Even though digital communication channels are growing, a surprising 65% of potential customers still prefer reaching brands by phone. This makes phone calls a critical touchpoint for businesses. However, lengthy calls could affect positive customer experience, as attention spans are reducing, and customers expect faster resolutions. Therefore, by reducing average call time, businesses can transform customer interactions into thriving long-term relationships.
In this article, we’ll go over:
- What is average call duration?
- Need for calculating call durations
- How to measure it
- Reasons for longer calls, and
- Top strategies for reducing call duration
What is Average Call Duration in Call Centers?
Average call duration—sometimes referred to as average talk time (ATT) or call time—is a key performance indicator (KPI) that measures the average length of time an agent spends on a call with a customer.
Businesses and call centers that depend on call communication for sales and customer support can use this call center metric to track efficiency and performance.
Importance of Calculating Average Call Durations
It is important to calculate average call time since call durations affect the overall efficiency and effectiveness of customer service operations. Let’s have a look:
Improved Customer Satisfaction
The length of calls directly affects customer satisfaction. For instance, shorter calls are likely to lead to quicker resolution, which translates to happier customers. So, by calculating average call duration, businesses can deliver better customer experiences.
Higher Agent Productivity and Effective Resource Allocation
Tracking call duration can help boost productivity as businesses can increase agents’ capacity to handle more calls. Managers can determine agents’ average call times and identify ways to shorten unnecessary long calls. Shorter calls would free up agents to take up more calls. With a firm grasp of call time, businesses can make informed decisions regarding staffing needs, scheduling, and other factors related to resource allocation.
Better Budgeting and Cost Control
Did you know that even a small reduction in call duration can significantly impact your bottom line? Shorter calls mean agents handle more calls per hour. This allows them to serve a larger number of customers without the need for additional staff, directly reducing labor costs.
How to Calculate Average Call Time for Your Call Center?
While different businesses may have varying practices, average call duration is generally calculated by dividing the total call time by the number of calls handled over a specific period.
This method provides a clear call metric for assessing efficiency and agent productivity.
So, how long should the average customer call be?
Average call duration varies significantly across industries, reflecting diverse customer expectations, service requirements, and business practices.
A high average call time may not necessarily be problematic. This is because call time is quite contextual. For instance, call centers in the financial services industry may have a higher ACD than those in the retail industry. This may be because financial services calls are often more complex, sometimes involving multiple levels of customer authentication, which could add to the total call time.
Comparing call durations across industries
The average duration for inbound contact centers across industries is about 4 minutes. Industries like healthcare, consumer services, and manufacturing tend to have shorter call times, at 2.48 minutes, 3.05, and 3.03, respectively. Whereas travel and hospitality, information technology (IT), and financial services industries have a high ACD—3.78 minutes, 3.48 minutes, and 3.47 minutes respectively.
Related: 12 Call Center Metrics to Track for Customer Success
Reasons for Longer Calls
But what causes longer calls? Various factors—from agent proficiency to complexity of customer queries. Identifying these issues is necessary to create strategies for call duration optimization, and ultimately improving service quality.
Here are some of the potential reasons for longer calls:
Call Complexity
In-depth troubleshooting and technical assistance require comprehensive understanding and detailed solutions. Agents need to fully grasp the issue which can result in prolonged conversations as agents work to understand and resolve the problem accurately.
Agent Skills and Qualification
Agents who haven’t received appropriate training on products or call handling could take longer to resolve queries and close calls. Similarly, multiple agent escalations can increase the customer’s time spent while on hold and being transferred. Poor communication or difficulty understanding customer concerns can lead to misunderstandings, requiring additional time to resolve issues.
Inefficient IVR Systems
Complex phone menus may lead to significant time wastage. Customers may get connected to agents who are not equipped enough to address queries.
For instance, a customer calls the internet provider because their internet has been down for hours. But the customer reaches the IVR with a complicated list of options, none of which directly address “internet outage.” So the customer selects the option to reach technical support, where they get connected to an agent who can only offer basic troubleshooting support. Such situations can extend call times.
High Complaint Volume
Handling complaints and customer dissatisfaction requires a lot of care and time. A high volume of complaint calls can therefore add to call times.
Customer Behaviors
Sometimes agents have to offer additional assistance or reassurance to manage talkative customers, provide detailed explanations, or guide them through troubleshooting steps. This type of assistance may need additional call time.
5 Strategies to Optimize and Reduce Average Call Duration?
Long call durations can frustrate callers and damage brand perception. They can also strain agent productivity. Fortunately, there are effective strategies to tackle this challenge, including evaluating current performance, leveraging technology, and more. Here are some call center best practices to optimize average call duration:
1. Evaluate Current Performance
Start by calculating your average call duration and track it over time. You can track this across teams, departments, or on an individual basis. This metric acts as a valuable benchmark, helping you identify areas where call handling processes or agent efficiency might need improvement.
Companies like Global Call Forwarding offer the call detail records (CDRs) which provide core call metrics including call duration. You can easily access and download your business call records through the online control panel.
2. Encourage Training and Refreshers
Based on data from evaluations, businesses can plan regular training for agents. Emphasize active listening skills and empathy in customer support to ensure agents fully grasp customer issues before offering solutions.
Encourage experienced agents to take refresher training to be up-to-date with goals, tools, and best practices. For instance, a refresher course could cover new product features, updated company policies regarding customer interactions, or best practices for handling escalated situations.
Related: How to Design an Escalation Matrix in Your Call Center
3. Re-Allocate Resources
Call duration data is important for making resource allocation decisions. For instance, when you multiply average call duration by the expected number of calls, you get an estimated total time required for call handling. This estimation, in turn, helps in determining the number of agents needed to cover that time.
Additionally, managers can create better, more accurate schedules and shift planning. If a business experiences peak volumes during certain hours, managers can schedule more agents during those times.
4. Leverage Technology
Technology can help greatly with optimizing and reducing call duration. One such way is to integrate VoIP with CRMs or help desk software to centralize communications, improve connectivity, and optimize call handling. For example, Global Call Forwarding offers integrations with Zoho, Zendesk, Salesforce, and other platforms.
When a call comes in, the CRM automatically populates the agent screen with relevant customer information, including past interactions and call history. This eliminates the need for agents to spend time gathering information at the beginning of the call, allowing them to jump right into assisting the customer. This enables agents to resolve issues faster.
5. Monitor and Analyze Call Data
Analyze call data regularly and look for recurring issues that lead to extended call durations. For example, if you notice that certain types of queries consistently take longer to resolve, you can develop specific strategies or provide additional resources to handle those queries more efficiently.
Customer feedback can provide insights into why calls are taking longer and help you address those issues directly. Agent feedback is equally important as it highlights operational challenges and areas where additional support or training might be needed.
How Can GCF Help?
Caller experience often serves as the first direct interaction a customer has with a business. A positive, fruitful call can set the tone for the entire relationship. Therefore, the speed and effectiveness with which customer problems are addressed can directly impact customer satisfaction and overall experience.
Global Call Forwarding provides a host of advanced call management features and products, from call records to CRM integrations, that help you optimize and reduce average call duration. Our cloud communication solutions empower businesses to streamline call handling processes and optimize agent efficiency.
Contact our experts today and learn about how our solutions can help you achieve your communication goals.
