How to Reduce Average Handling Time (AHT) in a Call Center

there are two main challenges that you
have to deal with when you're trying to
lower your ahd
the talkative customer the one who
doesn't stop talking whether about
related or unrelated things and
the irate customer the one who
after venting her frustration just
couldn't seem to slow down
and just couldn't stop complaining and
today we're going to talk about
how to deal with these customers to save
your ahd
but first things first we need to start
with the basics
number one of course is to make sure
that you know all the solutions to the
common issues
now this is not going to be a problem if
you have been with the company
for several months but if you're a
newbie you really need to make sure
that you list down all the common issues
and you memorize
the solution to each of these problems
and tip number two is to take note of
the rare issues with their solutions
so rare issues obviously don't happen
that often so it's
so easy to forget about them until they
happen what i recommend
is that you once you encounter a rare
issue
once make sure that you take note of the
step-by-step
action that you did to solve that issue
so the next time it happens
it's just gonna be another issue for you
and it's not going to be
hard remember that one or two long calls
could already wreak havoc to your
ahd let's say that your quota is 60
calls per day and your required
ahd to get the performance bonus is an
average of
five minutes let's say that you're that
56 of your calls
you managed to get an average of four
minutes
so far so good right but what if you
have
four other calls that reach an average
of 30 minutes
ahd because there are rare issues and
you encounter them for the first time
let's do the math here so we're going to
add up all the minutes
divided by 60 which is the number of
calls
to get the average handling time and
unfortunately the average
is 5.73 minutes
which is just above the maximum ehd for
getting the performance bonus
so unfortunately in this case you're not
going to get the bonus
and by the way it's really easy for a
single call to drag on for half an hour
or even
hours if you don't know the the the
solution to a problem
because first you'll have to gather the
courage to approach your team lead and
that's going to take a few seconds
maybe and then if if your team lead is
busy
you will have to wait maybe a minute or
two and because it's already two minutes
you'll have to get back to your customer
to ask for more time
and once your your team lead becomes
available he will then have to explain
the situation
she's gonna check the customer's account
to confirm what you're talking
about and then let's say that your team
lead also doesn't know the answer to the
question
so she has to ask the client the next
thing you know the call has already
reached 30 minutes
that fast and if you think that you're
not gonna have the answer
it's going to take a long time i think
it would be a better idea if you just
promise your customer a follow-up
instead of that
call eating up all your ehd you can even
use
that callback to lower your ehd even
further
because by the callback you would
already know the answer to the question
or the solutions or problems so
all you have to do is to tell the
customer what to do what to expect
and then your call is probably going to
take less than five minutes so
in that case you're lowering your ehd
you're helping your ehd now let's talk
about talkative customers
sometimes there are customers that just
don't know
when to shut up or just just stop
talking and let
the agent talk or starts talking about
unrelated things
or small talking you you know so if this
happens
i think the only way that you can remedy
this
is to just use transition phrases
examples of transitional phrases are oh
by the way
so going back i won't take so much of
your time
here's what we're gonna do and then blah
blah blah and take note that once you
segue and use that transitional
phrase it's probably going to be a
little bit awkward because
by then the customer would already
realize that oh my god i'm talking too
much i should probably let you go
but as long as you acknowledge what the
customer was saying
before you transition then it's probably
going to be okay
your your customer is going to
understand it's not going to be
classified as rudeness
once you transition to the the subject
at hand
because if you're not going to do the
transition your customer is probably not
going to either
and you could be talking there for a
very long time
buy performance bonus but what about
those iron customers who can't seem to
stop complaining
how are you going to save your ehd from
this type of customers
well it is true that you have to let
your customer especially an internet
customer
vent her frustration it is also
true that you have a to at some point in
the conversation
stop her complaining a good rule of
thumb is to let
the customer vent at the very start of
the call
after the opening but
as soon as the call progresses the
customer should slow down
but if she doesn't even if you have done
everything
apologized acknowledge her emotion her
emotions
empathized still nothing then
i recommend that you switch the subject
from the problem to the solution
here's what you got to do a short
empathy statement and then
highlight the action that you're going
to take for example
that sounds frustrating so here's what
i'm going to do i will three-way
call fedex now so you and i can talk to
them and get to the bottom of this
how does that sound so this is great if
it's not your company's fault
and you're just helping out a customer
with an inconvenience
and here's another format again a short
empathy statement
plus highlight the action that you're
going to take plus
highlight the positive result i am so
sorry this happened to you that is so
frustrating now here's what i'm going to
do
i will send a request to have a
replacement sent to you
you should be able to receive it before
the end of the day tomorrow how does
that sound
so as you can see there's a promise
there that is going to be better for the
customer but of course you only have to
do this if you're
100 certain that that positive result is
going to happen
if you do xyz for this customer you
obviously don't want to promise a
positive result
if it's not 100 guaranteed
and my next tip is you need to take
advantage of
transactional calls transactional calls
are calls that have direct answer so the
customer
asks a question and there's a direct
answer the customer has a problem
there's a direct solution
they are not complicated topics some
companies would tell you to guys please
make
your calls non-transactional if possible
but personally if you're if you're
trying to lower your hd
transactional calls are my favorite
because they're not complicated and
they really heal your ahd because they
don't take
so much time so if your customer doesn't
want to small talk
don't small talk her there are just
customers who just want to get it over
with
get the solution get the answer and then
hang up the phone
