Four Top Challenges for Call Center Managers

  In a 2010 survey by DMG noted on the Monet Software blog, call center managers rated what they thought to be the four tasks they consider their top call center workforce management challenges:

The need to schedule phone and non-phone activity.

The need to optimize the mix of full-time/part-time/flex workers.

Poor agent adherence.

The need to schedule multiple channels -- such as phone, email, chat.

Earlier this month TMC’s (News - Alert) Susan J. Campbell wrote that the good news is that call center management throughout the industry have already discovered best practices to ease the process:

“While a schedule driven only by forecast and basic agent requirements as determined by call center management may work, it won’t help to boost performance or productivity. The development of the forecast and schedule needs to include agent needs, as well as breaks, multiple skill sets, training, time-off and a realistic buffer for shrinkage. Consider categorizing all activities according to your unique environment.”

Earlier this year TMC’s Chris DiMarco noted that forecasting is essential in call center workforce management space and without a working strategy staffing concerns will quickly crop up. Being able to determine the volume of phone calls and customer inquiries on a particular day or season allows call center managers to efficiently staff. The problem is it’s often difficult to account for all variables of any given day.

“Accurate forecasting is critical to a successful workforce,” DiMarco wrote. “To meet call volume without under-staffing or over-staffing, you need methods that precisely predict how many agents are needed at any one given time. The challenges mentioned above throw a wrench in day to day forecasting and can make it difficult to staff, the solution if to factor in the unknowns when hiring for the operation.”

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Chris DiMarco