Practitioners and pundits alike have long debated which metric is best for assessing the performance of a service organization. Is the silver bullet customer satisfaction, net promoter score, customer effort score, or some other measure? While this debate is unlikely to be settled anytime soon, we’d submit that there’s no question what the worst metric is for service: average handle time (AHT), which is principally a measure of call length, or, more simply, talk time.
Call Length Is the Worst Way to Measure Customer Service
Being helpful is more important than being fast.
February 22, 2017
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New!
HBR Learning
Customer Focus Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Customer Focus. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Learn how to keep your customers—and their most important needs—front and center.