What does a call actually cost?
It is the first number anyone needs and the hardest to get a straight answer on. Here is what goes into it, how to work out your own, and why the published benchmarks disagree so wildly.
Search for a cost per call and you will find figures anywhere from about a dollar to well over twenty. They are not contradicting each other so much as counting different things. A number built from wages alone and a number that includes supervision, systems, attrition and the time agents are paid to be available describe the same operation and differ several times over.
Which is why the useful exercise is not finding a benchmark. It is working out your own, from figures you already have.
The short method.
Build it from the top down rather than the bottom up. Take everything the contact centre costs over a period, then divide by the contacts it handled in that period.
cost per call = total cost of the agent pool ÷ contacts handled
Top-down is more reliable than adding up per-call components, because it captures idle time without you having to model it. Agents are paid for the shift, not for the minutes they are talking, and any figure that misses that is too low.
What goes in
Seven things the total has to include.
Wages
Base pay for the time the contact actually occupies, which is talk time plus hold plus the after-call work of writing it up.
Benefits and payroll costs
Employer contributions, insurance, paid leave. Typically adds a quarter to a third on top of base pay, and it is the component most often left out.
Supervision and support
Team leads, quality assurance, workforce management and trainers, divided across the agents they support.
Recruitment and training
Hiring, onboarding and the ramp before a new agent is productive. In a contact centre with high attrition this is a recurring cost, not a one-off.
Systems and telephony
Per-seat licences for the desktop, the CCaaS platform, the knowledge base, plus carriage.
Facilities and overhead
Space, equipment and IT support, or the remote-work equivalent.
Idle time
Agents are paid for the whole shift, not the handled minutes. Dividing by occupancy is what turns a cost per talking-minute into a cost per call.
Cost per call is the wrong target.
The fastest way to reduce it is to transfer more calls, and that makes the operation worse. A transferred call is handled twice. A repeat call is handled again next week. Both look like a shorter average handle time and neither is a saving.
The number worth tracking is cost per resolved issue: the same total, divided by the issues that actually ended. It moves in the right direction only when work genuinely gets finished, which is also the only thing a customer experiences.
The figure we use
Our savings calculator defaults to $6per agent-handled call. That is a starting point for a conversation, not a benchmark we are asserting, and it is the first thing to replace with your own number. For reference on the other side of the sum: on the City of Kingsport's line, an agent call averaged 4:00 and Grace averaged 1:53.
Common questions
How do you calculate the cost per call in a contact centre?
Take the fully loaded cost of the agent pool over a period, including wages, employer costs, supervision, recruitment and training, systems, telephony and facilities, then divide by the number of contacts handled in that period. Dividing total cost by total contacts is more reliable than building the figure up per call, because it captures idle time automatically.
What should be included in the cost of a call?
Everything it takes to have someone able to answer it: wages and employer costs, supervision and quality, recruitment and training, desktop and telephony licences, and facilities. The components most often left out are employer costs on top of base pay, the recurring cost of attrition, and the idle time agents are paid for between contacts.
Why do published cost-per-call figures vary so much?
Because they are counting different things. A figure built from wages alone and a figure that includes supervision, systems, attrition and idle time can differ by several times over for the same operation. Any benchmark is only comparable if the components behind it are stated.
Does a shorter call always cost less?
Only if the work still gets finished. Handle time falls quickly when more calls are transferred, but a transferred call is handled twice and a repeat call is handled again later, so cost per resolved issue can rise while cost per call falls.
How does automation change the cost per call?
It changes the mix rather than the unit cost. Contacts finished without a person carry the automation's cost instead of an agent's, while the ones that still reach a person cost what they did before. The saving is in the share moved, not in the calls that still need someone.
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