Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
August 25, 2009
How to Improve Call Center Scheduling with a Limited Budget and Resources
Due to the down economy, companies everywhere, especially those operating in the consumer and B-to-B segments, are cutting staff in their call centers. At the same time call center managers are being asked to maintain, if not even improve, service levels.
As a result, it has become even more important for call center managers to accurately schedule the correct number of agents to handle call volume. Balancing the number of agents to call volume has always been one of the greatest call center management challenges – and because labor is the single biggest cost facing any call center, it is critical to holding down operating costs.
Call centers that continue to use manual systems, such as spreadsheets, are at a distinct disadvantage compared to call centers that use workforce management software. With their advanced analytics capabilities, today’s workforce management solutions (aka call center scheduling solutions) enable call center managers to forecast, with a high degree of accuracy, how many agents will be needed for any particular shift.
But there is a misconception out there that call center scheduling solutions cost a fortune – and that the cost cannot be justified when the call center labor force is shrinking, as opposed to growing. Small business owners, in particular, often seem to feel that these solutions “are only for the big guys” – and therefore they won’t get the intended return on investment.
In fact, the opposite is true. Call center scheduling actually becomes more difficult when there are fewer agents to schedule. That’s because every agent -- and every call -- has a greater effect on overall performance. For example, if you have a 20-agent center and one agent does not show up, you suddenly have a “5 percent resource problem.” And 5 percent can make a huge difference in overall call center performance. The impact can be even greater when you have agents that are trained to handle specific channels – such as Web chat or email – or when you have agent groups that are dedicated for handling specific customers, or specific brands.
But what about the cost of deploying call center scheduling solutions? Thanks to the fact that these solutions are increasingly being offered on a hosted or software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) basis, the cost of deploying and using these systems has come down considerably. With the hosted or SaaS model, companies don’t need to shell-out capital for new servers or network infrastructure – the software is delivered like a utility – meaning it is offered on a “pay-as-you-go” basis or a subscription-based model, based on the number of seats. What’s more, companies don’t need to lay out capital for expensive software licenses – rather they simply “lease” the software, the cost of which can be represented neatly as a recurring line item in monthly expense reports.
To learn more about the how today’s call center scheduling solutions can help companies improve their call center operations, be sure to check out the upcoming Webinar, “How to Improve Call Center Scheduling with a Limited Budget and Resources,” presented by Monet Software, scheduled for 10 a.m. PST, this Thursday, August 27.
Industry expert and CEO of Monet Software Chuck Ciarlo, who successfully owned and operated multiple call centers, will explain why it's more difficult to optimize agent schedules in small and medium sized call centers; how to overcome this challenge with a WFM solution to better utilize your resources; and how to use best practices to improve the scheduling and management of your agents.
As a result, it has become even more important for call center managers to accurately schedule the correct number of agents to handle call volume. Balancing the number of agents to call volume has always been one of the greatest call center management challenges – and because labor is the single biggest cost facing any call center, it is critical to holding down operating costs.
Call centers that continue to use manual systems, such as spreadsheets, are at a distinct disadvantage compared to call centers that use workforce management software. With their advanced analytics capabilities, today’s workforce management solutions (aka call center scheduling solutions) enable call center managers to forecast, with a high degree of accuracy, how many agents will be needed for any particular shift.
But there is a misconception out there that call center scheduling solutions cost a fortune – and that the cost cannot be justified when the call center labor force is shrinking, as opposed to growing. Small business owners, in particular, often seem to feel that these solutions “are only for the big guys” – and therefore they won’t get the intended return on investment.
In fact, the opposite is true. Call center scheduling actually becomes more difficult when there are fewer agents to schedule. That’s because every agent -- and every call -- has a greater effect on overall performance. For example, if you have a 20-agent center and one agent does not show up, you suddenly have a “5 percent resource problem.” And 5 percent can make a huge difference in overall call center performance. The impact can be even greater when you have agents that are trained to handle specific channels – such as Web chat or email – or when you have agent groups that are dedicated for handling specific customers, or specific brands.
But what about the cost of deploying call center scheduling solutions? Thanks to the fact that these solutions are increasingly being offered on a hosted or software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) basis, the cost of deploying and using these systems has come down considerably. With the hosted or SaaS model, companies don’t need to shell-out capital for new servers or network infrastructure – the software is delivered like a utility – meaning it is offered on a “pay-as-you-go” basis or a subscription-based model, based on the number of seats. What’s more, companies don’t need to lay out capital for expensive software licenses – rather they simply “lease” the software, the cost of which can be represented neatly as a recurring line item in monthly expense reports.
To learn more about the how today’s call center scheduling solutions can help companies improve their call center operations, be sure to check out the upcoming Webinar, “How to Improve Call Center Scheduling with a Limited Budget and Resources,” presented by Monet Software, scheduled for 10 a.m. PST, this Thursday, August 27.
Industry expert and CEO of Monet Software Chuck Ciarlo, who successfully owned and operated multiple call centers, will explain why it's more difficult to optimize agent schedules in small and medium sized call centers; how to overcome this challenge with a WFM solution to better utilize your resources; and how to use best practices to improve the scheduling and management of your agents.
To register for this informative Webinar, click here.
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Patrick Barnard is a contributing writer for TMCnet. To read more of Patrick’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard