Targets, averages and obligations

Every operator publishes something about response times. The three kinds of number behind those sentences behave differently: a target is a staffing decision, an average hides its own tail, and an obligation is the only one that can be pointed at later.

Open the partner account Start with the ceiling

Desk stub

Chat target: 60 seconds for 80% of chats
What that leaves outside: 1,776 contacts a month
Email: a first reply within a working day
Phone: 90% answered inside 60 seconds
The only obligation: the regulated complaints route, named not developed

the turnOne numbered serving of a contact, with its clock and what it cost the desk

the ceilingWhat a level may give away without asking, set by the evidence it can see

the transcriptThe only record that a contact happened, kept 24 months on this sample

Direct answerA response standard is only as strong as the word in it. A target - 80% of chats answered within 60 seconds - is a staffing choice, and on the sample desk it leaves 1,776 contacts a month outside it. An average hides the tail it is computed from. Only the complaints route, which the operator must provide and which has a stated clock, is an obligation rather than a promise.

Subject the three kinds of published numberUnit the tail - what a standard does not coverSample 8,880 chats, of which 80% is 7,104 and 1,776 is notClock the complaint window is a regulated period, not a targetBoundary the complaint routes themselves are cycle 15’s subject

Three kinds of number

number 01

A target: a staffing decision wearing a promise

“80% of chats answered within 60 seconds” is a statement about the seats and the arrival pattern, and it is met by construction rather than by effort. The number that matters to a reader is the other 20%: on this sample 1,776 contacts a month, which is 14.8% of every contact the desk handles.

A target that is always met is usually a target that was set low enough to be met.

number 02

An average: the most misleading of the three

An average response time of, say, four minutes is compatible with most contacts answered in seconds and a substantial tail answered in hours. On a queue with a sharp curve near capacity, the tail is the part that a reader is most likely to land in, because the contacts that arrive when the desk is full are the ones that wait.

Ask for a percentile, and the sentence changes from marketing into a measurement.

number 03

An obligation: a clock somebody has to answer for

The complaints route is different in kind. An operator must provide one, it has a stated period in which a final answer has to be given, and a reader can escalate past it. This desk names the route and does not develop it, because the routes are cycle 15’s subject - the point here is only that it is the one support number with a clock attached.

The practical consequence: a support conversation has no deadline, and a complaint does.

The tail, priced

What an 80% target leaves outside it, on the sample desk chats in the month 8,880 inside the 60-second target at 80% 7,104 outside it 1,776 1,776 as a share of all 12,000 contacts 14.8% 1,776 as a share of chats 20.0% the same arithmetic on the phone channel calls in the month 720 answered inside 60 seconds at 90% 648 outside 72 the first reply by email is measured in a working day target, not a clock the complaint route is measured in a stated period obligation, with a clock

A target can be met by staffing

Change the number of seats and the target is met. That makes it a budget line rather than a commitment to a reader.

An average hides the queue

An average is computed over the whole month, and the contacts that wait are the ones that arrive when everyone else does.

An obligation has a clock

Only a number with a period attached can be missed, and only a missed number can be escalated. That is the difference worth remembering.

What to do with a standard. Write down the arrival time, the time you were picked up and the reference. Those three pieces of data turn a standard into a measurement about one contact, which is the only form in which it can be used later.

Note the time the contact was sent, not the time the reply arrived.
Note the time an agent picked it up, which is the number the standard is about.
Ask for the reference, so the contact sits inside the case record rather than beside it.
If the answer has to have a clock, move the question to the complaints route rather than asking again in a chat.

three kinds of number the arrival time seats for a target the 14.8% outside no real standard quoted

Where the wait comes from

Seats, utilisation and the curve.

When a contact is abandoned

What happens to the contacts that never close.

Documenting a wait

The transcript and the times it holds.

Asking for a clock

How to move a question onto a deadline.