Running a BPO: Seat Use, Attrition Cost and Client Mix

• 01Seats are counted as built, not as filled and productive, so the owner does not see the gap between seats paid for and seats billed.
• 02Agents leave steadily, and the cost of recruiting and training their replacements sits across several heads and is never added up.
• 03One client provides most of the revenue, and a change in its volume or a move to another vendor would reset the whole centre.
• 04Billing runs per seat for some clients and per transaction for others, and nobody compares what each seat earns across the two.
• 05Night and weekend shifts need transport, allowances and supervisors, and their cost per seat is never set against the billing they earn.

• Seat utilisation

  Average seats filled and productive in the month divided by seats built, by process and by shift.

• Attrition and training cost

  Agents who left in the month divided by average headcount, and the recruiting and training spent on their replacements.

• Top-client share

  Revenue from the largest client divided by total revenue for the month.

• Revenue and cost per seat

  Client billing divided by seats used, set against salary, allowances, transport and overhead for those seats.

Back office uses half its seats, 30 of 60, and earns ₹7,000 per productive seat against ₹11,000 for voice. If a productive seat costs ₹8,000 a month (a made-up figure), back office loses ₹1,000 on each while the other two processes clear their cost.

• 01Reading seat utilisation from seats built, when agents in training are on the payroll but not billable.
• 02Treating attrition as an HR matter, when the cost of replacing each leaver is a line in the centre's margin.
• 03Chasing a larger top-client share without comparing revenue and cost per seat across clients.

• 01Seats built, seats filled and seats productive, by process and by shift
• 02Attrition by month and by tenure band, with the cost of replacing each leaver
• 03Revenue by client and the share of the top client in the month
• 04Billing per seat or per transaction converted to one comparable figure per seat
• 05Quality score by agent and by process, tracked over months, not weeks
• 06Cost per seat by shift: salary, allowances, transport, supervisor time and seat overhead
• 07Training batch tracker: starters, completions and agents who reach full productivity
• 08A weekly floor summary for the owner and the operations head

1. List each process with the seats built, the average filled in the month and the average productive. Divide filled by built.
2. Hypothetical example: with 50 agents and 6 leaving in a month, attrition is 12 percent. If recruiting and training a replacement costs ₹15,000, the month cost the centre ₹90,000 that no one planned for.
3. Write each client's invoice for last month and divide by the seats it uses. Compare the per-seat figures side by side.

1. First call: you describe the business and the numbers you already track.
2. Your first sheet: the one described under What you get, built from your own books.
3. The rhythm: a regular review of seat utilisation, attrition and training cost, top-client share, revenue and cost per seat.
4. What you hold at the end: a written sheet and a named owner for each number.

• Operations & Process Audit

  We walk through how work really flows in your business, from order to delivery, and identify the delays, rework, errors and handoffs costing you money.

• Business Audit

  Operations & Process Audit is part of Business Audit. See the full service if the problem is wider than one piece.

• Our revenue is growing, but our profit is not

  Sales are up but the money left over is not. Find where margin leaks in pricing, discounts, rework and overheads, and what to check this week.

• My team is busy, but nobody takes accountability

  Everyone looks occupied, yet deadlines slip and results lag. See how unclear roles, targets and reviews cause it, and how to build real ownership.

• How this differs from Managed IT service providers

  A managed IT provider sells monthly contracts for systems it looks after; a BPO sells seats or transactions staffed by agents, so attrition and seat use drive the margin.