Call Center Management Featured Article
Wise Workforce Management Choices Reduce Learning Curve, Save Time & Money
Many companies are feeling pressure these days to improve the quality of their workforce optimization. They know – because the word “optimization” appears in it – that’s it’s something that helps a company use resources better. They’ve read case studies that show that workforce optimization (WFO) can yield very fast return on investment. But they may not be so certain exactly what’s it’s going to do for them.
In a general sense, WFO uses technology to ensure that workers are being optimally utilized for maximum business value and minimized costs. Under-staffing is frustrating for customers and leads to high turnover, and over-staffing is expensive. WFO can help ensure neither over- or under-staffing are the rule of the day in a workplace.
While WFO is used in many industries, including field sales service, manufacturing, transportation, mining, warehousing and countless other areas, it’s in the contact center where it gets particularly compelling. Here, where customer satisfaction can be won or lost in less than a minute, WFO often involves a number of integrated technologies, according to Chuck Ciarlo, CEO of workforce optimization solution provider Monet Software (News - Alert).
“When we think WFO for our industry, the definition incorporates specific functionality such as call recording, workforce management, quality management and speech analytics,” wrote Ciarlo.
While companies can certainly implement each element of contact center workforce management separately and in a premise-based installation, it’s unlikely they will ever work properly or in concert in the same way a single, integrated solution delivered via the cloud will. With mobility an important element of business today, the cloud is simply vital to keep track of all workforce assets at all times.
Many contact center organizations have resisted a modern, robust WFO solution in favor of old, cobbled together legacy solutions. But companies without robust omnichannel customer experience programs in place are falling behind – far behind – and good WFO is no longer a choice. Research data backs this up: a Gartner (News - Alert) report has found that by 2018, 70 percent of organizations with more than 300 contact center agents will be working with an integrated workforce optimization solution, either cloud-based or premise-based.
If you are one of those contact centers still lingering in the twentieth century, it may be time to begin exploring how workforce optimization can help solve many of the problems you’re currently coping with on a daily basis. It’s also worth noting that because many of these solutions are cloud-based, their affordability is greater than you might think given the type of functionality they provide. Ciarlo recommends making a list of your needs and priorities before you begin hunting for a solution.
“Seek out the solution best suited to meet [those needs]. Also, as so many business processes will be affected, look for a WFO application that can be implemented and integrated in a way that reduces the learning curve, while working toward ROI from day one,” he said. “Price will also be a likely consideration, so a cloud solution may be the answer to achieving your technology goals at a cost you can afford.”
What’s certain is that you cannot afford to continue operating blindly when it comes to workforce, putting the people you think and hope are going to take care of your customers into the channels you estimate customers will use. It’s time to start planning your resources in a smarter way.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi