Service Level

Service Level (SL) is the "Speed Promise" the BPO makes to the Client, and it's one of the core metrics by which clients measure the efficiency of the call centers.

The Service Level measures how quickly the interactions or contacts are answered once the customer initiate them.

Unlike AHT (which measures how long a call lasts), SL measures how long a customer waits before an agent answers.

The industry standard uses an 80/20 rule. You will often hear managers say, "We need to hit an 80/20 Service Level."

• 80: The percentage of calls targeted to be answered.
• 20: The threshold in seconds.
• This means: "We promise to answer 80% of all incoming calls within 20 seconds or less."

If the BPO misses the SL target (e.g., answering only 50% of calls within 20 seconds), the Client often pays less (a penalty). If SL drops, wait times go up. If wait times go up, customers hang up (Abandon Rate).

A low SL usually means WFM did not schedule enough people, or too many agents are absent (Shrinkage).

Let´s review the formula to calculate the service level:

• Service Level = (Calls Answered within ÷ Threshold Total Calls Offered) x 100

Let's do a quick example:

• 100 calls came in.
• 70 were answered in 5 seconds. (Good)
• 10 were answered in 15 seconds. (Good)
• 20 were answered after 1 minute. (Bad)
• Calculation: (80 Calls answered within threshold ÷ 100 calls received) x 100
• SL Score: 80%. (Target Met!)