Overview
AHT is essential to contact center efficiency because it directly impacts how many customer contacts each representative and collectively a program can handle. When contact volume is finite, lowering AHT also lowers staff requirements. On the other hand, if the contact volume is not limited, then a set roster of representatives will be able to handle more customers as AHT lowers.
These efficiency and productivity gains incentivize the need for lowering AHT. As a result, pressure is put on representatives and managers to keep delivering lower AHT results without negatively impacting other metrics. This pressure may worsen if they are just given targets without the skills and tools to accomplish this.
This article aims to share some tools and skills to meet these challenges. It will systematically break down AHT, its components, and some critical considerations. It will then offer helpful advice on how representatives and managers can approach meeting ever-increasing AHT targets.
AHT Components & Calculation
AHT is the time that a representative takes to complete a real-time customer interaction or provide all the assistance they can. It tracks from the start of interaction with the opening greeting, the conversation or interaction time, and when the customer ends the engagement or is transferred to another department. AHT then concludes with the representative completing all actions and documentation to the customer’s profile and is ready for the next customer or activity.
AHT typically applies to voice or chat interactions where the customer is active for the entire duration. It may also be used for email contacts and other deferred transactions. However, I recommend the turnaround time metric because the customer is not waiting in real-time for the results.
Calculation: (Talk Time or Interaction Time + Hold Time + After Call Work Time )/(Total Contacts Handled)
While any of the three states above will add to the overall AHT, the state of the telephony system will determine where the time is counted. Representatives can only be in one telephony state at a time.
Closer Look at Talk Time
Talk or interaction is usually the longest part of AHT and where the most significant optimization can occur. I have found that there are seven main areas to manage. These are listed below, along with improvement advice.
Welcome Greeting: Work on delivering this crisply, so there is never a need to repeat any part. Try to wait 1-2 seconds to ensure the customer has connected and can hear before delivering. Ensure the execution is according to quality requirements.
Issue Discovery: Listen actively and ask probing questions to quickly and efficiently identify why the customer is calling. The customer should never need to repeat anything they have already said.
Issue Confirmation: After you think you understand why the customer is contacting, summarize and repeat the issue crisply back to the customer to get a confirmation. It is also critical to get this right to prevent time wastage from repeating or working on the wrong issue. If this happens it may cause quality infractions. Most customers will call for similar reasons, so get used to summarizing and confirming the common issues quickly.
Issue Resolution: This is where work occurs to resolve customer issues and the only time the customer should ever need to be placed on hold. Again, getting used to top call reasons will ensure efficiency in accessing resources and executing actions. Most times, the customers will not be on hold, so figure out a method of keeping up light conversations that do not slow you down or cause any dead air that may impact quality.
Resolution Verification: After completing the resolution actions, it is necessary to explain to the customer what you did, what may occur after the interaction ends, and confirm that their issue is now fully addressed. Getting a no on the confirmation is usually a failure in the previous three steps. Therefore, all efforts should be made for this never to occur.
Further Assistance Offer: There is usually a requirement to probe the customer if they have any other issues to be addressed. We are hoping for a no, but following the previous four steps will provide the best course of action if the customer has another matter. With experience, if the customer has multiple call reasons, these can be coaxed out in the Issue Discovery phase to create synergies in the resolution phase to avoid needless backtracking through steps.
Closing Interaction: With the same pleasant countenance carried over from the previous phases, crisply deliver the closing script without needing to repeat any parts. After such, allow the customer to disconnect. You may want to advise the customer to end the interaction. This can save precious seconds and prevent awkward moments with customers thinking the session will terminate automatically or you will be doing it.
Closer Look at Hold Time
Use of Hold: As previously discussed, hold time should only be used during the Issue Resolution phase. When used, resist the temptation to slow down your pace. This is significant as it is usually a quality infraction if customers wait for more than two minutes in one sitting. Getting used to accessing the needed resources quickly during hold periods will help to reduce the overall hold time and AHT.
