Monday Aha!s

From the latest Benchmarking Survey:
Top 5 reasons managers decide to drop AHT from their agent scorecards

Holding front-line agents responsible for average handle time (AHT) has long been a sacred cow in the contact center business. A growing number of contact centers are putting that cow out to pasture.

Curious about what factors go into the decision to abandon the use of AHT as an agent performance metric, I asked that question in my recent AHT Benchmarking Survey. “If your center decided to remove AHT from your agents’ scorecard, please tell us why you made the decision. Check any that apply.” 

Of the 17 potential reasons for abandoning AHT as an agent performance metric, these were the top five chosen by respondents:  

• Call quality scores were impacted…………………………………………….. 67%
• Monitored calls revealed customer issues that could/should have
  been handled in one call were not…………………………………………….. 67%
• First call resolution rates were being impacted……………………………. 50%
• Employee morale was being impacted……………………………………….. 44%
• Causing agents too much stress……………………………………………….. 44%

An overemphasis on agent handle time takes a toll in two important ways.        

> Financial toll on the business: Increase in operating costs.
When agents are under pressure to handle calls in X seconds they are forced to take shortcuts.
Shortcuts result in lower call quality and an increase in unnecessary second calls from customers for the same issue.    

> Emotional toll on the agents: High stress, low morale, low engagement.
While there is an abundance of data to measure the financial costs resulting from too much emphasis on agent handle time, there is no readily available data to measure the impact this practice has on agents.

When agents, the majority of whom are dedicated to serving their customers to the best of their ability, get the message from management that essentially says: when given the choice between taking the time necessary to do what’s right for the customer and handling the call within x number of seconds you should opt for the latter, has an understandably demoralizing effect on their psyche. Demoralized agents are disengaged. Disengaged agents keep their head down, hit their numbers and go home.

If you currently include AHT on your agents’ performance scorecard, I challenge you to take a second look. It might be time to retire that sacred cow and replace it with some new bovines.  

It’s official. Bessie has outlived her usefulness.

I brought the aging cow to the meeting to ask the panel of experts whether they agreed with my conclusion — that the time had come to put old Bessie out to pasture. I explained that for many years she had been a reliable producer. I had to face facts — the milk being produced by my new, younger herd of bovines was of a higher quality and was preferred by our increasingly persnickety customers. The panel concurred — it was time for old Bessie to retire.

At last week’s Contact Center Conference in Orlando I moderated a panel to discuss what has long been a sacred cow in the contact center management business — using AHT (average handle time) to measure agent performance.

AHT remains a popular agent performance metric. According to my recent benchmarking survey, 44% of the respondents said they relied on AHT to evaluate agent performance.

The three highly-regarded experts on the panel — Brian Flagg, Sr. Client Executive, Cincom, Kimberly Mitchell, President, InterWeave, and Connie Smith, VP Operations, Clarity Health Services weighed in on the subject, as did the majority of the managers and executives in the audience that day.

It didn’t take long to realize that “banning AHT” as an agent performance metric was a very hot topic. After an hour (the time allotted) the group was just getting started and could have easily gone on for an hour or two more.

Here are a few of the takeaways from the lively discussion:

• AHT should not be abandoned entirely. While it may no longer be appropriate as an agent performance metric, AHT remains a valuable behind-the-scenes operational metric.
• Requiring agents to adhere to a specific handle time sends a contradictory message — do you want it right? or, do you want it fast?
• When managers are overly concerned with handle time there are unintended, costly consequences — call quality suffers, as does customer satisfaction. First call resolution rates plummet and operating costs rise.
• A surprising number of managers said they do not use AHT to measure agent performance — and never have.
• When supervisors manage by the numbers, as one panelist put it, “…they are not doing their job.”
• Supervisors who “beat agents up” over handle time and other metrics, will need training in how to communicate with their agents differently; to learn to identify and coach the call-handling behaviors that actually drive the numbers.
• As one panelist pointed out, whatever metrics you use should be tailored to your particular business. There isn’t a universal, “one-size-fits-all” set of metrics.

By the end of the panel discussion, the verdict was clear — it was time to move this sacred cow out to pasture. 

• Look for the next Monday Aha!s (5/14 & 5/28) in which I discuss the AHT survey results including the business reasons contact centers decided to do away with AHT as an agent performance metric and the top three metrics managers choose to replace AHT.
• To Complete the survey. 
• See the Monday Aha! from 4/18, the first in the series on measuring agent performance.