Workforce Management Featured Article
ASA, WFM Key to Keeping Call Abandonment Down
The struggle with call abandonment is not a new occurrence for call centers. People lose patience, and within minutes of sitting on hold enjoying a lovely selection of slow jams or elevator music it’s time to hang up. The result: an even more discontent customer and a business that may have lost someone’s business.
According to Monet Software (News - Alert), a call center has one minute. If a caller is not speaking with a call center agent after a minute nearly two-thirds of people will hang-up. This is why the workforce management firm’s Chuck Ciarlo suggests a deeper look at average speed of answer (ASA) as a KPI deserving of some additional attention.
Bare in mind, not long ago this was a far simpler task, as the omnichannel landscape of today complicates this a touch. So instead of call center management saying, “I want 80% of calls answered within 30 secs,” and that be that, today the call center extends to chat, social media, email and more.
Once ASA goals are created, a call center can continue to hone operations. A key piece of the achieving optimal results is technology. Call center forecasting tools enable improved scheduling, and with workforce management (WFM) software, the call center can provide efficiency is first and foremost. And, the necessary number of agents are manning the phones.
There are a number of ways to attack call abandonment, digging deeper into ASA is certainly a good place to start, followed in short order by starting the search for a WFM solution to support the customer service demands of an omnichannel world.
What’s in your call center?
Edited by Maurice Nagle
