Average handle time is a time-honored metric in measuring the agent’s efficiency. Almost all contact centers employ this measurement. Supervisors and agents strive for a low AHT as to service more callers and demonstrate higher operational efficiency.
But because of the emphasis on AHT, some agents will intentionally hang up on callers just to lower AHT, even though that’s clearly a customer serve no-no. And who can blame such rogue agents when their compensation and/or promotion depends so much on their AHT numbers?
It is time to re-evaluate the AHT as Tripp Babbit points out:
The average handle time target is the problem. The average handle time becomes the de facto purpose of the call center representative, meaning their focus is on the target and not the customer. The call center representative is left with a choice to either serve the customer or risk being paid attention to or not receiving some incentive for not achieving some arbitrary numerical goal (target).
Additionally, the target does not account for the variety of demand that a call center representative receives. I have seen on many occasions where the customer demand is a hard call (time consuming) and no call center representative wants those calls when they are under the gun of an arbitrary target. Sometimes call center representatives hang up or don’t give complete answers to customers, leading to more failure demand (call backs, errors, follow-ups, escalations, etc.). This just increases call volume at great expense.
The focus should be the customer. Ultimately, the goal of a contact center to to serve customers. Too much attention paid to AHT means less attention paid to who’s important — the customer. The agent should be evaluated on his or her service, whether s/he met the needs of the caller. Even if a call took one hour.
Eugene
