Customer Service Metrics - Average Handle Time (AHT)

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Hutch Morzaria

I have been involved in Customer Service, Telcos & the Internet since its birth, but unfortunately just missed out on the glory days of the ".dot com boom". An experienced manager of people and technology I am very interested in helping businesses and people grow and develop and have been writing about this for years.

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Latest posts by Hutch Morzaria (see all)

Customer Service – The Customer is always right? - March 16, 2014
Customer Service Metrics – Average Handle Time (AHT) - August 25, 2011

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The Customer Service and Call Centre industry functions and works through the use of KPIs which I have mentioned earlier in my post on MEASURING YOUR KPI’S – and on the most common ones is known as Average Handle Time (AHT). This KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is perhaps one of the most useful of them all – assuming that it is used correctly and that you are measuring the right things.

MEASURING YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE

Measurement is the lifeblood of any Customer Service business – in fact it is something that you should be doing in your personal life too from a financial perspective! The only way to know that you are doing the right thing is to measure how you are doing and it is a key step in the process of resolving deep seated issues.

DEFINE — MEASURE — ANALYSE — IMPROVE — CONTROL

In Six Sigma methodology a key tool is the DMAIC approach. This tool provides a structure not only for measuring issues that customers complain about, but also fixing and resolving those issues so that your business becomes significantly more efficient and successful.

As you can see from the DMAIC approach, Measurement is a key component of the process and realistically you can only measure what you have determined is important to your business. If you define AHT as important than you are really saying that you are worried about how long your customers are being kept on hold and whether or not their issues are being handled in a timely manner.

AHT, WHAT IS IT?

Measuring your calls is a key requirement in any Customer Service Call Centre. By knowing how long your team is spending on specific types of issues and further determining what those most common issues are, you are better able to prioritize your resources appropriately and ensure that your customers get the best Customer Service possible.

AHT specifically is a measurement of how long an average call is taking – it also combines a measurement of whether or not your employee is meeting the requirements set by your business. By implementing an appropriate target for your team, your customers are able to not only ask their question, but – most importantly – have their question answered! If a target is set that does not allow this to be done appropriately your team might be able to receive new calls in a timely manner but will be unable to resolve a customers issue and your overall customer satisfaction level will only decrease.

WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER?

The goal should be to provide the customer with an increased level of Customer Service regardless of the length of the call and unfortunately this is where AHT breaks down somewhat. While it is useful in terms of measuring averages – from a satisfaction point of view, it is sometimes flawed as not all calls or issues are equal by any means. To truly provide exceptional Customer Service, it is essential that your employee’s spend the right amount of time on your customer and on their issues.

In addition to the difficulty of the issues of course, there are different types of customers – these could be ones that provide a greater revenue to your business or just have a greater value to your company overall through the potential for new business perhaps. These customers require longer calls and an improved level of Customer Service also and as such will skew your AHT even further.

HANDLING LONG CUSTOMER SERVICE CALLS

There are several ways to handle those longer calls discussed above. The first and probably best way is to “tier” your Customer Service team. This ensures that difficult calls and issues can be escalated to someone not only better skilled, but also someone with the appropriate authority to handle the issue.

In addition by designating a portion of your Customer Service team as a Contact Centre – you are able to provide businesses requiring more sales related information an appropriate place to discuss their queries and also delegating a home for those larger businesses needing more personalized attention.

Assuming you do go this path, it is key that you DO NOT assign an AHT to this team as you EXPECT them to take longer on their calls. Measuring and berating them for doing their job is not at all helpful to them or their morale overall.

IS AHT THE ONLY SOLUTION?

No – not by any means, AHT is simply one measurement (of many) and while it gives you some information, for any competent strategy and plan you need to ensure that you are measuring many different areas – MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) for example gives a much better representation of how long it is taking your Customer Service representatives to actually fix the problem. Start any exercise at the first step of the DMAIC approach though as defining what you are interested in, is essential in moving forward.