TMCnews Featured Article

Last week we talked about giving your call center agents a little something to make those long hours in the call center a little more bearable. Ergonomic chairs, desks and input devices will go a long way in making them comfortable and productive even as they battle the daunting volume peaks of the holiday season.

While the desire to make your agents comfortable is all well and good, the proper execution in furnishing your space requires a lot more than good will. Since the efficient use of every inch in your call center is essential to meeting your staff requirements and ultimately your bottom line, you’ll want to do more than eyeball your space when you’re trying to figure out what you want to do with it

Interior Concepts has just the thing for this kind of endeavor. The call center furniture provider offers a number of consultation services that allow you to quickly and effectively choose the furniture right for you. Plus, with its virtual tours, you can see what others have chosen to do with their space, and squeeze every inch worth of real estate out of your office.

For example, pinpointing the space needs of your agents gives you the ability to determine the kind of desks they need. Obviously if agents will be handling order paper work on top of answering phone calls they’re going to need more room to write and organize than they would if they’re using an electronic billing platform. Considering room for training will also let you maximize space before the ordering phase, so you won’t be at a loss for room once the final plan has been set.

Layout and flow questions about aisle size and traffic are also important considerations. If a dead end requires an agent to make an additional 3- second walk to and from the bathroom, it may not seem like a huge deal, but add that 30 seconds to every break for 200 agents over an extended period of time, and you’re losing hours of productivity. These are the kind of issues that the virtual fly through will let you see ahead of time, helping the setup you envision take shape while keeping the needs of your staff in mind.

If you’re really thinking about giving the gift of comfortable and ergonomic new workstations this holiday, think of Interior Concepts’ consultative services as the assembly manual. Try to set up a gift on Christmas morning without it and you’re likely to end up with a box full of leftover parts and the sinking suspicion that your newly assembled toy is shakier than it should be.

Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Tammy Wolf