Call Center Management Feature Article

April 28, 2011

Call Center Management Sure to Benefit from WFM

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

In your call center, you likely have some strong individuals working in the call center management roles. Regardless of their capabilities, however, they still have mounting challenges in trying to effectively run a complicated environment.

Beyond the challenges of trying to keep costs low, those in the role of call center management must also keep on top of call center scheduling – its own challenge. This recent Monet Software blog focused on the role of those in call center management and their challenges with scheduling.

For some environments, the spreadsheet can serve as a manageable platform to track availability, scheduled time, breaks and training sessions. When the center grows to more than 25 agents, however, call center management will struggle with a spreadsheet.

Many of these call centers have effectively avoided the implementation of a robust workforce management software platform to get around the large upfront investment that tends to be inherent in traditional on-premise workforce management software vendor offerings. The potential costs associated with the use of the spreadsheet – such as lower service levels and productivity – could offset the high cost argument for call center management.

The good news for those in call center management who have recognized the challenges with the spreadsheet is that workforce management platforms are now available as subscription-based, fully hosted offerings. This platform available for call center management completely negates the cost argument against implementing workforce management solutions.

To know for sure whether or not you can benefit from a workforce management platform, there are a few questions you might want to consider. First, are you able to monitor and track schedule adherence?

Any call center management solution that is designed to deliver value for your environment will keep agents on track with scheduling adherence. After all, even if agents are out of adherence for just 15 minutes each day in a 25 agent center, this can add $23,000 in staffing costs every year.

Also ask yourself if you can take advantage of your call history in your call center management. You can benefit from the use of detailed call history data and patterns that can help you to improve accuracy in your forecast and your schedule.

Take the time to consider if you can “build-in” skill-based routing into your call center management schedule. It is important to have multi-skill agents in overlapping groups as part of your schedule to help improve productivity.

Finally, examine how call center management handles exceptions and agent preferences. If you can effectively handle both as part of the scheduling activities, you will be set to more effectively motivate your team. And, with so many benefits available in a workforce management solution available for your call center management, why are you still waiting?

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