CSM Magazine

MARCH 27, 2025

Common Signs of Inefficiencies in Your Contact Center Here are a few red flags to look out for in your contact center operations: High Average Handle Time (AHT): Repeatedly long conversations could indicate unclear processes or agents lacking access to the necessary tools and information.

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Contact Center Interactive Voice Response Average Handle Time Wait times 52

Fonolo

AUGUST 12, 2021

Average Handle Time (AHT). Average handle time is the average amount of time it takes an agent to wrap up a phone call or live chat. Lower average handle times usually mean higher productivity. Find out what’s stopping them from reaching customers promptly.

Call Center 148

Call Center Abandon rate Average Handle Time Construction 148

NobelBiz

JANUARY 17, 2022

However, it is obvious that insufficient training, incompatible interfaces and other factors might result in an increase of Average Handling Time. But, how is the Average Handling Time (AHT) calculated? What is the Average Handling Time (AHT) for Contact Centers?

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Average Handle Time Contact Center Interactive Voice Response Management 52

Global Response

MARCH 12, 2025

Types of analytics: Performance metrics are measured using different approaches, including descriptive, predictive, prescriptive, interaction, speech and text, self-service, and cross-channel analytics. Average handle time (AHT): Tracks how long an agent takes to complete a customer service interaction.

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Contact Center Analytics First call resolution Abandon rate 62

BlueOcean

MARCH 11, 2025

By understanding these patterns, we can implement proactive solutions whether that’s adjusting self-service options, modifying agent training, or recommending process changes. [link] For instance, we might notice that certain types of initial contacts often lead to repeat calls or escalations.

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Customer Experience Calibration Average Handle Time Metrics 62

Fonolo

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

” — Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach ™ , Author of Leading Morale , Customer Service & Leadership Consultant. While self-service channels and bots can handle basic inquiries and transactions, agents will increasingly deal with more complex issues and questions.

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Contact Center Average Handle Time Consulting Consulting 159

Fonolo

AUGUST 17, 2021

Evaluate metrics like first-call resolution , customer satisfaction score, abandonment rate, and average handle time to measure performance, and compare them to your competitors. From seminars and videos to group training and one-on-one coaching sessions, there is no excuse to slack on agent training.

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Call Center Abandon rate Average Handle Time First call resolution 156

Myra Golden Media

APRIL 11, 2023

This could involve training on product knowledge, customer service skills, and communication techniques. Additionally, ongoing coaching and feedback can help agents improve their performance and stay motivated. My Customer Service Master Class might be a good fit for training on soft skills.

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Average Handle Time Contact Center First call resolution Analytics 156

Outsource Consultants

AUGUST 3, 2020

Now is also a good time to review your current customer experience, to identify self-service automation that can reduce the agent burden and lower your total call center costs. Lower Your Average Handle Time to Increase Customer Revenue.

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Interactive Voice Response Average Handle Time outsourcing Call Center 127

Balto

MARCH 3, 2025

They offer self-service options while maintaining clear paths to human agents when needed. Voice biometrics and authentication streamline the verification process, reducing average handle time by 45 seconds per call. This eliminates the frustration of multiple transfers and reduces average handle time.

Call Center 52

Call Center Interactive Voice Response Average Handle Time First call resolution 52

Balto

MARCH 17, 2025

These systems can also detect when wait times exceed acceptable thresholds and alert supervisors in real-time. They utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) such as average handle time and customer satisfaction scores to help agents and managers make informed decisions, identify issues, and enhance operational efficiency.

Call Center 52

Call Center Customer Experience Average Handle Time Analytics 52

TechSee

AUGUST 26, 2024

Similarly, call center agents are measured on their average handle times. These two metrics are closely related, as longer handle times will naturally result in longer wait times for customers. This can result in multiple follow-up calls and longer average handle times, exacerbating customer frustration.

Call Center 124

Call Center Customer Service Average Handle Time Interactive Voice Response 124

TechSee

OCTOBER 10, 2019

For example, a company’s focus on Average Handling Time (AHT) can be a significant barrier to contact center collaboration. Whisper coaching enables managers to listen in on agents’ calls, and coach them in real time. Collaboration is the key to contact center success.

