Hi All,

Could i pick your brains on the above. I have a 200+ seater call centre supporting, mobile, Cable TV, broadband products. And the aim for 2005 is to reduce AHT.

In the past, i managed to do that through cutting off paperwork and using the system to aid escalations. But there is a need to further reduce AHT.

Would appreciate some help or ideas on this.

Pick a team of good/ /experienced agents to handle
just complex / escalated calls.

This means your new agents are free to build experience
with the more common / less complex queries.

This has worked well the times I've implemented it.

HTH

DaveA

Either reduce aht by training in effective questioning techniques and filtering structure.

Or accept an increase in aht paid off with an increase in sales conversion/one call resolutions and so a reduction in the total number of calls. Sometimes focussing on just one thing can cause problems in other areas - in this case people needing to call back!

Take your top 25% performers in terms of AHT (speed and quality) and establish what they do that makes them so effective (eg establish best practice).

Then apply the learning on your bottom 25% performers. As you improve one group others will fall into this category, re-apply learning etc for continuous improvement.

Obviously in practice it is not a simple process, but the basic concept is good and works.

I have to agree with Zoe about not looking too hard at one particular measure where the actions from doing so might make things worse.

And can I disagree with Julian - with some caveats? Unless you understand the variation in your hold time, taking the top 25% perfomers might be making a mistake. It is possible that the top 25% for say last week might only be in the top 25% percent due to common cause variation. I.e. they might only be doing well because of luck, because of variation the eminates from the system. If you measure the capability of HT by using statistical process control (SPC) and truly find people who are not in control due to special causes, i.e. they really are doing something different which consistently causes them to out perform the rest. Then in that case study what they do and spread the knowledge. But simply taking the top 25% could be a big mistake.

I also wonder if AHT is a bit of a blunt instrument. If you plotted the variation of HT then worked to understand the causes of that variation so you could reduce it, you would be having a much better effect than simply working on the average.

I agree you cannot improve the agents speed without understanding what aspects of their systems and processes slow them down. Do talk with agents and get to understand anomolies and unecessary 'work arounds' that ought to be eradicated.

Then apply your skills audit, do a TNA. Enact it and measure your results. If it cant be improved you'll know then that further training or retraining of newer/slower recruit may not be your solution.

Once established you might like to address recruitment issues and alter parameters to recruit agents that fit this criteria eg increased typing spped or accuracy etc.

Its also worthwhile challenging what the reduction in AHT will add to your customer experience. ie what is being saved and what could potentially be lost. Sometimes this kind of decision is made to improve the business performance but not customer service (which isnt all about having their calls rushed quickly -the business's perception of the customer's needs versus the customer's actual needs).

All in all need to be examined, all in the context of the benefits for the customer and the business.

The idea I raised is a known method of improving.

The basis for identifying the top 25% isnt as simple as looking at last week's statistics,it is about reviewing over a reasonable time period who has displayed the right behaviours on speed and quality. You also need to look at the types of call they are handling and grouping the agents sensibly in order to establish the top 25% in a particular segment of work.

Reducing AHT through constant process improvement becomes more and more difficult as you automate and improve. How your agents follow processes and how they behave with your customers will evolve and change constantly with attrition and experience - taking your best as the example for improving the worst improves AHT overall without massive investment in process re-engineering (although there are obviously times when this is the right approach).

Hi Guys,

Was away in Sri Lanka doing some volunteer work, hence the delay.

Thanks for all the ideas. Maybe i could use a combination of all the points listed. However i do find the point of analysing the top performers to reduce the gap between the rest as interesting. Also, using such data for the hiring process. Usually, the top performers are staff who have been around for a while and the laggers are the new hires. In my arena, attrition is pretty high, so we have new comers to the job every 4-5 months. Hence, what would be the effect of such an analysis?

Attrition is a reality in this line of business, Look at what what is impacting the AHT (Talk Time / Wrap / Hold )

Divide the process into 2 : People and Process.

People:
Identify top20% and Bottom20%, Reward top 20%, Share best pratisces, if necessary weed bottom.
Derive TNA from escalations analysis
if required have a deidcated team to address escalation.
have interanl SLA with HR and training
launch a OJT process for the new hires ( ramp up period)

Process:
bench mark the major call types on all the three slabs.
Look for process gaps which might lead to high AHT.Can use the escalation analysis
If operations are 24/7, then look at the volumes and types of calls hitting in periods of maybe 1hr, study the AHT there Visa vi the tenure of people who are staffed in these slots,

At the end of the day there is no checklist for addressing the above, however constant analysis and action would produce results.. never get into fire fighting

Some very good points are allready mentioned but I would like to add 2 more:

1. System speed
How fast do the CSR's get the requested data out of the system.

2. Availability of information
How well is knowledge accessable through intranet or case base reasoning tools.

Thanks for the good points.

However could you elaborate on some of the points you mentioned below, would appreciate some more info on these:

- Whats deriving TNA from escatation analysis?
- How will having internal SLA with Hr & training help reduce AHT?
- Process- what are the three slabs?

Apologies Sara, just some rambeling i put down..

- Training Need Analysis (TNA) from escalations. See if you have a sizeable chunk of escalated calls, then by documenting each escalation over a period time you would be able to understand what skills your people lack that leads to the escalations, also you can look at the major policy/product which leads to customer disactification...which inturn would affect your AHT of your advisor.


- Now if your are not in a ramp crunch, then SLA's like no NHT(New Hire Trainee) would hit the OJT floor unless and until he meets the expected criteria or minimum acceptable level of performance in areas like AHT, Quality, CSAT. By doing this your would be able to further sharpen their skills in the OJT period and by the time they are on the ops floor they would be better tuned to the expectations.

- Thats my mistake, what i meant was... lets say you have three major call types A, B, C.. benchmark the calls on AHT with the Bottom 20%, Top20% and the fence sitter ( MIddle 60%), Now divide in into 3 parts: ATT, Wrap, Hold. Typically what you would see the difference between these 3 levels of performance generally lies in Wrap/ after call work; and Hold(lack of good tools / information searching takes time / a training need.

HI Deepak,

Thanks for the explanations.

BTW, any contact details of you? Email perhaps?

you can mail me at my personal id deepakmenon77@hotmail.com

Take care

Hi All

I just came across this website and realised the potential i have from this one,On AHT I am currently leading a Six sigma project and the path I have taken is to focus more on things that are not related to Agent behvior.I have drilled down on the process and identified things like - Time taken while Dial Transfer,System issue if slow or clocking,Ownership Time of the day ,Day of the week.First you need to baseline on the data you have and see what is the variation in the data.The you probably can do a 3 level process mapping to understand the process.Post this do go in for a Cause and Effect analysis (Fishbone)brainstrom with your reps and see the cause that lead to High AHT,probably you might come up with some you would have not thought of.Post the fishbone excercise again brainstorm and assign rating based in Severity,Occurence and Detection of the cause on a sacle of 1-10.Multiply these 3 and get a Risk number ,basis the Risk number prioritise on attacking the issue.Involve your team in identifying solution as it will increase engagement and held in change management.
I donot know if i am very late in giving this solution but it is working for me.

In respect of the target of reducing AHT, is there any measurement for "First Call Resolution (FCR)?

I have worked a few of the industries that you have mentioned and the opportunity for retention of customer base, up selling of products and packages is a major one. Would it not be more prudent to measure these hand in hand with FCR that in turn would lead to a more efficient operation providing an increased return on behalf of the business.

Comments made by previous contributors give many ways of benchmarking the AHT and analysing where reductions can be made.

There are too many companies focussing on reduction of AHT and failing to recognise the opportunities that the customer contact gives them. With the current economic downturn one would expect every company to exploit all opportunities to further secure and strengthen their relationship with existing customer.

I will cease my rant

Hi Sara,

For a technical support process or trouble shooting just prepare a knowledge
base of the problems or issues that the customers more frequently get.
Have the predefined steps & the flowcharts of the problems,errors,issues and agents can access the knowledgebase while talking to customers.
This can be a help in reducing AHT....
while all of the above replies holds true....

DJ
www.freeonlinebooks.net

Hi Colin,

There can be two ways to track FCR (Very specific to voice callcenter)
First - Let your agents keep a list of accounts they service and u collate these lists and see if a customer has called back within two days and check notes if the call reason is the same if u find a call back for same reason then it is a defect.

Second - Follow a system of mailers or call back to the customer and ask question's like "Please indicate the number of times you had to call for this inquiry" or "How many time were you transfred during this call"and have options as answers once you have the data you can run statistical test to compare the results and get a fair idea if FCR is happening ad your customer are satisfied.

Hope I have answered your query regarding Measureing FCR.

i work in large call centre with very complex call types.

we concentrate on the following with our agents

1. talk n type - always try and update narratives and actions whilst on the call this gives the customer confidence too

2. Questioning skills - agents should ask a wide range of open closed and probing questions and shoudl know when to use them to controlt he call

3. Paraphrasing - use this when the customer is rambling it can show the customer we understand and can give natural breaks to your call handler

4. Put weighted objectives in your performance management around, hold time, time making outbound call, ACW to Talk time ratio.

This is where I start with any of my guys who have high AHT alongside my quality framework of call monitoring, Personal Action plans and 121s.

Hope this helps

S
XX

Yeah, you have got some good points on the non related agents issues which could directly impact the AHT. Systems are prob the worst enenmy in this. How do i get in touch with you?