Chat Benchmarking and Billing

[daveste]

Our organization is reviewing our internet area and would like to know if there is any benchmarking information around average chat time, in an ordering environment, and how does your organization bill for chat time. Does your organization bill per chat, per chat minute, etc.

Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.

[Clint]

My company is an outsource provider of primarily inbound sales, tech support and customer service. We currently manage chat applications for approximately 20 percent of our clients. By far most of our volume continues to come from the telephone followed by email. In the right applications, chat can be used effectively and it allows experienced, talented agents to manage multiple sessions simultaneously - our home grown application allows up to 5 chats at once.

Because chat volume tends to be a small percentage of the overall contact volume, we designate the chat channel as one of the skill sets on our programs. Depending on the volume, we may dedicate agents to chat or also have them manage voice and/or email.

Average chat time depends on the application - typically 1.5 to 3 times longer than the duration required to manage the same type of request that comes in via the telephone.

I have seen billing per chat and per dedicated agent hour.

If you would like to discuss in greater detail, please feel free to contact me.


Clint Sesow
CallTech Communcations
402-486-4608
csesow@calltech.com