What is a hold time?
Hold time is the time that a customer must wait for a call to get connected to an agent.
Hold time is a part of the AHT call center formula because it provides a better insight into overall agent performance and the contact centerโs productivity.ย
By tracking and reviewing the hold time, the company can manage their support staff. For example, if the holding time is too long, they should train their staff in a way that the hold time decreases. Thus, customers will be more satisfied with their service.
Another thing that can improve this is by hiring more agents to take care of phone calls and train agents according to their area of expertise.
Frequently asked questions
What does hold time mean?
Hold Time is the amount of time a caller remains on hold during an IVR call before giving up or being sent to the live agent or disconnected. This allows you to assess whether customers have to wait a long time for a connection, or whether it is running smoothly. If the time is too long, it means that you have to try to reduce this time.
How can you measure hold time?
You can measure hold time by adding up the time customers spend waiting for the connection to be established with the agent, dividing it by the number of contacts or attempts to make contact. The higher this ratio, the more frustrating it can be to maintain this communication channel.
Is there a way to improve hold time?
The hold time can be improved by educating employees to be able to handle requests more efficiently. If there are too many applications for the number of employees, you should consider hiring new employees. Customer service in other communication channels can also help to reduce the downtime. Thanks to this, customers will be able to choose a communication channel that is more appropriate for them.
Expert note
Hold time is the length of time a customer waits to be connected to an agent. Reducing hold time can improve customer satisfaction and productivity. Strategies include training employees and hiring more agents.
A customer service queue is where support tickets from various channels are stored for customer support teams to respond to. Efficient queue management is important to minimize wait times, improve support quality, and increase agent efficiency. There are different types of queues including email, call, and live chat queues. Effective support queue management can include strategies such as first in first out (FIFO), prioritizing support requests, segmenting tickets by category, setting up Service Level Agreements (SLAs), creating a support workflow, empowering support teams, leveraging self-service options, and ensuring easy ticket handoffs.
Call center supervisors are essential to providing great customer service through traditional phone support. They train agents, oversee daily operations, manage databases, and ensure the company's goals are met. Their duties also include performance evaluation, customer service management, and assisting employees. To be successful, they need strong management, communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills, as well as a desire for self-improvement. Thus, it is important to hire skilled supervisors who possess these traits.
Attended call transfers allow calls to be transferred from one agent to another in a polite and efficient manner. This feature benefits large corporations with several departments and hundreds of agents. It improves customer satisfaction, agent workflow, and loyalty. Other beneficial call center features include IVR and intelligent call routing. LiveAgent offers a free 14-day trial to test out these features. FAQs clarify that Attended call transfers allow agents to connect customers to a different department, and how they work in LiveAgent.
Agent utilization is a key metric in call center performance, measuring the percentage of time agents spend on phone calls. It is calculated by dividing total time on calls by total shift time. Other important call center KPIs include average handle time and contact per agent per month. When setting agent utilization goals, factors such as call center size, business type, and channel mix must be taken into account. The industry average utilization rate for service desk agents is 48%, but can range from 22% to 76%. Reliable helpdesk software such as LiveAgent can improve agent utilization rates, while regular training seminars can enhance agent understanding of customer issues.