When to Hold: Hold time is time, and whether the customer is placed on hold or not still contributes to overall AHT. Putting the customer on hold should ideally be done if it is determined that keeping the customer active will distract and hinder the pace. When customers are placed on hold, it should not be less efficient than if they were being actively engaged.
Closer Look at After Call Work Time
Think During and After: Look for pockets of time during the interaction to start preparing the documentation and the after call work actions. These may be when you are waiting for the customer to provide an update. If the program allows any digital note-taking outside of the CRM, you may begin typing notes there. If you can save these notes, they may be reusable with slight edits for other customers.
Think Totality: As a reminder, work done while the customer is live does not contribute to ACW. Therefore, completing pre-work can notably reduce the total ACW time. However, attempting to do this should not cause talk and hold time to increase above the reductions in ACW time. An element of practice and mastery is required to find the right balance to ensure a net improvement and not just a reallocation of time between the buckets. From a quality perspective, in the initial phases, it may be better to focus on the customer entirely and do the full ACW during the allotted time until level of comfort is reached.
AHT by Contact Type and Resolution
The handling time is averaged and does not mean that all contacts will require the same resolution time. For example, more challenging contact types may take 2 or 3 times longer than the easier ones. Understanding the different contact reasons and their associated AHT will help to manage the overall outcome.
Unfortunately, programs or clients may not provide this breakdown or set targets at sub-levels. The risk in not having this is a program or representative may appear to miss their AHT target if they were disproportionately offered more challenging contact types. Having an AHT target for each contact is complex and may not occur overnight. In this absence, making mental notes of the AHT for various contact types and working towards meeting them will help ensure the best results.
Developing the skill to quickly identify easy contacts, such as those that always require transfer to another department, is an excellent way to lower AHT. Often easier contacts are approached in light of the overall AHT and take much longer than needed. For example, it should not take the full AHT to execute a transfer. Once a transferable contact is identified in the discovery phase, the next steps should be arranging the transfer with the customer.
Not maximizing the easier contacts negates the offsetting benefit they need to have on the more challenging contacts that usually take much longer to resolve. The AHT averages the midpoint between the easiest and the most challenging contact types. Working to lower both ends will ensure the best AHT results
What’s In It For Me?
Truthfully, the lower your individual AHT, the more likely you are to take more calls and work harder than your peers with higher AHT, and sometimes you wont get more pay. So why bother Roh? The reality is that we are playing the long game, which is to get promoted and out of the queues. One of the quickest ways of accomplishing this is being a rockstar and serial target crusher. You may start getting breaks out of production to upskill team members. You will start getting noticed by decision makers and seen as a next level candidate.
Also, by practicing and teaching these closer look steps, you will be gaining mastery over AHT. You will eventually get to a point where you will never have AHT worries again, whether you are an representative or manager. You will find that these steps are very transferable regardless of contact type, program, or company.
Final Words
AHT is an efficiency variable where lower is better. The lower the AHT, the more interactions a representative can handle, thereby increasing productivity and lowering costs for the company. However, aiming for lower AHT should not impact the quality of service, resulting in customers getting incomplete or incorrect information and needing to trigger a second engagement. Customers engaging twice for one matter, even if both interactions are below the AHT target, is a failure to first contact resolution and is an avoidable cost.
The approach to handling AHT can fall into three categories. First, an awareness of the technicalities, calculations, and mastering the closer look considerations above. Secondly, a mindset that AHT should be reduced without jeopardizing customer experience or other business objectives. Lastly, a shift in thinking that lowering individual AHT is not just creating more work. It is increasing career advancement opportunities and gaining mastery of a very transferrable skill.
Like most aspects of life, Mr. Pareto’s 80/20 rule applies as you approach mastering AHT. Typically, 80% of customers will engage for 20% of the reasons. Identifying these 20% contact types that are driving the 80% work is a great place to start the practice. Also, be on the look out for the easy contact types, such as those that will always require a transfer, and hit them for 6!
If you found any helpful tips here or have anything you would like me to consider, the comment box is open. Good luck practicing, and see you in my next article.
Another good article. I like that it’s from the agents point of view