I am designated as a supervisor in a call centre..i just wanted to know how important is it to have the AHT incorporated as a KPI. AHT would always differ depending on the nature of calls , and again keeping a benchmark of a low AHT as good service could be a threat as staff could concentrate more on speed and less on quality..any advice here ?

I am designated as a supervisor in a call centre..i just wanted to know how important
is it to have the AHT incorporated as a KPI. AHT would always differ depending
on the nature of calls , and again keeping a benchmark of a low AHT as good service
could be a threat as staff could concentrate more on speed and less on quality..any advice here ?


Spot on!.

Targeting on a low AHT is a simple way to kill your
customer service levels. There's a story somewhere on this site
of an agent killing every third call 5 seconds in to reduce his
AHT!

However, provided, not used as a staff management metric AHT is invaluable.

I can tell how well training has bedded in for new agents, and
also highlight traing opportunities.

At the same time you need it for any forecasting you're going to do, whether
it be long term for recruitment or short term for scheduling.

Just as a note, if it's an outsourced contract try (TRY HARD) not to
get it set as a metric by the client. It's very easy to start hunting for
an AHT target and to see other stuff slip.

In short, it is data you need.

Just don't roll up the report and hit people over the head with it!

HTH


DaveA

Totally agree! A focus on AHT as a KPI can drive the wrong behaviours within the agent community and have serious consequences on the customer experience. However, you do need to know what it is for scheduling and forecasting purposes.

If you can measure it, a better metric is First Call Resolution (completing the call to the customer's satisfaction so they dont need to call back). A focus on this can not only improve customer satisfaction, it can also reduce call volumes and improve agent job satifaction.

Thank you so much guys for that wise advice. I see the drift now. So to paraphrase what you are saying is AHT is not necessarily important to incorporate as a KPI as it could have bad effects down the line.However it is a great tool for scheduling and forecasting purposes. Makes sense !!

Something more on the FCR if can be elaborated would be great..understand your point that an FCR could be synonymous to a one stop shop, but how do we keep this as a measurement..in essence.. how do we monitor this ?

Thanks guys..please do share your views and i am waiting to share mine on a question some day.

Measuring FCR is not an exact science but I guess there are 3 main ways that you can use - 1) Use your agent desktop to capture whether the call was successful (agent assessed), 2) Use you quality monitoring process to decide whether the call was successful (quality assessed), or 3)Use some form of post-call survey (IVR, call-back, etc - customer assessed). If you can get the data, you can also look at whether the customer called back within a set time (say 2-3 days) or whether the agent had to call the customer back to complete the transaction.

It all sounds complicated and time consuming, but if you use the results to drive agent training and the fixing of internal process, product or service issues, everyone benefits.

Hope this helps.