Industry Average for Service Level is changing from 80% in 20 Seconds

80 20 rule

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Research has shown that, despite the industry standard of 80% of calls being answered within 20 seconds, a significant number of contact centres are moving above that target.

A recent survey by Call Centre Helper, sponsored by NewVoiceMedia, asked over 600 members of the contact centre industry to share their service level targets for telephone calls. This data was captured in percentage/seconds.

The industry standard is 80% of calls being answered within 20 seconds

The results confirm that the well-known industry standard of 80% of calls being answered within 20 seconds is in wide use. This is evident in the large cluster surrounding this data point in the bubble graph.

The well-known industry standard of 80% of calls being answered within 20 seconds is in wide use.

The well-known industry standard of 80% of calls being answered within 20 seconds is in wide use.

Leading contact centres are targeting against 90% of calls answered in 20 seconds

However, industry leaders are setting the bar even higher and targeting against 90% of calls being answered within 20 seconds – evident in the smaller yet still significant cluster around this data point.

Further visible clusters on the bubble graph indicate that there is also a trend for 70% of calls being answered in 30 seconds and 85% of calls being answered in 20 seconds.

[Please note, the findings only reflect the targets contact centres have in place – and not the actual figures they achieve.]

Download ‘What Contact Centres Are Doing Right Now (2015 Edition)’ to find out more.

Author: Megan Jones

Published On: 2nd Sep 2015 - Last modified: 27th Oct 2022
Read more about - Customer Service Strategy, ,

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3 Comments
  • Arguably, “industry leaders” no longer measure this stat at all!

    Stuart Lambert 3 Sep at 10:38
  • Really? In this day and age of callers and clients high expections! Our KPI is 95% in 5 seconds, and we almost never dip below this. And still make a profit and grow. It CAN be done folks….

    Helen Gould 3 Sep at 18:01
  • HMRC regularly has call queues longer than an hour and a very high number of abandoned calls.

    Steve 16 Sep at 20:42