Voice, Chat and Email Wait Times June 2016
What is an acceptable wait time? The answer to this question is a whole list
of questions. Which industry? What department within the business? What product
or service? Paying customer or customer looking for free support? What time of day?
What day of week? What time of the year?
A simple question generates potentially troubling replies from the
targeted audience. Next we want to know the wait times for the different
contact methods. Should chat and email
wait times be same as voice? Should they be different from voice but the same
as each other? Or should all three be different? The answer to the wait time questions really is from the
business itself. Because there will be
different targets and goals within the business the wait times will vary. Let’s take for example a call center that
sells consumer products. A buyer is
calling, sends a chat or an email for a product they wish to purchase. The business would like that contact to be
replied to as quickly as possible or the potential customer will go somewhere
else. Wait times for any customer
contact method should be very short.
According to Spectrum customers ten to thirty second wait times for
voice, chat and email would be ok for most businesses. If this customer wants to return something they have
purchased does the business have the same urgency? Of course not, the wait times can be
considerably longer and it would not change the customer business decision. However, an argument can be made that if the
business reacts quickly regardless of the transaction that business will earn a
very highly positive reputation that can build their business. Spectrum works with many contact centers around the world
that have voice, email, chat and social media as ways of contacting an
agent. We have seen wait time thresholds
set at many different levels for each of these contact channels. There is not an entire industry by industry
set level. However, there are some good
parameters that businesses use.
Voice: On average the old 80 / 20 and 70 / 30 rule still seems to apply for most businesses. Please note this is not true for incoming new business where the 90 / 10 rule is demanded by the managers. I recall a meeting that I had with the head of a large contact center at a mutual fund company. We were talking about the wait times for incoming new customer calls. The IT manager has suggested and hoped that a 10 second wait time was ok for incoming calls. The contact center managers reply “To our business ten seconds is historical not real time. The lost revenue from potential customers in one day would be enough to pay for this phone system.” Now I know this was somewhat of an exaggeration but the point was well made.
Voice: On average the old 80 / 20 and 70 / 30 rule still seems to apply for most businesses. Please note this is not true for incoming new business where the 90 / 10 rule is demanded by the managers. I recall a meeting that I had with the head of a large contact center at a mutual fund company. We were talking about the wait times for incoming new customer calls. The IT manager has suggested and hoped that a 10 second wait time was ok for incoming calls. The contact center managers reply “To our business ten seconds is historical not real time. The lost revenue from potential customers in one day would be enough to pay for this phone system.” Now I know this was somewhat of an exaggeration but the point was well made.
Contact centers have changed over the years and
voice is no longer the sole contact method by customers. However, it is still a primary contact method
that most people use today and quick response rates are not only preferred they
are required.
Chat: As stated above the wait times can, will and should vary by industry. Yet there is a trend that occurs depending on the age of the customer; the younger the customer the shorter the expected wait time. Of course that is not always the rule but it does tend to happen. An overall call center wait time for chat has been set at two minutes. This is not the time that the chat reply begins it is the time the chat is sent to the customer.
Chat: As stated above the wait times can, will and should vary by industry. Yet there is a trend that occurs depending on the age of the customer; the younger the customer the shorter the expected wait time. Of course that is not always the rule but it does tend to happen. An overall call center wait time for chat has been set at two minutes. This is not the time that the chat reply begins it is the time the chat is sent to the customer.
A problem that has been building and continuing to happen
with both chat and email to customers is the reply delay set up by the business.
The delay is the auto reply and then followed by simple single level questions
that could have been combined together to save time.
As an
example: The potential customer is on line at a specific product or service
page and the chat box has appeared. The
customer asks a very specific question and the auto reply is: “How can I help
you?” or “Which product are you interested in?”
The
customer is pleased they are working with an “agent” but frustrated by the
delays. Had the auto reply been more
specific about the product they were interested in it would have saved
time. These very similar type of auto
replies extend the time needed before a real agent can join the chat. And the results can hurt the overall customer
satisfaction. Of course conflict can
also occur. But from the call center point of view it allows the agent to
continue to work with other customers until they are able to end the chat.
Spectrum has customers who use chat but do not
use auto replies and they push the agents to respond within 30 seconds. But these are revenue generating chat
contacts and quick response time is heavily desired.
Email: The reply time to emails is difficult to
truly track. However, as a general
overview Spectrum customers look for a 5 minute response rate. There are so many reasons why the five
minutes may not happen that it is difficult to judge an agent for not meeting
the threshold.
A financial customer had mentioned to me that they reply to
all emails as quickly as possible. If
the email the agent has received is complex and difficult to clearly reply to
the agents are guided down a quick to reply path. The response idea is to let the customer know
they received the email, they are working on it and briefly explain what they
are doing to answer the customer questions.
A services provider customer has an auto reply that always
suggests to the customer that they log in to the website and check their
account online for faster support. Then
after waiting 30 minutes they respond again asking if they can be of
service. If the customer does not reply
the email is closed and considered handled.
Social Media: There is no response time for social media
unless there is an agent who is responsible for the replies. A positive message about your business does
not require an immediate response. A
negative message may require an immediate response but it depends on the
negative message. If the message is
clear, concise and very specific about the problem then an immediate response
can and will improve customer satisfaction.
If the message is a generally negative message with foul language then a
reply is not needed because any reply can build the negative view of the
business.
There are times when customers resort to social media to get
their problems resolved. This is being
seen more often in the utilities sector, some government and consumer
retail. Customers that see a problem let
the world know about it through social media.
Call centers are following this and posting this information for the
managers and agents to see and be able to react appropriately with the
customers they are communicating directly to.
A word of caution about posting social media messages, many
messages that are captured and displayed for the agents to see contain foul
language and can be very upsetting to some agents. Language filters do not always work. So prior to agreeing with the idea of posting
all social media messages investigate the outcome of a very negative social
media message.
One challenge that happens in most call centers that offer
the multichannel customer contact is the conflict. Customers call, go to the website and start a
chat session and may send an email as well.
A customer looking for fast answers can and do cause overall delays
while agents multitask to reply to the customer.
Spectrum is a leading
provider of Unified Contact Center Reporting. Contact Spectrum today to
discuss reporting for wait times. For
more examples of reporting visit our website and the products page. http://www.specorp.com/products
Dan Boehm
VP Sales and Marketing
Spectrum
dboehm@specorp.com
+1 713 986 8839
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