Auxiliary Time (Aux)

Auxiliary time is non-telephone time on the agent’s scheduled day. This often includes time spent on training, breaks, meetings, special projects, restroom visits or getting coffee.

Monitoring and managing auxiliary time are crucial for contact centers to ensure optimal agent productivity and overall operational efficiency. It helps identify excessive non-contact-related activities and allows process improvements or adjustments to minimize non-productive time while maximizing customer engagement. By effectively managing auxiliary time, contact centers can balance agent availability, customer service quality, and agent well-being.

Common Activities that Contribute to Auxiliary Time

• Default: Time when an agent has logged in but not yet selected a status. This may happen at the initial login or because of a technical issue, which should be minimal.
• Training and Coaching: Assigned time to complete training on new products or procedures and planned time for coaching from a supervisor or other coach. Ideally, this time should be scheduled, and the quantity of training and coaching should consider the program’s costs and agent development needs.
• Chat, Email, or Other Channel: Typically, non-phone productive time is captured by an aux state. This time is still productive but needs to be considered, especially if an agent is multi-channel or omni-channel.
• Project: An aux status may be assigned to special projects necessary to operate the contact center but does not directly support handling customer contacts. These activities may include updating knowledge bases, testing new software, participating in round tables, or taking on responsibilities usually done by support staff.
• Breaks and Lunch Time: Contact centers typically provide scheduled breaks and lunchtime for agents to rest, refresh, and recharge. While these breaks are essential for agent well-being, they are part of the auxiliary time as agents are not actively handling customer interactions during these periods.