Project Overview:

PhoneNow, a leading telecom marketing company, is striving to gain better transparency and insight into call center trends. In a market where competitors are constantly offering better prices, superior service, and tailored solutions for various demographics, it’s crucial to understand what customers truly want. For this task, I worked with Claire, the call center manager, who is looking for an accurate overview of long-term trends in both customer and agent behavior. My task was to visualize this data clearly and comprehensively to make informed decisions and improve overall performance.

Business Problem:

Understanding long-term trends in customer and agent behavior is essential for PhoneNow to stay competitive. With competitors continuously improving their offerings, PhoneNow needs to gain insights into call center performance to enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. The challenge was to identify key trends and provide actionable insights for the call center manager to make informed decisions.

Methodology:

1. Data Extraction and Transformation: Utilized PowerQuery and MS Excel to extract, clean, and transform call center data.
2. Data Visualization: Built a comprehensive dashboard in Microsoft Power BI to visualize long-term trends and key metrics for both customer and agent behavior.
3. Analysis and Metrics: Employed DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) for tailored calculations and novel metrics to gain deeper insights into the data.

Technical Tools Used for the Project:

• Tools Utilized: Microsoft Power BI, PowerQuery, MS Excel
• Language Employed: DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) for custom calculations and metrics, M language for data loading and transformation

Skills Applied:

• Power BI: Data visualization, DAX for custom calculations, creating calculated columns, and data modeling.
• PowerQuery: Data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL).
• MS Excel: Data cleaning and preliminary analysis.

Results & Business Recommendation:

Creating a dashboard to track call center performance provided the call center manager with visibility into both customer and agent behaviors over time. This visibility helped identify trends such as peak call times, common customer issues, and agent performance metrics. The analysis revealed key insights, including:

• The overall average satisfaction score for Q1–2021 sits at 3.40, peaking at 3.45 in the month of January.
• The abandoned call rate is 18.92%, occurring mostly during peak hours (11 AM — 1 PM).
• Unresolved calls were at 27.08%.
• In January, call volume was approximately 9.79% higher compared to February and March on average.
• Significant peak hours are seen at 1 PM daily, with the highest volume of calls received on Mondays.
• The highest volume of unresolved calls is seen on payment-related inquiries.

Based on these insights, I recommend the following actions to improve call center performance:

1. Implement Targeted Training Programs: Roll out targeted training for agents focusing on handling billing inquiries more efficiently to reduce unresolved calls.
2. Optimize Staffing Schedules: Adjust staffing schedules based on the analysis to ensure more experienced agents are available during peak hours (11 AM — 1 PM) and on high-volume days like Mondays and Saturdays.
3. Introduce a Feedback Mechanism: Set up a system for customers to quickly report and resolve billing issues, which can help reduce the volume of unresolved calls.

These recommendations are expected to improve customer satisfaction, enhance agent performance, and reduce call resolution times.

By following these steps, PhoneNow can better understand and address customer needs, improve call center efficiency, and maintain a competitive edge in the telecom market.