Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Labor Analytics Provide Important Data for Call Center Scheduling
Scheduling agents in the call center is a tricky business under the best of circumstances. Call volume and flow can be anticipated to an extent, but seasonal spikes and unforeseen issues need to be accounted for, which can create complications and headaches for managers. Being able to track and examine call flow and agent schedules over a broad period can offer a major benefit to managers attempting to staff their call centers adequately without going overboard.
The process of tracking agent hours by location, department, job type and other metrics is better known as labor analytics, and can be an incredible asset to call center managers struggling to schedule their staffs. Some trends and ebbs and flows in volume and response times are simply not apparent, but analytics can reveal important information to ensure staffing is up to snuff no matter what the occasion.
MarketsandMarkets expects the broader workforce analytics market to grow to $860.4 million by 2020, thanks to a growing need for employers to rein in worker expenses. Very simply, businesses are under pressure to better meet customer expectations and demands while operating more leanly and efficiently. Labor analytics provide valuable insights on how to achieve this balance, and are certainly a valuable tool in the call center space.
Customer complaints about call centers are usually focused on being on hold for too long, getting transferred several times among various agents and overall dissatisfaction with service and results. Analytics can directly address these issues by ensuring call centers are properly staffed at various points in their operating hours, anticipating the type and volume of calls that may be expected.
Many time and attendance and workforce optimization (WFO) solutions already include features for tracking labor analytics over long periods of time. These tools enable managers to easily generate reliable agent schedules to meet anticipated call volume and demand without overstaffing. They can also pinpoint flaws in call center operations and facilitate remediation to ensure call centers are consistently running smoothly and customers’ needs are being met at all times.
Call center scheduling and staffing is simply too important to be left to chance. And it certainly shouldn’t be based loosely on perceived spikes and fluctuations in customer volume and demand. Labor analytics provide important information on how to properly staff call centers to ensure they are operating leanly and efficiently while still meeting customer demands and providing a satisfactory experience overall.
Edited by Alicia Young