Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
March 20, 2009
Top Advantages of Call Center Scheduling Software
If you’re still using spreadsheets to schedule your call center agents, and you’re looking to cut costs, gain efficiencies and improve customer service (and what contact center manager doesn’t want to accomplish those things?), then you’ve got to get on board with call center scheduling software.
As many companies are discovering, today’s call center scheduling systems offer strong return on investment – whether through more efficient use of labor, gains in agent productivity, increased customer satisfaction or reduced telecommunications costs.
In the past, call center scheduling software (also called workforce management software) has been viewed as a complex and expensive tool used only by larger contact centers. But today’s systems, which are increasingly being offered on a hosted or SaaS (News - Alert) basis, are many times easier to implement and manage. That means you no longer have to have a large center with a lot of agents to justify the investment.
Because they are being offered as Web-based services, these systems require minimal investment to implement: There are no up-front licensing fees or software or hardware to purchase – the software is delivered via the Internet just like a utility – and pricing is generally by seat/time, so you only pay for what you use. What’s more, these systems can be readily integrated with a call center’s automatic call distributor (ACD), quality monitoring tools, training systems, and other back office software, thus increasing the power and capabilities of the call center scheduling system.
In the past, call center scheduling software (also called workforce management software) has been viewed as a complex and expensive tool used only by larger contact centers. But today’s systems, which are increasingly being offered on a hosted or SaaS (News - Alert) basis, are many times easier to implement and manage. That means you no longer have to have a large center with a lot of agents to justify the investment.
Because they are being offered as Web-based services, these systems require minimal investment to implement: There are no up-front licensing fees or software or hardware to purchase – the software is delivered via the Internet just like a utility – and pricing is generally by seat/time, so you only pay for what you use. What’s more, these systems can be readily integrated with a call center’s automatic call distributor (ACD), quality monitoring tools, training systems, and other back office software, thus increasing the power and capabilities of the call center scheduling system.
One of the biggest advantages of today’s call center scheduling systems is their ability to forecast call volume. This is achieved through integration with the call center’s automatic call distributor (ACD). Historical call data is pulled from the ACD and brought into the call center scheduling system, and the system’s analytics capabilities enable call center managers to generate accurate forecasts of upcoming spikes and lulls in volume. After you pull data from the ACD for a few years, you can begin to more finely tune your operations: The key is to give the software a chance to establish patterns and trends based on historical data.
What’s more, today’s call center scheduling solutions can be used to properly balance agent teams based on skill sets. For example, if your contact center also handles Web chats and emails, but only certain agents are trained to handle these contacts, you’ll want to ensure that you have the proper number of those agents on hand for each shift. With most of today’s call center scheduling systems, you make separate forecasts for Web chat and email volume, allowing you to schedule accordingly.
What’s more, today’s call center scheduling solutions can be used to properly balance agent teams based on skill sets. For example, if your contact center also handles Web chats and emails, but only certain agents are trained to handle these contacts, you’ll want to ensure that you have the proper number of those agents on hand for each shift. With most of today’s call center scheduling systems, you make separate forecasts for Web chat and email volume, allowing you to schedule accordingly.
Another, more basic advantage is schedule adherence: Most of today’s call center scheduling systems offer a real-time adherence module that allows managers to track scheduled and actual agent activity. Ensuring that agents are sticking to their schedules (whether its arrival times, breaks, or departure times) is critical to call center performance. Because labor is the biggest expense, every minute of every agent’s shift counts. These systems allow you to quickly identify which agents are failing to stick to the schedule and take appropriate action.
A more advanced capability delivered by today’s call center scheduling systems is their ability to schedule agents for activities beyond fielding contacts: For example, these systems can be used to schedule a short training or coaching session with an agent that is having trouble with a particular skill. In some more advanced integrations, the software can be used to automatically push training modules to agents who aren’t meeting certain metrics, as measured through a performance management system.
But switching to a call center scheduling system isn’t always easy: Sometimes managers run into resistance from the agents when implementing a call center scheduling solution. The agents might view it as being too “big brotherish” – that they’ve been put under the microscope and are losing control of their daily work lives.
The key thing is to explain the benefits of the system and how it will actually improve their jobs. For example, many of today’s call center scheduling systems actually let agents pick up, bid on, and swap shifts with other agents – all through a simple-to-use Web-based interface. This capability goes a long way to build employee job satisfaction and give agents more control over their work lives. Some companies have seen such success with this capability that they even let agents swap shifts without manager approval. In this regard today’s call center scheduling solutions can go a long way to improve employee job satisfaction and reduce attrition.
The key thing is to explain the benefits of the system and how it will actually improve their jobs. For example, many of today’s call center scheduling systems actually let agents pick up, bid on, and swap shifts with other agents – all through a simple-to-use Web-based interface. This capability goes a long way to build employee job satisfaction and give agents more control over their work lives. Some companies have seen such success with this capability that they even let agents swap shifts without manager approval. In this regard today’s call center scheduling solutions can go a long way to improve employee job satisfaction and reduce attrition.
Once costly and complex, today’s call center scheduling software is now easy to deploy, use and manage. And with the economy in turmoil and businesses looking to cut cost whatever way possible, this software is necessary to keep call centers operating smoothly and efficiently -- and keep customers coming back for more.
Monet Software (formerly Left Bank Solutions) is a global provider of call center scheduling solutions for small and medium sized contact centers. It offers three call center scheduling solutions for automating the process of forecasting call volumes and scheduling agents:
Monet Software (formerly Left Bank Solutions) is a global provider of call center scheduling solutions for small and medium sized contact centers. It offers three call center scheduling solutions for automating the process of forecasting call volumes and scheduling agents:
--Monet Workforce Management System: A robust, affordable and easy to use forecasting and call center scheduling system that enables managers to analyze their call and non-call workflow, improve service levels and reduce center costs by creating efficient employee schedules. The system can forecast and schedule agents to handle inbound calls along with outbound calls, emails, Internet messages, web callbacks and any other back office process.
--Monet AnyWhere: A Web portal to enhance agent-supervisor interaction. Supervisors can review agent schedules, approve or decline agent exceptions and schedule bids, and view critical reports. Agents can enter exceptions or bids and see their schedules at any time. These tasks can be performed from any Web browser.
--Monet WFM OnDemand: Monet Software's hosted offering, which combines features from both the Monet Workforce Management System and Monet AnyWhere. Users can access these features from anywhere in the world from nearly any operating system (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD).
For more information, visit https://www.monetsoftware.com/.
Patrick Barnard is a contributing writer for TMCnet. To read more of Patrick’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard