Much has been said about importance of business performance evaluation. Performance management was created specifically to measure how well the business is performing. However, the first concepts were developed during the industrial revolution and the mainly two into account only financial indicators. Of course, any business has mostly financial goals, and there is no doubt about it. But in order to achieve financial goals one should pay attention to nonfinancial factors influencing business performance. In other words, to earn more money one should work better.
This is where balanced scorecard concept turned out new you and in a way revolutionary. It was the first system that proposed to measure also nonfinancial indicators. In general, balanced scorecard measures key performance indicators in four perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, learning and growth. It needs saying that every of the four perspectives does not function independently. All perspectives are interrelated and they represent everything that happen score might happen to the company.
In measurement of call center it is very important to know strategic goals in order to set relevant values for each of the four perspectives. What does this mean in practice? For example, if a call center has the goal of performance sales via phone and the most emphasis is to be put on sales attempts and sales efficiency. On the other hand, if a call center is a customer support service then customer perspective (customer satisfaction) would be given priority.
Implementation of balanced scorecard in evaluation of call center performance requires some knowledge of how the call center works. In other words, it is necessary to find relevant key performance indicators and set the right weights for both KPIs and categories (perspectives).
Imagine that a company has a strategic goal of improving customer satisfaction and thus improving its image which rule result in a larger market share. You would agree that well reputed companies easily attract new customers, wouldn’t you?
So, balanced scorecard helps communicate these strategic goals with operational management. BSC, when implemented properly, will show what needs to be improved in order to reach strategic goals. It is imperative that all employees of the call center including its management clearly understand strategic vision of the company and their own contribution to reaching of strategic goals. Only in such a way balanced scorecard turns into an extremely effective tool that measures business performance and links strategic and operational management.