There is a lot more to working in a call center than simply picking up a phone. After call work (ACW) is every bit as important as the calls themselves, but what exactly is ACW?
After-call work involves everything the operator does once the call has ended. Typically, in order to maintain peak efficiency, these tasks should take no longer than 20-30 seconds. The main focus of ACW is to log the sentiment, feedback, nature, and content of the call, to file contact details for the customer, and to send out a follow-up to make sure everything is resolved and the customer is happy. The metrics provided by detailed and attentive ACW can make or break a business; customer service will always be of vital importance and listening to your consumers’ voices will help you to continue to grow.
First and foremost, ACW provides a log of a call center’s activity, it is fed into a shared system and can then be quickly analyzed in order to identify trends and anomalies or problem areas. Whilst one worker may only receive a single call about the website crashing due to overstress, every other worker in the room is likely getting the same call. Having that logged properly means it’s sure to be noticed. By leveraging ACW properly, you can make a call center come together and work as one.
Whilst the importance of after call work should be fairly clear now, that’s not to say that it should be taking up more of your agents’ time than actually fielding calls. ACW is a supplementary action that takes up little time but if done properly can exponentially improve productivity and a call center’s worth.
Here a few tips to maximize your after call work time and get the most out of your staff:
Training
It should come as no surprise that proper training will radically impact your call center ACW time. This is not the kind of job where you should be learning as you go and so providing a proper in-depth study of the programs and layout of the systems means even new staff can hit the ground running. It also provides an understanding of the metrics gathered by the ACW and how it can be used in performance reviews, which can be another motivation to keep call center staff working proficiently.
Streamline
Make sure you keep the information gathered to a minimum, the bare essentials. You don’t need to know what day of the week their birthday is this year, just the pertinent information. Another way to quickly improve ACW is an investment in more initiative or user-friendly software for the staff to use.
Make Notes
Encouraging your staff to begin filling out the information whilst they are still taking the call can be another great way to cut ACW. It shouldn’t be too much of a distraction either if they simply fill in the relevant information as it comes up naturally over the course of the call.
Here at Callnovo, we take customer service very seriously, our expert and friendly call center staff are waiting to help your business and your customers. Why not give us a call today to see how we can help.