how to reduce aht?

Before we get into our 49 tips for reducing AHT, and simultaneously improving your Calls Per Hour (CPH) rate, let’s take a look at the following video, which gives an overview of the metric and some classic methods for lowering it.



Some of the key tips in the video included:

These are just some of the classic methods for lowering AHT, but let’s take a look at some of those that have worked really well in our readers’ contact centres.

To find out more about the tips for lowering AHT that were presented in the video, read our article: How to Safely Knock 20 Seconds off Your Average Handling Time (AHT)

We encourage agents to gather as much information as possible at the start of the call.  This should be relevant and about the situation, in order to best resolve the issue instead of getting information filtering in throughout the call.

Thanks to Nicola

Problems can be caused by customers choosing the wrong options on the IVR. Carefully examine your IVR options and see if there is a way of avoiding these problems.

Also, try to include regulation information within the IVR rather than agents having to read and confirm information from scripts or training updates.

Thanks to Robert

Call monitoring can have a big impact, especially with new staff, as they can learn effective time management from the outset.

By monitoring their calls from the outset, you can identify training gaps and provide the agents with valuable feedback about the call.

This process works well for our company in keeping our handling time within targets.

With thanks to Janet

I recently analysed on-hold reasons and compared them against different agents handling the same types of calls.

We found that agents were using different methods to get the same information from the systems.

Based on that, we created cheat sheets for popular call types and streamlined our call-handling processes for the more common queries.

With thanks to Mark

To take a look at our downloadable cheat sheet, check out our: Effective Questioning Techniques

Allow agents with a high AHT to listen to calls of their colleagues with a low AHT to identify and plan where they can reduce their own AHT.

During the recruitment process, identify candidates who naturally speak, ask questions and give answer concisely.

Thanks to Antony

Thanks to Denis

For more advice on avoiding silence on calls, read our article: Seven Tips to Avoid Dead Air Time in Phone Conversations

Identify silent times and look at what is happening. Is the member of staff updating the system? Is the system responding?

Thanks to Carole

Buddy-up agents with high AHT with agents that have low AHT to listen in, gain tips and share ideas.

Quality control is obviously important, so ensure that you have calibration between agents with low and high AHTs.

Thanks to Trisha, Charlie & Alexander

Call- and screen-recording tools are very effective when coaching towards a lower average handling time.

Thanks to Bart

Give staff champion roles within a specific service. Make staff aware of who is the champion for each service.

Advisors should attend meetings with back office within their champion role and bring back updated information, for example street scene, bad weather warnings, etc.

Ensure people follow a predefined call structure. People need to listen, question, clarify back, use hold, give overviews and deliver the solution effectively.

Focus needs to be on giving the right answer, first time.

Adapt, be friendly, helpful and enthusiastic.

Thanks to Sarah

Professionalize the workforce in their business area. The more knowledge agents have of their whole business, the easier it is to answer customer questions and reduce time to get the correct answer.

Thanks to Richard

Simplify complicated marketing material that needs to be explained.

Work with your marketing department if you are getting lots of calls wanting further explanation of marketing materials – get them to simplify this to lower call volumes.

For advice on how to improve your communication with other departments like marketing, read our article: 7 Clever Ways to Improve Internal Communication Between Departments

Examine what your top ten agents do in regard to AHT that makes them consistently quick.  Then apply these tips to the slowest ten.  Improving the slowest agents’ AHT will have the biggest gains.

Thanks to Andrew

Update the customer profile at first point of contact. This way there is no confusion when giving feedback to the customer on services requested.

Ensure that the caller history is up to date with all previous conversations with the customer, no matter which agent has spoken to them. The enquiry can then be picked up so that this is seamless to the customer.  Staff can log on at different locations to reduce call handling time when a high volume of calls is being received.

The customer often may repeat the same information to different members of the team. Creating a 360-degree of the customer prevents needless sharing of the same information that can lead to irate customers.

By taking this kind of approach, I have seen AHT reduce by up to 25% within a matter of weeks.

Thanks to Jason

We found that agents worked more efficiently when they didn’t know how many calls were queuing.

When the queue was visible to them, they extended their call beyond what was necessary in an attempt to have a bit of a breather.

However, this was on a technical support account, so it may differ depending what sector you’re working in.

