7 Call Centre Tactics for Reducing Average Handling Time (AHT)

When it comes to customer turnover rate, average handling time (which we’ll call AHT from here on in) can make a huge difference. Depending on its duration, your AHT may be the driving force in what’s making your customers stick with you and what’s causing them to leave in droves.

A low AHT is a sign of strong performance and customer satisfaction. But if your AHT is currently higher than you’d like it to be, then it sounds like you may need to make some adjustments here and there.

To help slash the time it takes your agents to handle calls with their customers, here are some handy tips and advice.

What does average handling time mean?

A metric that’s traditionally used in call centres where the point of contact is immediate (i.e., phone calls or live chats), AHT measures the average time agents spend on a call or chat – including hold time and conversation time.

To calculate AHT, call centres use the following formula:

AHT = (total talk time + total hold time + after-call time) / total number of calls

We can break down the elements that make up AHT as follows:

• Talk time: the total time that agents spend talking to customers
• Hold time: the time customers spend waiting for agent to deal with their issue(s)
• After-call time: the time spent on tasks (such as making notes, sending emails, or categorising the conversation) that a call centre employee needs to perform to resolve a query before handling another call

The formula can be used to calculate AHT for specific agents, entire departments or for the contact centre as a whole.

It’s important to note that the average handling time of a business can differ depending on the industry. Each industry is likely to have a different benchmark based on the nature of customer enquiries and their needs, so it can sometimes be difficult to compare metrics.

AHT can also have a high level of variation between departments in the same contact centre because some might handle quicker-to-answer questions, while others might be much more complex and require more attention.

Better customer satisfaction

No customer ever said, “I wish I was on the phone with that team for longer”. Fast responses – that are of high quality – are something that every call centre should be aiming for. The quicker a team can deal with the tickets in their queue, the more customers will appreciate it.

With that said, it’s all about balance. Speedy responses that are unsatisfactory can create a negative customer experience compared to a high-quality response that’s a little longer.

Reduced support costs

A team that can answer tickets more efficiently is more productive. Once you investigate how you can improve your AHT, you can begin to identify the pain points of your current processes. And once you know the issues, you can begin removing them one by one.

Improved team engagement

If your agents are working with outdated processes and software, then it’s easy for them to disengage from their duties. Instead of expecting them to soldier on, using tools and systems that are user-friendly and make for speedier results is one way of creating a happier workforce that’ll stay with you – just like your customers will.

How to reduce average handling time

Now that you’re aware of why average handling time can perform such a critical role in your customer service strategy, you’re likely to be wondering how yours could improve in this area.

Here are 7 of our top tips to help you understand how to improve and reduce your AHT in ways that will benefit both your team and your customers.

1. Automate your FAQs

If your agents find themselves being asked simple questions that can be answered by other means, then automating answers to these queries is the way to go. An automated system that can route these kinds of calls elsewhere so a computer can answer your customers can help massively.

2. Record and review your phone calls

By recording your agents’ phone calls, you’ll have a huge bank of information to review and pick apart. Listening back to your previous phone calls gives you the chance to uncover weak areas and pain points which you can then set about rectifying.

3. Make sure your staff are trained up

Employees that know their stuff will be better prepared to deal with whatever they encounter on their calls, which can have a positive effect on your AHT. Make sure you’re scheduling in plenty of training sessions that feature things like role playing, case studies and more, so that your staff can correct behaviours that may be slowing down AHT.

Your training should also involve getting your staff up to speed on your products and services as much as possible. If your agents don’t know what your customers are talking about, then your AHT is bound to shoot through the roof.

4. Put IVR in place

Your customers don’t want to go on a wild goose chase just to find the right department that can help them out. Implementing a voice response system can overcome this, sending customers to specific departments without issue.

And since your team members won’t waste precious seconds (or even minutes) trying to deal with questions they don’t have the answers to, it drastically cuts down on AHT.

5. Assess your workflows

A thorough look at your current workflows and processes can be key to unearthing bottlenecks, roadblocks and other things that may be slowing your agents’ handling time down. If your current systems are proving to be an issue, then use your findings to work out how to improve things going forward.

6. Get feedback from your customers

You rely on your customers to purchase your products and services, so it stands to reason that they should be able to let you know how you’re doing. Draw up a customer satisfaction survey and send it out to them so you can find out which areas need improving the most.

7. Try to resolve with the first response

When your agents are in the habit of resolving tickets with their first response, it not only cuts down on your AHT, but it means the team can function like a well-oiled machine. How can this be done? For starters, proactively collecting information means your agents won’t need to seek out additional information from other areas. A thorough contact form can help with this, as can custom integrations that pull in relevant data from internal systems – making crucial information easy to access within support tickets.

Your agents should avoid providing customers with multiple options whenever possible. When customers have too much choice, it can often confuse them. By offering the single best answer in the clearest possible way, you can drastically cut down on the need for further questions and clarifications.

Looking for customer service that really speaks to your contacts? Gnatta makes interactions matter, delivering quality exchanges and quicker responses that meet customer expectations. Find out how we can help here or to book a demo, click here.