What call centre metrics are on your leader dashboard right now? Is it first contact resolution (FCR)? Customer satisfaction (CSAT)? Or maybe average handle time (AHT)? For many leaders in call centers, these numbers are everywhere—on dashboards, in daily briefings, and across whiteboards. Call center metrics shape the conversations we have, the decisions we make, and the pressure we feel to keep everything "green."

But here’s the challenge: the constant visibility of these metrics often pushes many leaders into reactive modes of operation. Efforts to improve results can lead to frequent changes—tweaking processes, adding more training, or enforcing stricter adherence—without fully understanding the behaviours and rhythms that truly drive improvement. Instead of focusing on meaningful, sustainable change, it’s easy to get caught in a cycle of chasing metrics to meet the next target.

Key Takeaways

Call centre metrics like FCR, CSAT, and AHT reveal performance outcomes but don’t always highlight the actions and behaviours driving those results.

Behavioural and operating rhythm metrics, such as Goal Quality and Yaktivity, provide clear pathways for leaders to drive meaningful and sustainable improvement.
Leadership rhythms, including regular coaching and team meetings, are essential predictors of key metrics such as FCR and CSAT.
Defining and reinforcing behaviour-focused goals creates clarity, builds accountability, and enhances agent engagement and confidence.

What do key metrics really tell us about how to improve performance?

Metrics like FCR, CSAT, and AHT are invaluable—they show where to focus and help call center managers understand the outcomes they’re working toward. But they often stop short of showing the pathway—the specific actions, behaviours, and leadership rhythms that drive those results. In our experience, the introduction of behavioural and operating rhythm metrics bridges this gap. These new metrics don’t just measure the outcome; they provide a clearer view of how to get there, offering leaders actionable insights into the steps that lead to sustainable success.

This article aims to explore how metrics and new behavioural insights can work together to offer smarter, faster pathways to success. By examining the connection between metrics and the actions that drive them, we’ll provide leaders with practical strategies for moving the metrics that matter quickly, balancing performance across a scorecard of objectives, and setting themselves up for long-term success.

The metrics landscape: what leaders are measuring today

Call center performance metrics are everywhere in contact centers, guiding decisions, shaping strategies, and framing the priorities of customer service leaders and their teams. But what exactly are leaders tracking, and why?

Contact centres typically monitor a broad range of contact center metrics, which can be grouped into four core categories:

1. Customer-focused metrics

These call center metrics assess the overall customer experience, incorporate customer feedback, and highlight areas where service quality can improve:

First Contact Resolution (FCR): Measures the percentage of issues resolved in a single interaction, reducing the likelihood of repeat calls. It’s often viewed as a gold standard for improving customer satisfaction.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Tracks how satisfied customers are with their interactions.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Gauges customer loyalty by asking, “How likely are you to recommend us?”
Customer Effort Score (CES): Measures how easy it was for a customer to resolve their issue.

2. Operational efficiency metrics

Focused on workflow and resource management, these call center metrics aim to optimise performance while ensuring customer satisfaction is maintained through efficient processes:

Average Handle Time (AHT): Monitors the duration of inbound calls, outbound calls and after-call work, which can indirectly affect customer satisfaction.
Average Speed of Answer (ASA): Monitors the time taken for calls answered, ensuring swift responses to customer queries.
Call Abandonment Rate: Highlights the percentage of customer calls disconnected before reaching an agent.
Occupancy Rate: Reflects how effectively agents’ time is utilized.

3. Agent performance metrics

These call center metrics evaluate individual and team productivity:

Quality Assurance (QA) Scores: Assess the quality of service against predefined standards.
Agent Utilization Rate: Tracks the percentage of time agents spend actively engaging with customers during incoming calls or other interactions.
First Contact Resolution Rate by Agent: Examines FCR at the individual agent level.

4. Workforce engagement metrics

Employee satisfaction and engagement are measured to predict performance and retention:

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Gauges employee loyalty and advocacy.
Workforce Engagement Scores: Assess how engaged employees feel in their roles.

A new focus: operating rhythm and input metrics

Over the years, GRIST and YakTrak have introduced a new category of operating rhythm and input metrics that have proven transformative for many organisations. These metrics go beyond tracking outcomes like Customer Effort Score (CES) to measure the behaviours and rhythms that influence the customer experience all contact center metrics. They reflect a shift from focusing solely on results to understanding the inputs that drive them.

Examples include:

Yaktivity: Tracks leadership rhythms like team meetings, coaching sessions, and action plan follow-through, ensuring consistent focus and accountability.
Goal Quality: Assesses the clarity and structure of goals, helping leaders align objectives with the specific behaviours needed to achieve them.
Goal Completion Rate: Measures the percentage of goals successfully achieved by individuals, teams, or leaders, offering visibility into how well objectives are being executed and supported.
Coaching Quality: Evaluates the depth and effectiveness of coaching conversations, ensuring they reinforce the right behaviours and provide meaningful support for agents’ development.

