Senior Writer: Supriya Bajaj
Date: October 29, 2024Achieving better customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of the call center industry. Better customer satisfaction facilitates strong customer relationships.
The majority of modern customers around the world fully rely on call centers to have their concerns heard and solved. Call center agents play a crucial role in building customer relationships.
To maximize the efficiency of call center agents and contact centers, call center managers should look for innovative steps to reduce the call wrap-up time without affecting the quality of customer service.
But first, let’s understand what wrap-up time is and how to reduce the wrap-up time in a call center to increase efficiency.
What Is Wrap-Up Time?
Wrap-Up Time in a call center can be technically termed after-call work (ACW). ACW can be defined as the time spent by the call center agent to complete the customer’s concern after the phone call interaction.
Here are a set of actions an agent can perform to complete the task after customer interactions in the phone or call center software.
- Adding notes into the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.
- Notifying the information to the concerned departments of the customer interaction details.
- Sending information or resources to the concerned caller to solve the issue.
- Taking the issue to the manager regarding the customer’s concern.
- Toggling between the systems before attending to the next caller.
Why Is Wrap-Up Time Important In Call Centers?
According to HubSpot research, customers are frustrated when they are kept on hold for a long time and repeatedly get the same information from various agents. This will severely reduce the customer satisfaction level.
That is why call center managers should focus more on monitoring to reduce call wrap back-up time.
The call wrap-up process helps customers to solve their problems and for contact center agents and companies to track their customer satisfaction. Call center managers should prioritize monitoring the average call wrap-up time.
Call wrap-up time in a call center is important; at the same time, having a high call wrap-up time will directly hamper the total productivity and performance of a call center.
High wrap-time showcase agents are spending little time attending customer calls. It will result in an increase in the time of customers in the call queue. This will reduce customer satisfaction.
Call center managers should balance minimizing the wrap-up time and providing enough space for agents to handle after-call work. Call center agents should be provided with sufficient tools to optimize their after-call process, or else possible errors or missing information may happen.
How to Measure Wrap-up Time?
As the call center agent spends wrap-up time is one of the key metrics to monitor and improve the overall efficiency of a call center, managers need to measure wrap-up time.
The post call processing and wrap-up time is the total amount of time taken by an agent, from call answering to completing the post-call activity and getting ready to attend the next call.
Using the formula, you can easily calculate/measure the call wrap-up time of an agent.
Call Wrap-Up Time of an agent = Total Handle Time of an agent – Total Hold Time of an agent – Total Talk Time of an agent.
As a unit, the call center should focus more on their average wrap-up time to get a complete view of your call and contact center teams’ time on solving the customer’s concern.
Using the formula, you can easily calculate/measure your team’s average call wrap-up time.
Avg Call Wrap-up time of team = (Total Handle Time of the team – Total Hold Time of the team – Total Talk Time of the team) / Total Customer Calls/Interactions handled by the team
These formulas will let managers know how much time your agent/team spends solving customers’ problems. Not about average handling time but the details of how they are spending to solve the customer’s concern.
How To Reduce Wrap-Up Time in Call Centers?
Wrap-up time is the key to achieving better customer satisfaction and thus, you need to ensure reducing the wrap-up time is not affecting the quality of customer service delivered by agents.
Here are the ways to reduce your wrap-up time in the call center without compromising customer service quality.
1. Cut Down On Unnecessary Call Center Processes
Reducing the number of steps to complete a call can significantly reduce Wrap-Up time.
For example, consider automating common tasks such as account verification or company enrollment. This will reduce the amount of time required to complete calls, and it will also make your customer experience more streamlined.
2. Streamline Your Call Center Processes Using Technology
Technology can help you automate tasks and reduce the steps required to complete a call center software call. For example, you can automatically collect customer names and company information from voice recognition software. This will wrap up time in the call center and help you keep your call center operating at peak efficiency.
Apps and software that automate phone tasks can save time and improve customer satisfaction. For example, you could use a call recording app to keep track of customer complaints and interactions. This will help you to identify and address issues quickly and efficiently.
