As consumers, we crave speed and convenience when we do business with a company. And for contact centers, meeting that need for speed isn’t just a nicety for our customers, but a necessity for maximizing efficiency and boosting cost savings across the board.

That’s where locking in your Average Handle Time comes into play. And at Mindful, we’ve cracked the code for improving AHT — and I get to serve it up in our signature, bite-sized way.

Intro

Welcome to Snackable CX, where we break down our best resources into bite-sized guidance on how to stand out and be known for your customer experience. I’m Sam Salerno, here from Mindful, the best-in-class, total experience solution that aims to add kindness to your tech stack.

First off, let’s get down to the nitty gritty on what Average Handle Time — or AHT — actually is.

Average handle time me asures the time it takes for an agent to interact with a customer. It’s a critical KPI because it gauges efficiency while directly influencing customer experience and cost savings.

To measure it, you need to account for three things:

First, there’s total talk time — the amount of time an agent spends actively speaking with a customer.

Second, there’s total on-call hold time. This one is easy to miss. I’m talking about the amount of time a customer spends on hold during the actual call — not while they’re waiting in queue. This could be when the agent places them on hold to look up their information, or the time it takes to transfer the call to another agent or department.

And finally, total follow-up time. This accounts for all the necessary work that an agent has to complete after their interaction — like taking notes and updating your CRM.

To tally your average handle time, just take these three factors, add them together, then divide them by the total number of customers your contact center handled in that same time frame. Honestly, any CCaaS platform should be able to calculate this for you, but if you’re more of a visual person and want to see how to run the math, click the link in the show notes to see the formula in action.

Tackling your handle time

Ideally, you want to keep average handle time as short as possible…but there’s also a good bit of nuance here that can make it tricky to pin down.

Shorter handle times look good on paper, but it might mean your agents are racing through calls and skimping on quality resolutions — tanking CSAT and leading to repeat callers. And on the flip side, longer handle times could mean your customers are using self-service channels and leaving agents to solve more complex questions — which leads to higher CSAT and NPS scores.

So measuring and improving average handle time requires a holistic approach — one that aims to provide the highest quality resolutions in the shortest-time frame possible.

And with a little Mindful magic, you can get started on improving your handle times AND your customer satisfaction in three ways.

First, cut down on customer vent time by removing hold times.

Remember: when we’re calculating handle times, the hold time we refer to is the hold time during an interaction with an agent. But the reality is, the hold time your customers experience before the call connects has a direct impact on their experience. The longer a customer is on hold before the call, the more likely they are to vent their frustration to an agent — gobbling up valuable minutes of handle time and demoralizing your workforce.

So, to get rid of this hold-induced venting, use a callback solution that lets callers swap hold time for free time by giving them the option of saving their place in line and getting a call when it’s their turn.

Using callback to cut down on handle time isn’t just wishful thinking. We’ve seen some of our own clients shave a whopping 2 minutes off their average handle times after implementing Mindful Callback. Tally it all up, and we’re talking massive savings for contact centers and huge spikes in customer satisfaction.

Second, prepare your agents by collecting intent before the call.

Your agents should act as problem solvers, not data collectors. The more information they have about a customer before connecting with them on the phone, the quicker they can diagnose and resolve the issue. And the best way to do this is with the right tech.

You first need to optimize your IVR. Your IVR needs to be a lean machine that effectively routes callers to where they need to go, highlights self-service options, and makes it easy for callers to connect with an agent. The more accurate this is, the more likely the customer will get to the right agent the first time, cutting down handle time from transfers.

Second, use click-to-call or call scheduling on your website. Chances are your customer tried to find an answer to their question on your website before picking up the phone. When you place a click-to-call widget on your site or app, callers can provide information about their question or issue before scheduling a call with an agent. Not only do they get the benefit of skipping frustrations from IVRs and hold times, but now you get to collect detailed information about the customer before the call even connects. You can track what they’ve done on the site, validate who they are, and deliver all that detail to your agent before the call connects. Talk about teeing up a hole in one.

And third, connect your chatbot to a scheduling solution. Chatbots are great at solving simple problems and self service tasks. So for pesky, complex issues (the kind that require a human touch), contact centers can use a handoff solution to preserve a user’s chatbot interactions — like their chat inputs and transcripts — to speed along their conversation with an agent. Rather than losing digital context, users can schedule a call with an agent right from the chat interface — removing the typical vent time we mentioned earlier while taking advantage of the bot’s interaction and giving agents the information they need to get the conversation started.

Final step to improve: empower agents to handle callers proficiently.

How many of your calls end up being escalated because the representative isn’t allowed to make a certain decision? And how many calls end up tacking on minutes from representatives diving through CRMs and knowledge bases to find t he right details?

The more often this happens, the more handle time stacks up. So, first off, make sure you remove as much red tape as you can. An easy step is to require a reason for transferring a call, and then audit those reasons once a quarter to see where you could improve processes and give more power to agents.

Training and mentorship is another key factor to handling calls. We all know trained employees are better performing, but oftentimes the biggest hurdle to conducting a training is the time it takes to prepare. You can shortcut that prep by leaning on a real-time feedback tool—not necessarily to collect customer feedback, but to collect agent feedback. Ask for feedback after each call, and they’ll definitely let you know where they need support.

Lastly, don’t underestimate knowledge bases. A messy, lackluster knowledge base will just eat up the time that your agents are searching for the right answer. You should put as much energy into your public-facing user experience as you do for your internal user experience—because the faster they can access information, the more efficient the call is.

Last thoughts

Crushing your handle time could make the single greatest impact on your contact center. Agents LOVE the feeling of wrapping up an efficient phone call. It’s a nice pat on the back and will boost morale. Of course, customers love it, too, because they can get back to their day. But, most noticeably, your boss will love the improvements, because you’ll have saved workforce headcount by reducing the time it takes to handle each call.

One point I want to reiterate before signing off is around feedback. Possibly the most crucial and overlooked piece of improvement is hearing from your employees. I know a lot of leaders don’t ask because they’re afraid of the feedback. But if you can lean into these comments as signals for growth opportunities, you’ll be primed to make the most impactful change—for everyone.

Nutritional Facts

This episode has been adapted from the guide titled, “Average Handle Time: The Ultimate Guide for Contact Centers,” which you can find in the Mindful CX library at getmindful.com.

We publish new, Snackable CX episodes every week, so be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. See ya next time.

Written and hosted by Sam Salerno.

Produced and engineered by Jared Evers.

Edited, mixed, and mastered by Adam Griffith.

Artwork designed by Rob Beckham.