The call center plays a vital role in an organization, driving additional revenue streams, protecting customer loyalty, measuring company performance and so much more. These benefits cannot always deliver if the center is designed with inefficient processes, especially where employees are concerned.

To help optimize the performance of the call center, a key task for organizations is to manage the workforce, forecast call volume and schedule agents according to business objectives. Monet Software set out in December 2009 to survey call centers and their workforce management practices.

 

The survey focused on four critical areas of measurement: the importance of forecasting and scheduling; a flexible versus fixed shift model; cross-training and skill-based call routing; and the management of schedule adherence.

 

When asked about the most important or pressing business goals for the call center related to forecasting, scheduling and staffing, 76.9 percent reported that their key focus is on increasing operational efficiencies of the call center. An improvement in service levels was a very close second at 73.1 percent – and 65 percent reported that increasing revenues is key, making it the third most important business goal.

In relation to shift models used in call centers, more than 53 percent of respondents use a flexible model to manage their staff. Those call centers that use a fixed schedule platform indicate that their type of business either does not require a flexible schedule or the use of spreadsheets that do not provide the necessary capabilities to manage a flexible shift model.

Cross-training and skill-based routing within the call center are both important considerations as the center must determine the best way to handle incoming calls. Within this survey, it was determined that 88.5 percent of respondents use cross-training of their agents, while another 76.2 percent use skill-based routing in their call centers.

In the management of schedule adherence, survey participants were asked how they monitor and improve agent schedule adherence. Surprisingly, 50 percent of respondents do not monitor schedule adherence. On the flip side, nearly half of the respondents – or 23.1 percent – that track schedule adherence share this data with their agents, while also providing incentives.

To get a better understanding of the role workforce management plays in the call center industry, and see more of the survey results, please contact Monet Software.