Call center agents in 2025 juggle more channels than ever, need shorter response times, and demand higher expectations from customers. On top of that, they face the challenges of burnout and using outdated tools that slow everything down.
AI-powered systems can help improve agent productivity by offloading repetitive work, reducing resolution times, and providing the necessary context to resolve queries faster.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
- The most common causes of low agent productivity
- Key metrics every support team should track
- 13 actionable strategies to improve performance
- How AI tools like Lindy fit into modern workflows
- Examples and tools that work
First, let’s discover what slows agents down.
The biggest agent productivity pain points
Agent productivity often stalls because the systems around them get in the way, not because of a lack of effort. From fragmented tools to never-ending queues, these are the recurring issues that repeatedly appear:
Manual, repetitive tasks
A big chunk of an agent’s day goes into work that doesn’t require judgment — things like summarizing calls, updating the CRM, or hunting down policy snippets. It drains agents, delays resolution times, and distracts them from meaningful customer interactions.
This is exactly where AI customer service tools help the reps, offloading repetitive tasks while giving them more time to solve real problems.
High ticket volume with little prioritization
When every issue looks the same in the queue, urgent requests get buried and agents default to “first in, first out.” That’s a fast track to customer frustration. Without AI-based triage or some form of smart escalation logic, support teams are always catching up.
Long resolution times
Resolution time goes up when agents lack the right context. Clicking through multiple systems to find account history, previous tickets, and internal notes adds friction to every conversation. Long handle times hurt agent productivity and call center efficiency.
Lack of unified tools and information
Agents often switch between five or six different tabs just to respond to one query. Every switch costs time and increases the chance of error. This tool fragmentation is the root cause of low morale and performance dips. It’s directly connected to the challenge of customer service automation.
Agent burnout and slow onboarding
Burnout often sets in early when new hires are expected to memorize dozens of workflows instead of having support from smart, intuitive systems. Training can take weeks, and in fast-moving environments, that lag creates a productivity gap that's hard to recover from.
Low morale or high turnover
When agents feel like they’re stuck doing low-impact work, with little room for growth or recognition, turnover spikes. The cost isn’t just morale — it’s rehiring, retraining, and the overall hit to improving call center performance.
So, what are the metrics that tell you whether the call center productivity is on track or not? Let’s explore those.
Key metrics for measuring agent productivity
If you want to improve call center agent performance, you need to know what metrics to look for and how to measure them. This gives you visibility into where agents are struggling and what’s not working.
Here are the most important ones to track:
Average handle time (AHT)
AHT is the average time an agent spends on a customer interaction, including both talk time and wrap-up work. It’s useful, but it needs context. If your handle times are low, but CSAT is suffering, you’re likely rushing interactions.
If AHT is high and resolution rates are low, something’s broken in the workflow.
First contact resolution (FCR)
FCR measures how often a customer’s issue is resolved in a single touchpoint. It’s one of the cleanest indicators of whether your agents have the tools, training, and autonomy to solve problems. High FCR usually means fewer repeat tickets.
CSAT and QA scores
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Quality Assurance (QA) scores add a qualitative lens. You might be hitting targets on AHT or FCR but still delivering a poor experience. These metrics flag when the “how” of your support is falling short, even if the “what” looks fine.
Agent occupancy & utilization
Occupancy measures how much time agents spend on customer-facing work. Utilization goes a step further, tracking how much of an agent’s logged-in time is productive. These help you catch issues like poor queue balancing or inefficient workflows.
Resolution rate
Resolution rate tells you how many tickets an agent closes over a given period. It doesn’t account for complexity or customer satisfaction on its own, but paired with QA and AHT, it’s a solid directional stat.
Most teams track at least a few of these. Good teams look at all of them in combination and use them to drive coaching, tooling, and process changes. Let’s see how you can improve these metrics.
13 proven strategies to improve agent productivity
These 13 strategies are designed to fix the efficiencies holding your agents back. These can help you drive up the agent productivity and call center efficiency:
1. Automate repetitive workflows
Agents shouldn’t spend hours on admin work. Use automation to handle tasks like ticket tagging, email responses, meeting scheduling, and CRM updates. It’s one of the clearest paths to improving output without adding headcount. AI agents make this easier than ever.
2. Use smart routing
Smart routing assigns queries based on skills, experience, or load balancing. It speeds up resolution time and improves customer outcomes. LivePerson and Talkdesk both lean on this, but even lighter-weight solutions can make a difference.
3. Make knowledge accessible
Your agents waste time digging through PDFs or Slack threads to answer common questions. Invest in an internal knowledge base, or better yet, let AI surface the right answers mid-conversation. It reduces time-to-resolution and cuts training time for new hires.
4. Add real-time coaching and feedback
Real-time prompts, like reminders to confirm details or slow down tone, help new agents build confidence and consistency. Tools like Gong do this well in sales, and we’re starting to see similar systems in support too.
5. Triage tickets with AI
Use AI to sort incoming tickets by priority, sentiment, or intent. Instead of agents picking through the inbox manually, they can focus on what’s urgent and valuable. This kind of triage shows up in customer support workflows and is key to call center productivity.
6. Automate follow-ups and call summaries
Follow-up emails and post-call notes are necessary, but they shouldn’t slow agents down. AI can handle summarizing interactions, logging outcomes, and queuing the next steps in the CRM.
7. Use omnichannel tools
When agents juggle live chat, email, phone, and social, each running in a separate tool, productivity takes a hit. Unified platforms remove that friction. Zendesk, Intercom, and AI-powered customer support tools like Lindy are all making progress here.
8. Give agents context upfront
The best support conversations start with full context –– customer history, ticket thread, past orders, and sentiment analysis. Tools that surface this context automatically help agents respond faster, personalize interactions, and resolve issues more accurately, all of which drive higher CSAT and first-contact resolution rates.
9. Monitor the right KPIs
Don’t just track AHT or CSAT in isolation. Look at metrics like time to next action, escalation rate, and resolution velocity. When you measure the right metrics, you coach your agents for the right goals.
10. Reduce overload with queue balancing
Assigning tickets based on workload helps prevent burnout and keeps your faster agents from getting buried. It creates a smooth experience for customers too.
11. Simplify the agent experience
Clunky internal tools and poor workspace design are some of the biggest blockers in support. Improve the workspace with pre-filled fields and hidden inputs unless they’re needed. These tweaks reduce friction, speed up resolution, and lower training overhead.
12. Make onboarding more adaptive
New agents only need to know enough information to get started. Add real-time nudges, simple workflows, and AI-powered support to let them get used to the work.
13. Offer real-time performance insights
Nobody wants to wait until their weekly review to find out they messed up a call. Give agents instant feedback on tone, pacing, and accuracy, especially in hybrid or remote teams. It builds trust, shortens learning curves, and creates a culture of ownership.
Strategies to improve agent productivity: Quick glance table
These strategies are where most teams start. But tools only go so far without the right execution. If you’re figuring out how to improve call center metrics, start here:
The results your team achieves depends on the tools they use. Let’s explore how Lindy fits into this picture.
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How Lindy improves agent productivity
Lindy isn’t a dashboard or a ticketing tool. It’s an AI automation platform that lets you create AI workflows with customizable AI agents. You can set up a phone support agent in under 6 minutes without coding. Just use drag-and-drop prompts and templates to launch AI voice agents that take repetitive work off your team’s plate.
With ready-to-use, customizable templates for common support workflows, it helps teams trying to boost agent productivity. Let’s see how:
A hands-on AI assistant
Most support tools ask agents to tag tickets, update CRM fields, summarize calls, and log follow-ups. Lindy changes that by listening to the agents, understanding the context, and taking the next steps automatically — all within the tools your team already uses.
It’s designed to take work off your agents’ plates.
What it can do
Lindy can take up a lot of repetitive tasks. Here’s a snapshot of what Lindy can handle:
- Writing follow-up emails after customer calls
- Logging notes and next steps directly in the CRM
- Drafting summaries for internal handoffs
- Triaging inbound tickets by urgency or topic
- Coordinating calendar invites for follow-ups
These tasks take up a lot of time and lead to burnout. By automating these, Lindy helps improve both call center productivity and morale.
Works with your stack
Lindy supports 7,000+ integrations across 1,600+ apps — including native integrations with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Notion. For teams already investing in customer service automation, that kind of flexibility is important.
