Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Achieving Balance in the Call Center Management Juggling Act
The overall management and scheduling of any call center is a bit of a juggling act. Managers need to accurately assess call volume and balance that with agents’ schedules and skillsets, all while maintaining optimum productivity and efficiency. At times this may seem like an impossible task, but three core focus areas can help any manager when it comes to scheduling challenges.
A recent blog post from Verint (News - Alert) Monet, provider of a cloud workforce engagement platform for contact centers and help desks, outlines three important pillars for successful contact center management. The company believes managers must maintain equilibrium among their employees, customers and budget in order to achieve maximum productivity and scheduling success in the call center.
Employees are the heart of any call center, yet sadly, call centers have one of the highest rates of turnover and churn of any global profession. Too often, agents’ schedules are unpredictable and unreliable, which is one of the key issues. Beyond that, agents complain of low pay, inadequate training and repetition and monotony. All of these factors equal unhappy agents that are not successful engaging with customers, a major problem for any call center.
When managers focus on hiring talented, skilled agents who are excited for future opportunities, they’re off to a good start. Ensuring those agents are properly trained, challenged and motivated with incentives and rewards is the best way to keep them engaged and happy. And content, engaged agents yield engaged, satisfied customers who will return for repeat business.
Speaking of customers, a call center cannot be successful without engaging its customers. Today’s customers want better levels of service, and are demanding omni-channel communications that enable them to interact with agents in the manner that works best for them. Customers are driving change in the call center, and call centers need to meet their demands to ensure interactions have successful outcomes.
Of course, budget pretty much dictates how any business operates, and the call center is no exception. Managers have limited resources available and need to maximize those resources to achieve long-term success. Once again, hiring the right employees and ensuring they are properly trained and happy in their positions goes a long way toward achieving success on the customer-facing front. And happy, engaged customers drive profitability through loyalty and repeat business.
Focusing on any one of these three areas without the others is a recipe for failure in the call center. Managers need to balance the needs of their agents and employees with customers’ needs and demands, and work within their available budgets to drive productivity and profitability. Achieving equilibrium among the three will ensure a successful call center performance over the long term.
Edited by Maurice Nagle