The right technology platforms and processes will help you to reduce costs while continuing to build better experiences for your customers and your employees. By consolidating your technology stack, automating low-effort tasks, and creating processes that shift demand to lower-cost channels, you can realise significant cost savings.
Average handle time is a customer service metric that measures how much time was required to resolve a customer query or service request.
It’s typically used to determine the average length of calls but can also be used to analyse chat and email queues.
Reducing AHT is often a contentious way of reducing the cost to serve, since it’s tricky to target agents on the metric without seeing a negative impact on call quality. Instead of targeting advisors and sacrificing call quality, there are other ways you can reduce your AHT.
Lowering your required workload capacity, without negatively influencing the customer experience is challenging, but it can be done.
According to ContactBabel, inbound call duration is at its highest level ever – almost 6 minutes!
What’s the most expensive channel? The good old-fashioned telephone. In 2019, the average cost per inbound call was £4.53!
Your customers are busy people, and most of them don’t want to have to call you. They just want their issue resolved, as quickly and easily as possible.
Whilst you love them, you don’t want them to call you either - unless they really have to. And with so many other channels available today, if you can stop them picking up the phone then you will reduce your cost to serve dramatically.
Call deflection is increasingly important as it helps weed out the lower value, super simple queries that take up so much of your agents’ time. Using relatively simple chatbot technology, backed up by FAQs and a strong knowledge base, you can easily deflect those quick queries and let your agents focus on the really important stuff.
Learn more about lowering the cost to serve through omnichannel service channels.
No, we're not playing buzzword bingo - there's truth in it.
If you’re running multiple systems with different technology providers, the chances are you're paying over the odds and missing out on efficiency gains. If you can reduce the number of systems you need to run your contact centre, and work with a systems integrator (such as Route 101!), you can:
Reduce the amount of training your agents will require.
Ease agent and supervisor effort when serving customers.
Minimise the amount of toggling between screens, thereby bringing down AHT.
Cut down IT overheads on licences, upgrades, support, etc.
Enjoy being fully supported by one single technology partner.
- Contact Babel UK Contact Centre Decision Makers Guide 2019/20
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