Time is valuable and this applies to the world of customer service as well. When a customer contacts customer support, they expect a solution to their problem right away. If customers receive a reply days after their query, they will be dissatisfied with the company. The lesser the customer has to wait, the better it is for the company's reputation. So, it is important for customer support teams to be responsive and effective while facing customers.
What is Time To Resolution?
Time To Resolution (TTR) is an important metric for measuring how quickly a company responds to its customers' needs. It helps companies understand when customers will stop waiting for service and start looking elsewhere.
Time To Resolution (TTR) measures the average time it takes for the customer service team to resolve an open ticket or any other customer issue. It is calculated by dividing the sum of all times spent (days or hours) by the number of cases resolved.
Mean Time To Resolution formula (is also referred to as Call to Resolution):
Average Time To Resolution = sum of all times to resolution/ total # of cases resolved
Why is Time To Resolution important?
There's a direct correlation between time to resolution and customer satisfaction, or CSAT. Customers don't take the time to reach out to customer service organizations because they're bored or lonely. They only take the initiative when they have a problem that needs solving. Making them wait to resolve this problem creates friction, and sometimes ill will or even the loss of a customer. Time To Resolution metrics also impact team efficiency and effectiveness. For this reason, companies measure Time To Resolution both as an aggregate and on a per-employee basis to single out underperforming employees.
OKRs help teams set objectives that can help teams determine what is expected of them and their performance. Everyone on the customer support team– whether they answer phone calls, respond to tickets, or answer queries– can help to reach service goals when their department utilizes OKRs.
Customer satisfaction can be improved when Time To Resolution is optimized. Here are 10 ways to improve Time To Resolution:
1. Find & Analyze Average Time To Resolution
In most cases, customer service managers will want to analyze the overall Time To Resolution in their team. This formula is generally applied to batches of cases. For example, you can find out the average Time To Resolution for a particular month by compiling all the data. Problems range from simple to complex. There are also outliers. AI tools automatically categorize the type of problem and provide Time To Resolution for a particular category of the problem which is way more accurate and real-time than a human downloading some of the tickets from CRM and mapping them in spreadsheets.
2. Know Your Customer
Customer-centricity is a key business strategy that puts customers at the core of one's business in order to provide a positive experience and create long-term relationships. It’s important to understand who your customers are and how they use your product or service. This will allow you to provide better customer service and make sure that you meet their needs. Focusing on customers and their needs will be profitable for the company in the long run.
3. Different Issues, Different TTR
You should also know how much time it takes to resolve an issue with your product or service. This will help you understand what your customers expect from you. It's important to keep in mind that some issues take longer than others to resolve. For example, if a customer has a problem with a new feature, it might take several days before he or she gets a response. However, if a customer has an old complaint, it might take only a few minutes to resolve.
4. Set Expectations
TTR is measured by the number of days between when a customer contacts your business and when they receive a response. If a customer calls your business and asks for help with a problem, then waits three weeks before receiving a response, you should consider them unsatisfied. You need to set expectations early so that customers feel comfortable calling back. If you're not sure how much time something will take, set expectations with your customers. This helps them understand when they should expect to hear back from you.
5. Be Transparent
Customer expectations are constantly changing. You need to keep up with them by being transparent and providing clear communication. If you aren’t able to answer questions or explain things clearly, be honest with them. Then, go back and find answers for them as soon as possible. Acting quickly to remedy the mistake and taking steps so it will not happen again is the message you want the customer to hear.
6. Take Feedback
Customers will often ask you questions when they interact with you. They might even complain about something. It’s important to respond quickly and take feedback. This helps you understand how well you’re doing and where you need to improve.
7. Plan Based On Busy Periods
Monitor your ticket volume and find out busier and lighter periods of work. Based on that data, you should make sure to be well-staffed during busy periods so that your agents can share the workload and solve issues promptly. Being understaffed during busy periods will increase your Time To Resolution.
8. Create an Action Plan
Once you've identified the root cause of the problem, you need to create an action plan. This includes identifying who needs to do what, when, and how. If you're not sure where to start, ask yourself these questions: Who is responsible for resolving this issue? What steps do I need to take to fix it? How long does it usually take me to solve this type of problem? This is the chance for the agent to be proactive. Use goodwill gestures to win over the customer.
9. Automate Processes
Using tools such as a chatbot or artificial intelligence-powered search will automate the issue resolution process. If you have a slow first response time, you can solve it by using these tools. They do not require human assistance. They improve efficiency and decrease Time To Resolution. Implement a system to identify the problem category of issues. This way, the cases can be assigned to agents based on their expertise in a particular problem category.
10. Know When You're Done
It's easy to get caught up in the details of solving a problem. However, once you've done everything you can think of, it's time to stop. Communicate to the customer that the issue needs more investigation or that you do not have an instant solution. Once you solve the issue, make sure to add the solution to the knowledge base, so that next time the same issue crops up, you can solve it way quicker.
How do benchmark Time To Resolution?
Methods used for measuring Time To Resolution might be different across industries and the kind of service provided. Here are some things you should consider while calculating TTR:
What customers expect
The average time it takes for your employees to resolve issues
Benchmark against other companies with similar products
How Ascendo Supports Time To Resolution
Ascendo provides predictive, artificial intelligence-based solutions to customer issues. It allows for a consolidated view of data which enables agents to access the knowledge base, previous interactions, problem categories and relevant solutions in an easy manner. Customers can transfer from self-service to agent seamlessly and don't have to repeat themselves. With the help of Ascendo, customer support leaders can know who the expert is for a particular type of issue and assign cases accordingly.
Ascendo's self-service feature provides a human-like AI Bot or smart search for websites, through which customers can find answers to their queries on their own without having to wait for an agent's help. With primary predictions and actionable secondary predictions, Ascendo aims to decrease Time To Resolution and increase productive outcomes. Ascendo's virtual agents are also available on direct channels like Slack and WhatsApp, making the process more interactive, more accessible and faster than ever before.
Ascendo's tools are designed for the continuous improvement of customer support operations. Ascendo fundamentally helps companies to turn proactive in the way they offer support services to their customers.
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