Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Flexible Call Center Scheduling Helps Agents and Boosts Productivity
Flexibility in call center scheduling eases the pressure on management and workforce and allows employ effectiveness to be maximized. In these difficult times making sure your customer services reps are happy will go far in keeping them engaged on the task at hand which will ultimately translate to better support for your customer. Keeping the schedule flexible will allow agents to take time when they need it and will prepare managers for the inevitable absences and late-calls from employees.
Monet software offers cloud based workforce management solutions but they also have plenty of insight into how the scheduling process works. This week the company offered some suggestions on how to make flexible call center scheduling a reality.
The number of calls and the arrival patterns vary seasonally and fluctuate throughout the day. Despite this, starting times, lunch breaks, end times, etc. are often fixed over the week, resulting either in over-staffing or under-staffing. Since not optimizing your workforce means that you’re either losing money by having agents idle or not having enough to help customers offering a schedule that can be rearranged at random helps cover all the bases.
First and most importantly is keeping in touch with your agents, getting a feel for their needs well help you meet the scheduling expectations and will also foster trust within the environment. Slow implementation of the schedule will also help you cover your bases and ensure there are no schedule gaps at inopportune times. Offering incentives to those willing to be flexible can also help its acceptance within the work environment. Though each of these steps contributes to a gradual process the eventual return on investment can be quite large. Monet estimates that these changes can increase your service levels by 1 to 2 percent and result in a similar percentage of savings in personnel costs.
Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Chris DiMarco