Thanks to David

Take a look at our article, to find out: What Information Should You Be Displaying on Your Contact Centre Wallboards

Pick enthusiastic, skilled agents to mentor new recruits, who can share best practice and good habits.

Thanks to Carly

Staff should share information to minimize repeated questions.

Collate frequently asked questions and share good answers within teams.

Promote website and text alerts for service disruption. For example, a lot of people might phone an energy company to say that there is a power outage in their area.

If you can provide updates on the website or through text messages, users could obtain information without needing to contact you.

Record 100% of calls received for training purposes.  This then enables you to listen to long and short calls.  This should allow you to see if there is a training issue.

Long calls may be a sign of the agent not listening to the problem, interrupting the caller or being unable to take control of the call.

Staff should be involved in the training along with supervisors to refresh themselves at the same time.

We encourage our staff to do the After-Call Work (ACW) during the call.

This stops customers feeling rushed and reduces AHT. It also gives the customer the confidence that their query has been fully dealt with.

If agents are having to add notes to the account after the call then you need to find out why this is the case. Why do they feel as though they are unable to do so during the call? The agents can then plan their calls better, to improve their AHT.

With thanks to Teresa and Stewart

For tips on how to better support advisors in reducing wrap time, read our article: What Is Wrap Time and How Can I Reduce It?

We try to do actions in calls wherever possible, rather than using after-call work or wrap-up time.

However, this is only effective if the agents are talking to the customer as well.

You can fall foul of long silences doing it this way, which defeats the object.

It’s definitely a balancing act!

With thanks to Janice

Use the same member of staff to deal with callbacks from the original call.  The customer will be talking to the same advisor and will feel more valued.

Hold sessions for providing information direct to advisors rather than using email.

Make sure this is a two-way session, rather than managers telling advisors what to do. Empower the agent.

Create more user-friendly service request forms for every scenario with a specific service.  This gives a more consistent approach for the customer.

Ensure that all advisors can view the management information on a plasma screen.  This will help them manage their unavailable status and see the whole picture.

Also, this will allow the agent to see what calls are coming in and how long they have waited. This is a good approach to having a true understanding of your average wait time (AWT).

Thanks to Lynn

Put a search engine on the knowledge database.  It will make it much easier to find information.

Thanks to Yasmeen

Find out more about managing your knowledge base by reading our article: An Introduction to Call Centre Knowledge Base Software

We tracked AHT against customer feedback and identified the optimum AHT target to drive customer experience within our main call types.

This showed our agents that longer calls don’t always result in great service.

With thanks to Craig

Put in place a structured call opening, allowing the agent to control the call from the outset.  This is called a call structure, a vision of the call-flow, which in turn gets the agent to think about system navigation.

Thanks to Robert

Design a structured question/flow for the agents so they have a set of questions to ask the users and troubleshoot accordingly rather than coming up with their own set of questions.

Thanks to Maheswaran

For lots of great questioning techniques, read our article: 10 Effective Questioning and Probing Techniques for Customer Service

Encourage your top agents with the best call control to share their experiences/strategies with colleagues in team briefings. It’s more powerful than coming from a team leader or manager as agents can see it really works.

Thanks to Victoria

Let agents pull some of their calls and listen to them and I guarantee they will hear the customer driving the call and that they had been repeating themselves.

Agents may also notice that the call info and questions were out of sync, meaning that they had to go back and get the info again.

Also, agents can listen for open and closed questions in the wrong part of the call, open at the front, closed at the end.  They may be using them in the opposite places, therefore taking longer to get to the issue and resolution.

Thanks to Craig

I ensure that the agents have the information at their fingertips and use the internal chat feature so that they can get information from other agents where necessary.

What I find is that agents do not have time to do a lot of reading, so really the most effective way is probably to split the team and bring them into a sit-down setting where the interpretation will remain the same.

Thanks to Tanya

If it is absolutely necessary to go silent when processing things, advisors should keep the customer ‘in the loop’, e.g. “Sorry to keep you waiting, I’m just updating the account.”

That way the customer doesn’t feel the need to fill the silence with conversations that can ultimately prolong the call and distract the advisor.

Thanks to Gina

Channel your customers through the FAQs so that they already have clear answers and will either chat, call or email based on their query.

Give agents personality profiles to allow you to understand if they are extrovert/introvert, analytical, etc. Then place them in the right queue that fits their personality.

Thanks to Sarah

For more advice on this topic, read our article: Using Personality Profiles to Personalize Customer Interactions

Structure key questions along the call, use closed question (yes/no answer) when possible; let the client know what you heard by summarizing it. Then spell out the steps to resolve the issue(s).

Thanks to Jose

To reduce AHT and improve customer experience you must regularly review your IVR call-flow to keep it simple for the customer.

Thanks to Neil

To find out how to review your IVR and take it to the next level, read our article: Call Centre IVRs – How to Review and Improve Your IVR

Invest in your staff’s technical knowledge, rather than rushing them through a short induction.

Invest in educating staff over a period of time, teaching them background information. This should remove the need for referrals to team leaders and help the staff member take ownership of their customers’ needs.

Introduce a knowledge database.  I have just spent a year setting up ours.  It’s only been live a few weeks and is already helping to reduce our AHT and increase staff confidence, consistency of answers and customer satisfaction.

Thanks to Rebecca

Don’t chase the number; get the experience right first and the scores will take care of themselves.

Thanks to Jerry

Conduct mini briefing sessions in small managing groups to update on changes in service. Huddles are very good for this.

Thanks to Lin

My tip for reducing the AHT is to create a good opening question to have control of the conversation directly from the start.

An example could be: “Good day, my name is… Did you call us before?” Whether this is answered with a yes or a no, you can take control over the conversation.

Thanks to Richard

Never jeopardize call quality for AHT as you will not only provide bad service but also encourage ‘bad behaviour’ in the advisor population.

Thanks to Jurgen

My top tip to manage AHT is ‘just because it is doesn’t mean it should be’.  This means challenging every aspect of AHT, including clear visibility, at daily, weekly, monthly levels, at both agent and department level. Also let the agent know that they have the power to reduce AHT.

Thanks to David

Have quick ‘how to’ guides for your most regular enquiries which you can send through to the customer and enable them to self-help.

Thanks to Chris

We have had more some more tips come in from our readers about how to improve AHT without damaging the advisor or the customer experience.

If the caller is having trouble with doing something online, have the agent go through the process with them using co-browse technology.

It reduces the time while the caller is trying to explain to the agent what they are doing or seeing, and vice versa with the agent explaining to the customer the next steps.

Thanks to Michelle Brusyo

Ensure your system is up to date and running as expected. Agents will take longer if they have to wait for the system, which reduces their Average Handling Time.

Another tip is to shorten your call greeting. It matters a lot to open and close the call correctly, as this builds a positive rapport with the customer.

That said, agents should ensure that greetings are short and pleasant, so as not to waste time. I find this normally comes with practice.

Thanks to Ann Sole

Have the agent evaluate themselves for things that might be affecting their AHT. This could be done by getting the agent to take notes about longer calls as they go. This process of self-reflection creates quicker results without too much extra cost.

Thanks to Hasan Odeh

Identify the ten most frequently asked questions and create solutions for them. This will reduce the overall percentage of handling time, as the common queries can be dealt with in a effective and efficient manner.

Thanks to Sourav Dhar

Measure customer handling time as well as average call handling time. This gives the overall effort time per customer combining AHT & FCR.

By doing so, we can manage overall effort, instead of concentrating on reducing individual call time, as this may impact calls per customer.

Thanks to Allan

Empower your agents to have the confidence to take responsibility and ownership of their customer’s issues.

This ownership is taught directly through trust and open communication between team leaders and advisors via regular meetings, updates and buzz sessions.

Having this open channel will reflect your agents’ enthusiasm with your customers and therefore improve First Call Resolution.

Thanks to Mohammed

Present absolutely everything you need to serve the agent in one single interface.

You log into one system in the morning, you sit within one central environment and everything you need to serve the customer.

Whether it’s CRM information or another information source, make sure it is available at your team’s fingertips, without the need to navigate.

Thanks to Will Lusted of Foehn

Call analysis is one of the ways to reduce AHT. But to take this one step further, hold calibration sessions with groups of agents, asking them to listen to a number of calls of different lengths and spot what’s good or could have been better.

When coaching an agent to reduce AHT, it is useful to review an actual call with them and show them exactly when in the call they had opportunity to reduce the length of the interaction, while still providing the required service.

Then, role-play the various situations and map out new, more efficient behaviours.

Average Handling Time can be measured in a number of different ways.  We have written a good article, How to Measure Average Handling Time, which looks at what you should include and what you should exclude.

Average handle time or AHT is the average amount of time needed to resolve a support ticket or service request, including time spent on holds, delays, call transfers, or follow-up actions to fulfill the customer’s needs.

AHT is the total of talk time, hold time, and after-call tasks divided by the total number of calls.

When customer support representatives do not have the requisite procedural information at their disposal and sift through multiple platforms to source solutions, it increases the search times. Consequently, it results in a high average handle time.

Irrelevant probing results from support agents asking unneeded questions and information to the customers, which can be otherwise easily traced from historical customer data. This slows the resolution process, impacts customer experience, and increases the average handle time.

Average handle time shoots up when agents struggle to communicate the instructions to customers, especially while troubleshooting technical problems. Lengthy explanations during calls increase AHT and require customers to put in extra effort to comprehend agent instructions, lowering customer satisfaction with the brand.

Assessing average handle time by merely taking into account the time metrics isn’t enough. The quality of customer support disseminated by the agent and the information used to help customers should be equally considered to approach AHT correctly.

Untrained agents are most likely to be unsure of their knowledge and take longer to answer customer queries, increasing the average handle time and negatively impacting the service quality.

Reducing AHT without compromising customer service quality is a big struggle for support managers. However, identifying the causes that delay the response times and diagnosing them with a robust customer experience strategy can ensure organizations take the right approach toward AHT.

Here is how Knowmax, a Knowledge Management solution for modern contact centers, can help organizations orient their CX strategy towards a reduced AHT while at the same ensuring a top-notch customer service experience.

This KPI is important because respecting your customers' time is the basis of providing a good customer experience. However, the constant drive to improve user satisfaction is competing with requirements to control costs while increasing the efficiency and productivity of contact centers. In other words, those responsible for call center operations are in a constant dilemma, trying to balance costs with a high quality customer experience.

The question is: can you improve the customer experience while reducing call center costs? This is one of the biggest challenges the industry faces. But one way to address this problem is to improve AHT (Average Handle Time). Fortunately, there are many solutions and changes that can be implemented in call center operations to do exactly that.

If you want to know ways to reduce your call center’s average handle time without compromising the quality of the service provided, keep reading this article.

Average Handle Time is a KPI that measures the average time of interactions between agents and customers in a contact center.

A standard formula for measuring AHT is as follows:

AHT = (total talk time + total hold time + after-call time) / total number of calls

In other words, calculating AHT considers the mean amount of time an employee spends handling an inquiry or incident both during the call and afterward. This metric can be calculated for particular agents, per department, or for the whole contact center.

As you can see from the formula, the elements that affect AHT are rather self-explanatory. However, when we talk about measuring and optimizing processes, it never hurts to start with clear definitions:

So improving Average Handle Time is not only about simply shortening the conversations that agents have with customers. To achieve company-wide results, contact centers must take care of various aspects of their operations. Let’s move on to some practical tips.

As already stated, it’s possible to reduce the Average Handle Time of a call center without compromising the quality of its service, and there are many ways to do that. In this article, we will divide them into two groups - the first is related to tech solutions and tools while the second focuses on contact center workers and customers.

Implementing authentication solutions based on passive voice biometrics can considerably reduce the Average Handle Time in contact centers. Thanks to such solutions, agents do not have to spend time confirming callers’ identities at the beginning of each conversation because specialized software does it for them. In addition, the way passive voice biometrics authentication works is really straightforward.

First, a user must undergo an enrollment process to provide a unique voiceprint, which can happen during a regular conversation. A biometrics system needs just 20 seconds of a recording to save a voiceprint successfully and store it in the form of a mathematical model. Then, every time a person reaches out to that call center, their voice is automatically compared to the voiceprint saved in its database. This happens instantly during regular conversations and does not require the engagement of either callers or contact center agents. The latter do not need to ask knowledge-based questions and the former do not have to use any passphrases to be authenticated, as the whole process happens in the background.

This way, agents can start resolving customers’ issues right from the start of calls, maintaining all security standards, and reducing their Average Handle Time at the same time. Moreover, it’s a non-intrusive and entirely reliable method that does not compromise call center service quality but rather even increases customer satisfaction.

