Tech Support Talk Times

[Blake7]

What are some ways you have seen to combat rising Talk Times in a technical support department.
Anyone have good strategies besides obviously training, training, training?
Any real-time management techniques to help agents along?

Thanks!

[n_meghanath]

Blake,

You might like to identify the reasons why the AHT is rising, is it because of more hold time? Exceeding wrap time? Or other product knowledge efficiency related reasons? The list might go on. However the major reason could only be found out by monitoring closely the real time as well as the reports, maybe agent wise, or team wise if the workforce is huge. Measure it and see the trends with respect to each reason that contributes to the rising of AHT.

Rest you know what to do. If it helps, let me know.

Cheers

[Clint]

Blake,
My company is an outsource provider that manages several tech support programs. Average Handle/Talk Time is of course a critical measurement ... many of our clients place as much or more focus on First Call Resolution rates and the Average Time To Resolve the issue.

As n_meghanath stated, I would first evaluate what drivers are resulting in increased talk times ... monitoring, feedback and coaching is critical.

In addition to beefing up initial training and uptraining, we use several internally developed online tools to help achieve AHT, FCR and ATTR objectives:
Knowledgebases ... both keyword searchable and point/click - ghost images on workstations, if applicable, we also make products available for our agents to handle
Online bulletin boards ... provides agents with live product/program updates
Online training tips ... based on call drivers, updates on the program

If you would like to share ideas or see how we use some of these online tools in a tech support environment, please contact me.

Clint
402-486-4608
csesow@calltech.com

[JoeB]

ClintÂ’s response addresses an important point. AHT is not an isolated metric, and increase in AHT alone is not necessarily bad, as it could imply improvement in FCR. Conversely, it could also cause an signal increase in ASA and in abandonment, which you didnÂ’t mention in your question.

Hardly any key performance indicator should be viewed in isolation, as the internal performance and efficiency metrics are often at odds with customer-facing metrics. Moreover, the relative importance of each KPI depends on the business environment. For example, a technical support operation may emphasize FCR, sacrificing AHT in the process, while an operation that support retail customers (or encourages cross- and up-selling) may focus on ASA and abandonment.

There is no simple cookie-cutter definition of “best” measurement criteria. In our Metrics That Matter workshop (www.DiagnosticStrategies.com/mtm.pdf) we discuss how to use a balanced scorecard approach to defining metrics that best represent your organization’s strategic objectives and service level requirements, and to select a small and manageable number of key performance indicators that make day to day management and reporting efficient and effective.

Joe

[mikael]

As others have noted, there could be several factors in play.

Do you have a standard call-handling procedure for your center? Not a script, but a procedure that identifies the phases of a call and establishes primary and secondary goals for each?

My experience has been that rising talk times are a good indication of reps losing control over the conversations.

[ctaylor]

The previous posts have already established a pretty comprehnsive list of things to evaluate.

I would add to the list evaluate the elements, stages or components of the calls. If the AHT is rising there is a reason for it. As already pointed out the reason could even be external to the call center. By examining each component and mapping its objective and the time required previously (use existing logged calls for this function) you can see where the additional 'talk' is coming from.
I would also check to see if your traffic and resolution numbers are down on the web as well. Search strings may also give you a clue if there is a problem in the marketplace that you are just not aware of yet.

Of course there are a number tools that can be employed to lower AHT and/or improve resolution; Speech Recognition, Better FAQ's, web-chat, virtual agent, community based support etc.

Good luck with your treasure hunt.

I hope I hope that this information is helpful. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can of further assistance. My email is ctaylor@thetaylorreachgroup.com

Colin