Case StudiesIncentive Program SuccessIncentives

Incentive Program Success: Call Center Reduces Agent Average Handle Time

By November 28, 2016 No Comments
[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” class=”man” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;width:100%;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]Target Audience: Contact center agents handling inbound calls for a large utilities provider

Primary Objective: Reduce average call time

Background: A provider of contact center services wanted to reduce the time in which its agents were able to resolve customer issues without compromising the quality in which these issues were addressed. In the past, the contact center had tried to accomplish this with several incentive approaches. Although these programs would usually produce short term results, it was always very difficult to sustain interest due to inconsistent administration and delivery. Consequently, agents would eventually lose interest in the incentive program and initial improvements would revert back to their previous levels.

Enter Snowfly!
The contact center worked with Snowfly’s expert team of consultants to design and implement a cloud-based agent gamification program. It was determined that agents would be recognized daily if all of the below criteria were met:

  1. Their average call time for the day was at or below 358 seconds
  2. They handled at least 15 calls
  3. They were in good standing based on the quality of their previous calls monitored

Upon qualifying for recognition, an agent’s online account was credited with electronic game tokens. Tokens were used to play a quick online game that yielded a random number of points valued at $0.01 each. The agents were able to use these points to purchase any of several gift cards to national retailers, restaurants or websites.

Results: The response to agent gamification program was overwhelmingly positive. Excitement quickly spread throughout the call center. Needless to say, the contact center’s average call time for this line of business immediately dropped. As the graph below illustrates, the average call time in the weeks prior to implementing Snowfly was 370 seconds compared to 362 seconds with Snowfly.  In this contact center, this equated to a reduction of 150 hours a month in call time. This in turn equated to significant reductions in staffing and operation expenses.  Furthermore, the quality in which calls were handled was not compromised. Based on the measurable results of this program, the organization implemented Snowfly programs at several other locations.

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