Unlike traditional outcome-focused metrics, these input-focused measures highlight the pathways to improvement, giving leaders a clearer understanding of what actions to take and where to invest their energy.

The benefits of focusing on these metrics

Each of these call center performance metrics plays a critical role in improving a wide range of performance measures, from agent productivity to customer satisfaction and operational efficiency:

Yaktivity: Ensures leaders maintain structured leadership rhythms, such as team meetings and coaching sessions. This builds accountability and alignment, helping improve metrics like FCR and CSAT by maintaining focus on team engagement and follow-through.
Goal Quality: Empowers leaders to set clear, actionable objectives tied to micro-behaviours. This ensures alignment between agent behaviours and organisational goals, improving performance metrics like AHT and QA Scores.
Goal Completion Rate: Provides transparency into whether goals are being achieved and whether they are driving the intended outcomes, creating a feedback loop for continuous improvement.
Coaching Quality: Ensures that coaching sessions are meaningful and effective, fostering agent development and confidence. This directly impacts metrics like CSAT, QA Scores, and FCR by reinforcing behaviours that drive great customer interactions.

By focusing on these metrics, leaders can address root causes rather than symptoms, paving the way for sustainable improvements in both individual and team performance.

A prerequisite for success: defining great conversations

For metrics like Goal Quality, Goal Completion Rate, and Coaching Quality to deliver their full potential, customer service managers need to define what great conversations look and sound like. At GRIST, we call these micro-behaviours—specific, observable actions that demonstrate key skills. While skills such as ownership and active listening are essential, it’s the micro-behaviours that make these skills actionable and measurable.

Examples of micro-behaviours include:

Asking clarifying questions: “Can you walk me through what happened before this issue occurred?” This ensures agents fully understand the customer’s problem, improving FCR.
Using empathetic language: Statements like, “I understand how frustrating this must be,” help agents build rapport and reduce customer frustration, boosting CSAT.
Summarising and confirming solutions: For example, “Let me confirm what we’ve agreed on to make sure we’re aligned.” This reduces repeat calls and ensures resolutions are clear.

By integrating these micro-behaviours into goals and coaching conversations, leaders create a direct link between day-to-day actions and measurable outcomes. This clarity fosters alignment, accountability, and consistent improvements across key metrics.

How behavioural metrics lead to better results

Behavioural metrics like Goal Quality, Goal Completion Rate, Coaching Quality, and Yaktivity provide insights into the inputs—the specific actions and rhythms that lead to meaningful outcomes. Unlike output metrics, which tell you what has happened, behavioural metrics reveal how those results were achieved and where improvements can be made.

YakTrak’s extensive data offers key insights:

Outcome-based goals dominate:
In a sample of 100,000 goals recorded in YakTrak, 67% were outcome-based. Agents often perceive these goals as moving targets, leading to disengagement and comments like, “Our leadership is reactionary,” or, “It’s just the metric of the month.”
Impact: A culture of reactive leadership undermines trust and engagement. Shifting to behaviour-driven goals creates stability and fosters long-term growth.
Low goal quality:
Less than 20% of goals included a measure for success. Without this clarity, agents and leaders struggle to track progress or evaluate achievement.
Impact: Ambiguity reduces confidence and accountability. Training leaders to set behavioural measures ensures goals are specific, measurable, and aligned with desired actions during customer calls, improving clarity and outcomes..
Disconnected coaching conversations:
In over 20,000 coaching quality assessments, 90% of sessions failed to connect the discussion to the bigger picture. Agents often feel their coaching sessions lack relevance to career growth, day-to-day work, or the organisation’s vision.
Impact: Coaching that feels transactional diminishes engagement. Effective coaching links immediate actions to long-term aspirations, boosting retention and performance.
Leadership rhythms matter:
Leaders delivering at least 70% of their ideal operating rhythm—through consistent team meetings, coaching sessions, and follow-ups—achieve significantly better results.
Impact: Strong rhythms build momentum and predict better outcomes across metrics like FCR, CSAT, and AHT, all of which contribute to an improved customer experience.
Misaligned goals and strategy:
One YakTrak client aimed to improve customer experience but found that over 90% of team leader goals focused on AHT and ACW.
Prediction: Misaligned goals prevent progress in desired areas, highlighting the need for strategic alignment.

By focusing on behavioural and operating rhythm metrics, leaders in call centers gain actionable insights into the pathways that drive results. This approach not only improves performance but also creates a culture of growth, accountability, and sustained success.

A new perspective on metrics: bridging the gaps in current approaches

When exploring how to improve call center metrics, many solutions focus heavily on technology and operational efficiency. These approaches are invaluable for achieving quick wins, such as reducing AHT or increasing FCR. However, they often leave leaders grappling with deeper questions about how to create lasting change.

