Spectrum's June 2016 Newsletter covering Contact Center Wait Times for Voice, Chat, and Email. Understand your customers acceptable wait times depending on the reason for contacting, the contact method, industry, time of day, month, and time of year. #Desktops #Dashboards #WebReports

1. Voice, Chat and Email Wait Times June 2016
What isan acceptable waittime? The answertothisquestionisawhole listof questions.Which
industry?Whatdepartmentwithinthe business?Whatproductor service? Payingcustomeror
customerlookingforfree support? Whattime of day?What day of week?Whattime of the year? A
simple question generatespotentiallytroublingrepliesfromthe targetedaudience.
Nextwe wantto knowthe waittimesforthe differentcontactmethods. Shouldchatandemail wait
timesbe same as voice?Shouldtheybe differentfromvoice butthe same aseach other?Or shouldall
three be different?
The answerto the wait time questionsreallyisfromthe businessitself. Because there will be different
targetsand goalswithinthe businessthe waittimeswillvary. Let’stake forexample acall centerthat
sellsconsumerproducts. A buyeriscalling,sendsachat or an email fora producttheywishto
purchase. The businesswould like thatcontactto be repliedtoasquicklyas possible orthe potential
customerwill gosomewhereelse. Waittimesforanycustomercontact methodshouldbe veryshort.
Accordingto Spectrumcustomerstentothirtysecondwaittimesforvoice,chat and email wouldbe ok
for mostbusinesses.
If this customerwantstoreturn somethingtheyhave purchaseddoesthe businesshave the same
urgency? Of course not,the waittimescan be considerablylongeranditwouldnotchange the
customerbusinessdecision. However,anargumentcanbe made that if the businessreactsquickly
regardlessof the transactionthatbusinesswillearnaveryhighlypositivereputationthatcanbuildtheir
business.
Spectrumworkswithmanycontact centersaroundthe worldthat have voice,email,chatandsocial
mediaas waysof contactingan agent. We have seenwaittime thresholdssetatmanydifferentlevels
for eachof these contactchannels. There isnotan entire industrybyindustrysetlevel. However,there
are some goodparametersthatbusinessesuse.
Voice: On average the old80 / 20 and 70 / 30 rule still seemstoapplyformostbusinesses. Pleasenote
thisisnot true forincomingnewbusinesswhere the 90/ 10 rule isdemandedbythe managers. I recall
a meetingthatI had withthe headof a large contact centerat a mutual fundcompany. We were talking
aboutthe waittimesforincomingnewcustomercalls. The ITmanagerhas suggestedandhopedthata
10 secondwaittime wasok for incomingcalls. The contactcentermanagersreply“To our businessten
secondsishistorical notreal time.The lostrevenue frompotential customersinone daywouldbe
enoughtopay for thisphone system.”Now Iknow thiswassomewhatof an exaggerationbutthe point
was well made.

2. Contact centershave changedoverthe yearsandvoice isno longerthe sole contactmethodby
customers. However,itisstill aprimarycontact methodthatmostpeople use todayandquickresponse
ratesare not onlypreferredtheyare required.
Chat: Asstatedabove the waittimescan,will andshouldvaryby industry. Yetthere isa trendthat
occurs dependingonthe age of the customer;the youngerthe customerthe shorterthe expectedwait
time. Of course that is notalwaysthe rule but itdoestendto happen. Anoverall call centerwaittime
for chat has beensetattwo minutes. Thisisnotthe time that the chat replybeginsitisthe time the
chat is sentto the customer.

3. A problemthathasbeenbuildingandcontinuingtohappenwithbothchatand email tocustomersis
the reply delaysetupby the business.The delayisthe autoreplyandthenfollowedbysimple single
level questionsthatcouldhave beencombinedtogether tosave time.
As an example:The potentialcustomerisonline ata specificproductorservice page andthe
chat box has appeared. The customerasksa veryspecificquestionandthe autoreplyis:“How can I
helpyou?”or “Whichproduct are youinterestedin?”
The customeris pleasedtheyare workingwithan “agent”butfrustratedbythe delays. Had the
auto reply beenmore specificaboutthe producttheywere interestedinitwouldhave savedtime.
These verysimilartype of autorepliesextendthe time neededbefore areal agentcan jointhe chat.
Andthe resultscan hurt the overall customersatisfaction. Of course conflictcanalsooccur. Butfrom
the call centerpointof viewitallowsthe agenttocontinue toworkwithothercustomersuntil theyare
able to endthe chat.
Spectrumhas customerswhouse chat butdo not use autorepliesandtheypushthe agentsto respond
within30 seconds. Butthese are revenue generatingchatcontactsand quickresponse time isheavily
desired.
Email: The replytime toemailsisdifficulttotrulytrack. However,asa general overviewSpectrum
customerslookfora 5 minute response rate. There are somanyreasonswhythe five minutesmaynot
happenthatit isdifficulttojudge anagentfor notmeetingthe threshold.
A financial customerhadmentionedtome thattheyreplytoall emailsasquicklyaspossible. If the
email the agenthasreceivediscomplex anddifficulttoclearlyreplytothe agentsare guideddowna
quickto replypath. The response ideaistoletthe customerknow theyreceivedthe email,theyare
workingonit andbrieflyexplainwhattheyare doingtoanswerthe customerquestions.
A servicesprovidercustomerhasanauto replythatalwayssuggeststothe customerthat theylogin to
the website andchecktheiraccountonline forfastersupport. Thenafterwaiting30 minutesthey
respondagainaskingif theycan be of service. If the customerdoesnotreplythe email isclosedand
consideredhandled.

4. Social Media:There isno response time forsocial mediaunlessthere isanagentwhoisresponsiblefor
the replies. A positivemessageaboutyourbusinessdoesnotrequire animmediate response. A
negative message mayrequire animmediate response butitdependsonthe negative message. If the
message isclear,concise andveryspecificaboutthe problemthenanimmediate response canandwill
improve customersatisfaction. If the message isagenerallynegativemessagewithfoul language thena
replyisnot neededbecauseanyreplycanbuildthe negative view of the business.
There are timeswhencustomersresorttosocial mediatogettheirproblemsresolved. Thisisbeing
seenmore ofteninthe utilitiessector,some governmentandconsumerretail. Customersthatsee a
problemletthe worldknowaboutitthroughsocial media. Call centersare followingthisandposting
thisinformationforthe managersandagentsto see andbe able to react appropriatelywiththe
customerstheyare communicatingdirectlyto.
A wordof cautionaboutpostingsocial mediamessages,manymessagesthatare capturedand
displayedforthe agentstosee containfoul language andcanbe veryupsettingtosome agents.
Language filtersdonotalwayswork. So priorto agreeingwiththe ideaof postingall social media
messagesinvestigatethe outcome of averynegative social mediamessage.
One challenge thathappensinmostcall centersthat offerthe multichannel customercontactisthe
conflict. Customerscall,gotothe website andstarta chat sessionandmaysendan email aswell. A
customerlookingforfastanswerscanand do cause overall delayswhile agentsmultitasktoreplytothe
customer.
Spectrumisa leadingproviderof UnifiedContactCenterReporting. ContactSpectrumtoday todiscuss
reportingforwaittimes. Formore examplesof reportingvisitourwebsiteandthe productspage.
http://www.specorp.com/products
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Dan Boehm
VP Sales and Marketing
Spectrum
dboehm@specorp.com
+1 713 986 8839