Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Get Call Center Scheduling Right
For centuries, people have thrown caution to the wind walking tightropes across treacherous distances. Each step challenging gravity, as the only thing that matters is balance. Keeping one’s balance literally means the difference between life and death. While this is a bit of a dramatic example, management must walk the wire in the call center in efforts to find the perfect balancing of staffing.
An understaffed call center creates clear problems on both sides of the customer service equation. A short-staffed team of call center agents translates to longer hold times. Longer hold times turns frustrated customers into angry customers, cooking up a recipe for a negative customer experience.
From the agent perspective, with an understaffed call center comes long days with consistent call queues of double digits. Customer service is prone to being a high stress job by nature; but rough days begin to grow untenable. Would you like to speak with a call center agent who is at their wits end? I didn’t think so.
Overstaffing causes a different set of issues. In not implementing accurate forecasting processes, the cost of promising quicker service to customers can quickly turn prohibitive. Not only is it unnecessary spending, idle hands are the devil’s playground. Down time creates conversations between agents or the opportunity for other distractions. As call center management, I can imagine the frustration in paying team members to make small talk.
More than forecasting, a simple solution to these common scheduling problems if workforce optimization (WFO) software. With the proper solution in place, call centers can ensure the team is ready to handle whatever the next customer throws at them.
Exceptional call center scheduling does not have to be a tightrope act. What WFO solution is in your call center?
Edited by Maurice Nagle