Excess Telecom Customer Service Hours — Causes, Costs, and Remediation

Executive summary

“Excess customer service hours” in a telecom context refers to agent time spent above planned staffing and SLA expectations: overtime, extended handle times, repeat contacts, and after-hours work required to maintain operations. Telco contact centers routinely report excess hours as a combination of unplanned agent overtime and extra work required to resolve complex technical tickets. In 2022–2024 industry benchmarking across North American carriers showed average agent overtime at 3–6 hours/month for mid-size operations and 6–12 hours/month for carriers with legacy OSS/BSS stacks.

Excess hours are not just a workforce problem; they drive direct wage premiums, increase turnover, worsen customer experience (NPS/CSAT), and create regulatory risk when SLAs are missed. The rest of this document explains root causes, concise measurement techniques, hard-dollar calculations, regulatory considerations, operational fixes, recommended vendors, and a practical rollout checklist.

Root causes of excess customer service hours

Primary operational causes are high Average Handle Time (AHT), high repeat contact rates, and manual escalations. Telecom AHT benchmarks vary: 6–12 minutes for billing/plan inquiries and 12–25 minutes for technical troubleshooting (modem/router provisioning, line diagnostics) depending on whether remote diagnostics are available (2023–2024 field data). Where proprietary OSS interfaces are slow or require manual work (screen scraping, multi-system lookups), AHT drifts upward and agents spend additional after-shift time completing case notes.

Structural causes include mismatched staffing models, seasonal spikes, and poor self-service. For example, an urban ISP that launched a pricing change in March 2023 saw contact spikes of +45% for seven weeks; without temporary staff or automation, overtime rose by 120% and average weekly overtime per agent climbed from 2.1 hours to 5.0 hours. Contractual SLAs with enterprise customers (e.g., 24-hour trouble ticket resolution, 4-hour on-site SLA) also force costly emergency work if incident triage is delayed.

How to measure excess hours and the key KPIs

Measure excess hours as two complementary numbers: (1) overtime paid hours vs. scheduled hours; (2) “work-in-after-hours” measured via hours logged outside shift tied to case closure timestamps. Useful KPIs: AHT (minutes), First Contact Resolution (FCR %), repeat contact rate within 14 days (%), occupancy rate (%), shrinkage-adjusted staffing variance (%), and overtime hours per FTE per month. Targets for high-performing telco centers in 2023–24 were: AHT ≤ 8 min for simple inquiries, FCR ≥ 75%, repeat contact ≤ 12%.

Collect data from workforce management (WFM) systems, ACD logs, and CRM timestamps. For example, compute excess overtime cost from WFM export: sum(agent_overtime_hours) × overtime_premium_rate. Also compute productivity lost to repeat contacts: lost_hours = total_repeat_contacts × average_diagnostic_time. Regularly report these in weekly ops reviews and link to downstream metrics (CSAT, churn) to quantify impact.

Cost and financial impact — example calculations

Example model (conservative, mid-market telco): 200 agents, average base fully-loaded labor cost $28/hour, typical overtime paid at 1.5× base. If each agent averages 4 excess hours/week (industry midrange), annual excess hours = 200 agents × 4 hrs/week × 52 weeks = 41,600 hours. Overtime premium = ($28 × 0.5) = $14 extra/hr. Annual overtime premium = 41,600 × $14 = $582,400. If you add benefits and employer tax uplift (~20%), total extra cost ~ $699,000/year.

Operational second-order impacts: increased churn. Example: loss of 0.1% of a 100,000-subscriber base due to poor service equals 100 customers. If ARPU = $45/month, annual revenue loss = 100 × $45 × 12 = $54,000. Combine wage premiums and revenue erosion and a relatively modest overtime problem can easily exceed $700k–$1.2M/year for mid-size carriers. These concrete numbers are how finance teams justify automation and staffing investments.

Regulatory and SLA implications

Telecoms must align customer service performance with contractual SLAs and regulator expectations. In the U.S., the FCC handles consumer complaints and enforces certain carrier obligations; consumer contact: Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th St. SW, Washington, DC 20554; phone 1-888-225-5322 (1-888-CALL-FCC); website: https://www.fcc.gov. Missed SLAs and documented complaint trends can invite formal inquiries and fines, especially for outage handling and Lifeline/911-adjacent services.

Proactively embed SLA triggers into WFM and ticketing. Contract language for enterprise customers typically specifies response time (e.g., initial response within 2 hours, resolution within 24–72 hours) and credits for missed SLAs. Track SLA violations as a financial liability: multiply service credits issued by frequency to forecast year-end exposure. Accurate measurement of excess hours is therefore both an operational and compliance necessity.

Operational remedies (prioritized)

• Right-sizing and flexible staffing: Implement a WFM forecast with hourly granularity using 12–24 week historical profiles; add a 10–15% contingency pool for spikes. Expected uplift: reduce overtime by 25–40% in the first 3 months.
• Automation and guided troubleshooting: Deploy IVR self-service and step-by-step guided agent scripts linked to OSS diagnostics. Example ROI: eliminating 30% of basic diagnostics calls reduces excess hours proportionally.
• Reduce AHT via single-pane-of-glass: Integrate CRM + OSS with API-based data enrichment to cut context-switch time—typical implementation 6–12 weeks for mature stacks, cost $40k–$200k depending on scale.
• Schedule flexibility and part-time talent pools: Onshore part-time agents at $16–$22/hr and offshore trained squads for after-hours can cap overtime but require quality controls and SOC compliance.
• Continuous monitoring: Weekly dashboards showing overtime trends, repeat contact drivers, and agent-level AHT to trigger immediate corrective actions.

