Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Building a Better Contact Center Schedule Starts with Adherence
When it comes to running a contact center today, there is little that is more important than an effective schedule. A schedule is the framework of the contact center: it helps everyone understand where they need to be when in order to meet the challenges of the day’s business. For this reason, it’s important that call center managers are capable of building an effective schedule.
For most companies, however, the challenge isn’t over when the schedule is created. From there, they need to ensure that they’re actually sticking to their schedule, which is a lot harder than it sounds. Most contact centers experience adherence problems. (Adherence is the degree, measured in percent, to which an agent sticks to his or her schedule.) Some contact centers experience them on a daily basis. Improving adherence is the manager’s job, but it can be a daunting task, according to a recent white paper by workforce optimization solutions provider Monet Software entitled, “Strategies for Improving Schedule Adherence.”
“Call center managers not only need to keep track of agent schedules, they also must ensure that their time is being used productively to answer calls,” wrote the paper’s authors. “Without a strategic approach to manage agents and maximize their time, call centers are setting themselves up to waste valuable time and expensive resources that cause damage in the long run. When every minute counts, call centers must focus on the impact agent adherence has on revenues, costs, and service levels.”
A lack of adherence can lead to wasted money, poor performance on the part of agents and customer dissatisfaction. Simply put, low adherence costs companies money…even if each agent is losing only 10 minutes a day. Over time, and multiplied by each agent in the contact center, it can cost even a relatively small company tens of thousands of dollars a year (or more).
Monet Software recommends a relatively simple process to improving adherence. First, identify your current adherence levels using the following formula: [phone time+ other work related activity time]/ ([shift time] - [lunch/dinner] - [break] + [exception time] +[overtime]) = schedule adherence. Next, write the report’s authors, you need to identify the reasons agents are falling out of adherence.
“There are different methods you can use to identify the reasons for your center: Review adherence reports to identify ‘weak’ agents and to determine the times of day when adherence levels are at their lowest, observe agent behavior, discuss adherence issues with your team, ask individual employees what makes it difficult to adhere to their schedules,” according to the report.
The reasons agents are out of adherence may be their fault, such as showing up late from breaks or lunches, or it may be the fault of managers building schedules that are simply too strict to be followed in the real world. Whatever the reason, both managers and agents may need to be educated about the important of adherence. After this, it helps to put better monitoring and alerts in place that specifically address adherence.
“Adherence monitoring and reporting should be a key part of staff meetings,” according to Monet. “Remember that you can only manage what you measure. Involve your agents during the process when goals are set so that you can get their input as well. Before you implement a schedule, discuss it with your team and review the schedule. There should be no miscommunication from either side regarding a schedule or else it will have a reverse effect. Define each and every point clearly.”
From here, contact centers should set adherence goals for agents and offer rewards for meeting them. When agents grasp that five minutes here and 10 minutes here actually DO matter, and that these lapses are being measured and recorded, performance often improves dramatically.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi