Low AHT requirement = LOW call quality

Last edited by WebDunce on Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:50 pm, edited 1 time in total

I'm a prepaid ATT cust svc rep.

I do my very best to help the customers. I try to follow all policies and guidelines.

ATT drills into us that we should try to solve the customer's problem WITHOUT transferring the call if at all possible and providing that policy doesnt dictate otherwise.

ATT also requires that I follow a set of troubleshooting steps when customers are having technical difficulties such as cant make / recieve calls or cant access medianet.

Depending on who I ask, my AHT (average handle time per call) is supposed to be either 375 seconds or 550 seconds (between 6 and 9 mins). I think the real goal is 375 seconds and I think someone somewhere deep in the guts of our corporation, who probably never took a call in his life, set this ridiculous goal under the mistaken belief that prepaid agents just process refills. We do not. It takes just as long to help somebody set up medianet browser settings on their prepaid phone as it does on their postpaid phone.

However, my AHT NEVER meets this standard. For the year I've worked there, I've been told "dont worry about it." This is as it should be because there is little I can do to control call length. A customer may call in with 5 simple needs, or 1 complex need or may be a persistent credit hunter.

I also dont have it in me to misroute customers on purpose or to brush off a solvable need. I cant count the calls I get that start off with an angry customer who's been xfrd all over the place (usu. back and forth between cust care and vesta). I can tell, they are getting the brush cuz the call gets too long OR the rep doesnt have enough experience yet to know he/she can handle the call.

I get a lot of "WOW" calls cuz I was willing to go the extra mile and get the customer's issue resolved even though it took 20 mins to an hour to fix. A WOW call means you blew your AHT, which means you're one-step closer to getting fired. So, the better I do, the more I help the customer, the more likely I am to be fired for messing up my AHT stat. So, I will be replaced by newbies who can also will not be able to meet the AHT BUT who also will not be able to handle the complex issues as well and who will hand out a good bit of misinformation. Thus lowering customer satisfaction, increasing call backs, etc.

Recently our supervisors have apparently come under fire for this particular, arbitrary stat and now, my job -- and the jobs of many others -- is on the line.

If they want our calls to end in 6 - 9 mins, they need to seriously REDUCE what we can do and turn us into a "how may I direct your call" type department. (Hey, I'd love to hand all the tech issues to tech). But I'm not allowed to hand it to tech until I've exhausted my resources (which are quite a few, and this can easily take 20mins).

Then there's prepaid activations, it takes 15 - 20 mins (and could be greatly simplified, but my criticisms of our systems is another story). We get a lot of activations calls, a lot of medianet browser setting calls, a lot of complex vm, sms, and mms calls AS WELL AS the simple quick refill calls. We also get a tremendous amount of dedicated credit hunter calls, which depending on the techniques preferred by the credit fisher can be short or long (i.e., many hang up as soon as they realize you know your stuff, but just as many seem to think perserverence will get them the .25 credit and they will happily keep you on the line for 30 mins trying to get the 0.25, it's almost like they dont know about the AHT requirements).

So, my recommendation is for ATT to start edu our customers that the cust service calls must end in 6 mins. As a matter of fact, ATT should automatically disconnect the call once it reaches that point. Or maybe, I should start experiencing a lot more "dropped" calls? Do they not see that low AHT requirements encourages reps to brush off customers?

The point of my rant is I hope some ATT official looks at it and realizes the idiocy going on here and that low AHT expectations directly contradicts the First Call Resolution directive. And, it will cause them to keep reps who are able to brush off complex calls and increase rep turnover meaning more customers will be more likely to get an inexperienced rep when they call in (which can lead to disastrous results, I've created my own share of disasters, when I was new, I'm sure)

Cheers.

as a seasoned rep who's been with the company for a year, my aht fluctuates between 650 - 950. Sometimes it goes up to 1200 - 1500 if I get mostly tech calls on a given day.

