Two things drive me to a posting on Average Handle Time (AHT).

1. A previous posting on Average Speed of Answer (ASA) remains the most popular posting on the blog, so I thought another Contact Center metric may be welcomed by our visitors.
2. A recent discussion with a group of the Contact Center managers clearly showed AHT to be a point of interest.

Metrics can be a subjective bunch, and as such, definitive answers about their use may be ilusive, so please be ready for some generalizations based mostly on my personal experience – which by no means is definitive.

AHT is an often misunderstood metric because on the surface it looks like a problem to be managed, while if we look deeper, it tends to act more like a symptom.

AHT Definition: The average length of time it take agents to handle a customer, wrap-up and become available for the next customers? (This differs from Average Talk Time (ATT), which excludes wrap-up and other ancillary activities such as research).

The obvious benefit of a short AHT is that agents can take care of more customers in a set time and therefore, less agens are required to handle the incoming load. Expectedly, management, usually upper management, feels very comfortable placing attention on AHT as a way to control the largest cost of a contact center, people. Likewise, many Contact Center managers concentrate on AHT ensuring agent efficiency, at times incenting agents to achieve lower an lower AHT levels.

In my experience, the control-point for AHT is not the agent. In stead, AHT is more directly affected by our ability to provide the appropriate environment, knowledge, tools and expectations.

Here are the areas I believe contribute most to AHT.

Appropriate Staffing Levels
Staffing can become a vicious cycle. “If we had more staff we would not have this problem, but, if we were more efficient we would not need so much staff”. Although this posting is too general to address this important balance, we do know that bad Average Speed of Answer, Service Levels and excessive hold times which are greatly affected by staffing levels, can add 30 to 60 seconds to your AHT. Primarily, in the time it takes to calm down irate customers and the composure time for agent stress. Irate customers have a great effect on agent morale and the efficient flow of the call. It’s amazing how much more efficient we can be when our customers are cooperative and our agents are not stressed out.

Training
It goes without saying that knowledgeable agents have lower AHT than new agents. But technical and product training only take us so far. Our agents must also know how to quickly assess a customer’s needs, troubleshoot and create an interactive flow that is conducive to quick resolution. They must also know when to escalate. An simple analysis of call length within a queue can show us the tipping point of AHT. Passed a certain call length, we can see calls have a higher likelihood of reaching astronomical AHTs. That is the point at which to intervene and ask your agents if they need help. I know of a team that calls this the 12 minute rule – at 12 minutes a lead agent or supervisor would simply ask “need help?”. Less stress for the agent, lower AHT.

Processes
How many screens do your agents need to manage in order to manage an interaction? Do they need to get up from their station and send faxes, pull manuals, etc? Inefficient processes can add considerably to handle time.

Empowerment
An empowered agent is a less stressed agent who knows he/she has some decision-making power to do the right thing for the customer. Less time is spent working towards an unlikely solution while giving the agent more ownership of the outcome and more perceived value as an employee.
Of course, empowerment is not for every agent and requires proper training and clear guidelines, but we would do well to push as much empowerment as possible to the front lines of our customer touch-points. Surprisingly, empowerment can be easier to manage than the policies and processed designed to ensure customer satisfaction through escalations.

Attrition
Attrition is an indicator to most, if not all agent inefficiencies. It is the single most costly event in a contact center, mostly occurring within 90 days of hire and costing up to $8,000 per agent.
When we have high attrition, our average newbie rate on the floor is high, which means knowledge and efficiency is low (just think what happens to your stats -including AHT – when you have a new team nesting? uhgg!).

Also, high attrition floors have more challenges in agent dynamics which make empowerment, quality, and employee participation less likely and more difficult.
Average Handle Time is therefore, greatly affected by our ability to hire and keep the right employees. If you have an attrition rate of more than 50%, don’t worry about AHT. You’ve got bigger problems.

Perhaps most controversial, is the topic of agent relations.
At times, we can enter into contentious cycles with our agent community. Usually driven by frustration in our inability to improve operations, we’ll begin to feel a disconnect and a difficulty sharing the same side of the fence with those who directly manage the customer.

As long as it’s acceptable for us not to share the same side of the fence with our agents, AHT will remain difficult to manage and, unfortunately, we will continue to press the wrong button, expecting different results. AHT is not a measure of agents approach or willingness to follow direction, but a measure of management’s ability to Train, Hire and Empower.

I believe AHT is not the best indicator of agent efficiency but a greater indicator of management effectiveness.

Rudy Vidal
Committed to XCS!

Your contact center is suffering from unexpected staff shortage. Two queues are are in trouble. Michelle, one of your super agents is skilled in both queues. Where do you place her?

Actually, it doesn’t matter. The point is you will decide to put the agent in one of the queues, which ultimately means, for whatever reason, you will consider one queue, a set of customers, to be more important than another.

Because service and the idea of serving people has an ethical taste, it is easy to adopt a general altruistic philosophy towards customer satisfaction. As a humanist you may believe all customers should be addressed with the same attention regardless of their economic weight on the organization, however, for a business person managing limited resources, some customers are worth more than others.

Depending on your company’s priorities customer may be more important because they purchased a strategic product or because your company needs quick market share growth in a particular segment to win a positioning battle. For whatever reason, when in a resource constrained situation, some customers are in fact more equal than others.

Great customer centric organization work hard to avoid this dilemma altogether. When Customer Centricity becomes part of our corporate DNA, we begin to proactively manage the incessant pressure of limited resources, always including the customer in our business plans, our contingencies and our innovation.

Customers are resources just like cash. The difference is that customers can appreciate the value we add and the difference we make in their lives, and therefore, can offer long term loyalty.

The benefits in the transformation of corporate DNA towards customer centricity is not only external in the way customers see us, but more internal in the way we begin to see ourselves; holding ourselves to a different standard for the benefit of our customers, and therefore our own, as a member of a social group.

“Recognizing our responsibilities as industrialists, we will devote ourselves to the progress and development of society and the well-being of people through our business activities, thereby enhancing the quality of life throughout the world.” – Konosuke Matsushita, 1932

At some point we will all have to make the decision to place super agent Michelle in one queue over another, but our intention to work towards avoiding the dilemma altogether, speaks volumes about our future.

Committed to XCS !
Rudy Vidal

Ok, I’m glad to be writing about a good experience, since sometimes I think I concentrate too much on the poor ones. And, although I could use the excuse that there are many more poor ones that good ones, I still think we learn more from discussing good customer experiences.

Today, I went to a newly opened Harmon’s supermarket near my house. As a result I have decided I need to find the person in charge of training at Harmon’s because it is clear that training is the key to consistency and consistency is the key to exceeding customer expectations quickly.

From the moment I walked into the store my expectations were exceeded:

The deli guy: (a young man not older than 18), asked if I would prefer my slices of Parma ham separated by individual sheets of paper. Usually I have to spend 5 minutes peeling the paper-thin slices from each other, making a mess and causing unnecessary handling (not pretty). – Sure, if it’s not too much trouble. – Not at all, my pleasure. I’m assuming you would like them very thin, right? Yes, please.

Over to the bread counter from where a French Baguette had been staring at me for some time. – Could I have a Baguette please? – Of course, can I offer you a sample of it first, to make sure it meets your expectations? – Yes, that would be nice. Delicious, I think I’ll take two.

Over to the prepared foods: – Could I have a pound of the mozzarella, tomato and artichoke salad? -You’ll be glad you chose it, and you will not feel bad you didn’t make it yourself. The Mozzarella is fresh, the artichokes were cooked today and the tomato’s are those off the vine, right behind you. Would you like to try it first?. – No, no need thank you, I know fresh mozzarella when I see it. – By the way, that Baguette and this salad were made for each other. – I know, I can’t wait.

Where can I find the honey? – let me take you to it. – if you point I’ll find it. – No, its my pleasure, right this way please.

At check out: Do you prefer paper or plastic? You gotta be kidding me, right? – No sir, your choice.

What happened at Harmon’s today is special. Not because I was treated well as a customer but becuase in one day (my first visit) I had enough great experiences to bring me to a tipping point about the store.

Normally, most retail establishments need multiple visits to gain the trust and loyalty of a customer. This takes time, and money. Harmon’s on the hand, was able to provide me enough examples of excellent service and quality to exceed my requirements for loyalty, on the first visit ! This means they shortened the meantime to loyalty and thereby increased their velocity of cash. Brilliant !

What made this possible was consistancy across the employee base. What made that possible was training and hiring. Very good training and very good hiring.

The right people, in the right seats, on the right bus, well trained, following a clear vision.

That’s beautiful.

Kuddos to Harmon’s in Draper, Utah !

Rudy Vidal
Committed to XCS !

