The Importance of Schedule Adherence in the Call Center

Anyone who’s ever worked in a call center knows how important schedule adherence is to the success of operations. It’s almost like a set of dominos; if one person falls out of compliance, others are sure to follow, and before you know it the whole organization has fallen down. This may seem like a drastic analogy but it’s true. Keep agents on schedule is a vital part of keeping a call center up and running.

Specifically, schedule adherence is the degree to which agents stick to their schedules, measured as a percentage. As Monet Software (News - Alert) points out, “Considering that staffing is the single biggest cost facing any call center – and that every minute counts when it comes to meeting customer service levels – it’s easy to see why call center managers are putting an increasing emphasis on improving it and are looking to their workforce management software for solutions.”

It’s true that staffing is a major cost in call centers, especially in huge corporations. If you’re paying for an agent to work for a certain amount of time, then of course they should be expected to work those hours. While low schedule adherence may be more damaging to larger organizations—the more agents not working, the more wasted money—smaller companies can also suffer from poor percentages. No matter a company’s size, all those wasted hours can add up to some serious revenue losses, especially if agents are slacking off during busy times like lunchtime.

So, how can call centers go about solving this problem? Monet writes, “Keeping track of schedule adherence using manual systems such as spreadsheets can be incredibly time-consuming and challenging. This is where today’s Web-based call center scheduling solutions are playing an increasingly crucial role. They track schedule adherence in real-time and automatically send you alerts.”

If you’ve been having difficulties keeping track of your agents’ hours, a call center scheduling solution may be just what you need to solve the problem.