Also, they could help us lower our AHT's if they didn't make us SCARED TO DO ANYTHING AT ALL, as you never know when xfring to tech might be a zero call. So, maybe I hang onto my tech calls a lot longer than others due to that, I dont know.

almost any little mistake can cause you to fail the call and that is just ridiculous and also causes high employee turn over (cuz they all get fired, then replaced…very few quit for no reason at all as it is a good-paying, fairly enjoyable job).

geez i average around 415-460 , have extreamly low repeat calls and get everything taken care of , and thats mostly billing calls, if i take mostly tech calls were talke 250 - 300 aht , man yall need to step up

so you are able to solve most tech calls in 4-5 mins?

Activations take me 15-20 mins, and I cant see any way to reduce that.

Having cust build medianet profile in phone takes 15-20 if the cust is adept at text messaging and navigating menus or 20-30 mins if cust is not. After a year, I see no reduction in this.

Going step by step thru the Cant Make / Recieve Calls check list (dont wanna get a zero call now do I?) is going to take 5 mins at a minimum to check imei, sim #, make sure are no restrictions in billing system and that all transactions have completed, check END and MTi. And this doesnt necessarily solve the problem, just usu. crosses some possibilities off the list.

Still, I get several "WOW" calls, and usu. these start off with a frustrated cust who is getting the brush-off, or getting xfrd about due to their problem is non-standard and will take awhile to understand/solve…and every time I get one, I think, "Yeah, I blew my AHT, so now that a customer has complemented me for finally getting their weird problem solved (a feather in ATT's cap), I am one step closer to being fired."

Sorta puts a whole different twist on the TCR website, where we can, at any time, be inspired by stories of our fellow reps going the extra mile and possibly blowing their own AHT stat.

im not saying my all my calls are 4-6 min long, i do get the occasional Einstein who can read a bill or 80 year old grandfather who has a 8525 but then i have the quick calls , ins claims, bill ,payments ect. So on average my talk time is below 500.

Ive also been doing this for 3 years so i know what questions to ask before i go down that list that’s a complete waist of time, but yes i can fix most issues tech or billing in under 5-6 min .

Billing usualy takes longer because noone ever wants to admit they talk that much or they are wrong .

well, over time (veeerrrry gradually), my aht gets lower and lower, so, if i can keep the job long enough perhaps my aht will get in line. i hope so. i really enjoy the job very much.

i was 586 today

, IIRC. really good for me, but I was 900+ yesterday

, but it IS improving cuz there was a time I could not hardly ever get below 750, but now it is frequent i get in the 600 range, but it is just as frequent i get in the 800-900 range or worse.

cheers.

im was sitting at a beautiful 195 till a few hrs ago now im at about 248, when you got skills you got skillz , but this is totaly not a norm for me just a bunch of easy calls today

The biggest problems with AHT activations is whether it is in CARE or Telegence. Care can be done in 5-7 minutes, Telegence in 8-10 minutes.
The one problem we reps have is that WE CARE. it is a basic duty and we really want to help people. Look at the clients though.when you ask for a number they say fosifienafeefouhnah.rattled off at 100 milles an hour. in a previous life, I dealt with people that said four six five.nine three four zero .four nine.this is the biggest problem. if we could send 90 % of the prepaid customers to the ebonics cue, we would reduce handle time by 75 %.LOL you all know what I mean. and don't call me racsict. this is fact.

Begging for a dime and a buck here or there. Jezzus. just buy a card and add the money. TNB. I try to put it all my notes when I can TNB. Typical N Behaviour. look out for me. I will be fired soon, but "ah calls a spade a spade".lol.

Ahs didn't gets mah ringtone.

The text ahs sent didn't go tru.

Ah dont's know y passcode.

I loss mah refill cahd.

I rubbed the numbah's off.

i don'ts got no receep.

I be broke down on de road.

yup we here them over and over again.scams and whine.LOL.

Soon to be gone rep. not the job. the clients suck LOL.

Low AHT requirement = LOW call quality

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