlighting efficiencies, challenges and areas for improvement. Some of the key call center performance statistics include:
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): CSAT measures customer satisfaction with a service or experience through surveys and is considered the most important effectiveness metric for call centers. CSAT scores vary by industry, but a good score is typically between 75% and 85%.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures how likely a person is to recommend the company to others. A good NPS score is anything greater than 20%.
- First Call Resolution (FCR): FCR measures how often call centers can resolve a customer question or query on the first try. High-performing call centers achieve an FCR rate of 70% or more.
- Average Processing Time (AHT): AHT is the average time it takes a representative to handle a customer interaction, such as a phone call, email, or chat session. The industry average AHT is a just over 6 minutes.
- Occupancy rate:Occupancy rate measures the percentage of time call center agents deal directly with customers. The recommended occupancy rate is between 85% and 90%.
- Average response time (ASA): ASA represents the average time customers wait in the queue before their calls are answered. The target ASA is 28 seconds or less.
- Dropout rate: A call abandon rate indicates the percentage of callers who hang up before being answered. An abandonment rate below 5% is considered good for call center efficiency.
- Customer retention rate: Retention rate is the percentage of customers a business retains over a specific period of time. Average retention rates vary by industry, with good customer retention rates declining between 55% and 84%.
The three most used metrics to evaluate customer experience within the organization, including in call centers, are CSAT, NPS and customer retention rate, according to CMSWire State of the Digital Customer Experience Report.
Related article: 11 Top Customer Service Metrics to Measure
Statistics on Call Center Future Trends
As technology continues to evolve, call centers are poised for transformative change. Let’s take a look at some important call center statistics focused on future trends, providing insight into innovative strategies and technologies that will help drive customer satisfaction in the years to come.
- Currently, 49% of companies surveyed reported using call center software or a call center knowledge base. However, this number will increase over the next two years, as 24% of organizations plan to adopt it. (CMSWire State of Digital Customer Experience Report)
- The rate of automation of agent communication with customers is expected to increase 5-fold to approximately 10% of agent interactions by 2026, up from 1.8% in 2022. (Gartner)
- Call centers are rapidly adopting AI technologies such as chatbots, virtual assistants, voice recognition, interactive voice response (IVR), natural language processing (NLP), predictive analytics, and analytics feelings. (Markets and markets)
- The global AI market in the call center segment is currently worth $1.6 billion, but is expected to exceed $4 billion by 2027. (Markets and markets)
- Expect an increase in adoption of AI-based voice assistants. More than 8 billion voice assistants will be actively used worldwide by 2024, double the number of voice assistants used in 2020. (Statist)
- Omnichannel customer engagement will be the norm. Customers now expect agents to know their purchase history and respond quickly to requests across all communication channels. As a result, the omnichannel customer engagement market is expected to grow 13% annually to reach nearly $18 billion in revenue by 2030. (Research on Grand View)
Build a strategy based on call center statistics and trends
While call center statistics and industry trends can be enlightening, they are only useful if call center leaders can translate them into actionable strategies.
Brad Cleveland, keynote speaker, customer strategy consultant and author of “Leading the Customer Experience: How to Chart the Path and Achieve Exceptional Results” and other books, argues that an effective strategy should include the following 10 elements.
- Clients – Who are your clients ?
- Interactions – What types of interactions do they have with sales, customer service and/or technical support?
- Canals – How do customers access the service: phone, chat, text, self-service, in person?
- Hours – What times are services available?
- Level of service – How quickly can customers get help?
- Routing – How to bring the right customer to the right resources?
- People/technology – What people and technology resources are needed for each interaction?
- Information – What information will be required?
- Analysis and improvement – How do you learn from interactions to improve products, services and processes?
- Guidelines – What are your guidelines for rolling out new services?
The strategy elements above, combined with the call center statistics cited in this article, should give leaders a roadmap for identifying performance gaps and making necessary adjustments.
“Many organizations don’t have a clearly defined call center strategy,” says Cleveland. “They tend to make decisions in a vacuum, which leads to inconsistencies and bad experiences. So when developing a strategy, I encourage teams to think together about these 10 components and how AI and other developments could positively impact each of these components.
