Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Attention Call Centers: Impress This Holiday, Plan Agent Schedules Now
A number of industries have peak times. For the local doctor’s office, the flu season means an increase in the number of patients that need to be seen. At the local florist, Mother’s Day means they need to have as much inventory as possible on hand to meet demand. The contact center supporting the retail industry has to shore up its product knowledge and available agents as we get close to Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (News - Alert).
The challenge for call centers is not just that they will have more to do; customers will expect the same level of care and support they receive any other time of the year. This means your hold times can’t get longer, your social media channels have to be just as fluid and your self-service channels can’t experience latency. To ensure the best possible experience for all involved, the time to start planning is now.
Call center management solution provider, Monet Software recently published a blog on this topic, highlighting a few things to keep in mind if you want a smooth peak season. First, remember that your goal is not to simply fill seats. Interviewing potential agents is not necessarily the most fun thing to do, but you have to pay attention to the details if you want to do it right. Plus, you need to identify more qualified agents than you intend to hire so you keep the pipeline full.
Second, you need to be able to forecast and schedule according to anticipated needs. This means you rely on historical data, industry projections and any other intelligence you have to ensure you have the necessary skilled agents on hand at all times. Remember to consider those elements that have changed since the last holiday season that could change your outcomes.
Finally, don’t plan to cut corners on quality monitoring just because you have more to do. This is the time of year where it is vitally important as tensions are high. Assign your veteran team members to the quality control effort if you can’t stretch yourself that far. Remember to keep it in place for your calls, emails and chats on a consistent basis so you can easily make adjustments if quality suffers at any point.
The holiday season doesn’t have to be one wrought with stress and frustration. Do your planning now so you’re prepared for the coming season. In doing so, your customers and employees will be much happier.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi