'Earn the Right to Cross-Sell'

If you measure agent performance in a call center by the average time it takes to handle an inbound call, you are making a big mistake, Wells Fargo's Gary Class told attendees June 5 at the SourceMedia Business Intelligence Forum in San Francisco.Instead, the measure should be the elapsed time it takes to solve the customer's problem, he said during a session on call-center metrics. Handling inbound calls successfully can be a huge factor in determining whether you will be successful in cross-selling products such as home equity lines of credit, according to Mr. Class. Business intelligence technology such as pattern-recognition software earns its keep because the more you can predict behavior, the better you serve customers -- and thereby "earn the right to cross-sell," Mr. Class said.