Why We Love Ansafone (And You Should, Too!)

2023-07-30T00:24:20Z

W1dkfzf370: Ak: Uusi sivu: When you hear the word "call center" the first image that pops into your mind is an agent waiting for the phone to ring. Such a scenario might have been a reality for most agents in the industry's heyday. However, thanks to technological advancements, they have come a long way since then. What is Average Handle Time? One of those advancements is operational indicators like Average Handle Time (AHT). As the name implies, AHT is the amount of time that a call center agent...

When you hear the word "call center" the first image that pops into your mind is an agent waiting for the phone to ring. Such a scenario might have been a reality for most agents in the industry's heyday. However, thanks to technological advancements, they have come a long way since then.

What is Average Handle Time?

One of those advancements is operational indicators like Average Handle Time (AHT). As the name implies, AHT is the amount of time that a call center agent spends on taking or processing a call. The process involves several key components in order to work efficiently. For example, it includes total talk time, After Call Work Time (ACW) and Hold Time.

Why is it Important?

Average Handle Time is a record of all the calls that are processed by a call center, over a specific period of time. Like every business, call centers have to constantly evolve in order to expand, something that can be accomplished by maximizing efficiency. Such goals call for the pertinent measures that can make them possible. This is also why AHT, ASA (Average Speed of Answer), Occupancy Rate and Service Levels are staple operational functions in all call centers.

However, it is AHT that takes precedence over all operational indicators and for good reason. Service Level, operating budgets and employee requirements all depend on it. For instance, the lower a company's AHT is, the fewer employees it will require. This is not to mention how little you would have to spend on operational expenses.

Sadly, there are some factors that can throw a wrench in the works, especially when it comes to AHT. Some of them are as follows:

1. Efficiency and Agent Behavior

If you have ever worked in (or own) a call center, you might have realized how much time agents spend on calls. In fact, you might also have noticed certain disparities in the AHT of multiple agents. In other words, you need to learn what causes such a disparity in the first place. In order to determine what affects an agent's AHT you would need to keep the following questions in mind -

· Do the agents with reduced AHT use different tools than the rest?

· Do they differ in terms of tenure or the level of training that they received?

· Have the agents with better AHT managed to come up with better processes that help them streamline their tasks better?

Besides that, management also needs to determine whether certain agents skip some steps in order to save time. For instance, if an agent fails to process interactions with customers according to company guidelines, it will take him/her more time to process calls successfully. A well regulated AHT has an enormous impact on customer service. Such an unprofessional attitude is bound to affect customer satisfaction (or lack of) sooner or later.

2. System Usability

This goes without saying. Call centers depend on software to regulate operations. Needless to say, the more user-friendly the system is the more productive the agents will be. A well designed system will help call center agents speed through tasks that usually take them a lot of time or regulate tasks that have a tendency to extend call time unnecessarily.

For example, an automated process can help employees access multiple systems for the information that they need, like product delivery confirmations and account balances. Other than that, agents can also input key customer info into multiple systems at once as well as record call details, process forms and update account information to name a few.

The reality of Customer Satisfaction is in the eyes of the beholder - the customer. The sooner we realize and accept our customers' perceptions of our products and services as reality, and accept it as our challenge, the sooner we will earn their confidence and become their permanent supplier of choice.

Customer connectivity represents a set of business processes touching on all aspects of the company. Customer satisfaction is a great deal more than the clichés "getting close to customers" and the motto "the customer is always right". Since some companies sell to a variety of customers with varying and even conflicting desires and needs, the goal of getting close to the customers, and the motto that "the customer is always right", are somewhat vague. We have also found no meaningful business philosophy in the terms "market driven" and "customer oriented". Most business gurus use the phrases interchangeably and have difficulty in defining and communicating their scope and meaning. Successful business leaders go beyond these clichés and strive to provide their selected customers with products and services under the business philosophy of Customer Connectivity.

Because different customers have different needs, a company cannot effectively satisfy this wide range of needs equally. The most important strategic decision in the pursuit of Customer Connectivity is to choose the most important customers. All customers are important, but invariably some are more important than others. Collaboration among the various functions is important when pinpointing key target accounts and market segments. This done, sales people know whom to call on first and most often, the people who schedule production runs know who gets favored treatment; those who make service calls know who rates special attention. If the priorities are not made clear in the calm of planning meetings, they certainly won't be when the sales, production scheduling and service dispatching processes get hectic.

Customer connectivity starts with customer selection however, the next phase is just as important. Company executives must gain a thorough understanding of their customers' buying influences and their relevant needs. Such customer information must be communicated by these executives beyond the sales and marketing functions and permitted to "permeate every business function" - the R&D and design engineers, manufacturing/quality people and field-service specialists. When these technologists, for example, get unvarnished feedback on the way customers use their products, they can better develop improvements on the products and the production processes. If, on the other hand, market people predigest the information, technologists may miss opportunities for improvements.

Customer connectivity must be predicated on team dynamics and commitment. Serial communications, when one department passes an idea or request to another routinely, without interaction can't build the team dynamics and commitment needed for Customer connectivity. Successful new products don't, for example, emerge out of a process in which marketing sends a set of specifications to R R&D sends the conceptual design to design engineering which sends finished blueprints and designs to manufacturing. But joint design/development reviews and decision-making, in which customer and supplier functional and divisional people share ideas and discuss alternative solutions and approaches, leverages the different strengths of each party. Powerful internal and external connections make new product development communications clear, coordination strong and commitment high.

Establishing effective business relationships with key customer personnel is paramount to making it easy for customers to do business with your company. From the shop floor to the front office, we must establish "one-on-one" customer communications that provide real-time customer input relative to business relations, product performance, and field service. We must convert these communications to action [https://www.b2brocket.ai/lead-gen/b2b-rocket-vs-ansafone customer support services] plans and put forth our best effort to quickly resolve all issues. Let's remember that being nice to people is just 20% of providing good customer service. The important part is designing systems that allow you to do the job right the first time. All the smiles in the world are not going to help you if your products or service are unsatisfactory.

Individual and team direct-line communications with customers is the best approach to obtaining timely and relevant "how are we doing" feedback from customers. Customer satisfaction surveys are tedious, possibly supplier biased and not very accurate in their customer service portrayal. We prefer a "one-on-one" customer connectivity system!

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Why We Love Ansafone (And You Should, Too!)