Every efficient call center should categorize all calls handled by agents. Typically, assigning a conversation to a certain category is the task of a contact center employee. They need to assess a call and decide what type of interaction they are having. This can happen during or after the call, but either way, it negatively influences the AHT. Using speech analytics automates this process and thus saves representatives’ time. Speech analytics software analyzes call recordings, automatically tags and indexes the keywords and phrases used during those conversations, and then assigns each call to the relevant category.

Instead of dealing with the mundane task of selecting tags in call center software, agents can start other conversations with customers. Another benefit of using speech analytics is a simplified process of reviewing customer-agent interactions. This, in turn, enables call center managers to assess employees’ performance faster, spot more mistakes quicker, and improve the customer experience. What’s more, better-trained representatives serve clients faster, which also positively influences Average Handle Time.

Implementing a customer service knowledge base and frequently asked questions section brings benefits to both customers and call center workers. An external knowledge base or an FAQ allows customers to find answers to basic questions without the need for live agent assistance. This eliminates lower priority customer calls and enables your employees to focus on more important ones. Having this kind of resource available can also help agents during calls since they can quickly find a relevant knowledge base article and send it to the customer, which usually helps finalize a call faster.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a technology that allows callers to interact with a phone system using either their voice or by selecting certain digits on a phone keypad. Clients listen to pre-recorded messages (or voicebots in the case of conversational IVRs) and, based on their issue, select the department they want to contact. A well-implemented IVR system makes it easy for customers to find answers or connect with call centers representatives by following straightforward menu options or discussions with voicebots.

Thanks to that, fewer agents spend time talking to users who they must then redirect to other colleagues, which reduces the Average Handle Time as a result. At the same time, more clients get connected with the right representatives and have their issues resolved faster.

Also, a certain number of users won't have to connect to agents at all as they can find the answers to their problems through interactions with the IVR itself.

When an agent needs to put a customer on hold or simply needs a moment to gather necessary information, it is crucial to let them know what is happening. Silence can be uncomfortable and confusing. This, in turn, can cause some customers to start irrelevant conversations with employees, which can extend calls for longer than is necessary.

Not knowing what is happening may also frustrate clients, resulting in unpleasant discussions between them and agents, who will have to spend time dealing with angry customers instead of resolving their issues.

Average Handle Time is reduced as contact center representatives increase their ability to handle common problems and solve customer needs effectively. Therefore, provide them with adequate and comprehensive training - a CRM, software, hardware, business tools, company standards, etc. This will make them better prepared to handle issues in a timely and efficient manner, reducing AHT without compromising service quality.

When an agent struggles to perform, it's a good idea to spend more time with them working on their skills. Management should conduct routine evaluations of employees’ calls and share timely feedback. When necessary, supervisors should also offer additional coaching or mentoring sessions that address an agent's needs.

Another way to improve agent efficiency is to enable those with high call handling time (AHT) to learn from colleagues with a low AHT. Allow workers to listen to and analyze their peers' calls to create a space for sharing knowledge and providing positive and constructive feedback.

Management must ensure that call center agents are engaged, motivated, and feel that they are part of the team. This will have a direct influence on their performance, which correlates with the Average Handle Time.

To empower agents, make sure that you involve them in decision-making processes and solicit their feedback. These team members are at the front lines of your company and often know what aspects of your daily operations require changes or improvements.

Another way to empower employees is to give them the right tools. We have already discussed the role of technology in reducing AHT, but in this case, it is about the digital solutions and products used by call center workers. Make sure that the software your agents work with is reliable, customized, and adjusted to their daily work.

To support productivity, you should provide your employees with computer equipment and other hardware that works efficiently. Also, create an internal knowledge base that agents can access during interactions with customers. This will allow them to quickly find answers to questions they may not know how to address and resolve customer issues faster.

While reducing AHT is vital to providing efficient customer service, don't forget that quality counts above all. It is better to have one quality interaction that takes longer than expected than many short calls with the same customer that take more time in total and cause them to lose trust in the brand. Reducing the Average Handle Time can be achieved through different methods, but companies must never forget that customer satisfaction (as well as solving crucial inbound call center challenges) should be their top priority.

• Automate FAQs.
• Record and Review Phone Calls.
• Use Scripts—But Allow Employees to Go Off-Script, Too.
• Focus on Training.
• Implement IVR.
• Analyze Your Workflow.
• Make Sure Your Employees Know the Product.
• Ask For Customer Feedback.