Call Center Software

The Relevance of Reducing ACW in Call Centers

ACW call center meaning or After call work (ACW) is a set of tasks that must be performed after an agent has interacted with the customer. ACW varies according to customer requests and solution requests. There is no set benchmark for the length of ACW. However, it is a metric that affects AHT and, therefore should be closely monitored.

Let us consider three scenarios before we start

After Call Work Call Center Scenario 1

The call center customer care agent takes a call for 3 minutes. He has all the required information handy, and as he is communicating with the customer, he is logging the call details simultaneously. As soon as the query is resolved, he is ready to take the next call, as there is NO After call work required.

After Call Work Call Center Scenario 2

The call center customer care agent spends 2 minutes on a call, resolves the query, and gets too engrossed in speaking to the customer. He makes his best possible effort to deliver a quality experience and make small conversations to keep him pepped up. After resolving the query, the agent takes around 1 minute to log the call details into the system. So, his ACW is of 1 minute.

After Call Work Call Center Scenario 3

The call center customer care agent spends 2 minutes on a call, resolves the query, and logs all the details into the system simultaneously. But instead of taking the next call, he takes a one-minute breather. He isn’t doing any productive work in this 1 minute but is ready to take another call only after giving an ACW of a minute.

THE AHT or Average Handling Time of all three employees is 3 minutes. But which agent delivers a better customer and organizational experience?

Naturally, it’s agent 1 who delivers his best to the customer and doesn’t waste time on ACW. The 2nd and 3rd agents are doing their job of delivering customer experience well, but what about their organizational productivity goals? This one minute of ACW is justified in agent 2 but not in agent 3.

But at least now you know what the After call work of ACW metric is!

Today’s business thrives on a company’s greatest assets – keeping your customers happy and building customer loyalty.

  • A Microsoft study found that 54% of consumers worldwide have higher expectations for customer service than a year ago.
  • Another study by Dimensional Research found that 52% of consumers say they have made another purchase from a company after a positive customer service experience
  • According to Bain, with a 5% increase in customer loyalty customer base grew to 25% more prospects.

But what is ACW in the call centers, and how to improve it?

After call work (ACW) is the activity performed after an agent has interacted with the customer. Common ACW activities include:

  • Updating systems and records.
  • Recording reason for contact and results.
  • Updating colleagues.
  • Planning follow-up actions.
  • Planning of contacts and follow-up actions.

The total time a consultant works on ACW is called “closing time,” although the client is not involved in this phase. ACW is considered a part of the AHT and therefore considered in the overall turnaround time for the call.

AHT is an important metric to calculate when determining the number of agents needed in the contact center if you do a gain-use calculator. To reduce AHT, some work should be performed during the call as long as call quality is not compromised by the advisor.

Why Is ACW Call Center Important?

ACW is an essential KPI because it directly impacts contact center efficiency. Having an in-depth view of how your agents spend their time is crucial.

According to the International Finance Corporation, ACW should take approximately 6 minutes to complete post-call formalities after each customer interaction. As part of AHT, ACW directly impacts call duration, agent efficiency, and contact center productivity.

What Are The Steps To Complete The ACW?

5 main steps include the main tasks of contact centers in all industries:

Step 1: Save and Summarize Call Notes

This is to record notable observations, challenges, and new requests from incoming customers.

Step 2: Perform Required Actions

This includes tasks such as forwarding the customer file to a technical team or updating know-your-customer (KYC) information.

Step 3: Assigning a Tracker

This ensures that the task is given to the agent with the required expertise and authority.

Step 4: Use Notes to Update CRM

The agent proactively tracks new information collected about the customer by updating the CRM.

Step 5: Analyze customer feedback

Continuous feedback closes the gap between agents and customers.

How does ACW improve agent performance?

Call Centers place the utmost emphasis on keeping agents as reachable as possible. They strive to keep the agents available on calls to enhance their ROIs. But there are certain scenarios wherein ACW is relevant to an agent and helps him enhance his performance. Here are some ways:

  • Helps them dedicate time to following up on customer inquiries.
  • ACW helps agents to document all details, update relevant teams and plan further action plans.
  • ACW helps in enhancing productivity, as it gives a breather to agents before they can go on the next call.
  • Immediately after the call, agents can log action points, update all requests in the system, and cover the entire resolution process.
  • It is not recommended to save these important tasks for later as it may result in the loss of important information and potentially impact agent productivity.
  • ACW is also an apt time for supervisors monitoring real-time interactions to step in for quick feedback. This can be used to optimize the script or to inform the agent of an error made during the previous call.

How ACW impacts organizations

We have learned how beneficial ACW is for the agents, but let us learn about the impact of ACW on contact centers:

ACW Means Longer Waiting Times For Customers

A longer ACW leads to longer waiting times for incoming calls and shorter times for outgoing calls. Effective following ACW makes it clear that technical assistance or training is needed to remove bottlenecks in the workflow that lead to longer wait times for customers.

Report Process Issues

ACW time monitoring can slow agents down. Addressing these issues is important to save valuable time and improve the overall performance of a contact center.

Improve Agent Performance

Because the nature of activities is usually repetitive, a sudden spike in ACW metrics can indicate a new process problem that needs to be specifically addressed through appropriate interventions. Efficient ACW time monitoring allows supervisors to immediately educate or advise agents who spend too much time on post-call processing activities.

What Is The Ideal After Call work?

The time spent on ACW differs from call to call, agent to agent, and call center to call center. There is no Best or Ideal ACW as it depends on mainly 4 factors:

Sector

In general, some types of contact centers spend less time on ACW to optimize service levels, while others prefer to log long pieces of information as possible.

For example, retail, distribution, and online sales prefer the shortest ACW to ensure the best availability in the market, whereas IT, technical sectors like banking, and insurance sectors spend more time handling the after-call work.

Call Type

The ACW can be much shorter if the call is about a single transaction, a small piece of information, or a general query. The agent can log the details while on the call, thus saving time on his ACW. But if the customer is a repeat or an unsatisfied customer, who has various other conversations and several follow-ups planned, the ACW can take longer. New problems and complex problems may require a tailor-made ACW.

Internal Processes

if the organization requires agents to maintain a knowledge base, login to a CRM and post details of the call, or support full ticket ownership, these can have long-term implications on ACW. Additional information can intentionally increase ACW time. It is important to review and identify internal processes that highly impact ACW and optimize them based on agent feedback.

Consultant Behavior

The productive agents will try and finish their logging details while on the call and save their ACW. On the contrary, who will treat ACW as an excuse to take a break? There is a need for regular monitoring and training of agents. Organizations must make sure that the agents:

  • Are fully informed.
  • They optimize all steps.
  • They have a good typing speed.
  • Do they suffer from conversation fatigue and deliberately avoid incoming calls?

These require in-depth analysis of agent performance by leveraging advanced tools such as automated workflows, screen recording, and artificial intelligence.

How To Reduce ‘After Call Work’ In A Call Center?

Many agents can seek your advice by asking – how can I reduce my ACW time? Let us find out different ways to guide them to reduce ACW time:

Agent Coaching

Coaching agents to improve their after-call handling skills and reduce their ACW is the most powerful way to improve their performance. Customized, skill-specific coaching programs help eliminate redundancy, familiarize agents with the platform, and improve usability.

Use Shortened Abbreviations

Agents must be given a list of abbreviations and short forms that they can use while logging a call. For example, instead of typing customer called the organization multiple times and since he was not provided with a resolution”, he can simply log, “cust was a multi-time caller with no solution provided.”

They simply need to make sure; that these are easily understood by future users.

Encourage Detailed Notes

It is prudent to ensure that agents carefully write down any actions they take after a call. It is beneficial to both the agent and the center, especially during call monitoring as it becomes easier to verify the time taken after each call.

However, agents should be advised to log most of the content while on the call to reduce their AHT and ACW, but surely not at the cost of customer experience.

Improved Operational Efficiency

Organizations must empower agents with advanced AI-based technologies and CRM interfaces so that agents don’t have to spend so much time on data entry. This will help them reduce the ACW.

Use an ACW timer

A high ACW can be because of a casual conversation with a peer, slow typing, lack of knowledge, etc. Instead of general training for all agents, contact centers can focus on these specific agents and offer personalized coaching. Make sure work is not used as an excuse to take a break after the call

Ensure utilization does not exceed 85% to protect consultants from burnout. QAs must look for averages to get a view of agent behavior. If this is a common occurrence in your contact center, it’s likely due to a cultural issue or agents feeling “burnt out.”

To test if this is the case, check your occupancy rates and make sure they don’t exceed 85%. If occupancy rates are higher than this number, consultants will be overworked.

Conclusion – Expert Advice

Monitor and refine ACW call center practices – It is important for call centers to supervise the ACW tasks and make sure there are no redundant tasks or unnecessary documentation. Automate as much as possible and train agents to edit customer data in real time.

A CRM integration eliminates the need for your agents to switch screens to edit customer data and make updates. It also helps agents know what’s important and encourage them to record useful personal notes that you can refer to in future conversations. So keep all your processes lean, as capturing progress in ACW benefits the consultant and the center and can greatly reduce turnaround times.

Taran, as the Support Manager at JustCall, spearheads efforts to enhance customer satisfaction by strategically collaborating with client-facing teams. He upholds rigorous standards, ensuring JustCall's support services consistently excel. Passionate about superior customer experiences, Taran champions a company-wide dedication to a customer-first mindset.

How useful was this post?

0/5

-

( 0 votes)

Learn from our videos