Measuring ROI On A Call Center Investment

Traditional ROI calculations use the level of profitbusiness for instance. Repeat business is something
generated by an asset divided by the value of thethat our accounting and CRM system will be
asset and expressed as a percentage. That's fine butmonitoring so we can get a value for that. The
when we seek to ascribe a value to non-profitcustomer survey and feedback groups will also give
generating assets we need to look at ways in whichan indication as to how important our customer
we can quantify the value that the call center isservice is in winning repeat business orders and that
contributing to overall business operations.will in turn allow us to infer a value for that
Call center data management and manipulation hasproportion of repeat business that is attributable to
lent itself particularly well to KPI metric and Balancedthe call center efforts.
Scorecard methodology. KPI/Balanced ScorecardWe are now close to being able to perform an ROI
techniques are a mainstay of the management ofcalculation in that we have determined a value that is
any call center and using the metrics that are beingcreated for the expense of our customer service
produced from these management information toolsefforts made by the call center.
allows to start calculating an approximation for ROI.Using such attributable value calculations for ROI is
If we move away from the idea of profit centersnot flawless but it does provide a valuable tool for
that need to be maximized and cost centers thattracking the value of a non-revenue division that is
need to be cut so logically increasing profit, we canbeing contributed to overall business success.
start thinking of the different business componentsTracking ROI of this nature over time, as long as the
as contributing value.calculation is made on a consistent basis will help
What is the value that we can ascribe to a callindicate and highlight the relative success of initiatives
center it doesn't create anything?and investment in the call center.
First, lets look at a revised ROI calculation, we canCalculating an overall ROI can be done by a broader
pretty easily work out a cost for the call centerattribution of value that is created by the call center
which is going to be used in the ROI calculation if weand the total expense that is incurred by it. Used
use that as asset value of the ROI number crunching.alone such an ROI calculation is not going to be of
Second, if we look at the relative contribution of callmuch help but the use of the incremental ROI that
center activities we can start ascribing a value basedcan be calculated for discrete costs and further
on the effect on our financial and managementinvestment in the call center is very useful for helping
accounting information. Linking information fromto justify whether incremental investment should be
customer service feedback and focus groups willmade or not.
allow us to develop an idea of the impact on repeat