Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Adding Flexibility to Your Call Center Scheduling
The contact center is customer service home base, and as such it needs to perform with Swiss-watch like precision. Each team member working toward the common goal of providing only the utmost in quality customer experience requires an effective call center scheduling system in place.
A trend gaining traction in the call center is a flexible shift model, which enables an organization to take the copious amounts of call data collected and schedule shifts based on peak volume times. A comprehensive workforce management solution will enable optimal scheduling in order to reduce agent attrition, increase service levels and avoid incidents of over and understaffing.
With accurate call volume predictions, a call center agent’s schedule could be a couple days of seven or eight hours with the rest of week working six or four hour shifts. This not only benefits operations in a big way, agents win as well.
A flexible shift model empowers agents to find work-life balance, delivering the predictability to be Mom or Dad when needed, and conversely Nick or Nancy in customer service.
Before making this type of transition, it is important to keep open lines of communications with the team. Not every shift will be popular, offer incentives to get agents to volunteer. Like any change in a business it can take time for the adjustment period, but in the end the bottom line will speak volumes.
This won’t be a one-time fix, as over time call patterns could change, which would then drive change in the flexible shifts scheduled.
There’s no margin for poor customer service in our omnichannel world. Do your due diligence as an organization and see what the flexible shift model can offer your call center.
How does your call center approach scheduling?
Edited by Mandi Nowitz