TMCnews Featured Article

The upfront costs of properly designing and the outfitting the call center can be a capital intensive project. While it is understandable that you will want to cut some corners in order to stay within budget, you never want to make cuts that can affect the productivity of your agents. As captured in this recent white paper, designing a call center that is conducive to proper workflow processes can help to deliver better productivity, improved employee morale, reduced employee turnover and even a safer and healthier work environment.

When considering the traffic flow and layout of the call center, be sure your agent and floor supervisor stations are placed in such a way that is supports the objectives and culture of the company. Your agent stations are revenue producers, but you also need to consider the location of human resources and executive/administrative offices, floor managers, meeting or multi-purpose rooms, training rooms and cafeteria or break rooms. And, don’t forget the proper location of restrooms and common areas.

The furniture design within your agent stations can vary depending upon the primary focus of your call center. To determine the best workstation and design for your agents, you need to ask so specific questions:

·         Is the call center outbound or inbound?

·         What services are performed at each station?

·         What shifts are supported in the operation?

·         Are noise reduction and acoustics important?

·         What is the desired panel height, considering noise and visibility?

·         Do your agents need storage capabilities?

·         Where will you draw power for the stations?

·         Do the stations need convenience outlets?

·         What seating and lighting options do you need?

When designing your supervisor stations, determine how much supervision is needed within the center. You will also want to consider specific accessories and the kind of access your supervisors need to these accessories. Here, pay attention to such elements as supervisor to agent ratio; location of the supervisor; storage requirements; space requirements; visual requirements; electrical requirements; ergonomics requirements; and standing needs.

In the design of your administrative offices, you need to determine whether or not you want to differentiate these offices from the call center floor, or make them an extension of the design you used for all employees. When you make this decision, you’ll know what type of system to select. At that point, consider what type of seating you need, the size of the office, storage requirements, desired orientation of furniture in the room, wall power and data support and whether or not you want a conference or meeting table within that space.

Many of the same questions need to be asked in the design of other areas of the call center, including reception, break rooms and training areas. Keep in mind that you want to design a center that will properly support your greatest assets – your people.