Call Center Management: Big Challenges in a Small Environment

Call centers can come in all shapes and sizes, yet they all have the basic goals in place: control costs, optimize call center staffing, meet service levels, and satisfy the customer. While falling short of these goals can have consequences regardless of size, there is a common belief that only the larger call center can afford the necessary software to support initiatives. One of the best moves call center management can make is to get past this thinking and explore the available options.

This Monet Software blog explores this challenge among members of call center management, especially those in the smaller environments. Smaller centers really can afford call center software to help with tasks such as staffing. The key to the right implementation within this environment, however, is to understand that small centers have unique challenges that can contrast with larger centers.

Call center management within the smaller environment are experienced with unpredictable call volumes. Calling patterns in the smaller centers tend to be marked with peaks and valleys, making call center staffing more of a headache for call center management. These leaders must be able to effectively respond to spikes in volume on-the-fly and often lack the historical data needed to back-up their decisions.

The smaller call center is also more vulnerable to schedule adherence. While large centers can often effectively manage schedule deviations and absenteeism without too much strain on operations, the smaller center will more likely experience performance problems if one or a few agents are missing from their seats. Call center management must have a firm grasp on the impact of out-of-adherence and how to prevent it.

Agent retention is important for call center management in any environment, yet it takes on new meaning within the small center as overall staff performance relies on a limited group of individuals. If staffing seams random and fails to consider the needs of the individual agents, these individuals are more likely to leave their jobs. When everyone understands and accepts schedules in advance, morale increases, turnover is decreased and everyone within the center knows what is expected of them.

Call center management within the small center environment will face many more challenges than those listed here, but this explanation demonstrates the challenges the center can experience on a regular basis. When considering the cost to benefit ratio, call center management can easily select call center staffing software to support their goals. Now that these solutions are easily and affordably accessible in the cloud, traditional limitations are gone and even the smallest call center can operate on a large scale.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Chris DiMarco