Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
How WFO Helps Call Centers Do the Math
Do the math. This phrase is one of my favorites.
It means that what is happening is pretty obvious if you use even a little brain power to figure it out. (At least, that’s my read on it.)
But as most of us know, doing actual math is not all that easy for many of us. And it tends to take more than a little brain power and time.
So when we can get an assist, it can be very helpful. And for call center managers, workforce optimization systems can provide that assist.
WFO solutions can help call center managers understand demand and trends so they can better forecast what resources they’ll need in the future to provide the business outcomes and customer experiences they’re aiming for. WFO software does that by enabling call centers to set agent schedules more effectively.
But first, managers need to decide what their goals are relative to their call center environments. Then they need to create service-level formulas.
Part of this exercise involves deciding when calls actually begin. Is it when the agent connects with the caller, when the phone rings, or when the caller makes his or her first IVR selection? Doing the math to make WFO work for call center environments also entails defining for which intervals you’re doing the measuring. You can set that by day, hour, shift, or other windows of time.
Whatever your choices on these fronts, you’ll have to do some of this upfront work. But WFO solutions will make the entire process a whole lot easier by gathering the data you need and doing the math to calculate service level. And once you have service levels, you’ll be able to better adjust procedures and technology to meet your organization’s service goals and deliver the customer experiences you want.
Edited by Maurice Nagle