Battle of the Call Center Metrics: AHT vs. FCR

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Battle of the Call Center Metrics: AHT vs. FCR
Contributor: Megan
Webb-Morgan
Posted:
02/14/2013 12:00:00
AM EST
Your call center’s metrics help you to assess the effectiveness of your employees, your script,
and your calling methods. There are a number of metrics that you can track with your call
center software, including: time spent on hold, call abandon rates, transfer rates, conversion
rates, and cost per call.
In working to assess how well your call center is performing, two of the most important rates
to track are your first call resolution (FCR) and average handle time (AHT). However, these
rates are often in conflict with each other – a high FCR (good) can cause a high AHT (bad), and
vice versa. On which one should you place the most importance?
Well, that depends. Think about your business’s priorities. When a customer contacts your call
center, is it more important to solve their problem quickly, or to answer their question in a
single call?
The Importance of AHT
Having a low AHT can decrease your call center’s operating expenses, reduce the number of
agents you need on staff and reduce customer wait times in the queue. The lower your AHT,
the less time your representatives spend on the phone with each customer.
A low AHT implies that your call center processes are as streamlined as possible, and that
representatives are communicating with your customers effectively and efficiently.
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If your AHT is high, you may benefit from implementing or optimizing scripts and
templates for your agents to use in order to handle frequently-asked-questions and
other familiar scenarios.
There are several problems involved in using AHT as a metric for measuring your call
center’s performance. If customers are not given complete information in these short
interactions, they may be forced to call back a number of times until their problem is
resolved. This decreases customer satisfaction and ends up wasting more time than
can be accounted for on a per-call basis.
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The Importance of FCR
Your call center’s FCR is a measurement of how well your agents provide your customers with
a solution the first time they contact you. The more your customers have to call back in order
to find a solution to their problem, the lower the quality of your customer service.
A low FCR incurs higher operating costs as agents repeatedly interact with the same
customers. If your business is focused on customers and excellent customer service, then your
call center’s attention should be focused on improving your FCR.
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Unfortunately, your FCR can be a difficult metric to objectively track. You may have to
rely on customer reports via phone, web, IVR survey, end-of-call survey, or voice menu
– all of which require customers to self-report their satisfaction.
You can also use your CRM system to determine whether individual callers have called
multiple times or only once.
QA call monitoring can listen to the call and evaluate if the problem was resolved.
There are several steps your call center can take in order to improve its FCR. The key is to
increase your agents’ ability to provide knowledgeable answers to your callers. Coaching and
training are thus important elements in increasing your FCR, as well as improved management
oversight, awareness, and accountability.
Although it may seem counter-intuitive, you may benefit from working to improve both of
these metrics in tandem. You want your FCR to be as high as possible and your AHT as low as
possible. By utilizing a combination of good scripting, effective employee training, and
managerial oversight, you can work towards quickly solving your customers’ problems the first
time they call.
Megan Webb-Morgan is a web content writer for ResourceNation.com. She writes about small
business, focusing on topics such as business sales.
http://www.customermanagementiq.com/ccm-performance-measurement/articles/battleof-the-call-center-metrics-aht-vsfcr/&mac=CMIQ_OI_Featured_2011&utm_source=customermanagementiq.com&utm_medi
um=email&utm_campaign=CMOptIn&utm_content=8/22/13
Fonte e créditos: Customer Management
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mantida a integridade dos textos, mencionando o autor, fonte e a origem da cópia através do Blog do Call Center
em http://www.blogdocallcenter.com