By Patrick Barnard, Group Managing Editor, Call Center Scheduling

The ability to accurately forecast call volume is the key to call center operational efficiency. An accurate forecast is essential to arrive at an accurate schedule - one which properly balances agent resources with call volume: Schedule too many agents for any given shift and they'll be sitting around waiting for contacts to come in. Schedule too few and call hold times will increase, impacting customer satisfaction.

 

The challenge today is that there is a wider array of factors - social networking, a more volatile economy, online marketing, etc., etc. -- that can impact call volume. Using manual systems such as spreadsheets to account for these one-time-only events (and "flukes"), whether planned or unplanned, is tedious and time-consuming, yet one major "slip-up" in creating the call center schedule can have serious cost implications.

 

If you're having trouble improving the accuracy of your call center forecasting and scheduling, be sure to check out the upcoming free webinar, "How to Improve Forecast Accuracy in Your Call Center," sponsored by Monet Software. This educational webinar will take place at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT), Wednesday, June 23, 2010.

Industry expert Chuck Ciarlo, who successfully owned and operated multiple call centers, will address three common forecasting challenges:

 

--Forecasting special days and events

--Staying on top of intra-day call volume changes

--Forecast for multiple skills and call types

 

To register for this free webinar, click here.

 

To download the archived versions of past Monet Software webinars, click here.