Handle time for CSR's

In article <[email protected]>, ZZZonka=20
[email protected]a says...
> Customer care is a hard job,
> Make a guess what the turn over rate for a call center is.
> Guess how many reps smoke.
> I'd like to see how long many of the people who post here would last in t=
he
> typical call center, as a customer care rep.
>=20

Just hit my 1-year anniversary.

--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.

---

› See More: Handle time for CSR's

"Ben Dejo" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >
> > What is the turn over rate for a call center?
>
> The Last I knew it was around %20 Percent a month at Sprint ( but that
> number was a very long time ago)
>
> > What percentage of reps do you think smoke?
>
> Cannot honestly answer that one, but in the retail stors out here it
> varies from ~15-60% depending on the location.

In my experience that is true for almost all retail stores.


---
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"Chris McFarland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> ZZZonka Tonka <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Customer care is a hard job,
> > Make a guess what the turn over rate for a call center is.
> > Guess how many reps smoke.
> > I'd like to see how long many of the people who post here would last in
the
> > typical call center, as a customer care rep.
>
> It's made hard by managers that enforce strict Handle Times, and judge
> reps by Handle Times, rather than Customer Satisfaction.

Tell me, Phil- how much call center experience do you have?

In alt.cellular.sprintpcs Scott Stephenson <[email protected]>
wrote:

> "Chris McFarland" <[email protected]> wrote in message

> Tell me, Phil- how much call center experience do you have?

Wait, you'll have to specify: including or not including the 1-900 phone sex
service he got fired from?

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"Steven J Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

>
> Wait, you'll have to specify: including or not including the 1-900 phone
sex
> service he got fired from?
>

Damn- that was harsh.......but I love it. I don't break out in a full laugh
in front of the computer that much, but this did the trick.

In article <[email protected]>,
Steven J Sobol <[email protected]> wrote:

> In alt.cellular.sprintpcs Scott Stephenson <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>

You guys apologizing for the CSRs that lie to you, hang up on you, and
won't escalate your calls?

Chris McFarland wrote:
> Measuring Handle Time can be a necessary evil to be able to compare
> Customer Reps. It becomes bad when a strict number is strictly enforced,
> and Phone Reps can not give good service because they feel the need to
> "Complete the Call", so they will say what is necessary to get you off
> the phone, even if they are making up answers or purposely lying.
> i.e. "My supervisor will call you back".

I agree that sometimes in an effort to cut some conversations short,
some really good customer service is being withheld from customers. Some
agents as much as they sometimes would like to help the customer, do not
want to get chastised for staying connected to long.

ZZZonka Tonka wrote:

> Phillip Dudas wrote:
>
>
>>W.S. Blevins wrote:
>>
>>>On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 00:06:27 GMT, Tim Harrick <[email protected]>
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Unknown? Not at all. We had many reps post to newsgroups telling how
>>>>their managers used carrots and sticks, and the Handle Time was top
>>>>priority.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Can you explain what is meant by "handle time"?
>>
>>Handle time for a specific call or Average handle time (AHT) for the
>>average of handle times on a particular agent or group is just one of
>>the measurements Call Centers use for measuring performance of agents
>>and of the call center as a whole.
>>
>>Handle time is the time it takes for that particular agent to handle
>>that call.
>>
>>Some call centers even are sophisticated enough to allow for Cradle to
>>Grave measurements in their call centers. Such a case would be when they
>>can measure the time it takes from when the customer first rings through
>>to the phone system to the time they hang up; the system would even
>>follow transfers to different agents and groups to make those calculations.
>>
>>Also others such as ATA: average time to answer, are key and usually
>>with lowering the AHT, the ATA gets lowered serendipitously. With that
>>comes the ability for the call center to handle more calls per hour per
>>agent.
>>
>>Phill
>
>
> Customer care is a hard job,
> Make a guess what the turn over rate for a call center is.
> Guess how many reps smoke.
> I'd like to see how long many of the people who post here would last in the
> typical call center, as a customer care rep.
>

Oh no, I need not take a guess. A call center that I recently worked for
had an pretty good turnover rate but one of the sister call centers in
VA that was right across town from a competitor had very high turnover
until it was ultimately closed.

Chris McFarland wrote:

> In article <[email protected]>,
> W.S. Blevins <wblev@remove_this_hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 10:54:51 GMT, Chris McFarland <[email protected]>
>>wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Measuring Handle Time can be a necessary evil to be able to compare
>>>Customer Reps.
>>
>>
>>What's evil about it? When I call, I want the issue (whatever it may
>>be) solved right now. The faster the better.
>
>
>
> But if it's a complicated issue, maybe one the Rep has never encountered
> before, will a rep be afraid to take the time to walk you through a
> solution knowing it might take 10 minutes? All too often, thats the
> problem.

a lot of times that is prime target for.. TRANSFER.. "Please while I
transfer you to someone who can help" (meanwhile they already ahve the
right department) we saw that sometimes. Even had one agent long time
ago clear out the queue by repeatedly picking up and hanging up the
phone. There... no more blinking light.. Phewwww.

