1. Encourage agents to provide top- notch service:
Average handle time boosts up in cases where many customers are waiting on hold. Reasons responsible may be that agents get exhausted handling call after call and hence, slow down. This leads to customers’ dissatisfaction and hence frustration. Therefore, it needs to be dealt appropriately. One of the most efficacious method of doing so is to encourage agents to take breaks between calls and get refreshed from time to time.
2. Leverage call control:
Call control is a skill and can be taught to the customer support agents through specialized training. The nature of calls being received at a call center is heterogeneous. In other words, the content of a call may vary from customer to customer such that, while some might come straight to the point, others might go into irrelevant details before they come to the reason for their call. Therefore, it is extremely important for agents to remain focused and encourage customers to get back to the real point. Call control is a skill and can be taught and trained.
3. Make the most out of experienced customer reps:
As a matter of fact, nothing can beat the real, on-ground experience. Therefore, processes should be established leveraging the inputs of the most experienced customer service agents. Valuable experience can actually let the newbies know about the popular shortcuts and workarounds to achieve a target. On the other hand, managers should identify those agents who have a low AHT and discover what tactics they employ. Thereafter, these agents should be held as role models and be encouraged to share practical tips with others so as to improve their efficacy as well.
4. Access AHT data carefully:
As mentioned earlier, the nature of calls being received at a call center is heterogeneous. A variety of calls can be encountered there like some deal with billing while others may be related to accounts or general queries. As a matter of fact, AHT for all these are different, and thus an agent’s performance should take into consideration the nature of call handled by him or her. Therefore, the result for AHT should be analyzed accordingly. Similarly, if the marketing strategies or management decisions change, the impact should be calculated accordingly.