Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Find More Time with Call Center Scheduling
Any mention of the call center and we’re quick to think of a row of cubicles, complete with headset-wearing individuals repeating the same speech on each call. While such a scenario may be found in one environment, it isn’t always the norm. In fact, today’s larger call centers are moving towards more diverse and flexible environments, providing deep integration between multiple communication channels and call center scheduling.
A recent Monet Software blog highlighted the importance of understanding the different challenges faced by today’s call centers. More specifically, Monet Software shared expert tips and best practices that can apply to just about any call center environment to ease the process of efficient call center scheduling.
First of all, regardless of your size or industry, your call center scheduling has to be able to accommodate special days and holidays. This requires implementing an accurate calendar for the year, forecasting according to anticipated call volumes and scheduling according to volumes and days that the center is either closed, or short on staff.
Call center scheduling can also get tricky when you don’t know what activities to actually schedule. Every activity that will include your agents in something promoting the efforts of the center should be included in your schedule. If you don’t have a clear understanding of those activities, it’s time to take a closer look at the typical day and learn what activities need to happen and what activities are simply wasting time.
The changing dynamics in the call center demand the accommodation for full-time, part-time and even flex-time workers. Such accommodations can be challenging when trying to manage call center scheduling on a spreadsheet. The same is true in the multiple channel environment. A software-based call center scheduling platform allows for intelligent forecasting and scheduling according to historical data, as well as projected fluctuations.
Shift bidding and trading can be nothing short of complicated when you lack the ability to provide Web-based scheduling. With the right solution in place, you can improve motivation among the agent base, while also adding more flexibility to your call center scheduling. Automated shift bidding and trading eliminates the manual frustrations that can occur when employees need to make a change. The Web-based approach ensures you can enable collaboration, making everyone a part of the scheduling process.
Taking the software approach also enables skills-based scheduling and routing so you can easily reduce the number of agents needed to handle your projected call volume. If special events will change your call volume at unusual times, implement flexible start and end times that are easily managed with software-based call center scheduling.
Too many activities need to happen concurrently to ensure optimal performance in the call center environment. With robust call center scheduling, you can easily automate a number of necessary activities so you can focus more time on customer care.
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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