Why Your C-Suite Ignores Your Contact Center Metrics (And How to Fix It)

A Framework for KPIs That Tell the Real Story

Average Handle Time (AHT), Contact Abandonment Rate, First Call Resolution (FCR), Grade of Service (GOS), Adherence to Schedule (ATS), Net Promoter Score (NPS)…the list of TLAs that we measure in contact centers is endless.

But guess what? Most of these metrics mean absolutely nothing outside of the contact center.

The executive team doesn’t know or even care what many of these metrics are. The board isn’t losing sleep over your AHT creeping up by seven seconds. (Note: You probably shouldn’t, either.)

We’re drowning in metrics that make sense to us, but don’t necessarily inspire the business to want to fix what’s really causing issues.

I’ve made the mistake of trying to explain to executives the linkages between AHT and GOS and how they influence quality assurance and the flow onto the customer experience.  I’ve also had executives latch onto a metric and hold you to account regardless of context, creating a rod for my back.

If we want real buy-in from the top, we need to change the way we measure impact. Here’s how we can do that:

The Biggest Problem with Traditional Contact Center Metrics

Contact centers are often seen as cost centers. The way we measure performance reinforces that perception. Many of our KPIs are optimized for efficiency; not effectiveness or focused on output not outcomes.

Consider FCR. It sounds like a solid metric, but it often fails to account for the full customer journey. Maybe the call itself was resolved, but what if the customer had already tried the chatbot, sent an email and waited three days before picking up the phone and then was transferred three times? From their perspective, it wasn’t a first call, it was more likely to be last straw.

These kinds of gaps lead to a frustrating disconnect between what contact centers track and what matters to the business and customers.

What’s a Lighthouse Metric?

Lighthouse metrics are high-impact, business-aligned KPIs that (like a lighthouse) cut through the fog to show anyone watching where they need steer the ship. They tell a story, rich with context, warnings and insights. They tell a relatable story of customer impact, business risk and operational performance that people inside and outside of the contact center can rally around.

An example might be a CX Risk Score. Instead looking at operational data in isolation, a CX Risk Score would also factor in both technical and customer friction points to highlight potential service failures.

The difference is, instead debating whether your agent's AHT is too high, you can point to a CX Risk Score that shows where system lag, network issues or complicated processes are causing delays. It shifts the conversation from “Why are agents taking so long?” to “How do we fix the real problem?”

That’s the kind of metric that gets attention beyond the contact center.

5 Ways to Build Your Lighthouse Metrics

No. Stop. Pause. If you are planning to throw a fancy name on existing KPIs and call it a “lighthouse metric” then you have missed the point. You need to design meaningful measures that reflect business outcomes. Here’s how:

Start with Business Objectives

Forget about contact center goals for a second. What does the business actually care about? Revenue? Customer retention? Risk avoidance? Identify the real objectives before diving into the data.

Map Contact Center Metrics to Business Impact

Once you have the high-level objectives, start connecting the dots. Instead of only tracking FCR, look at how resolution times correlate with customer churn. Instead of  Adherence, measure how staffing issues impact sales conversions. With a few more data points, you might have a revenue risk score.

Create Composite Metrics

Single data points don’t tell the full story. Lighthouse metrics blend multiple factors into a single, easy-to-communicate score (or story).

Make It Actionable

A metric is only valuable if it drives change. It should clearly indicate where improvements are needed and what impact they’ll have on business goals. If your metric just ends up as another dashboard tile that nobody checks, you’ve missed the point.

Get Buy-In and Iterate

Rolling out new metrics takes time. Leadership needs to see the value, frontline teams need to understand how it helps them, and the data needs to be refined over time. Start small, prove impact, and refine as you go.

Until next time, and as always, hooroo!