Call Center Scheduling Feature Article

July 05, 2011

What is Effective Call Center Scheduling?

By Chris DiMarco, TMCnet Managing Editor

For call centers, the single most expensive element of operation is staffing. Making sure your agents are working as efficiently as possible within the schedules you’ve set for them is essential to the success of your business.

Since reoccurring schedule adherence issues and shrinkage sap your overhead, combating it is a matter of scheduling that fits the needs of your agents and finds agents that are willing to adhere to their assigned schedules. Workforce management software is perhaps the most widely used solution to this problem and with its adaptive collection of information it ensures your operation is always running smoothly. 

Monitoring abandonment rates, call volumes and seasonal influxes is the first step to proper call center management. Workforce management makes this aspect of call center scheduling a snap, as it constantly takes this information into account. Workforce management software can even be automated to create schedules that take historical information into account, creating a schedule that can then be modified based on the requests of your agents.

Above anything else, workforce management software gives a more reliable top-down view of staff requirements as they relate to the expected call volume. By analyzing historical information, duration of customer contact, expected seasonal peaks and staff schedules, workforce management software can quickly balance how many agents you have vs. how many you’ll need. Some workforce management suites even offer CRM integration, routing to a preferred agent each and every time and continuing a productive dialog to that fosters customer retention. Workforce management products also allow you to monitor agent adherence levels and determine which skills are in demand in your call center.

Workforce software provides call center managers with the information they need to create detailed yet flexible schedules that take all factors into consideration. This method of call center scheduling takes agents into account but still gives call center managers the final say to ensure optimal customer service.

Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Stefanie Mosca

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