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How many calls are lost before they are answered? How long is your customer willing to wait? The service level in a call center does not just answer these questions: it reveals the true heartbeat of your operation. But do not worry: it is not only about tracking numbers. It is about understanding what is behind them and how to improve your service level through smarter decisions, well-structured teams, and tools that provide visibility and control.
In this guide, we will walk you through everything you need to know to boost your call center's service level: what it is, how to measure it, the key factors that affect it, and most importantly, how to improve it in a sustainable and lasting way.
What is service level in a call center?
Service level (SL) is an indicator that shows the percentage of calls or interactions that are answered within a specific amount of time. For example, if your goal is to answer 80 percent of calls in under 20 seconds, that becomes your reference level.
This KPI acts as a compass to help you understand your contact center’s responsiveness, and it has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. The faster and more efficient the first contact is, the more positive the perception of your brand will be.
Why is it so important?
Because every second counts. Literally.
A low service level can lead to endless wait times, dropped calls, and customer frustration. On the other hand, a well-managed service level improves customer retention, optimizes resources, and brings you closer to meeting your service level agreements (SLAs).
It also allows you to:
- Reduce call abandonment rates
- Strengthen your brand image
- Fulfill commitments with clients and partners
- Identify operational bottlenecks
How is service level measured?
The classic formula is simple:
SL = (Interactions answered within the time threshold / Total interactions received) x 100
However, reality is not always that straightforward. Many variables must be taken into account: the communication channel, the time of day, the type of interaction, the assigned team... That is why tools like Inconnect, our cloud-based contact center solution, help you monitor this KPI in real time from different perspectives. With intuitive dashboards, automated alerts, and customized reports, you can gain complete visibility and stay in control.
KPIs related to service level
Service level does not stand alone. To fully understand it, it is important to analyze it alongside other indicators that provide context and support:
- First Contact Resolution (FCR): A strong FCR reduces pressure on the channel.
- Average Response Time: If it is too high, it negatively affects the service level.
- Abandonment Rate: The lower it is, the better the service you are providing.
- Average Handle Time (AHT): Helps identify inefficiencies or overly complex processes.
- Occupancy Rate: Measures how much time an agent is actively engaged.
With Inspeech, our Speech Analytics software, you can go beyond the numbers and understand why certain metrics drop. By analyzing real conversations, identifying root causes, and generating valuable insights, you can take meaningful corrective actions.
Factors that influence call center service level
Several elements can negatively impact this KPI:
- Inadequate planning: If there are not enough agents, service level will suffer.
- Unexpected demand peaks: Without forecasting tools, these can overwhelm the contact center.
- Manual or slow processes: These increase AHT and reduce overall productivity.
- High turnover or lack of training: Underprepared teams lead to lower efficiency.
- Unplanned absences: These make it harder to meet your call center’s service level targets.
This is where Inteam, our workforce management system ,comes into play. This solution allows you to forecast workload, schedule shifts accurately, and balance workloads effectively, taking into account both business needs and your agents’ preferences. In this way, you can ensure that you always have the right team in place to reach your call center’s target service level.
Service level in an omnichannel environment: a challenge… and an opportunity
Today’s customers do not wait. And they do not stick to just one channel either. They might start a conversation on WhatsApp, continue it via email, and, if they do not get a response, pick up the phone. How can you ensure a consistent and high-quality service level across this fragmented journey? The answer lies in adopting a truly coordinated omnichannel approach.
When channels operate in isolation, efforts to maintain a high service level become diluted. For example, you may have excellent performance on phone calls, but if social media messages take days to be answered… the customer will not separate one from the other: their experience is one single journey.
With a platform that allows you to manage all channels from a centralized place, such as Inconnect, you will be able to:
- Unify KPI monitoring by channel, agent, or team
- Apply automatic prioritization strategies based on SLA requirements
- Avoid duplicated efforts and provide faster responses
- Access complete customer context, regardless of where the conversation started
In short, improving service level today is not only about speed or volume — it is about consistency, fluidity, and personalization across all touchpoints. And that is where a strong omnichannel strategy truly makes a difference.
How to take the first step toward improving your service level
Sometimes, the service level does not look bad in the reports… but something still feels off. There are days with more abandoned calls, overwhelmed channels, or simply a sense that service could be better.
And that is where the turning point begins: when you start noticing subtle signs that operations could be performing better, or that the customer experience is not as smooth as it should be. If that sounds familiar, you might be standing right on the edge of rethinking your customer experience strategy.
So, how do you make that shift? These are some key questions that can help you start looking at your service level from a new perspective:
- Are we responding quickly and consistently across all channels?
- Do our service metrics truly reflect the customer experience?
- Do we know when and why calls or chats are going unanswered?
- Do we have tools that alert us to overflows or service disruptions?
- Are we anticipating demand, or simply reacting when the contact center becomes overwhelmed?
The clearer your answers to these questions are, the easier it becomes to identify improvement opportunities. And that is where the stage of conscious consideration begins: when it is no longer just about "keeping things running", but about actively seeking ways to optimize.
Strategies to improve service level
Here are some practical ideas that can help you make that leap in quality:
1. Plan intelligently
Anticipate demand and organize your team’s shifts based on historical data and activity forecasts to ensure the right coverage at all times. Within the Inconcert ecosystem, Inteam your key tool for this phase.
2. Monitor constantly
Track your operation’s performance in real time and stay alert to any deviations in key indicators so you can respond quickly. Your contact center solution should include a real-time dashboard.
3. Automate repetitive tasks
Implement AI agents and automation to handle frequent inquiries and free up your agents for higher-value tasks
4. Analyze to improve
Regularly review the quality of interactions and investigate the reasons behind any deviations from your goals to uncover improvement opportunities. Speech Analytics systems powered by GenAI have made this task much easier, as they operate automatically and offer a level of depth that manual analysis cannot match.
5. Train your agents
Invest in continuous training so your team can handle queries faster and achieve better results in every interaction.
6. Adjust your SLAs to the context
Stay flexible. Adapting your service level agreements to the current business context will help you remain competitive and maintain customer satisfaction.
Technology + people = extraordinary experiences
A strong service level is not just an operational goal, it is a promise fulfilled to the customer. And achieving it requires a constant balance between people, processes, and technology.
With solutions like Inconnect, Inspeech, and Inteam, you have the tools you need to deliver on that promise every single day. Because, in the end, it is not just about responding quickly, it is about responding well. And that is what builds long-lasting relationships.
Would you like to see how to improve your call center’s service level with a solution tailored toyour needs? Discover everything we can achieve together with the Inconcert ecosystem of solution.
