What Can You Learn from Call Reports?
Call analytics turns the call log into numbers you can base decisions on: how many calls came in, how many were answered, how long callers waited, and when the load is heaviest. The reports answer questions like "Do we need another agent?" and "When is it best to open the line?".
Where the data comes from
Every call that passes through the PBX leaves a record. This record is called a CDR (Call Detail Record), and in plain English — a line in the call log. It includes who called, which number they called, when, where the call was routed, whether it was answered, and how long it lasted.
One line does not teach much. A thousand lines already tell a story: which days the office is busy, how many callers give up before being answered, and which extension gets more calls than it can answer.
Call analytics is exactly this move — from a long list of lines to a few numbers and charts that a manager can understand in a minute.
The first metric: answered and unanswered
The most basic question is how many of the incoming calls were answered by a person. It sounds simple, but you need to define what counts as "answered". A call that went to voicemail — was it answered? A call that was disconnected after two seconds in the menu — was it even a call?
A common definition: a call is answered if a person picked it up. A call is unanswered if the caller waited and got no response. A call where the caller hung up within a few seconds, before anyone could have answered, is usually not counted as a miss, because it was probably a wrong number.
The number worth tracking is the answer rate: answered calls divided by all relevant calls. A rate that drops over time is a warning sign, even if every individual call looks fine.
Wait time and abandonment
Wait time is how much time passed from the moment the caller entered the queue until someone answered. It is important to measure from entering the queue, not from the start of the call: if the caller spent a minute in the IVR menu choosing an extension, that minute does not belong to the wait for an agent.
It is worth looking at both the average and the extreme cases. An average of one minute sounds good, but if ten percent of callers waited five minutes, that is a problem the average hides.
Abandonment is a caller who hung up while waiting, before being answered. Abandoned calls are usually people who wanted something and did not get it. There is usually a direct link: the longer the wait, the more people give up. Tracking both metrics together shows where your callers' limit of patience lies.
Call duration
Call duration is the actual talking time, from the moment a person answered until the call ended. It answers other questions: how long it takes to handle an inquiry, which topics require long calls, and which agents talk longer than others.
A long call is not always bad. Sometimes it is a sign of thorough service. But if a certain type of inquiry takes three times as long as the others, it may be worth writing an explanation for it on the website, recording a message about it in the menu, or preparing a clear answer for the agents.
Call centers sometimes also measure total handling time: the call duration plus the time the agent works after it, for example recording notes in the customer's card. This is the number that determines how many calls one agent can take per hour.
Peak hours
Calls do not arrive evenly throughout the day. Most offices have clear peak hours: in the morning after opening, after the lunch break, and before closing. Yeshivas and institutions sometimes see a completely different peak, for example in the evenings or around payment dates.
A report by hour shows how many calls came in during each hour of the day, and how many of them were not answered. This report is perhaps the most useful tool for planning: it shows exactly when hands are missing, and when there is a surplus.
It is also worth looking at days of the week and seasons. Sundays are different from Thursdays, and the week before a holiday is different from a regular week. Someone who knows the patterns can prepare in advance instead of being caught unprepared.
A basic metrics table
These are the metrics worth knowing, and what each one tells you:
| Metric | What it measures | What it helps decide |
|---|---|---|
| Number of incoming calls | How many inquiries came in | Workload, trends over time |
| Answer rate | How many calls were answered by a person | Whether there are enough people on the line |
| Timeout | How long people waited in the queue until answered | Whether another agent is needed at certain hours |
| Dropped calls | How many hung up while waiting | The limit of patience, the need for a callback service |
| Call duration | Actual talking time | Which topics take time, agent training |
| Distribution by hour | When the calls arrive | Shift scheduling, opening hours |
From data to decisions: examples from the field
The accounting firm "Levi & Co." saw that on Sundays between nine and eleven, a third of the calls went unanswered. Instead of hiring another employee, they moved the coffee break of two clerks to eleven, and added the secretary to the hunt group only during those hours. The answer rate rose noticeably.
A yeshiva in Jerusalem discovered that most parent inquiries arrive after eight in the evening, when the office is already closed. They recorded a message that directs callers to an organized voicemail box, and arranged for someone to go through the messages every morning. The parents stopped complaining that "you can't reach anyone".
A chesed organization saw that calls about "when is the distribution" took up a large part of the call center's time. They added an option in the IVR menu that plays the date of the next distribution, and the agents were freed up for calls that truly need a person.
Common mistakes in reading reports
- Looking only at averages — a good daily average can hide a single hour of chaos.
- Counting every short call as a miss — a caller who hangs up after a second probably dialed the wrong number. If you count it, the picture looks worse than it is.
