Workforce Management Featured Article
It Takes Both Art and Science to Staff a Call Center
It sounds easy enough – staffing the call center to meet the needs of the organization. The challenge, however, is that needs and volume can change in the blink of an eye. Customer service is always the priority, yet meeting high quality delivery expectations is difficult when the unexpected happens. The key to the truly successful call center is being able to plan for the unexpected.
A recent Monet Software blog explored the important of using both art and science when staffing the call center. The right personnel to staff the center is always a primary focus, yet scheduling also plays an important role in maximizing resources and ensuring that calls are handled in a way that is both courteous and efficient. If an agent needs to work a specific shift on a particular day of the week and a different day during the next week, the complexities of scheduling intensify, highlighting the need for a robust workforce management solution.
To address these dynamics, the call center should schedule on a rotation that balances available staff against predicted call volumes. Call recording software and workforce management solution data provides a valuable asset when trying to improve the overall process. There are, however, always variables with scheduling as agents sometimes take vacation or want to swap a shift. Without a robust workforce management solution in place, managing these changes can be a challenge.
All of these things are important elements to the management of the call center. The time needed to focus on rotation adjustments and schedule changes is time that could be spent on the floor managing the physical center. Managers may need to be focused on improving service levels and driving operational and fiscal goals instead of the schedule. The schedule still needs to be done, but it needs to be done quickly and efficiently.
When used effectively, workforce management streamlines the rotation of the schedules and leaves more time for management to address other issues. The key to making this work is communication, as well as a powerful forecasting and scheduling tool. The solution must also have a solid exception handling tool and a wide array of scheduling metrics that make it easier for management and agents to adjust to the changing dynamics inherent in the call center.
Workforce management can also be used to track how well agents are functioning when working within the system, as well as where action should be taken to optimize performance. When agents have clear information on their schedule, when they can make swaps or take vacation, the impact on the center overall is a positive one as nothing is left to chance or guessing, ensuring the optimal management and performance of everyone involved.Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli