Welcome back. In part 3 of Making a Customer Service Dashboard using Excel let us learn how to create the charts in our dashboard.
Designing Customer Service Dashboard
Data and Calculations for the Dashboard
Creating the dashboard in Excel
Adding Macros & Final touches
Deconstructing the header area – Customer Service Dashboard
I like to keep a header area on all my dashboards. The purpose of header is simple. It shows key summaries and gives the users a sense of what is going on. In our customer service dashboard, the header has various key metrics & their trends, as shown below.
Constructing the spark-line for trend
The trend of calls for “All” and 2 selected options is shown as sparklines. Sparklines, a new feature introduced in Excel 2010 is very handy and easy to use. All you had to is select the 28 day call volume figures for ALL & 2 selected options and then go to Insert > Sparkline. Select the line sparkline & bingo, the sparklines are added to your workbook. Just cut them and paste them on the dashboard sheet.
Related: Learn how to use Excel 2010 Sparklines for dashboards
Constructing the traffic lights for call resolution
This is done with Conditional formatting. Another favorite feature. First we need to decide the traffic light conditions. In our case, I have defined below rules.
Related: Using Conditional Formatting Traffic Lights for your dashboards
Constructing Satisfaction Rating Chart
Distribution of customer satisfaction ratings is shown as a column chart. This is in fact a sparkline. The data for this is in Calcs!L42:N46. This is calculated using beloved SUMPRODUCT as shown in 2nd installment.
To insert the chart, just select L42:N46 in Calcs sheet and click on Insert > Sparklines (Column) chart. Move the chart to Dashboard sheet.
Related: Learn how to use Excel 2010 Sparklines for dashboards
Deconstructing the Dynamic Comparison Chart
The heart of this dashboard is dynamic chart at bottom. It has a lot going on,
- You can change the 4 week period for this chart
- You can select how you want to compare
- You can select which 2 options you want to compare
- You can tell what type of chart to show – (call volume, talk time, resolution rate, satisfaction rating & upsell $s)
To explain the dynamism of this chart, I have made a brief video. Please watch it first.
[Watch the video on our Youtube Channel]
So how this chart is made?
Even though we see dynamic chart in our dashboard, it is actually a picture link. This is how the chart works:
- From the calculations we have learned in 2nd part, you know that we constructed 28 day information for all 5 charts.
- Select each of these 5 types of info & create charts.
- We will end up with 5 charts. Place them neatly in empty cells.
- Next, define a named range
selChart, that returns one of these 5 cell ranges based on which chart user wants. - The definition for selChart is, =CHOOSE(valChartToDisplay, calcs!$C$73:$H$81, calcs!$C$84:$H$92, calcs!$C$95:$H$103, calcs!$C$114:$H$122, calcs!$C$125:$H$133)
I am sure you can figure out the rest of the details. See this illustration to understand how this chart is made.
Download Customer Service Dashboard
Excel 2010 version: Click here to download the dashboard workbook
Excel 2007 version: Click here to download the dashboard workbook
Examine the charts to learn better. Change the drop-downs, date values in dashboard sheet to see how the formulas work.
What next? – Adding final touches to the dashboard
So far, we have learned about the design of this dashboard, calculations behind it & how the charts are put together.
In the final installment, learn about the remaining pieces of the puzzle – VBA code, design tricks & future direction of the dashboard.
What charts you would put in this dashboard?
I liked the challenge of creating one dynamic chart that can show any data & analysis based on user’s wants. But I am sure there are more interesting ways to display call center data. So go ahead and tell me what charts you would include in a customer service dashboard. Bonus points if you can make the dashboard and share it with us. Go ahead and share your thoughts using comments.
Learn more about Dashboards
If you are looking for examples, information & tutorials on Excel dashboards, you are at the best. At Chandoo.org we have elaborate examples, tutorials, training programs & templates on Excel dashboards, to make you awesome. Please go thru below to learn more:
- Customer Service Dashboard Example
- KPI Dashboards in Excel – 6 part tutorial
- Excel Dashboards – Information, Examples, Templates & Tutorials
- Excel Dynamic Charts – Examples, tutorials & inspiration
- Excel School Dashboards Program – Learn how to create this and other dashboards in Excel
24 Responses
I’d suggest simply using the subtotal function and filtering the data using the Win/Loss column. You get the same results and the formula is more comprehensible.
