After Call Work

What Is After Call Work (ACW) and How to Improve or Remove It?

After call work or ACW is an important KPI that businesses must measure to improve and maintain the overall health of their contact center. Improving ACW will enhance the efficiency of call centers by trimming down the cost of operations, wait times, and abandonment rates. ACW management is of value to both in-house contact centers and especially in enabling BPO service providers to thrive in a competitive market.

What Is After Call Work (ACW)?

Also called post-call processing, After call work refers to a set of tasks that are completed by the agent after the customer has dropped off the call.  Here are some of those tasks:

Legitimate tasks that may warrant ACW

  • Updating the system to complete customer transactions
  • Scheduling follow-up actions
  • Logging the reason for contact and outcome
  • Updating colleagues
  • Risks of conducting tasks during ACW: Lessens the development of agents mastering and optimizing efficiency in being able to complete tasks during a conversation.
  • Risks of higher errors when the customer is no longer in contact to validate needed information.
  • Whatever time is allotted for ACW tends to get taken and can cause unreliable availability when workforce management is predicting call arrival to agent availability.
  • The time it takes for an agent to complete a task in ACW and get back on the phone, is greater than the time it takes to complete the task while on the phone and immediately opt into the next call. In many time and motion studies, it adds up to an extra 30 seconds or more of handling time.

ACW varies according to the type of customer requests, queries, questions, and company processes. There is no predefined yardstick for the duration of after call work. This metric has a direct impact on average handling time (AHT) and should be measured by both businesses and those who offer BPO outsourcing solutions.

Why Is ACW Important?

Whether it’s a business that relies on outsourced contact center services or in-house solutions, ACW directly impacts call center efficiency. For the agent, it is a key indicator in helping them learn how to master their craft.  The ability of tenured agents to efficiently complete transactions while speaking with customers, and not waiting until after the call only to realize some needed piece of customer information is missing is a valued skill. For the business, whatever ACW time is allowed, tends to get used and not all of it is productive.  The time spent in ACW instead of on a call is the time your customers are waiting instead of speaking with that agent.  Since ACW is part of AHT, it significantly impacts call duration, wait times, abandonment, contact center productivity, and agent efficiency. Considering all this, it makes sense why companies must measure ACW.

Five Steps to Consider in Evaluating ACW

Below are five major steps of continuous improvement to consider in evaluating ACW:

1.  Map out the Process

Create a step-by-step process map of each after call work task. Identify any variations that occur and list them for each step.

2. Time and Motion

Measure how much time new, average, and top-performing agents take on each step and what activities are required.

3. Root Cause Analysis

Conduct root cause analysis to identify issues, risks, and options

4.   Improve the process

Look for ways to improve the process.  Some considerations are listed in the next section, “How you can improve ACW”. Optimal solutions for your call handling agents are to enable them to complete each customer’s need and inquiry on the first call and while the caller is on the phone. Processes meeting these criteria should be designed to optimize efficiency and address the lowest amount of effort with the greatest number of customers handled, the lowest error rate, and high first-call resolution.

5.  Put a control plan in place

Once processes have been improved, continue to monitor the new process and establish new baselines for agent processing time. After Call Work time should be reduced according to the new baseline. It should be set at an average level for the whole team.  Baselines should show both high and low levels to identify those still mastering the skills as well as alert the coaching team if an agent’s scores seem too good. Such outliers should be inspected to either be used to further improve the process or addressed because some aspect of the process is missing.

How Can You Improve After Call Work?

ACW can be improved in a number of different ways. Here are some of the tips that you can consider implementing:

1. Deliver Targeted Coaching Sessions

Developed best practices from your continuous improvement program and top-performing agents to help them break down and learn the skills of talking and completing tasks at the time to ensure customers’ issues are resolved during the conversation. Tailored coaching and skill-specific programs will aid agents in getting acquainted with the platform and will also eliminate redundant workflows, reduce errors, and help agents hit all of their metrics.

2. Monitor ACW Process

As after call work is a process that comprises many repetitive tasks, constant monitoring can reveal workflow gaps that might be disrupting this metric such as unnecessary documentation. Process improvement of workflows will help enable your agents to complete the tasks during customer contact. This will help you reduce or eliminate ACW which should improve AHT, lower risks and overall cost to serve.

3. Invest in Automation

You should consider automating repetitive tasks that don’t require the attention of your agents. These tasks include updating the CRM system, creating a call summary, and managing commitments. There are multiple workflow automation, AI/ML, self-service, and other tools emerging each year to streamline tasks and documentation while increasing data accuracy. This will free up your workforce to focus on connecting with customers.

4. Installing Contact Center AI

Installing contact center AI will help you improve the efficiency of your contact center. With this technology, customers can be offered many more self-service capabilities as well as connected through the channel of their choice with additional live person assistance needed. This also means omnichannel contact center agents will be able to move from channel to channel and have prior customer information and contacts available to them, as well as more effectively routing customers to the right agent to reduce transfers. Plus, contact center AI will eliminate human errors and improve accuracy. Increased self-service and contact center automation can significantly streamline tasks associated with customer contacts and eliminate the need for post-call workflows and follow-ups.

Conclusion

After call work is a performance indicator that should be minimized, automated, or eliminated in the contact center. The need for ACW in your current workflows is a key opportunity for achieving greater efficiency and has a direct impact on improving AHT, service level, abandonment, and quality.