Consider a few examples that illustrate the interrelated nature of contact center performance measures:

• Cost per contact going down may actually be a bad sign. Viewed alone, a dropping cost per contact would seem like a positive indication. However, if errors and rework, or contacts not completely resolved in other channels are edging up, cost per contact will naturally decrease as fixed costs are spread over more calls—not good.
• Average handling time going up may be a positive indication. Viewed alone, an increasing AHT may seem to indicate inefficiencies. However, the sample may be reflecting more complex interactions as self-service, mobile apps, or first contact resolution offload simpler contacts. Or, agents may be improving on cross-selling and upsetting opportunities, and boosting average call value. In these cases, AHT may climb, even as value to the business increases.
• A high service level is not necessarily all positive. In isolation, a great service level may seem like a good thing, but if schedules are assigning too many agents to service level contacts while short-changing response time work, adjustments need to be made to forecasting and scheduling processes.

In short, performance measures are interrelated, and viewing them as a whole is a prerequisite to truly understanding what’s happening and taking the right steps to improve performance.