Call Center Management Featured Article
September 28, 2009
Free Webinar to Explain How WFM Software Can Be Used to Improve Call Center Management
As they try to ride out the recession, small to medium sized companies everywhere are cutting back staffing in their call centers. At the same time, they must continue to deliver good customer service, in order to hold on to the customers they have left.
As a result, call center managers are under intense pressure to continue to meet service levels and “do more with less.” That means they have to find ways to gain new efficiencies using the agents they already have. Considering that labor is the single biggest cost facing any call center, it only makes sense that this would be the case.
To accomplish this, many call centers are ditching their spreadsheets and adopting hosted workforce management solutions. These systems sport advanced analytics capabilities that enable managers to forecast, with a high degree of accuracy, how many agents will be needed for any given shift.
Using these powerful systems, call center managers can realize new efficiencies in the scheduling of agents – for example they can improve schedule adherence, reduce shrinkage, enable better schedule flexibility and boost agent productivity. Most importantly, they can avoid the call center management nightmare of having too many agents scheduled for a shift, sitting around doing nothing -- or not having enough agents, resulting in poor service levels and reduced customer satisfaction.
Still, WFM software is just a tool used for improving call center management. In order to use it effectively, you need to have a plan on how you are going to implement it and use it within the framework of your operations.
If you’re hungry for tips on how you can improve your call center scheduling, regardless of whether you are already using WFM software or not, be sure to check out the upcoming free webinar, “Seven Tips for More Effective Call Center Scheduling,” to be held from 10 to 11 a.m., PT (1 to 2 p.m. ET) on Wednesday, October 7, 2009. This free webinar is being presented by workforce management solutions provider Monet Software.
During the event, Chuck Ciarlo, who is an expert on call center management, will reveal the seven tips and explain how they can improve your call center scheduling. Attendees will learn how to simplify their call center forecasting and scheduling in order to improve service levels and reduce costs.
More specifically attendees will learn:
--Why a flexible shift model improves your service levels and how to implement it
--How to track and minimize shrinkage in your call center
--Best practices to improve schedule adherence
--Cross training of agents and how it impacts productivity
--ACD login time versus time-clock entries - why this matters
--The value of ranking of agents and teams
--What to include -- and what not to include -- in schedule activities
In addition Ciarlo will discuss how to implement and monitor the seven tips as part of your scheduling process, as well as how Monet’s software’s Web-based workforce management solution can help automate these processes.
To register for this free webinar, click here.
For information on other upcoming Monet Software webinars, click here.
As a result, call center managers are under intense pressure to continue to meet service levels and “do more with less.” That means they have to find ways to gain new efficiencies using the agents they already have. Considering that labor is the single biggest cost facing any call center, it only makes sense that this would be the case.
To accomplish this, many call centers are ditching their spreadsheets and adopting hosted workforce management solutions. These systems sport advanced analytics capabilities that enable managers to forecast, with a high degree of accuracy, how many agents will be needed for any given shift.
Using these powerful systems, call center managers can realize new efficiencies in the scheduling of agents – for example they can improve schedule adherence, reduce shrinkage, enable better schedule flexibility and boost agent productivity. Most importantly, they can avoid the call center management nightmare of having too many agents scheduled for a shift, sitting around doing nothing -- or not having enough agents, resulting in poor service levels and reduced customer satisfaction.
Still, WFM software is just a tool used for improving call center management. In order to use it effectively, you need to have a plan on how you are going to implement it and use it within the framework of your operations.
If you’re hungry for tips on how you can improve your call center scheduling, regardless of whether you are already using WFM software or not, be sure to check out the upcoming free webinar, “Seven Tips for More Effective Call Center Scheduling,” to be held from 10 to 11 a.m., PT (1 to 2 p.m. ET) on Wednesday, October 7, 2009. This free webinar is being presented by workforce management solutions provider Monet Software.
During the event, Chuck Ciarlo, who is an expert on call center management, will reveal the seven tips and explain how they can improve your call center scheduling. Attendees will learn how to simplify their call center forecasting and scheduling in order to improve service levels and reduce costs.
More specifically attendees will learn:
--Why a flexible shift model improves your service levels and how to implement it
--How to track and minimize shrinkage in your call center
--Best practices to improve schedule adherence
--Cross training of agents and how it impacts productivity
--ACD login time versus time-clock entries - why this matters
--The value of ranking of agents and teams
--What to include -- and what not to include -- in schedule activities
In addition Ciarlo will discuss how to implement and monitor the seven tips as part of your scheduling process, as well as how Monet’s software’s Web-based workforce management solution can help automate these processes.
To register for this free webinar, click here.
For information on other upcoming Monet Software webinars, click here.
Patrick Barnard is a contributing writer for TMCnet. To read more of Patrick’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard