Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
September 30, 2008
Effective Call Center Scheduling Increases Customer Satisfaction
Call centers operate in a dynamic industry. Call volumes can fluctuate greatly, increasing and decreasing demand put on the contact center staff. Managers strive to forecast call volumes in order to ensure they have the right number of staff available for any given shift, but the process can be time consuming and flawed when done manually.
To help better manage the workforce within the call center, many organizations turn to workforce management solutions as such applications can help to accurately forecast call volumes while matching skill levels and agent availability according to call center needs.
Accurate forecasting is essential to effectively schedule agents for the call center, yet it is one area where increased measurement is needed. According to a recent ICMI study, only 56.4 percent of call centers measure for forecasting accuracy. Proper forecasting is directly related to effective scheduling to deliver the optimal customer experience.
Call center scheduling can be a tricky area to manage as the size of the call center and the companies that it serves can dictate the level of skill necessary for agents to possess. The more complicated the calls, the more live agents with specialized skills needed to deliver the expected level of service.
Larger call centers can have varied skill sets among their agent pool, making it essential that forecasting is accurate so that the proper number of specialized agents is scheduled according to peak calling times. This task can be daunting without workforce management solutions and it is therefore driving demand.
A study by Customer Relationship Metrics found that the penetration of licensed workforce management solutions to support call center scheduling is at a high 88 percent. Interestingly, 25 percent of call centers do not use workforce management solutions to support forecasting, a critical element in proper scheduling.
It is likely that the implementations for call center scheduling are meeting a significant need as the study also revealed that 62 percent of participating call centers post new schedules at least every month, 39 percent are weekly and 7 percent daily. The remaining centers post new schedules as needed.
A variety of companies offer workforce management solutions that cover a wide array of call center initiatives, including forecasting, scheduling and to support performance. This creates a challenge when selecting the right solution to meet the specific needs of a unique call center.
Monet Workforce Management offers a comprehensive workforce management solution that is designed to meet the needs of call center scheduling to ensure that the center can perform to its optimal capabilities. In doing so, the call center will be able to deliver a better experience for the customer and the company that it is in place to support.
A study by Customer Relationship Metrics found that the penetration of licensed workforce management solutions to support call center scheduling is at a high 88 percent. Interestingly, 25 percent of call centers do not use workforce management solutions to support forecasting, a critical element in proper scheduling.
It is likely that the implementations for call center scheduling are meeting a significant need as the study also revealed that 62 percent of participating call centers post new schedules at least every month, 39 percent are weekly and 7 percent daily. The remaining centers post new schedules as needed.
A variety of companies offer workforce management solutions that cover a wide array of call center initiatives, including forecasting, scheduling and to support performance. This creates a challenge when selecting the right solution to meet the specific needs of a unique call center.
Monet Workforce Management offers a comprehensive workforce management solution that is designed to meet the needs of call center scheduling to ensure that the center can perform to its optimal capabilities. In doing so, the call center will be able to deliver a better experience for the customer and the company that it is in place to support.
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 Michelle Robart