15 Quiz Questions on Contact Center Operations (Part 1)

This is Part 1 of our quiz questions on Contact Center Operations.

This article is part of our Contact Center Management Series — a collection of articles that bring together practical guidance and insights to help Contact Centers run better and deliver stronger results.

Why this Quiz

Most people end up in the Contact Center industry by accident and learn on the job. But experience alone is not enough. Contact Center Management is a business discipline.

Like finance, law, or engineering, operating and guiding that ecosystem requires deep knowledge and practical expertise.

That’s the purpose of this quiz — to evalute your own know-how — with 15 questions drawn from our Contact Center Management Fundamentals training course.

Instructions

Below you will find 15 multiple choice questions on Contact Center Operations.

I’d recommend you complete this with no book, no notes, and no phone.

Every question has one correct answer — either A, B, C, or D.

I’ve put the Answer Key at the end so you can check your own answers when you’re ready.

Have fun!

Question 1

Which of the following contact types require the use of Service Level to calculate staffing levels?

I. Outbound calls
II. Email with 24-hour response time
III. Live chat / Text chat
IV. Walk-ins

A. I only
B. I and IV only
C. II and III only
D. III and IV only

Question 2

Which of the following is the industry standard Service Level?

A. 80% answered in 20 seconds
B. 90% answered in 30 seconds
C. Industry standards only exist for vertical industries
D. There is no industry standard

Question 3

A Contact Center has recently established KPI targets. The Service Level objective is 80% answered in 20 seconds and the Average Speed of Answer (ASA) objective is 10 seconds. The Center also plays a prerecorded announcement for all callers prior to queuing.

Given this information, which of the following statements is true?

A. The Center is measuring typical callers’ experience more effectively than Centers that measure Service Level alone
B. Setting both Service Level and ASA targets is not appropriate
C. To be most meaningful ASA should be measured as an end-of-day average
D. The timing of ASA should begin as soon as the prerecorded announcement starts

Question 4

Given the following information, what is the Abandonment Rate for the week (Monday–Friday)?

Total calls answered: 9,479
Total calls abandoned: 702

Daily Abandonment Rates:
Monday: 10.4%
Tuesday: 7.4%
Wednesday: 5.4%
Thursday: 3.4%
Friday: 7.0%

A. 6.9%
B. 9.2%
C. 11.5%
D. 5.0%

Question 5

When managing the queue in real time, which of the following on-screen statistics should you look at first?

A. Agent status
B. Longest current wait
C. Number of calls in queue
D. Average time to abandonment

Question 6

Which of the following statements is/are TRUE?

I. Occupancy is the percentage of time Agents spend talking to Customers or completing after-call work
II. Occupancy is a result of random call arrival
III. When Service Level increases, Occupancy increases
IV. When Occupancy is very high for extended periods, Agents tend to work harder to clear the queue

A. II only
B. I and II only
C. II and IV only
D. I, III and IV only

Question 7

If an Agent arrives 30 minutes late to work on calls or live chats, which of the following actions would benefit the Center the most?

A. Stay 30 minutes extra at the end of the shift
B. Skip morning and afternoon breaks (15 minutes each)
C. Return 30 minutes early from a one-hour lunch break
D. Take breaks and lunch as normal and leave at the scheduled time

Question 8

Which one of the following statements is FALSE?

A. Measuring the number of calls handled by an Agent is a good productivity standard
B. Adherence to Schedule is an important productivity measure for Agents handling Service Level-based contacts
C. When Adherence to Schedule improves, Service Level improves
D. Most of what drives Average Handling Time lies outside the control of the Agent

Question 9

Which statement is MOST correct?

A. To achieve productivity objectives, Agents must sacrifice quality
B. Average Handling Time is the most important productivity standard
C. Agents are accountable for Service Level performance
D. It is possible to design metrics that enable Agents to achieve both quality and productivity objectives

Question 10

The best definition of Time Series forecasting is:

A. A method where the past is a good basis for predicting the future
B. A method used only in rare circumstances
C. A method that covers the qualitative side of forecasting
D. A method that does not require judgment

Question 11

What variables does Erlang C require to perform staffing calculations?

I. Average Handling Time
II. Call volume
III. Number of abandoned calls
IV. Service Level objective

A. I and II only
B. I, II and III only
C. I, II and IV only
D. II, III and IV only

Question 12

Your Contact Center expects 200 emails between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. The Average Handling Time is 8 minutes. The response time target is 4 hours.

Which staffing scenario meets the objective?

I. 4 Agents working 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
II. 9 Agents working 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
III. 14 Agents working 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
IV. 40 Agents working one hour each between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

A. II only
B. III and IV only
C. II, III and IV only
D. I, II, III and IV

Question 13

Which of the following must be incorporated into a monthly labor budget calculation?

I. Is my Agent at work?
II. What is the monthly average Occupancy rate?
III. Is my Agent on a break?
IV. Is my Agent on leave?

A. III only
B. I and II only
C. I, II and III only
D. I, II, III and IV

Question 14

A Delay Profile is especially useful to:

A. Calculate your Longest Wait Time
B. Calculate required staffing levels
C. Estimate cross-training requirements
D. Calculate your Shrinkage rate

Question 15

Which accessibility metric gives Management the clearest indication of the wait time a typical Caller experiences?

A. Average Speed of Answer
B. Service Level
C. Percent abandoned
D. Percent answered

The Answer Key

Here are the correct answers:

Explore More Contact Center Operations Articles

If you’d like to go deeper into some of the concepts covered in this quiz, these articles will help.

15 Quiz Questions on Contact Center Operations Management (Part 2)

True Calls Per Hour: Balancing Quality and Productivity

Implementing Appropriate Contact Centre Wait Time Metrics

What To Know About the Pooling Principle in Contact Centers

Thank You for Reading

I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this resonates, I’d love to stay connected.

You can drop me a line anytime, or subscribe on our site.

Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com