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Managing to the Metrics: 80/20 in Perspective

Posted on : August 2nd, 2011

 

If you’re like most clients of contact centers, you get reports that tell you Average Handle Time, Average Speed of Answer, and Abandons. You might also get quality scores as overall percentages.  But what does this really tell you?

Below is an outline of what these numbers mean, how they’re calculated, and how, if you ONLY choose to look at them without spending time with your contact center service partner looking at context, you might only be getting half of the picture.

Average Handle Time (AHT):

As implied by its name, this is the average amount of time it took to handle a call as an average across all calls.  When you’re looking at this metric, check  if there are any variations in the standard (so, if your calls are normally 5 minutes, but you see a dip down to only 4 minutes and 25 seconds, you’d want to find out what caused this dip).  The typical thinking is that a shorter AHT is a good thing because it reduces costs, but more on that later.

Average Speed of Answer (ASA):

This is how long it took for your calls to be answered by the next available agent. This typically makes up the “20” in the 80/20 service level agreement (where 80 represents the percentage of calls that are answered in 20 seconds or approximately 3-4 rings.  So, 80/30 would be that 80 percent of your calls are answered in 30 seconds).

There is a lot of conversation around having calls answered quickly, but this can drive up your costs for something that may not be a big deal to your customers. They might not mind waiting 10 extra seconds, and that difference could save you tens of thousands of dollars per month in staffing costs. Research shows that the main factor contributing to customer dissatisfaction is the fact that customers don’t want their call transferred after they reach a live person . Most customers are tolerant to a longer wait time (within reason) as long as their call/issue is resolved.

Abandon(s):

This is a straightforward metric showing how many people disconnected while they were waiting to speak with an agent.  Like Average Speed of Answer, you’ll want to determine the precise point in the queue when you contact center begins counting these.  Some contact centers won’t include abandons on their report unless they happen after a certain point in the IVR, or later (so the people that hang up earlier aren’t included in the report).  You’ll want to verify this with your outsource partner so you’re all on the same page here.

Beyond the Metrics

Okay, so now that we’ve looked at the numbers, let’s see how they can lead you astray; If you recall, I mentioned that Average Handle Time is often kept to a minimum, and agents (and the outsourcing partner) can be incented to keep their handle times short, and even penalized when their handle times are longer than the norm.  If you or your call center partner are taking this approach, what you may not be considering is the context of the longer calls.  There’s a good chance that the agent spending longer with your customer is providing more thorough issue resolution, and saving your customers in the process.  To determine this, spend some time listening to the longer calls to see what’s happening there.  You might uncover some important customer insights that, if addressed proactively, will reduce your overall call volume and increase your customer satisfaction levels.

So, while KPIs such as Average Handle Time, and Average Speed of Answer have value, it’s best to view them in context of a bigger customer experience picture.  Managing only by the numbers could actually be creating the very customer experience you’re hoping to avoid.  The best way to validate these is to identify the calls that are outside the norm, and then listen to them.  You might be surprised at what you find.

For more information on how Simpro’s “beyond the numbers” approach to call management can benefit your business, give us a call. We’d be delighted to speak with you.