TIC celebrates impressive call response metrics ahead of busy summer season
“Please hold, your call is very important to us.” Any person who has called a customer support hotline has likely heard this very line repeated ad nauseam while remaining in a queue for sometimes hours on end. For RTD’s Customer Care team, Telephone Information Center (TIC) agents rarely give customers the chance to hear this line due to their rapid response times.
Nestled in the 711 building, TIC agents work with haste to answer incoming calls, knowing seconds count for the agency’s customers calling in about schedule information or real-time bus and train locations. With the first quarter of 2024 wrapped up, it is apparent the TIC is not slowing down any time soon.
Two critical metrics of success the TIC relies on are average speed of answer and service level. The average speed of answer metric is the average time a customer waits in the queue to be connected with an agent, with the goal for each call to be answered within 50 seconds. The service level metric pertains to the percentage of calls answered within those 50 seconds. The service level goal is for 80% of all calls to be answered within 50 seconds.
In just the first quarter of 2024, the TIC vaporized these goals.
“Our average speed of answer in the first quarter was 17 seconds,” said Daniel Shea, Telephone Information Center Manager. “Our March average speed of answer dropped all the way down to 13 seconds!”
This rapid-fire response rate translated to very high service levels for the TIC in the first quarter.
“Our first quarter average was 86%,” Shea said. “The March service level rose to 89%, meaning 89 out of 100 customers waited less than 50 seconds to be connected to an agent!” For reference, in 2023, the overall average speed of answer was 38 seconds per call, while service levels were 79%. Last year, the TIC handled 495,902 calls.
Through the first quarter of 2024, the TIC took 85,218 calls. With the upcoming downtown rail reconstruction and coping panels projects about to start up, the TIC is ready to handle even more calls than ever before.
Shea is very proud of the work his team continues to do to make lives better through connections.
“In meeting and exceeding these goals we are working to exemplify community value through transparency and consistency, foster the welcoming transit environment customers deserve and expect, and showcase the true nature of people power through solution-focused and collaborative customer support,” Shea said.
Shea credits his supervisors and fellow managers for putting the agency’s values and vision at the forefront of the continued efforts to connect customers to agents as quickly as possible.
“We employ these values in our discussions of quality and performance when we celebrate successes as a group, and by sharing best practices openly,” Shea said. “I truly believe that RTD’s greatest leaders reside in all titles and departments.”
As the TIC prepares for a busy construction season, Shea is confident his team will continue to keep the agency’s values at heart and serve customers as best as his team can.
“Supporting the values of diversity and inclusion give voices to all, most importantly to those who burn operational intensity, like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s smoldering gaze on the inside, but tend to remain on the sidelines in work discussions,” Shea said.