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Contact Center Wireless Scripts Average Handle Time 117

DMG Consulting

MARCH 2, 2021

This is driving major upgrades and enhancements in existing operating systems, the expansion of digital channel support, a self-service replacement cycle as well as investments in new artificial intelligence (AI) and automation-enabled applications.

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Average Handle Time Contact Center Coaching Enterprise 93

Hodusoft

JULY 19, 2023

Cost Savings: By automating call routing and leveraging self-service options such as IVR, businesses can reduce the need for additional staff and handle more calls with fewer agents. IVR systems enable self-service capabilities and help route callers to the right department or agent.

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call center software Call Center Interactive Voice Response Average Handle Time 98

Calabrio

MARCH 11, 2025

Automate performance evaluation: AI-driven QA scorecards and analytics streamline the evaluation process, freeing up managers to focus on coaching and development. Agent Performance and Development: QA provides valuable insights for targeted coaching, empowering agents to enhance their skills and performance.

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Best practices Contact Center Chatbots Call Center 52

Calabrio

MARCH 7, 2025

Workforce Engagement How to Combat Call Center Agent Attrition Share You know the signs: increased average handle time (AHT), increased irritation, productivity decline. Ineffective Coaching and Training: Insufficient training and development opportunities can hinder agent performance and job satisfaction.

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Call Center Benchmark Gamification Contact Center 52

Fonolo

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Not only do you have to have the right people talking to your customers, but you have to have the right managers in place motivating and coaching the agents.” “Front line managers are the most critical part of the Customer Service team. Continuous coaching and training helps mitigate this risk.”

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call center professionals Call Center Average Handle Time Contact Center 98

The Northridge Group

JULY 20, 2023

Even Some of the Best KPIs Can Be Misleading Cost-per-contact and Average Handle Time (AHT) are two metrics that may present misleading information. Cost-per-contact measures the average cost of each issue interaction and has historically been used to determine how much is being spent on customer support.

Contact Center 128

Contact Center Abandon rate contact center associations Average Handle Time 128

Fonolo

APRIL 6, 2020

Service Hub includes a shared email inbox, live chat software, and self-service tools, all of which integrate seamlessly with Aircall for phone support. It can rout calls to the most qualified agent to handle each customer while reducing average handle times.

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Contact Center Average Handle Time Call Center Multichannel 108

NICE inContact

JANUARY 11, 2019

The current decade has brought many changes to quality management, including the increase of treating customer interactions using omnichannel – the ability to handle queries flexibly across self-service and agent-assisted media channels with full context. Change Brought by Omnichannel Interactions.

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Quality management Management Average Handle Time Chatbots 18

Fonolo

NOVEMBER 29, 2022

Start with Some Self-Reflection. Just as any great sports team is only as good as its coach, a call center team is only as good as its manager. There are plenty of call center metrics you can use to help determine how you’re doing, the most important ones being: Average waiting time. Average handling time (AHT).

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Call Center Contact Center Abandon rate Average Handle Time 126

Eptica

OCTOBER 16, 2018

To read the three previous posts in the optimizing CX series on creating blended agents , improving the agent experience and reducing Average Handling Time while safeguarding quality, simply click on the links. This enables you to benchmark and compare performance and identify team and individual areas for improvement.

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Best practices Average Handle Time Self service Contact Center 68

BlueOcean

DECEMBER 18, 2023

For most of the history of the contact center industry, the standard for QA has been for a team lead, coach, or supervisor to review and score three contacts per agent per week. Coaches would get to know the agents on their teams. One percent of one percent… at best. These efforts weren’t useless – they were, as noted, the standard.

Contact Center 71

Contact Center Average Handle Time Coaching First call resolution 71

SharpenCX

APRIL 8, 2020

Metrics like Service Level, Average Speed of Answer, and Average Handle Time directly impact how interactions flow through your queues. Reduce the number of queues you need with self-service options. After all, 73% of customers prefer to reach for self-service tools before contacting you.

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Best practices Call Center Interactive Voice Response Customer Experience 84

Playvox

MARCH 19, 2024

As NLP, ML, and conversational AI evolved, modern contact centers embrace AI-powered chatbots, virtual agents or assistants, voice recognition, and other tools to deliver self-service options to customers. Proactively analyze agent interactions to spot coaching opportunities to prevent costly mistakes and enhance employee engagement.

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Contact Center Quality management Interactive Voice Response Coaching 74

3CLogic

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

Go Beyond Metrics To Offer Individualized Coaching. Monitoring agent performance metrics — which includes service level, agent schedule adherence, call resolution, average handle time, and customer satisfaction — is critical for identifying opportunities to improve.

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Contact Center Interactive Voice Response Schedule adherence Average Handle Time 93

OctopusTech

JUNE 18, 2024

This saves on labor costs while providing good customer service. You will also be able to get such services on demand. Reduce Average Handle Time It is a good thing to provide your agents with knowledge management tools. Along with that, you may also consider offering real-time coaching.

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Call Center Interactive Voice Response Real estate First call resolution 62

Outsource Consultants

JANUARY 27, 2025

Five key KPIs help optimize efficiency: Average Handle Time (AHT) , Service Level , Abandonment Rate , Occupancy Rate , and Average Speed of Answer (ASA). Optimize Average Handle Time (AHT) AHT measures the average time spent on a customer interaction, including talk time, hold time, and after-call work.

Contact Center 67

Contact Center Abandon rate Average Handle Time outsourcing 67

Mindtouch

AUGUST 11, 2017

According to a recent Gartner report , better knowledge management can reduce customer support average handle time up to 80%. That’s a lot of wasted time and money. Some stages include training the coaches through the KCS v6 Practices Certification and then the practitioners through KCS v6 Fundamentals.

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Average Handle Time Coaching Education Self service 84

Quality Contact Solutions

DECEMBER 31, 1969

Some customers are having a great day and are super chatty and nice – which can be challenging if you have other calls in queue and you need to keep the average handle time down. To ensure success, Melissa must coach her team on customer service skills, upsell and cross-sell skills and order retention skills.

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Telemarketing virtual call center Average Handle Time Upselling 68

Playvox

JANUARY 24, 2022

For these, customers expect and appreciate well designed self-service options, with the option of shifting to live service if needed. This requires going beyond traditional contact center metrics such as service level, average time to answer, and average handle time. Take the first step.

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Contact Center Customer Experience Brand ambassadors Average Handle Time 88

NICE inContact

NOVEMBER 8, 2019

Job one: Delight customers with immediate resolution because you can meet them in their channels of choice with faster service that’s always personalized with the CRM customer information right at hand. user rating on App Exchange. Easy-to-use, integrated agent desktop delivers productivity.

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Contact Center Average Handle Time Healthcare CRM 10

Noble Systems

JUNE 27, 2019

It analyzes both live calls and call recordings to prompt agents, spot trends, identify reasons for customer calls, improve quality, measure script adherence and discover training and coaching needs. Real-time reporting provides data on each interaction as it is occurring so that supervisors can coach on the spot or intervene when necessary.

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Cloud contact Contact Center Interactive Voice Response Self service 57

Balto

JANUARY 2, 2025

A call center employee seated at a desk wearing a headset, while receiving coaching from a manager standing next to the desk. This requires moving beyond outdated metrics like call volume or average handle time and focusing on what really mattersfirst call resolution, customer satisfaction, and long-term trust.

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Call Center Abandon rate Interactive Voice Response First call resolution 52

SharpenCX

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Don’t just focus on your Average Handle Time. Speedy service and low handle times are important, but if your agents are too rushed to resolve customer issues, your quality metrics suffer. Emphasize consistent coaching and training methods. How to do it: Revisit your KPIs.

Call Center 67

Call Center Coaching Scripts Metrics 67

Pointillist

JANUARY 25, 2019

Active Waiting Calls With this metric, you can gain a quick insight into how many calls are being handled by agents and how many are on hold. Typically used in the day-to-day operations of a call center, this KPI can help assess team performance in real time. Channel Mix Today’s call centers do more than answer customer calls.

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Call Center Metrics Abandon rate Average Handle Time 75