Scott Stephenson wrote:

> "Chris McFarland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>>In article <[email protected]>,
>> ZZZonka Tonka <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Customer care is a hard job,
>>>Make a guess what the turn over rate for a call center is.
>>>Guess how many reps smoke.
>>>I'd like to see how long many of the people who post here would last in
>
> the
>
>>>typical call center, as a customer care rep.
>>
>>It's made hard by managers that enforce strict Handle Times, and judge
>>reps by Handle Times, rather than Customer Satisfaction.
>
>
> Tell me, Phil- how much call center experience do you have?
>
>
Well I have spent the last 7 years of my life at a call center. 1.5
years as dialup technical support, 1.5 years as a documentation
specialist, 1.5 years as Assistant to the Call Center Director and the
last 2.5 years as the Telecom guy at our site working on the backoffice
PBX and the ACD.

FYI: This was all after my extensive 1-900 career.

"Matthew Lindeen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> You guys apologizing for the CSRs that lie to you, hang up on you, and
> won't escalate your calls?

I asked a question- you didn't answer it, which is so typical for you. How
does that qualify as apologizing?

"Bob Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Leisa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:4NvBb.7629$8y1.36032@attbi_s52...
> >
> > "Chris McFarland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > In article <6voBb.288841$Dw6.973837@attbi_s02>,
> > > "Leisa" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > "Chris McFarland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > > > news:[email protected]...
> > > > > In article <[email protected]>,
> > > > > ZZZonka Tonka <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > Customer care is a hard job,
> > > > > > Make a guess what the turn over rate for a call center is.
> > > > > > Guess how many reps smoke.
> > > > > > I'd like to see how long many of the people who post here would
> last
> > in
> > > > the
> > > > > > typical call center, as a customer care rep.
> > > > >
> > > > > It's made hard by managers that enforce strict Handle Times, and
> judge
> > > > > reps by Handle Times, rather than Customer Satisfaction.
> > > >
> > > > At the risk of having one of Phillipe's personas say "I told you
so",
> I
> > will
> > > > say that for 2004, handling time, while still a measurement that is
> > tracked
> > > > for performance, is not a measurement that is included in the bonus
> > payout
> > > > program. Just Customer Satisfaction and Resolving issues on the
first
> > call.
> > >
> > > Simply not true. It varies by Call Center and Manager, some of whom
are
> > > far stricter than anything I have mentioned.
> >
> > The above information I printed is directly from the bonus program for
> 2004,
> > which is enterprise-wide, not Call Center specific. Believe it or don't,
> > doesn't matter to me. I have a very low handling time, about 3 minutes
> below
> > the goal, and my customer satisfactions surveys are always 9 and 10, so
I
> > must be doing something right.
> >
> > Leisa
> >
> Leisa, before you get into a long drawn fight here ... be advised that
Chris
> McFarland is one of Phillipe's alter egos ...
>
> Bob
>
>
Well crud, I thought it might be but wasn't sure. Egg on my face

Leisa

"O/Siris" <robjvargas@sprîntpcs.côm> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
In article <[email protected]>, ZZZonka
[email protected]a says...
>> Customer care is a hard job,
>>Make a guess what the turn over rate for a call center is.
>> Guess how many reps smoke.
>> I'd like to see how long many of the people who post here would last in
the
>> typical call center, as a customer care rep.
>>

>Just hit my 1-year anniversary.

Congrats

Me: Over 9 years, 7+ w/a large LEC, almost 2 w/current wireless carrier.

And I don't smoke. Or drink.

And I didn't have this twitch before I started these jobs <gg>

Leisa

"Phillip Dudas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Chris McFarland wrote:
>
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > W.S. Blevins <wblev@remove_this_hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 10:54:51 GMT, Chris McFarland <[email protected]>
> >>wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>Measuring Handle Time can be a necessary evil to be able to compare
> >>>Customer Reps.
> >>
> >>
> >>What's evil about it? When I call, I want the issue (whatever it may
> >>be) solved right now. The faster the better.
> >
> >
> >
> > But if it's a complicated issue, maybe one the Rep has never encountered
> > before, will a rep be afraid to take the time to walk you through a
> > solution knowing it might take 10 minutes? All too often, thats the
> > problem.
>
> a lot of times that is prime target for.. TRANSFER.. "Please while I
> transfer you to someone who can help" (meanwhile they already ahve the
> right department) we saw that sometimes. Even had one agent long time
> ago clear out the queue by repeatedly picking up and hanging up the
> phone. There... no more blinking light.. Phewwww.

At my previous employer, I worked with people who would stay signed in and
available, and go out for coffee or a smoke or bathroom break. Meanwhile
calls are being answered by their phone with no one there to talk to.

One guy got caught because he forgot to turn off his prerecorded greeting.
Callers would hear "Thank you calling <company> this is Antwone how may I
help you?" but would get no other response, because he wasn't there. Then
one day, a coworker had to transfer a call and reached his recording but not
him.....busted!

Leisa

In alt.cellular.sprintpcs Matthew Lindeen <[email protected]> wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Steven J Sobol <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> In alt.cellular.sprintpcs Scott Stephenson <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>
> You guys apologizing for the CSRs that lie to you, hang up on you, and
> won't escalate your calls?

I'm not. Dude, if you act on the phone even close to the way you act on
this newsgroup, it's no wonder people hang up on you. I don't have CSRs
hang up on me.

Hmmmm. Oh, and btw, nice to see you joined AT&T. What happened to all the
"free" cellular service Sprint gave you?

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22674 Motnocab Road * Apple Valley, CA 92307-1950
Steve Sobol, Proprietor
888.480.4NET (4638) * 248.724.4NET * [email protected]