don't listen to what they say the
transactional calls are bad
that would be fine if you don't have an
ahd to maintain
but you do can you imagine if you have
to small talk
every single customer that you talk to
over the phone what would that do to
your ahd
and another tip take advantage of busy
and fast talking customers
they usually sound like this hey listen
i'm on the checkout page right now and
my voucher is not working i need to go
to work in a few minutes so
can you help me some guidelines when
dealing with
busy and fast talking customers number
one make sure that you
avoid being too wordy we seem to think
that saying more is better
but in some cases like this one saying
less
is more and better because you know your
customer is in a hurry she doesn't need
you to be wordy she wants you to be
concise
brief and to the point so this is your
opportunity
to lower your ahd and at the same time
make your customer happy
for example the common sentence thank
you for that information
thank you for that information that's
eight syllables
when you could just say thanks or thank
[Music]
you
[Music]
just imagine you're in a checkout
counter in a mall and you're
running late for work so you need to
hurry unfortunately this cashier that's
processing your purchase
is particularly sluggish what are you
gonna feel
of course you're gonna feel frustrated
you might tell the cashier to hurry the
f
up or you might stay silent if
you're one of the shy types but either
way
it's going to be an unpleasant
experience ask yourself
if i don't say this phrase or sentence
will the qa notice
will the customer notice will it
negatively affect
the call what if i can substitute it
with
something shorter that does the job as
well
or even better or what if i can remove
it altogether
here are two mock calls with the same
customer with the same issue
but with different agent the first agent
is going to be a fast agent and the
second one as
a slower one let's hear them hey listen
i'm on the checkout page right now and
my voucher is not working i need to go
to work in a few minutes so
can you help me sure let me help you
with that is there any error message
it's saying voucher has already been
used
i see may have the code 192
letter y s for sam q f for frank
x b for boy thanks
give me one moment
so according to our system this code has
already been used with your previous
order
glow-in-the-dark garden gnome oh i've
used it on that
oh yeah so the original price was 89
and you paid 79 instead okay well i'm
gonna check out now thanks bye
hey listen i'm on the checkout page
right now and my voucher is not working
i need to go to work in a few minutes so
can you help me no worries jan rest
assured that i will help you with this
if i may ask is there any error message
when you're trying to use the code at
checkout
it's saying voucher has already been
used
i see may have the voucher code so i can
check it here in our system and find out
the cause of the issue
192 letter y s for sam
q f for frank x b
for boy thank you for that information
jen give me one moment okay yeah okay
could you please hurry up a little bit i
really need to go to work right now and
i need to process this today because i
need to ship tomorrow
thank you no problem jen i will do my
best okay
give me one moment
so upon checking it here the code has
already been used with your previous
order
glow-in-the-dark garden gnome oh have
you used it on that
oh yes the original price was
89 and you paid 79 because you applied
the 10
voucher on your previous order okay well
i'm gonna check out now thanks bye
so now let's compare the two agents in
terms of wordiness
so agent one said let me help you with
that is there any error message
while agent two said no words jen rest
assured that i will help you with this
if i may ask is there any real message
when you're trying to use the code at
checkout
if you analyze the two statements they
basically just mean the same thing
there's some difference with the words
but if you say let me help you with that
and then no worries jan rest assured i
will help you with this
is there a difference at all there is no
difference they're both
empathy statement and anyway a busy
customer doesn't care that much about
the empathy what they really care about
is that you
hurry the f up
[Music]
of course it varies from situation to
situation
but in this particular situation there's
just no difference between
let me help you with that and no worries
generous i should i will help you with
this
very long and then if i may ask is there
an error message when you're trying to
use a code to check out this is okay
this is fine
but if you can really sense that your
customer is in a hurry
just say is there any error message done
next is i see may have the voucher code
so i can check it in our system and find
out the cause of the issue
and agent one only said i see may have
the code
it's very short the same meaning it does
the job
just as well probably even better and if
you notice the customer is already
starting to interrupt
agent two because she's a little slow
and the customer obviously is in a hurry
find out the cause of the issue
192 letter y s for sam and give me one
moment okay
yeah okay could you please hurry up a
little bit i really need to go to work
right now and i need to process this
today because i need to ship tomorrow
because you applied ten dollar voucher
on your previous order okay well i'm
gonna check out now thanks bye
so if we're going to time the two mock
calls
this is the result agent 1 took 47
seconds to finish the call
and agent 2 took 79 seconds that's 1
minute and 19 seconds
that's a 32 second difference
and imagine that's only for one minute
by the way and imagine if
the call is longer than you know 30
minutes per
per minute saved is already great is it
it's already going to help your ahd
aside from agent one's economy of words
she's also mirroring
the customer's pace as you heard the
customer's
tone here and pace is hurried because
she's in a hurry
while agent 2 is a little slow compared
to the customer
so when your customer talks fast you
also have the permission to talk fast
try to keep up with her try to avoid
being worthy
and see it as an opportunity to
help your hd get back on track that's
why i really recommend that you
listen to native english speakers speak
because the way we communicate here in
the philippines
is different from the way they
communicate communicate among themselves
in in their country americans usually
when they talk
they're more direct to the point when
they want something done
they say it in the least amount of words
possible
here in the philippines we tend to
beat around the bush when you listen to
native english speakers
you you don't only learn the grammar the
pronunciation the accent you also
learn something about their culture and
that's very important
of course i'm generalizing here this is
definitely not true for all americans
but
this is usually the case all right guys
thank you so much for watching
and if you have any questions comment
down below and let me know
bye-bye