\n<\/p>\n
Data makes the world go round, but without proper context, it can only tell a small part of the story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At a call center, for example, the average time that agents spend on calls tells you very little about the success of those calls. If the calls are super short, it could be because callers are getting frustrated and hanging up just as much as it could be because their issues are getting resolved in record time. On the other hand, if calls are taking a really long time, it could be because the average call complexity is high enough to justify it, or simply because the process is highly inefficient.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In any case, the industry standard of 4-6 minutes can be a useful starting point for making comparisons, but it shouldn\u2019t necessarily be your North Star. If your agents spend more than that on each call, it doesn\u2019t mean you are losing out on customers or sales. In fact, poor call handling and low-quality customer service are more likely to be the culprit for lost customers.<\/p>\n
Thus, you should treat your average call duration numbers with a grain of salt\u2014they can be useful for upper management to forecast and make decisions around things like call times, agent utilization, and staff scheduling, but they won\u2019t say much about how hard your agents are working or how good of an experience your customers are having.<\/p>\n
The old debate between quantity and quality is one of the greatest conundrums of modern-day business management. Now more than ever, we have the technological means to make things faster\u2014but that doesn\u2019t always translate into an increase in revenue or a customer base with more loyalty.<\/p>\n
The same principles apply to call centers. On the one hand, you want your agents to be efficient, but the way you define efficiency can set you on a course to answer as many calls as possible in the shortest amount of time, or to resolve as many customer issues as you can no matter how much extra time it takes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, the problem with customers is that they want both. They want answers to their questions, concerns, and issues without having to wait in a long queue\u2014and without needing to make a second call or follow up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for you and your call center, your goal should therefore be to improve both sides of the process. You should focus on decreasing your average call duration while also ensuring that your agents provide top-notch customer service.<\/p>\n
Since it\u2019s important to have a balance of speed and quality in your call center operations, you should aim for shorter call durations without making customers feel rushed or dissatisfied with their experiences.<\/p>\n
This is where the problem comes with making average call duration an important benchmark of agent performance\u2014because sooner or later it pressures your team into providing rushed solutions in order to handle more calls in a smaller window.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rather than pushing your agents to work faster, your call center managers should prioritize the following:<\/p>\n
Given the right context, your average call duration is still an important metric. It tells you:<\/p>\n
Once again, your average call duration metric can help you make informed decisions about staffing and scheduling, but it won\u2019t tell you the whole story of customer satisfaction or agent performance.<\/p>\n
While definitely a good metric to monitor, average call duration is not a great metric when left alone in a vacuum.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t tell you:<\/p>\n
Beyond these main pitfalls, the average call duration also doesn\u2019t say anything about:<\/p>\n
Your average call duration metric probably doesn\u2019t matter as much as some industry gurus will tell you. In fact, there\u2019s not even a reliable consensus on the ideal duration in the first place\u2014some say it\u2019s four minutes, others say six, and others will vouch for a different way of calculating it altogether. Truth be told, however, most of these benchmarks are pretty arbitrary.<\/p>\n
Yes, they may work or make sense for certain businesses, but every business is different. In other words, if you continuously strive for your call center to meet an industry average that isn\u2019t right for your business model, it can lead to unrealistic employee expectations and bad experiences for your customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thus, just try to use your average call duration as a guide for spotting trends, and use it in conjunction with other KPIs to learn more about what you can do to improve your call center\u2019s efficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If all of your other metrics and observations are telling you that reducing your average call duration will ultimately lead to more productive agents and more satisfied customers, then go for it.<\/p>\n
Here are some things you can do to lower your average call duration:<\/p>\n
Take a deeper look into who is calling so that you can understand who is driving up your average call duration and why.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Try to identify specific customer segments that tend to require longer calls than others. For instance, some of your customers may be frequent callers for repeat issues, while others may be new customers looking for technical advice. Once you\u2019ve identified these causes, look for ways to improve your processes for these specific calls and update your agent training accordingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similarly, if you can connect your CRM to your call center software and redirect callers to the right agents sooner, you\u2019ll also be able to lower your average call duration and increase customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n
Some people call regarding product and service issues, others call for technical support, and others are more likely to have questions about billings and returns. If you implement an automated IVR system, for example, you can filter callers through a quick menu before connecting them with an agent. This will help you match the right issue with the right agent, thus lowering your average call duration.<\/p>\n
One good way of figuring out how to improve your call center efficiency is to conduct surveys to find out your NPS (net promoter score). If you know why certain customers would or would not recommend your company to friends and colleagues, you can use this information to improve your services and serve them faster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Your first-contact resolution rate shows how many caller issues are resolved on the first call. If both your average call duration and your first-contact resolution rate are low, it typically means your agents are either rushing through calls, are ill-equipped to handle caller issues, or are not being properly matched with the right callers from the beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, the key is not to ignore your average call duration but to look at it from the right perspective. If you know how hard your team works and how effective they are, then you can combine this knowledge with other metrics to help your call center grow.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Data makes the world go round, but without proper context, it can only tell a small part of the story.\u00a0 At a call center, for example, the average time that agents spend on calls tells you very little about the success of those calls. If the calls are super short, it could be because callers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[10903,1254,15007,3705],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-88835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet-business","tag-average","tag-call","tag-duration","tag-team"],"yoast_head":"\n