Let’s look at an example: A midsized allergy clinic can use Lindy to handle patient intake and EMR updates. One of the Lindy agents reads inbound faxes, extracts medical data, and summarizes it for the doctor, saving hours per day.
For support teams, the impact looks similar. They spend less time typing, have better context, and can hand off information faster, leading to better conversations.
So how do these kinds of tools fit into modern agent workflows and what role should they play? Let’s answer that next.
The role of AI in modern agent workflows
AI replaces the kind of repetitive work that keeps the agents from being effective. When you're thinking about improving call center performance without burning your team out, it plays a big role. Here’s how:
Human + machine collaboration
The best agent workflows today aren’t 100% human or fully automated. They’re hybrid. AI handles rote work like triaging tickets or logging notes, while agents focus on problem-solving, nuance, and empathy — the parts machines can't fake.
Freeing up high-value time
Every minute spent formatting an email or hunting for context is a minute not spent helping customers. AI acts as an accelerant here and speeds up the processes. That’s how you make progress on call center efficiency.
Customizable AI agents
With customizable AI agents, teams can assign each agent a specific role, like triaging tickets, sending follow-ups, or logging notes, so they work alongside human agents, not replace them.
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Frequently asked questions
What’s the most effective way to improve call center agent productivity?
Start with workflow automation and better ticket routing. Remove manual steps, then measure what matters. Upgrades to small processes compound quickly.
How does AI reduce burnout in call centers?
By handling repetitive tasks like tagging, summarizing, and CRM updates, AI lightens the load. Agents spend less time on admin work and more time solving actual customer problems.
Which metrics should I track to measure agent performance?
AHT, FCR, CSAT, QA, occupancy, and resolution rate are the essential metrics to track agent performance. If you want to go beyond these, look at time-to-next-action and coaching response time.
What are the best tools to automate agent workflows?
Zendesk AI, Lindy, Talkdesk, and similar tools that offer AI customer service capabilities and AI SDRs are some of the best tools to automate agent workflows. Each has different strengths depending on your stack.
How can Lindy help increase productivity in my customer support team?
Lindy automates post-call admin, triages tickets, and assists in real time while integrating with your existing tools. It can handle the first step of support and can be configured to solve common problems without needing a human.
Can AI replace human agents?
Yes, in some cases it can. AI can assist and take over with repetitive low-value tasks, replacing the humans that did it. What it cannot replace are the parts of the process that need human thinking and oversight.
Discover how Lindy can improve your agent productivity
Lindy isn’t just another software solution — it’s a full-fledged partner that transforms how your call center team learns, grows, and closes tickets.
Here’s why Lindy should be in your corner:
- Personalized coaching that actually works: Lindy’s Meeting Coach adds AI to your calls with actionable insights. From objection handling to tone improvements, your reps get real-time feedback tailored to their unique skills and areas of growth.
- Instant inbox support: Lindy tackles customer queries directly within your support channels or its dedicated inbox, delivering quick resolutions and boosting CSAT scores.
- Always-on assistance: Lindy agents can be configured for 24/7 availability, depending on how your team deploys them — making them ideal for async workflows and always-on support.
- Integrates with major apps: From Airtable to Salesforce, Lindy connects with your favorite tools, ensuring all your training data and sales insights stay organized and accessible.
- Automated CRM updates: Instead of just logging a transcript, you can set up Lindy to update CRM fields and fill in missing data in Salesforce and HubSpot — without manual input.
- AI-powered follow-ups: Lindy agents can send follow-up emails, schedule meetings, and keep everyone in the loop by triggering notifications in Slack by letting you build a Slackbot.
- Conquering language barriers: Lindy’s phone agents support over 30 languages, helping you expand your reach and allowing your team to communicate with a broader audience.
- More than just automation: Lindy’s versatility goes way beyond automating tasks. From meeting note-taking and website chatbots for customer support to content creation and lead generation, Lindy agents cover a range of business needs that improve operations across your organization.
- A team of AI agents for every job: With Lindy’s multi-agent coordination feature, you can create specialized Lindy agents for different tasks. These agents can collaborate and hand off tasks to each other in a workflow.
- Affordability: Build your first few automations with Lindy’s free version and get up to 400 tasks. With the Pro plan, you can automate up to 5,000 tasks, which offers much more value than Lindy’s competitors.
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