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Workforce Optimization Featured Article

March 26, 2008

Workforce Optimization and the Empowered Agent

By Stefania Viscusi, Assignment Desk Editor

In the contact center, there is a specific need for agents that provide optimal customer service while also helping to ease supervisors and managers workloads. To help agents reach a level of empowerment that enables them to provide this level of service is the umbrella of workforce optimization solutions.

For the contact center industry, workforce optimization is a key initiative for becoming more productive, effective and efficient. Many tools for workforce optimization are typically available in the call center, but not always leveraged correctly.

By making proper use of these tools, it is possible to optimize the workforce through more empowered agents who are happier, and more productively working.

Self service technologies, for example, empower agents by giving them direct control over their working environment and by allowing managers to gain trust in supervisors and agents decisions.

Also, workforce management vendors are including more and more empowering features in their offerings including offering agents the ability to swap schedules, book vacations and sick leave without supervisor intervention, from a Web-based client.

Also, performance management tools make it possible to more clearly communicate goals and results using scorecards and key performance indicators via reporting and analytic features.

Quality monitoring systems also help to empower agents and promote productivity by using the captured interactions between customers and agents to identify how agents are performing and where training or recognition is needed.

With these empowerment software solutions, it is possible to more easily collect, organize and disseminate key data in the contact center, to find areas needing improvement and implement corrective actions, for a truly optimized workforce.

For more, be sure to check out the Workforce Optimization channel on TMCnet.

Stefania Viscusi is an established writer and avid reader. To see more of her articles, please visit Stefania Viscusi’s columnist page.

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