Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Call Center Scheduling Done Right Promotes Adherence Among Agents
Call center managers have a lot to juggle in their efforts to effectively manage a diverse workforce, address all customer issues, ensure performance according to expectations, and keep all operations within specific budgets. Such challenges often require tools to overcome them and many call centers will turn to Monet Software to find the solutions they need to improve overall performance.
One area of specific challenge is that of call center scheduling. Call center leaders schedule for the center according to specific forecasts, planned campaigns, established budgets, agent skill sets and planned activities. When agents fail to adhere to call center scheduling, immediate problems can arise that can be difficult to overcome.
In a recent Monet Software blog, the importance of agents adhering to call center scheduling was examined. In paying attention to schedule adherence, call center leaders are effectively breaking down the goals and objectives from an organizational level and taking it down to the agent level. If scheduling adherence is not monitored and measured, the call center could easily be costing the organization more than it should.
Adherence to call center scheduling is truly a measure of agent productivity as it measures the percentage of time an agent is actively working on the phone as compared to the time he or she is supposed to be on the phone, according to the schedule. Anytime an agent is at work, but not doing the job for which he or she is paid, the organization is receiving less value for their investment in that agent.
Specific agents may not be failing to adhere to call center scheduling on purpose, however, so it is important for call center leaders to stress the importance of adherence and how it applies to measuring overall performance. Call center leaders will do well to take a few minutes to educate their agents on the negative impact that out-of-adherence can have on the overall service level of the center.
Agents may also lack a clear definition of phone and non-phone activities and it is up to the supervisors to explain what is included in the schedule and what should not be a focus for the agents. This is where call center scheduling needs to take into account what has to be done and what agents can get done in terms of individual calls. If the schedule is too rigid, agents may need to take more breaks and end up with a negative overall impact.
Too much flexibility in call center scheduling can also be a problem as there tends to be a lack of accountability. This can quickly lead to out-of-adherence. Call center leaders need to discuss this with their team and take the time to identify whether or not the problem is in the call center scheduling. There are ways to work flexibility into the schedule without causing problems; leaders just need to identify the proper tools.
Out-of-adherence can also occur when this element isn’t measured and tracked. Call center managers can only manage what they measure, so it is important to set clear goals, communicate with the team, measure adherence and review it with the team on a regular basis. As long as scheduling assumptions and calculations are correct, success in adherence to call center scheduling should be a given.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Chris DiMarco