@John
That is one option.
There are times however when you want to see the whole data table or a filtered subset and still want to produce summary reports against an unfiltered field.
Is there a particular reason why you are using a comma and the unary (–) operator for the second array in the SUMPRODUCT formula? It seems to work the same if you were to string the arrays together using the asterisk (*). The advantage is that SUMPRODUCT treats the entire string of arrays as a single array.
@Mathew
Your correct, There is no difference.
I thought it may have been easier to explain this method.
Is there a way to do this on a large set of data? As in ~100,000 rows? When I try I get an error because the formula becomes too long. It says the max length of a formula is 8,192 characters. Excel 2010.
How do I incorporate a specific text within a cell for the second array. For instance, – -(C7:C13=”Apple”)
when I chose a specific text the formula does not work.
@RB
I am not sure what is the issue as if I use the sample data in the post the following work fine
Count:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)), –(C7:C13=”L”))
Sum:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)),(C7:C13=”L”)*(D7:D13))
You may want to check that there are no leading or trailing spaces in your list of Apples
I should have given a better explanation. Heres my situation. I have a column with cells filled with names like Column 1, Column 2, Pier 1, Pier 2, etc. If the cell just contained Pier and searched for that it works. But because it has other characters in the cell its not recognizing the pier. So how can I extract specific characters of a string of text in this formula?
Hopefully this was a better explanation
Hello-
This formula works pretty well for me except that it slow down excel and prevents some of my macros from working. I was wondering if there was a way to program this in VBA so that excel isn’t always trying to recalculate it. I would like to use a push of a button to get it to run then paste in a cell.
Thanks!
I am trying to sum filtered data in a column, but would want to ignore the negative values in the column. How to go about doing this?
@Akshay
Why not just add a filter to that column to only show the values greater than zero?
The negative values are required for reporting purposes, but their effect on the total is distorting the required output. Please advise.
@Akshay
I’d suggest making a post in the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
Attach a sample file to simplify the task
I have this working for counting and summing, however, I have a list and for the second array, I need a criteria. That is, I’m looking for b13:b200=”01.??.??” or =left((a1,2) or something like that. These types of criteria matches do not appear to work as I get a blank as a result.
Thanks!
@Bob
As your formula b13:b200=”01.??.??” looks like you are trying to check the first day of the month of the range
What about trying Day(B13:B200)=1
Hai Experts,
i understood this formula well and working fine in MS Excel 2013
but when the same am trying to place in google Spreadsheet it shows error as
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 2014, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
Can anyone please help me how would i get it done in Google Spread sheet
or is there any other formula as a substitute for this.
Thank you very much.
thanks for providing this.. but why does excel keeps on prompting Circular referencing in cell D3?
@Vivek
I don’t know
I just downloaded the file and it is working fine and not showing that error
Goto the Formulas, Calculation Options Tab and check that Calculation is set to Automatic
What version of Excel and Windows are you using ?
I know that this forum is for MS Excel, but I am trying to help someone who is working in Google Sheets. The below formula works in Excel but Google Sheets returns:
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 39000, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
This is the same problem asked by Srichirin above. Does anyone know if there is a formula for Google Sheets that will replicate what MS Excel does?
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($C$6:$C$39500,ROW($C$6:$C$39500)-MIN(ROW($C$6:$C$39500)),,1)),- -($C$6:$C$39500=H1),($D$6:$D$39500))
Trying to find a SUMPRODUCT formula that counts the word Closed by date for the last 7 days in a filtered list.
=COUNTIF(M:M,”>”&TODAY()-7) works ok for unfiltered count Column M contains Closure dates (blank if open) and Column L is Status Open or Closed
@ Terry
Please ask the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
Please attach a sample file to ensure a quicker more accurate answer
I used this formula and worked like a charm! But, now I’ve been requested to use it but adding not one but two criteria in the same formula. For instance the sum I was doing added negative and positive numbers. I’ve been asked to use the exact same formula but adding that only positive numbers were considered… any idea on how to do this?
How exactly do you do sum filtered cells when two criteria are need not just one?
Thank you so much brother literally I have been struggling since morning to get the sum of the filtered category, however, after reading your blog attentively i got my solution, so thanks a lot once again.