What this tells us about the industry:

Output-oriented thinking dominates:
The focus often remains on tweaking systems or workflows to achieve short-term results. While outputs like faster call handling or improved resolution rates are important, they rarely address the root causes of performance challenges.
Technology as a band-aid:
Automation, AI, and advanced analytics are frequently positioned as the primary tools for improvement. While these technologies optimize processes, they can sometimes mask deeper behavioural or cultural challenges.
Missed opportunities for leadership development:
Industry solutions often overlook the critical role of leadership in sustaining improvements. Leadership behaviours—like consistent coaching rhythms, clear goal-setting, and accountability—are key drivers of long-term success.

Practical leadership strategies to improve metrics

Improving contact centre metrics requires more than just a focus on outputs. To drive meaningful change, leaders must connect metrics to specific actions, behaviours, and rhythms. Here are practical strategies to build a foundation for success:

1. Behaviour-based goal setting:

What it looks like: Shift from outcome-only goals (e.g., “reduce AHT by 10 seconds” or “increase customer satisfaction scores by 5%”) to behaviour-based goals (e.g., “ask clarifying questions to improve FCR”) positively impacts customer experience.
Why it matters: Behaviour-based goals provide clarity and direction, giving agents tangible actions to focus on.
How to implement: Use YakTrak’s AI-powered goal-setting tools to create SMART goals tied to observable actions.

2. Leverage coaching rhythms:

What it looks like: Establish regular coaching sessions and team meetings to reinforce behaviours and provide feedback.
Why it matters: Consistent coaching ensures agents feel valued and supported, reducing turnover and improving engagement.
How to implement: Use YakTrak’s Yaktivity metrics to monitor coaching frequency and ensure leaders are following through on their operating rhythms.

3. Use AI tools for visibility and consistency:

What it looks like: Leverage AI to review coaching notes, track goal progress, and identify patterns in behaviours.
Why it matters: AI frees leaders to focus on high-value activities like coaching, rather than administrative tasks.
How to implement: Use YakTrak’s summarisation bots to ensure coaching sessions are well-documented and actionable.

4. Monitor and adapt:

What it looks like: Regularly review performance data, such as the speed of calls answered, to identify gaps and refine strategies.
Why it matters: Continuous monitoring ensures small issues are addressed before they escalate.
How to implement: Use YakTrak’s analytics tools to evaluate both input (e.g., goal quality) and output metrics (e.g., calls answered) in real time.

By adopting these strategies, leaders can move beyond chasing metrics to build high-performing teams. This balance of behavioural focus and operational insights creates sustainable success.

From metrics to meaning

Metrics are not just numbers—they represent the culmination of actions, behaviours, and decisions that shape the customer experience. For contact centre leaders, the challenge lies in turning these numbers into actionable insights that drive meaningful change.

Moving beyond outputs

Leaders face constant pressure to keep metrics “green.” This often results in reactive solutions, such as adjusting scripts, ramping up monitoring, or implementing quick-fix technologies. While these approaches may provide short-term improvements, they fail to address the deeper behavioural and leadership practices that drive sustainable success.

The value of input metrics

By focusing on behavioural and operating rhythm metrics like Yaktivity, Goal Quality, and Coaching Completion Rates, leaders gain insight into the pathways that lead to success. These metrics shift the focus from what has happened to how it happened, enabling leaders to:

Identify actionable areas for improvement.
Connect agent efforts with organisational goals.
Reinforce behaviours that create lasting impact.

For example, when agents understand how their behaviours influence metrics like FCR or CSAT, they feel more empowered and engaged. Leaders, in turn, can provide targeted coaching that aligns daily actions with broader organisational objectives.

Rethinking metrics for lasting impact

Contact centres thrive on metrics, but metrics alone don’t move the needle. The real power lies in understanding the actions, rhythms, and behaviours that drive those numbers.

The shift from outputs to inputs

While metrics like AHT, CSAT, and FCR show where to focus, they don’t explain how to get there. The introduction of behavioural and operating rhythm metrics addresses this gap, providing a clear pathway to success.

Building smarter, faster pathways

Leaders who integrate input-focused strategies into their routines can:

Balance immediate improvements with long-term goals.
Foster a culture of continuous growth and accountability.
Ensure alignment between agent behaviours and organisational outcomes.

A new wave of metrics

Metrics like Yaktivity, Goal Quality, and Coaching Quality are transformative because they bridge the gap between short-term fixes and lasting change. They provide leaders with the insights needed to influence outcomes proactively, rather than reactively.

The opportunity for leaders

Imagine the difference when:

Goals are clear and actionable.
Coaching sessions connect agents’ daily actions to their career aspirations.
Leadership rhythms create consistency and alignment across teams.

By combining these strategies with traditional operational tools, contact centre leaders can drive meaningful change—not just for today, but for the long term.

Beyond the numbers: how new behavioural metrics are driving contact centre performance