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#13 Measure THIS in your AI-first Call Center...

#13 Measure THIS in your AI-first Call Center...

In this edition, I break down the two KPIs that matter most in an AI-powered call center: speed to answer and speed to resolution. These metrics are shaping how we blend AI automation with human responsiveness—and ensuring customer experience doesn’t get lost in the tech.

Christopher Hoffmann
December 05, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes

In Today’s Newsletter

Two critical KPI’s in an AI powered call center
“Things you should do…
Founding Sponsors
Centralized shared services vs decentralized execution
Favorite Tweets from the past week

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What’s on my mind?

The Two KPIs That Matter Most in an AI-Powered Call Center

On December 1st, we transitioned all of our brands to what we call a “Netic First” or “N1” call center model—a bold shift that put AI agents at the front line of our customer experience. It’s a major leap for our companies, and one that we made not out of curiosity, but necessity.

Surge demand. Staff fatigue. Missed leads. Inconsistent call data & prioritization. These were problems our team faced daily. But with the help of AI agents, we now have a scalable, always-on solution that can handle overflow, after-hours demand, and routine bookings with speed and consistency.

That said, rolling out AI to the front lines of your customer experience comes with one non-negotiable: You better measure what matters.

Two New KPIs for an AI-First World

As we reimagined our call center, we introduced two new KPIs—both of which are crucial to ensuring that responsiveness and quality don’t suffer in an AI-first model.

1. Speed to Answer (Goal: <10 Seconds)

Here’s the scenario: A customer calls after hours. Our AI agent answers immediately, understands the issue, and escalates the call to a human agent based on predefined criteria (e.g., human request, frustration, or nuanced requests).

Speed to Answer measures how long it takes for our human team to pick up that escalated call.

Our target? Less than 10 seconds.

If a customer needs a human, they shouldn’t wait. This metric is simple, precise, and an instant proxy for whether our AI + human handoff is working the way it should.

2. Speed to Resolution (for AI-Flagged Follow-Ups)

Not every call ends neatly. Some are disconnected. Others involve objections around pricing, scheduling, or service availability. That’s where Speed to Resolution comes in.

This KPI measures how quickly our human agents follow up on leads that were flagged by AI as needing further attention.

We’re still refining the targets here—but we know not all follow-ups are created equal. A customer requesting an invoice doesn’t need the same urgency as one who’s sitting in a 40-degree house waiting for heat. So we’re building tiered resolution goals based on the priority level of each flag.

Watching Closely, Moving Quickly

We’re not taking this lightly.

We’re monitoring these KPIs in near real-time to ensure that the move to AI doesn’t come at the expense of quality or care. We’re bullish on what AI can do—but only if it’s paired with human empathy and operational discipline.

The results so far?

Near-instant response times during peak call volume
Improved consistency in data collection
Fewer dropped leads
Better prioritization for dispatch and scheduling

The Call Center Is Just the Beginning

Our belief in AI isn’t abstract. It’s operational. It’s measured. And it’s evolving.

The call center was the first step in a broader AI transformation that will touch scheduling, dispatching, capacity management, and customer follow-ups in the months ahead.

We’re not replacing humans. We’re amplifying them so they can focus their energy where it matters most.

If you’re running a home service business and looking for a way to scale without sacrificing service, the future isn’t in more headcount. It’s in a smarter system.

We’ve just started building ours.

-Chris

Winter riding lessons with kiddos— really fun to see her increased confidence with each lesson.

Training our team on furnace troubleshooting & diagnostic methods — lots of broken furnaces this winter!

Got this fella on the farm last weekend — two bucks in 2025 — i’d call this a success!

Snowy, white-out mornings at the farm are some of my favorite mornings. With a cup of hot coffee… there’s nothing that beats it.

Things you should…

1. If you do not have clear measures of success along each step of the customer journey, you should identify and measure KPIs that span from your call center, through dispatching, and through field professional performance on the job. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

2. If you don’t have a “no list” of projects or types of work that you won’t touch, you should write this down so your team has clarity around the “box” your company chooses to play in. For us… NO new construction, NO contracts with property managers or general contractors, NO extended complex commercial projects…

3. If YOU (as in YOU, the owner or executive) do not regularly listen to customer phone calls, you should make it part of your routine to listen to 3-5 phone calls each week. You’ll be surprised by what you learn.

Can you do me a favor?

To help me create the best content for you, can you answer this quick (4 question) survey? I promise it won’t take more than 30 seconds :)

The Path Less Traveled - Founding Sponsors

Founding Sponsors… that WE USE in our companies.

When I wanted to launch The Path Less Traveled, I didn’t just want to take any sponsor who would write a check.

On the contrary - I continue to turn down a ton of sponsor inquiries because of one reality: I want my sponsorships to be authentic, and be companies that I work with AND believe in.

Software: ServiceTitan - THE leading software platform for residential and commercial service providers; to be blunt - there is no alternative for scaled enterprise platforms - and that is why it is incredibly rare to find any company over $100M who is NOT using ServiceTitan.