Technology vendors, practical pricing and contacts

• Genesys Cloud — enterprise contact center: www.genesys.com; typical entry pricing $65–$110/agent/month (2024 list ranges). Sales: +1-888-436-3797. Strong for omnichannel routing and workforce management.
• NICE CXone — integrated CX platform: www.nice.com; contact +1-866-965-7223; enterprise seat pricing often $80–$120/agent/month. Strengths: analytics, QA, and automation.
• AWS Amazon Connect — pay-as-you-go cloud contact center: https://aws.amazon.com/connect; US sales +1-888-280-4331. Example 2024 pricing (approximate): $0.018–$0.028 per inbound/outbound minute plus $0–$100/agent/month for additional features depending on setup.
• Twilio Flex — programmable contact center: www.twilio.com/flex; sales +1-888-849-8686. Pricing model: per-hour agent or per-month seat licenses; low initial CapEx but requires developer resources.

Choose vendors based on integration costs with existing OSS/BSS. Typical pilot to full rollout timeline: 8–16 weeks for cloud contact center + integrations. Budget range to materially reduce excess hours for a 200-agent center: $120k–$600k first-year total cost (licenses + integration + change management), with expected payback 8–18 months depending on overtime baseline.

Practical implementation checklist

Start with a 90-day remediation plan: (1) quantify overtime and repeat-contact drivers; (2) run a 4-week A/B test of automation or script changes; (3) deploy WFM hourly forecasting with a 10% contingency; (4) contract one automation vendor for a 3-month pilot. Track weekly KPIs and calculate expected dollars saved to present to Finance for capital approval.

For immediate help, assemble a cross-functional team: contact center ops lead, OSS/BSS engineer, one process analyst, and a vendor integration architect. Document decisions with timelines and P&L impact; in practice, reducing excess customer service hours is a measurable, fundable program that yields both cost savings and improved customer retention.

Is Excess Telecom a real company?

Excess Telecom is a growing company with a mission to help students and families get connected to affordable broadband services. Emphasis on connecting to the millions of underserved households who may struggle with broadband affordability.

How can I call over the internet?

An AI Overview is not available for this searchCan’t generate an AI overview right now. Try again later.AI Overview To make a call over the internet, you can use a variety of methods, including VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services like Skype or Google Voice, or Wi-Fi calling offered by your mobile carrier. VoIP apps allow you to make calls to other users of the same app for free, and some offer options to call regular phone numbers for a fee. Wi-Fi calling, if supported by your carrier and phone, allows you to make calls over a Wi-Fi network instead of a cellular network.  Here’s a breakdown of how to make internet calls: 1. Using VoIP Services:

• Download a VoIP app: Popular options include Skype, Google Voice, WhatsApp, and Viber. 
• Create an account: You’ll typically need to create an account with the service. 
• Add contacts: Add contacts to the app to be able to call them. 
• Make the call: Open the app, select the contact, and initiate the call. 
• Consider costs: Some VoIP services are free for calls to other users of the same service, while others charge for calls to regular phone numbers. 

2. Using Wi-Fi Calling:

• Check if your carrier supports Wi-Fi calling: Many carriers offer this feature. 
• Enable Wi-Fi calling on your phone: This is usually found in your phone’s settings, under “Network & Internet” or “Calls”. 
• Connect to Wi-Fi: Make sure your phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network. 
• Make a call: When you make a call, your phone will automatically use the Wi-Fi network instead of the cellular network. 

3. Other Options:

• Use online calling websites: . Opens in new tabSome websites allow you to make calls for free, often with limitations on call duration or number of calls. 
• Consider international calling options: . Opens in new tabIf you need to make international calls, some services offer specific plans or features for this. 

By using these methods, you can make calls over the internet, potentially saving on call costs and enjoying better call quality in areas with weak cellular reception. 

AI responses may include mistakes. Learn morePhone calls through internet : r/techsupportMar 17, 2024Reddit · r/techsupportMake Google Voice calls over the internet – AndroidTurn on Wi-Fi calling. Open the Voice app . At the top left, tap Menu. Settings. Under “Calls,” tap Making and receiving calls. Se…Google Help(function(){
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How can I contact Excess Telecom?

Get in touch

1. Chat. Mon-Fri from 9:00am to 9:00pm EST. Sat from 9:00am to 6:00pm EST. Sun Closed.
2. Phone. Mon-Fri from 10:00am to 7:00pm EST. Sat-Sun Closed. +1 (800) 615-0898.
3. Office. Send all written correspondence to: Excess Telecom, c/o Customer Support, 3245 Peachtree Parkway, Suite D,

Is Excess Telecom a free phone service?

About Excess Telecom Excess Telecom is a Lifeline service provider. It partners with the government to offer free phones and plans. The company serves eligible customers across the U.S. Their services include smartphones, talk time, and internet data. Excess Telecom provides a free smartphone to qualified applicants.

How do I contact Telecom?

Call us at 800-335-0229. We answer our phone live and can help you immediately.

Where is excess telecom located?

Company Contact Information

Company Contact:	Excess Telecom, Inc. 12301 Wilshire Blvd, STE 650 Los Angeles, California 90025, United States Phone: (213) 747-9661 Fax: (213) 747-3057 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.excesstelecom.com
DBA:
Registered as:	Wireless Provider Type: Mobile