3. Break Down Complex Calls Into Manageable Tasks
One of the biggest challenges in reducing Wrap Up Time is breaking down complex calls into manageable tasks.
By breaking down a call into smaller parts, you can ensure that each task is completed properly and quickly. This will reduce the overall time required to complete a call and improve customer satisfaction.
4. Encourage Employees To Use Call Recording Tools
Encouraging employees to use call recording tools can streamline your process and improve customer satisfaction.
When employees know how calls are handled, they are more likely to use call recording tools when interacting with customers. This will help you to track call records and monitor calls on time.
5. Train Employees On How To Handle Customer Interactions
Providing training on how to handle customer interactions can improve customer satisfaction.
By teaching employees how to greet and interact with customers properly, you can create a positive customer experience. This will reduce the likelihood of complaints and interactions that result in Wrap-Up Time.
6. Create A Formal Customer Service Process
A formal customer service process can improve customer satisfaction and reduce wrap-up time.
Following guidelines and procedures can make your call center more efficient and customer service oriented. This will help to address issues quickly and efficiently.
7. Use Call Routing Tools To Improve Customer Satisfaction
Call routing tools can help improve customer satisfaction by routing calls to the right person or department. When customers can speak with the correct person immediately, they are more likely to be satisfied with the interaction. This will reduce the time needed to resolve an issue and improve customer satisfaction.
8. Improving Typing Skills and Utilizing Text Speech
You can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a call by increasing your typing speed. Typing fast ensures that all your keystrokes are entered as quickly as possible.
Additionally, using text speech can speed up speaking to customers. Text speech allows you to type out words while speaking. This cuts down on typing time and improves customer engagement.
9. Initiating After-call Process During The Call
You can reduce the time it takes to complete a call by completing some after-call processes during the call.
By completing these tasks during the call, you can cut down on the time taken to complete the task after the call. This can include but should not affect the quality of customer service.
10. Entering Perfect Call Reasons
One way you can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a call is by punching perfect call reasons.
Punching the correct call reasons ensures that all the necessary information is entered into the system correctly. This prevents unnecessary delays and helps to streamline the process of completing a call.
11. Using Smart IVR Solutions
Reducing the average call wrap-up time is another way to help reduce the time it takes to complete a call.
By using smart IVR solutions, you can shorten the time it takes for customers to be placed on hold or transferred to another agent. This helps to cut down on the amount of time it takes to complete a call.
12. Teach Agents To Use Abbreviations
Teaching advisors how to use abbreviations helps reduce the time taken to complete a call. Abbreviations are short forms of words used instead of full terms. By using abbreviations, advisors can save time when conducting calls. This helps speed up the process of completing a call.
13. Deploying Automated Agent Assist
Automated agent assistance can reduce the time it takes to complete a call.
Automated agent assistance helps to complete customer requests quickly and accurately. This can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a call and satisfy customers.
Conclusion
Wrap-up time is an essential performance metric for call centers. It should be given the same importance as other KPIs like average handle time, shrinkage, average wait time, and first call resolution. Monitoring, tracking, and reducing your wrap-up time is crucial to ensure that you meet your performance targets.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. How much Wrap Up Time should agents be given?
Wrap-up time refers to the time the agent takes to follow up tasks performing after-call work, such as updating systems with the caller’s issue, filling the forms regarding call information, and other activities related to completing the caller’s task/problem.
On average, the full agent wrap up time make-up time of an agent would be between 60 – 120 seconds. However, the time would vary depending on the industry-specific.
2. Can agents skip Wrap Up Time?
Skipping wrap-up time is not advisable for call center agents, as this can result in incomplete or inaccurate call documentation, ultimately having a negative impact on the quality of customer service provided.
However, in some circumstances, call center supervisors may authorize support agents to skip the wrap-up time, particularly for urgent or high-priority calls.
Supriya Bajaj is a senior content developer with immense experience in the VoIP telephony domain. With a deep knowledge of VoIP systems and emerging technologies in the field, she provides insightful and targeted content. Known for simplifying complex topics and her thought-leadership articles, Supriya delivers actionable content for both technical and non-technical audiences.
