Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
How to Improve Outbound Call Center Performance and Scheduling
Outbound call centers can be grouped into two types depending on the types of calls being made. In each type of outbound call center, the agents are either engaged in campaign management or in collections management.
A recent Destination CRM article discusses how outbound call centers are engaged in collections management and delves into some of the ways in which call center performance improvement can be achieved. Concentration on the logistics of the collections end allows principles to be adopted into any type of outbound calling protocol including collections, campaign management, sales, and customer service.
Right party contact (RPC) rates are a critical measure of success for a collections-oriented call center because the law prevents discussing credit matters with family members. So, call centers have to develop ways that RPC rates can be improved to maximize collection efficiencies. Destination CRM explained that when RPC rates are improved, collection costs decrease in two ways: 1. You can reach the right person with fewer calls - lowering the telecommunication costs; and 2. You can reach the same number of customers with a smaller staff.
According to Destination CRM, here are steps you can take to improve your outbound call center performance and, specifically, the RPC rates:
Invest in Technology. It is important to invest in an automatic predictive dialer, which can dial the numbers and connect the call to a live agent, ultimately saving the live agent time that may otherwise be spent listening to a busy signal or a ringtone.
On average, a predictive dialer will reduce the length of an outbound call by seven seconds by eliminating polling time. With an average expected outbound call volume per agent close to 60 connections, a better dialer can increase efficiency by raising outbound tolerance plus 10 in an interval.
Get the Rules Right. Instead of randomly scheduling calls, it is important to use an effective algorithm that can improve RPC rates. Typically, call centers would repeat calls to a customer at the same time of day, even when calls go unanswered, which is a main source of inefficiency in the outbound dialing process. There has been significant research done in this area, with "greedy" algorithms written and implemented that schedule calls in a near optimal manner based on capacity of agents and most successful time to call based on individual customer account information.
Implementation of technology that is equipped with these algorithms has been shown to improve RPC rates significantly. Also, the rule base must be configured in order to identify the highest priority customers. Ideally to improve results, different sets of rules with regard to number of attempts, scripts used, etc., should be used for different classes of customers.
Simulate Before Release. Today, there are tools available that allow you to simulate your call center environment, including agent leaves, break times, and different outgoing call patterns. An outbound call center has more control over scheduling than an inbound call center, but it is still important to simulate a new rule base before you roll it out so that you can identify potential problems and adjust the algorithm accordingly.
Test and Tweak. Every call center has its own special aspects of agent skill sets and customer profiles. So, it is important that the result of the rule base put in place be constantly evaluated. Your unique rule base must be tweaked to provide the maximum benefits to the call center as minor changes in the rule base result in call center performance improvements.
Edited by Rachel Ramsey