- Counting one call several times — a call that went from the menu to a queue and from there to an extension may appear in the log as several lines. A good report joins them into one call.
- Comparing different periods — a holiday week against a regular week is not a fair comparison.
- Judging an agent by one number — someone who gets the hard calls will talk longer. Context is needed.
Live picture vs. historical report
There are two kinds of views of calls. A live picture shows what is happening now: how many calls are active, how many are waiting in the queue, who is talking. This is the tool of whoever is running the call center at this moment, and it is covered in more detail in the article on the call center wallboard.
A historical report looks back: a day, a week, a month. It does not help you handle a caller who is waiting right now, but it helps you decide the big things: how many people are needed, at which hours, and how to build the call flow.
The two kinds complement each other. The live picture helps you respond, the historical report helps you plan.
Questions the reports answer
The best way to use reports is to start with a question, not with numbers. Here are some questions managers actually ask, and which data answers them:
- "Is one evening hour of call center coverage enough?" — a report by hour: how many calls come in the evening, and how many of them are after the hour the call center closes.
- "Why do customers say nobody answers them?" — answer rate and abandonment during the hours when the customer calls. Sometimes the answer is one specific hour of the day.
- "Is the IVR menu confusing?" — how many callers hang up inside the menu, before they even reached a queue.
- "Should we open another line?" — how many times a week all the lines were busy at the same time.
- "Which advertising number works?" — if each campaign has a separate number, count how many calls reached each one.
A good question turns a report of hundreds of lines into an answer of one sentence.
Beyond the numbers: what to talk about
Numbers say how many and when, but they do not say why people called. This is where call transcription and content analysis come in. When every call gets a summary and a list of topics, you can see over time which topics come up the most.
This is information that is hard to get any other way. A manager can discover that twenty percent of inquiries are about the same question, and deal with it once, instead of the agents answering it a hundred times a week.
How often to look
There is no need to sit over the reports every day. A good habit for most offices: a short look once a week at the answer rate and the unanswered calls, and a deeper look once a month at peak hours and trends.
And just as important: before and after every change. Did you add an agent, change the menu, move the hours? Compare the reports before and after, and that way you will know whether the change really helped.
How it works with us at Kesher
In the Kesher control panel there is a call log that shows all the calls, including the unanswered ones. Every analysis starts from it: you can see who called, when, and what happened to the call.
In the Queues screen there is a live picture of what is happening in the queue right now, and in the Active Calls screen you see all the calls happening at the moment, and you can transfer or hang up a call directly from the screen.
For calls that were unanswered or abandoned in the queue, you can get an email alert, so you do not have to wait for a report to call the caller back.
Whoever is connected to our CRM also gets content analysis: a transcript of the recording, and a summary, topics and tasks that are produced by artificial intelligence and saved in the customer's card. And if you need help understanding what the data says, a real person answers any question here.
FAQ
What counts as a good answer rate?
There is no single number that suits everyone. A service center usually aims for a very high rate, and a small office with one secretary will look different. It is more important to follow the trend: is the number improving or dropping.
Why does the report show more calls than were actually received?
Sometimes a single call goes through several stages, from a menu to a queue and from there to an extension, and each stage is recorded separately. The lines need to be joined into one call to get a correct count.
Does a call that reached voicemail count as answered?
It is a matter of definition. In most cases no — the caller did not speak with a person. But if there is a clear procedure to call back every message, it is less serious than a call that was simply lost.
How do you know if you need another agent?
Look at the peak hours. If during those hours there is a long wait time and high abandonment, and all the agents are already on calls, you are probably short on people. If it is only during some of the hours, you can sometimes solve it by arranging shifts.
From when is the wait time counted?
From the moment the caller enters the queue. The time spent in the IVR menu, choosing an extension, does not belong to the wait for an agent.
What do you do about abandoned calls?
Call them back as quickly as possible. An email alert about an abandoned call, or a callback service in the queue, helps you not lose these callers.
Can you tell what people called about?
From the numbers alone — no. For that you need transcription and analysis of the recordings, which produce a summary and topics for each call.
Do you need special software to analyze calls?
For basic needs — no. The call log in the control panel is enough to see what was answered and what was not, and when. For analysis of the content, meaning what was discussed, you need transcription and analysis of the recordings, for example through a connection to the CRM.
What is the difference between an unanswered call and an abandoned call?
An unanswered call is any call that no person picked up, for example an extension that rang to the end. An abandoned call is a special case: the caller waited in the queue and hung up before their turn came. Both require calling the caller back, but the abandoned call tells you especially about queue wait times.