Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Workforce Management Software Drives Major Efficiencies Compared to Spreadsheets
When contact centers, even those that employ only a few dozen people, can make small improvements in efficiency, it often leads to big gains further down the line: better customer support, higher revenue, lower expenses and even improved employee engagement. While no company likes to spend money if it doesn’t have to, for certain contact center functions, it’s not spending the money that will lead to higher costs.
According to a recent blog post by Chuck Ciarlo, CEO of workforce optimization solutions provider Monet Software, there comes a point when inaction can be more costly than a beneficial investment. This is most definitely the case when it comes to the use of spreadsheets over workforce management software. Unfortunately, it’s a message that many contact centers still haven’t gotten yet.
“Many small and midsized contact centers still rely on spreadsheets for daily forecasting and scheduling,” wrote Ciarlo. “Even larger contact centers, those with 100 agents or more, are still making due with an inefficient system that lowers customer service, and can actually increase costs.”
Spreadsheets are inflexible, unchangeable (at least, not without redoing the entire process) and imprecise. They lead to costly overstaffing, or times when agents have too little work, or customer relationship-killing understaffing, when too few agents with the right skills are available and customers must wait on hold for a long time for assistance. Even if the call center manager is exceptionally good with forecasting on spreadsheets, even a few instances a month of understaffing or overstaffing can be a business killer. On the flip side, even small improvements in efficiency can yield great results.
“When an increase as low as one percent in productivity can significantly impact the contact center budget, it is imperative to identify areas where efficiency can be improved,” wrote Ciarlo. “Ditching spreadsheets should be at the top of that list.”
While the premise-based solutions of several years ago may have been expensive – although still worth it for most contact centers – today’s cloud-based solutions can help drive large improvements in efficiency without breaking the bank. With workforce management solutions, it’s easier to manage start times, end times and breaks with an ease of flexibility that dramatically improves service levels, says Ciarlo.
“Managers can also consult more detailed and accurate call histories with WFM, resulting in better forecasts,” he wrote. “Scheduling is also faster – some managers can save as much as 25 percent of the time once devoted to filling in spreadsheets – time that can now be used for additional agent training or to attend to other matters.”
While many vendors like to claim that their technology pays for itself, there is little question that a modern workforce management solution can do so – and quickly – by allowing a contact center to stop wasting time and getting stuck in large potholes of inefficiency.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi