What Is Actual Waiting Time (AWT)?
In a call center, Actual Waiting Time (AWT) is the duration a caller spends in the queue before connecting with an agent. It is a critical customer service metric that influences satisfaction and service efficiency. Lower AWT improves customer retention and experience. High AWT can mean understaffing, lack of automation, outdated technology, and inability to scale. Call centers work to reduce AWT to improve customer experience.
Benefits of Managing Actual Waiting Time
There are many benefits of reducing actual waiting time:
Enhances customer satisfaction by reducing wait times
Improves call center efficiency with better resource allocation
Reduces call abandonment rates
Increases first-contact resolution by connecting callers quickly
Supports better workforce planning and staffing strategies
Cloud-Based Agility
Moving to the cloud will allow for faster, easier deployments, seamless upgrades, flexible scalability, and reduced capital expenditures associated with on-premises systems.
Connected Journeys
The contact center should support customer journeys across web chat and social messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and others.
Omnichannel Unification
Shoppers will be coming in from many different channels, so it will streamline the customer experience to route interactions using the same logic.
Customer Context
Agents must begin the conversation right where the customer left off online. When the customer’s needs are transferred to an agent in real time, your brand is creating a seamless transition from web to contact center. Remove customer stress, unneeded customer repetition, wasted time, and deliver a world-class customer experience
CRM Integration
Customer relationship management (CRM) system integration can improve the shopper experience by using CRM data to find the last person spoken to, use shopper purchase history to find the best expert, etc. In addition, once the connection occurs, your staff can access past interaction history and CRM information to understand the customer’s journey and deliver a more personalized experience.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI can deliver next- best-action recommendations and assist in responses that will improve conversion rates, increase shopping cart value, and speed up responses.
Real-Time Management
Supervisors should monitor messaging interactions in real time and assist if needed, even if they are not in the same location.
AI & PCI Compliance
Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) can automate payment processing across digital channels and reduce your compliance risk by collecting sensitive customer data without revealing it to a human agent. Make sure that the IVAs can easily integrate with your payment gateways.