Agentic AI: Netic - Netic has built transformative AI tools that execute end-to-end workflows across speech, text, and data, powering entire functions inside of HB Solutions Group. Elevating the customer experience while reducing friction and cost.

Consumer Financing: GreenSky Home Improvement - helps HB Solutions Group to delight our customers AND grow our business by giving us one of the most powerful tools we can possess: the ability to increase our customers’ buying power.

Final thought: we publish TPLT on/around the 1st and 15th of each month, and we will incorporate a deeper dive into our relationship with each of the partners above on the release on/around the 15th while including this abbreviated section on the release on/around the 1st of each month.

¹ The views and opinions expressed here are owned by The Path Less Traveled and its author and may not reflect the views of GreenSky®

CEO: Growth Mindset

Centralized vs. Decentralized: Finding the Right Balance in a Multi-Branch Home Service Company

As HB Solutions Group continues to grow across multiple brands and markets, one of the most important questions we wrestle with is this:

What should be centralized? And what should be left in the hands of local teams?

There’s no universal answer here—and if you’ve ever tried to standardize a high-growth service business across multiple branches, you already know why.

Done right, centralization brings control, consistency, and scale. Done wrong, it creates friction, slows execution, and erodes ownership at the local level.

We’ve made mistakes on both ends of the spectrum—and what we’ve learned is that the real answer isn’t either/or. It’s both. And it’s constantly evolving.

The Case for Centralization

The argument for centralization is strong—and it often starts with quality.

Consistency: When every customer hears the same phone greeting, sees the same invoice design, and receives the same onboarding experience, your brand builds trust.
Efficiency: Centralized systems often mean less duplication of effort and more buying power.
Control: In a world where every mistake scales with you, centralization gives leaders visibility into what’s happening—and the levers to fix it.

These are the reasons why we’ve chosen to centralize the following functions:

Call Center (AI + Human): One of the most sensitive customer touchpoints, now powered by AI agents and backed by human responsiveness.
IT & Technology: Platform selection, cybersecurity, and systems integrations require tight control and cross-brand compatibility.
Accounting & Finance: Centralized accounting ensures accuracy, cash control, and visibility across all brands.
Procurement (for high-dollar SKUs): Volume purchasing and negotiated pricing is one of the clearest wins from scale.
Marketing Budget & Vendor Selection: Ensures we maintain a strong brand and efficient spend across markets.

The Case for Decentralization

But we’ve also learned—sometimes the hard way—that when you centralize the wrong things, you kill ownership, slow decisions, and distance your teams from the outcomes.

Here’s what decentralization gives you:

Speed: Local teams can act without waiting for corporate signoff.
Relevance: Branch leaders know their customers, markets, and teams better than anyone at HQ ever could.
Ownership: When outcomes are local, accountability is clearer—and leaders rise to the challenge.

That’s why we’ve chosen to decentralize:

Dispatching: Local knowledge, technician familiarity, and real-time adjustments matter.
Training Execution: HBU provides the structure—but local leaders deliver and reinforce it.
Budgeting & Accountability: Corporate facilitates—but local teams build and own the numbers.
Field Operations & Leadership: Culture, leadership, and customer experience live (and die) on the jobsite.
Sales Execution: Corporate sets the standards, but local teams drive the outcomes.

A Blended Model: Still a Work in Progress

This isn’t a static decision. We continue to test, learn, and adjust.

Some functions we thought we could centralize created worse outcomes—so we pushed them back to the field. Others have proven their value at scale and become foundational to how we operate.

The balance between central control and local execution is dynamic. It requires humility, feedback loops, and a willingness to admit when something isn’t working.

But when it clicks? That’s where you unlock the magic of scale without losing the entrepreneurial spirit that got you there in the first place.

That’s the path we’re on. And if you’re building a growing, multi-branch business in the trades—my advice is this:

Choose control where it matters. Empower the field where it counts. And never stop recalibrating.

This Week’s Favorite Tweets

Friends of The Path Less Traveled

Who are the VENDORS that fuel our success?

MARKETING

Choosing a marketing agency that is both (1) competent and (2) CARES about your specific business is hard. Over the last 5 years, I have become great friends with the founder of RYNO Strategic Solutions, Chris Yano, and can say with confidence that his agency is among the few that I would trust with my own brands. If you are searching for a partner, send a note to Jeff Bowab at [email protected] and tell him that I sent you.

PAYROLL & HR

Inova Payroll & HR has been a partner to our companies for over 10 years. They have provided us with a payroll technology platform that has been able to keep pace with the demands of our fast-growing organization (now serving team members across 4 states). Inova’s platform works seamlessly with our CRM, ServiceTitan, and with our accounting back-end, Sage Intacct.

COACHING & TRAINING

If there is one organization - perhaps more than any other - that has fueled our growth over the last 10 years… that organization would be Nexstar Network. I like to say that Nexstar Network has built & refined a “process playbook” that touches on so many facets of our business. Don’t try and re-create the wheel… come and learn from the best. Reach out to my friend Kara Schuster at [email protected] and tell her that I sent you.

#grateful for the “Friends of TPLT” sponsors in this section

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