You know the one. She or he is a paying customer. You need their business, but you don’t necessarily want it anymore. They ask more questions, question your answers, challenge policy and/or procedure, threaten their account or business and in some cases, harrass your staff.

When do you say good-bye?

My opinion is; unless the customer has blatantly abused someone, Never ever ever.

The scenario du jour:

Special order and handling was required, which meant a little research on my part. When I was making a call for our Special Customer (profile above), one of my team members took notice of the research I was involved in, heard my questions – and even some aggresive negotiating tactics on behalf of our customer.

He asked me, “How can you still be trying so hard for this guy? He’s not very nice!” The answer was so clear to me, that I thought I should start sending money to the XCS founder, because clearly something is catching on. What I mean to say is, “there was a time when… ”

This person is OUR customer, a fee paying bank customer.

We have to be careful to exude the same level of enthusiasm in our work for the engaging, warm and pleasant people who buy our products and use our services as we do for those who can tend to drain us. They should be viewed as the same, even when this is something of an effort.

My father called Quest to have a new phone installed at the house.

On Monday, as scheduled, the technician came and connected the new line on the outside of the house. After some time, not knowing they had come, my father checked to see if the line was working and found the main line was not working, but the secondary line (available only in some of the rooms in our house) was now present.

He called Quest and asked them to return and install the line correctly. A new visit was scheduled on Thursday.

On Thursday a technician knocked on the front door to let my father know he had finished re-installing and was leaving. My father, who is not easily fooled twice, asked him to wait so they could test the line together. They found once again, the connection was made incorrectly. They both went outside and the technician quickly discovered the problem, fixed it and went on his way.

What is wrong with both of these customer experiences?

Most of us might say what went wrong was the technicians’ inability to complete their work correctly the first time. However, when I talked to my father about it, he seemed to understand and accept the inevitability of human error. What he was having trouble with was the lack of intention to provide a good service. Both times the technicians were uninterested in the effectiveness of their effort and more interested in moving on to the next task. The problem in my father’s mind did not seem to be lack of expertise as much as lack of intention.

Interestingly enough, if the right intention had been present, the problem, the costs associated with the second visit and the strain on the customer relationship would have been averted.

Why then, would Quest not ask their technicians to check with the customer before and after doing the work? The return on investment is certainly clear.

Intention overpowers errors and inefficiencies – because we are human and we value experiences more than error-free service.

Rudy Vidal

Committed to XCS !

A couple of days ago I traveled for the second time on Southwest Airlines.
It took the second time to fully understand and appreciate the experience. I think it wasn’t clear to me the first time because I was accustomed to a certain way of flying. I had accepted the flying paradigm handed to me over the years.

On the second trip, I read the airline magazine and came across a farewell article from the airline’s president Colleen Barrett. In the article she explained Southwest’s customer philosophy and how their success was based on a simple premise, an expectation and requirement of a display of “:Golden Rule Behavior” among and from Southwest Employees -

“Do onto others as you would have others do onto you”.

Once I read the article something seemed to click and I began to see things I had not noticed until then. Flight attendants were fun, helpful, nice, friendly. More importantly, passengers were the same. When the captain announced a weather delay, no one made the usual sarcastic comments or eye-rolling sighs. In stead there were the inevitable jokes about Chicago and its weather. The next thing I noticed was that the energy on the flights was less hurried, intense and more . . .I’ll say it, “loving”.

Southwest is not a high priced airline that can afford great customer service, in fact, they are the opposite, a low cost airline (one of the few making money). So, how does that work?

Ms. Barrett, understands it, and I suspect the entire culture does as well. Customer satisfaction comes from a state of mind. It comes from a caring spirit that needs no funding, no budget nor gadgets. Loyalty comes from the emotions we are able to create in our customers when they see that they are cared for, as people.

Most executives with whom I speak regarding Customer Satisfaction mention they would like to work on customer centricity but believe they can’t afford it. We must convince them all to put away their money and put their hearts out where the customer can see them.

Higher quality of life and higher business benefits are just around the corner, ask Ms. Barrett, or fly Southwest at least twice.

RudyVidal
Committed to XCS !

Yesterday I set out to purchase a car for my father, who just moved to Salt Lake City from Miami (don’t worry dad, the winter is not so bad here . . sigh)

In the interest of fairness and support to our ailing automotive industry I went to a Chevy dealer, in spite of my resent experiences.

I took some test drives with Christian, a nice young fellow who was very interested in my needs and working hard to address any of my questions, as we drove. Once we returned, as is expected, I soon met Christian’s manager, who also seemed pleasant and interested. However, he soon brought up the fact that the currently offered 0% financing was only available until Monday and that I would have to act fast. He asked me what was keeping me from the purchase and I mentioned that I was hoping to reach $XXX.XX as a monthly payment. He sent me off on another test drive and mentioned that when we returned, he would do his best to work the numbers so we could reach this goal. Great, I said, and went off to the next test drive with Christian.

On my return, after some niceties, I asked him “Perhaps we can go inside and see if we can work on those numbers”. His response, was shocking but not surprising “well, only if you are committed to purchasing the car”. At that point it became clear that the sales manager was interested in something beyond my best interest; perhaps his time. I said goodbye.

From there are I went to a couple of dealers. I purchased a Toyota. I reached the price point I needed, my dad likes it. Almost everyone won.

Rudy Vidal
Committed to XCS!

it sounds easy, but the reality is that you can’t impose a new mindset, or a new culture.
What I find works best in creating a fast transition is to create:

1. Understanding of the logic – Why do we need to change or improve?
2. Provide the vehicles or processes that will carry new action and intention.
3. Create an expectation for results, coupled with effective Key Performance Indicators or metrics.

These three components do create change.

I believe the vast majority of people, given the opportunity, want to do the right thing, want to satisfy customers, treating them as customers should be treated.

However, if they don’t have the process, the information, the empowerment and the expectation from management, don’t expect miracles.

Extreme Customer Satisfaction happens when Management gets a new mindset !

(Some related posting to doing it) 1 2

Have you been on either side of this conundrum? It’s amazingly clear how wrong it is, but when you are in the moment, you can be so burdened with tasks (Task Saturation) that if you were a pilot, the plane would go down.

Stop and ask yourself, and allow your team to do the same. We have to give our staff the empowerment to use their judgement, and then back them up when they do right by it.

The specific scenario today goes like this: A man walks in the bank, he tells the banker “I would like to open a new account” The banker looks perplexed, agitated and strikes a glare before she realizes what she’s done (too late). Brings her facial expression to some sort of resolve, and says, “What kind of account?” to which he says, “the Kind with $200,000 that earns an APY of 3.27% for 6 months, but Thank you, I see you are busy” and he heads straight to the door. (She was under stress because she has a report due.)

The Report? “How many Deposits were opened in the last quarter, and the effects of customer service on new account openings”

Wait! It gets better!

This particular Banker I am speaking of is WONDERFUL! She is a lovely, personable person. How could this happen, then? I’ll tell you how. The incredible desire she has to be seen as valuable in the eyes of her management, had her completely blind to the most important thing – NO – The ONLY thing we are there for. To satisfy customers that will be willing to entrust their funds to us, so we can keep it safe and earn our livelihood.

She was caring and brave enough to convey what happened to senior management. Her manager contacted this person (how, I cannot tell you, I shudder to think that she actually ran out to his car, but, it could happen)

He was so bewildered by the most embarrassing move, that he actually came back and opened the account. I was amazed that he did, but with fuel prices as they are, he probably figured another 2 miles to another bank.. etc etc.

Lesson learned – Let’s make sure we don’t saturate our customer-facing employees with internal pressures that may cause them to temporarily forget that the customer is #1.

As I write this post, I’m in the middle of a customer visiting caravan. A six week-long stint of airport hopping and fast food that takes a lot of time and doesn’t help the efficiency of handling day to day issues. However, at the end, the most productive and important six weeks I could ever spend.

So far in the last few weeks I have been reminded of many of the issues that are truly important to my customers and as such, I feel empowered with clarity and energy to make things better.

I think much of our delay to action comes from a lack of clarity, at times, caused by high levels of complexity in our attempt to implement perfect, all encompassing solutions.

Because we have experience and know what our customers need, we feel that we can act on their behalf.

Most of the time, this is true, but at times our efforts become mired in internal considerations, seemingly equally worthy of attention. The result rarely exceeds the customer’s expectations.

The voice of the customer has a way of simplifying and focusing us on those things that really matter.

This may sound like common sense, but my experience is that we don’t listen to the customer enough.

Talk to some customers today, especially if the complexity of your solutions seem to be increasing. You’ll gain clarity, a sense of empowerment and purpose.