AHT and CSAT

 

First, I'd like to introduce you to Darby and Krash, two contact center employees who enjoy caffeine.

In their first ...episode(?) they discuss how AHT can affect CSAT.

That's Average Handle Time and Customer Satisfaction for you out there that don't know Call Center Geek Speak.

So let's elaborate on that, since not much elaboration can be done in a (badly drawn) four panel comic.

Why does incentivizing low AHT negatively affect CSAT?

First, let's get some background.

What does Average Handle Time mean?

Thanks, Google. AHT= (Total talk time + Total Hold time) + Total ACW / Total # of Calls.

Got that? Good.

So from the time the call is initiated to the time spent after the call putting in notes is AHT.

And a lot of companies want that to as low as humanely possible, and then some.

Why?

More calls mean more money.

The shorter the call, the more calls the agents can take, and the more money can be made on those calls.

Sounds like a winning plan, yeah?

Not so fast, Rambo.

This can force agents to rush their calls, to cut corners, to... skip some things.

It can cause frustration with the customers.

It can severely damage One Call Resolution.

It can, therefore, ruin Customer Satisfaction.

So, what's the alternative?

We want agent efficiency. All nice and good.

But what if we focused on agent effectiveness more?

What if instead of incentivizing AHT, we incentivized  One Call Resolutions and CSAT?

(It's bothering me that incentivized and incentivizing are both coming up with the red underline...)

What if we trained harder on call control to enable our agents to be as efficient  and effective as possible?

How would this transform the customer experience at your business?

Instead of rushing callers off the phone, your agents resolved their issues in a quick, efficient manner?

"Well," you may be saying, "that was the purpose of incentivizing AHT."

Cool. 

It doesn't seem like it's working.

Anywhere.

Except like maybe at Zappos.