Tips for Improving Call Center Scheduling Adherence

Is your call center a madhouse of crazed agents who never seem to stay on track with scheduling? Do you find it difficult to schedule every bathroom break, coaching activity and e-mail that will take an agent away from the phones? Have you thought about the potential benefit you could enjoy with the implementation of a call center scheduling solution?

This Monet Software blog referenced a workforce management survey the company completed in 2009 where call centers were asked about their forecasting and call center scheduling activities. One question related specifically to schedule adherence. Monet Software was surprised to find that 50 percent of those surveyed did not monitor for adherence to the schedule among employees within the call center.

These survey results are important as a lack of schedule adherence can cause inefficiencies in the call center, including an increase in shrinkage and a decline in service levels. Changes must be made to your call center scheduling activities if you’re facing these challenges, but where do you begin? How do you select the right path to drive change?

To help in the process, Monet Software offers best practices and considerations for managing adherence in the call center. The first important focus is to inform and educate when it comes to call center scheduling. Agents must understand the relevance of adhering to the call center schedule and the affect 10 minutes here and there can have on other agents and the performance of the call center as a whole.

Secondly, you can easily use workforce management tools in your call center scheduling to measure and track adherence. Such a platform will allow you to track adherence in real-time and run the necessary reports. These adherence reports can then be shared with your agents, providing the perfect opportunity to discuss with them how they are doing. Provide regular feedback regarding adherence statistics and your agents will be well on their way to respecting the practices surrounding call center scheduling.

Finally, provide incentives. If you want agents to behave in a certain way, you have to provide them with incentive to do so. Set up rewards for agents that adhere to call center scheduling within 95 percent. Recognition should be done within the team and tie their bonuses to good scores.

Keep in mind that all agents need to understand that consequences do exist for out-of-adherence behavior. This helps to establish their responsibility towards the success of their team and the success of the call center overall. 



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 Jennifer Russell