Call Center Management Featured Article
AI Helps Reduce Average Handle Time and Boost Quality
As call centers walk the fine line between a quality customer experience and cost control, it can become difficult for call center management to understand how to keep costs in check without sacrificing quality that will drive customers away. One of the most recommended ways to achieve this is to reduce average handle time (AHT) so customers aren’t experiencing long waits and agents aren’t wasting their time engaging in repetitive tasks that don’t lead to revenue generation or further the customer relationship. Rushing customers off the phone, obviously, isn’t a great way to reduce AHT, nor is cutting corners with procedures.
How Do You Reduce AHT and Not Sacrifice Quality?
One of the best ways for call center management to streamline the customer care process is to reduce inefficiencies. Are agents spending a lot of time manually looking up the information they need to help the customer? Are they having to make judgement calls on the next best action to take? Are they having to toggle between applications to enter information more than once? If so, then your contact center could benefit immensely from workflow management that reduces repetitive entry and puts information and customer data at agents’ fingertips immediately.
How AI Can Help
Artificial intelligence can go far in automating the customer care process so agents can spend their time being human and not doing a job the call center platform can do. Bidgely's UtilityAI, for example, is an AI powered call center platform that helps utilities reduce average handling times for high bill calls – one of the most common types of calls utilities receive -- from utility customers by several minutes while also equipping customer service representatives (CSRs) with better program targeting and recommendations to improve customer satisfaction. One companies that has used the solution successfully is Florida Power & Light (FPL).
“For high bill call scenarios specifically, we used Bidgley to replace a very antiquated tool where we had to ask multiple customer questions in order to get to the most simple answer,” said Katy Martin, customer service manager and CX specialist for FPL, in a statement. “Now we have this wonderful tool with many insights that are already there for us as soon as we open it. This provides the customer with security and confidence in the information we are providing them without having to answer questions.”
Used in conjunction with workflow management, quality management and workforce management solutions, AI provides a more viable approach for contact centers to reduce operating costs and improve employee performance, reach adherence goals and elevate the customer experience.
Edited by Maurice Nagle