Call Center Management Featured Article
Why is Agent Adherence so Challenging?
Forecasting and scheduling solutions in a call center not only improves accuracy of intra-day trends – it also helps monitor agent adherence and other metrics in real-time in order to help centers take immediate action.
Agent adherence is one of the types of metrics that an organization can monitor from its predetermined schedules, which have the ability to display when agents are available for calls and when they take their breaks. If a call center utilizes this information correctly it can make changes to its daily operations that will help increase performance and productivity.
When an agent goes off script or does not follow an organization’s company ethics, managers can make sure this problem is resolved by listening to call recordings. If some calls are taking too long, this can be solved by coaching and strategic changes, which can help take a few minutes or seconds off the typical customer engagement.
“But agent adherence is a trickier challenge, because even outstanding agents can be vulnerable to distractions and other outside factors than can impact job performance,” says Monet Software, a provider of call center solutions. “You can create a schedule that should be sufficient, but keeping agents focused and aware throughout their shift requires additional support.”
However, Monet’s WFM Live software provides metrics so that call center supervisors can correctly forecast and create optimized schedules that balance service levels, costs and agent requirements to plan for long-term staffing needs. Some of WFM Live’s key capabilities include:
- Monitor agent status in real-time
- Monitor and analyze key performance indicators and trends to reforecast, reschedule and adjust staffing levels
- Track and compare forecasted and actual center statistics
- Evaluate adherence and take action to improve performance
One of the biggest obstacles is making agents understand how much it affects the entire call center if they go over their lunch hour or come to work a few minutes late each day. But with a workforce management solution like the one from Monet, agents are able to see for themselves how their actions change the entire day’s workflow. To help employees gain a deeper understanding of agent adherence, please visit Monet’s whitepaper entitled “How to Improve Agent Schedule Adherence in your Call Center.”
Edited by Alisen Downey