Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
December 02, 2014
Maximize Call Center Scheduling Capabilities with Intraday Management
For many contact center organizations, schedules are created once a day – or once a week – and assumed to be adhered to. In reality, these schedules created far in advance of the actual day often bear little resemblance to what the day ultimately looks like. It wouldn’t matter even if managers attempted to fix things: intraday management, or real-time adjustments to schedules, are very difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish with more traditional schedule building techniques.
No one’s work day ever looks exactly like they imagine it will at the start of their day. Exceptions crop up…little unplanned events or absences or delays that can throw a serious wrench into anyone’s schedule. There’s a reason why so many contact centers report poor adherence to their schedules. Without the ability to make adjustment and actually plan for exceptions, the reality at the end of the day will bear little resemblance to the plans at the beginning of the day.
In the contact center, there are a nearly limitless number of things that can throw off a schedule: agents arriving late or returning late from break, sickness and absences, training sessions that run overtime (or impromptu training sessions), unexpected call volume, an IT problem and more.
The good news is some of today’s workforce management and scheduling solutions allow managers to make intraday changes to adjust schedules. Managers today can better track these intra-day trends and make real-time adjustments for optimal schedule creation, which helps contact centers consistently meet service levels and control costs, according to a blog post by Monet Software CEO Chuck Ciarlo.
The good news is some of today’s workforce management and scheduling solutions allow managers to make intraday changes to adjust schedules. Managers today can better track these intra-day trends and make real-time adjustments for optimal schedule creation, which helps contact centers consistently meet service levels and control costs, according to a blog post by Monet Software CEO Chuck Ciarlo.
“Enter time off exceptions, meetings and training before the roster is generated to close gaps in roster assignments or shift placement; but if you must enter them afterward, the WFM system can automatically optimize them in a way that reduces manager overhead,” wrote Ciarlo.
Since it’s often training sessions and meetings that will throw off a schedule, solutions such as those from Monet offer meeting planner features that allows contact center managers to better schedule this time without negatively affecting the schedule and throwing off adherence. The intraday planning also allows managers to be more flexible with breaks and lunches for agents, and prevents a single agent’s lack of adherence from affecting the entire contact center.
Find more tips for maximizing the contact center schedule and improving adherence on Chuck Ciarlo’s blog.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi