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Service level

Ook wel genoemd: 80/20 rule · service level agreement

Service level is the percentage of contacts answered within a defined time threshold, written as two numbers: 80/20 means 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds.

The 80/20 target is the most widely used figure in the industry and the most widely misunderstood. It is a convention that spread by repetition, not a researched optimum — Call Centre Helper states plainly that it is a convention rather than best practice. Plenty of centres run 90% in 15 seconds; others deliberately accept a lower service level where cost matters more than speed of answer.

Service level is a distribution, not an average, which is why it is more useful than average speed of answer alone. A queue can post a healthy ASA while a long tail of callers waits several minutes.

Raising service level costs agents at an accelerating rate. Moving from 70% to 80% is usually cheap; moving from 90% to 95% can cost as much again, because each additional agent absorbs less incremental waiting.

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Veelgestelde vragen

What does 80/20 mean in a call centre?

80% of calls answered within 20 seconds. The first number is the percentage of contacts, the second is the threshold in seconds.

Is 80/20 the industry standard service level?

It is the most common convention, not a standard. It has no research basis as an optimum — it became ubiquitous through repetition. Choose the target your customers and budget actually justify.

Zie Service level in een echt gesprek.

Plan een demo van 30 minuten en zie Finn inbound- en outbound-gesprekken van begin tot eind afhandelen — geen stack om samen te stellen.