5 Important Time Management Tips for Contact Center Agents

Time management is an essential skill for call center agents. Time is literally money when we are in a contact center. Every moment wasted is money wasted on not generating revenue or retaining a customer. Remember, talk time is not free in contact centers. A lot of money and manpower are invested in running a day-to-day operation. And on tight budgets, it is imperative that revenue is not getting wasted. This also means you cannot compromise on your customer service in -order to stick to your time-based metrics. This is why time management is an important asset or skill to possess as contact center agents and managers. 

A contact center is not just about talking to customers. There are other minute tasks that the agents have to consider and perform after every interaction. From adding notes after every call to seeking new information, agents have a lot on their plate. Not all days are spent on equal bandwidth. Some days there are VIP customer tickets or unnecessary escalations which keep your agents from working on other things like tending to customers. The only way to work around this is to learn how to track your activities, automate mindless tasks and improve your conversational skills. 

First of all, your team managers have to identify the following:

• Processes that are time-consuming
• Mindless tasks that can be automated
• Recurring problems that are wasting time
• Agents who are not serious about the task at handThese technologies when embedded into
• Email and desktop activities are mundane and time-consuming

Upon identifying these, your decision-makers can put their minds together and find a solution. Let’s discuss how to train your agents and invest in tools for time management in your contact center - 

This goes without saying that automation will save time. Automating certain processes which take up or waste a lot of time is the first step to time management. Having a CRM system will eradicate many time constraints, like adding call conclusion, call duration information, or customer information. It will automatically collect this information freeing your agents from mundane tasks. Similarly, sales agents spend a lot of time dialing numbers and validating leads. This is another mindless task that is an absolute waste of an agent's time. Imagine waiting through the entire call-ringing and then finding out a dead lead or voicemail. Instead, an autodialer can run through your address book by itself and will route in an agent when a receiver responds to the call. 
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the contact centers is becoming ubiquitous. It helps in automating repetitive tasks and saves a lot of productive hours for the agent. Whether it is filling up some forms for customer onboarding, helping in document validation, or monitoring appointment adherence.

These technologies when embedded into your call center solution process, reduce time wastage and improve efficiency.

There are many customer issues that are recurring. To save up time on customer conversations, use canned responses on IVR, live chat or chatbots. And when speaking to them on call, refer to a tailored script that can help you respond easily and immediately. Believe it or not, the majority of customers will have a primary issue. Asking the same question and offering the same response is just extra work. Hence, preparing a response beforehand will smoothly sail the conversation and close the matter immediately.

Sometimes customer calls can go beyond the estimated time. Customers might want to vent, struggle and become more talkative. It is usually the agent’s responsibility to take charge, offer a resolution, and cut the conversation. This is why you should record the calls, and track the average handling time. Once you track and record them, you find out what is holding back your contact center agents. You will identify which agents struggle with cutting the conversation short and train them to do better. All-in-all you educate and train your agents in mastering conversational skills and equip them with information so they can close calls easily without compromising on service quality.

When customers can help themselves, agents in the contact center can focus on other complex things. This is why empowering your customers as well to ensure that your agents are the last line of support. When agents are bothered by every other mindless issue like account renewal or product refund, it wastes their time and keeps them away from more pressing issues. Instead, automate these resolutions by using chatbots or IVRs. Your customers should avail these channels and self-help themselves. This will also preserve your agent’s time. 

Many employees overwork themselves, which leads to poor time management and reduced work quality. These agents often take up more work than they could possibly do. It is important to say no to newer tickets or tasks when you have more on your plate. It might seem that you are being helpful, but you are actually becoming less productive which is a counter to good time management. Instead, come to work every day, create a to-do list and finish only those tasks. You can choose to guide your colleagues but stick to only your responsibilities and excel in them. 

Conclusion

Time management is actually a life skill. No matter whether you are an agent or a manager, time management is important for everyone. Those last-minute requests and procrastination can be a huge pain. It can hinder your progress in the long run. This is why invest in the right tools and see what is leaking your time. Work on those issues, automate as many processes as you can, and empower your agents to do better. The nature of a contact center is always hectic. There will always be work pending, hence, planning and sticking to a routine will help.