Call Center Management Featured Article
Call Center Management: Doing the Math
Managing a call center is no easy feat. Sure there are lots of new technologies and solution offerings hitting the market that make it easier to forecast, report and take action – but there is still a lot of leg work for those involved in management to make sure optimal efficiency and care are in play.
Most people who hate math (me) find themselves working in jobs that deal with words instead - like writing - or working with customers to utilize people skills over numerical proficiency. But even these jobs can’t escape the need to understand math and what figures may mean for future success.
A recent blog post by Monet Software (News - Alert) CEO Chuck Ciarlo discusses the need for math in the call center and offers a formula to help with properly calculating call center service levels.
Once a call center is operating successfully – agents are manned with the right scripts and delivering satisfaction, and a workforce optimization system is helping to maintain and deliver this— call center managers still need to keep tabs on how all of this is working by running reports and assessing success rates.
According to Ciarlo, if you start with defining the terms of what you are assessing – i.e. abandoned call rates – you should then get more specific and define what counts as successful. There are other parameters to keep in mind too. You’ll need to think about and set specifics for when a call is considered to actually “start” and at what intervals you plan to measure the data.
The good news here is the math and numbers crunching is usually just a one-time thing if you’re using an automated WFO solution. Once the parameters are set, call centers management will be able to gather the necessary data and calculate service levels without breaking out a calculator.
Monet Software offers a demo on how this system can work if you’re interested. Watch Demo
Edited by Alicia Young