Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
November 20, 2009
Today's Call Center Scheduling Solutions Allow for Smarter Scheduling of Agents
Depending on how they are used, today’s call center scheduling solutions deliver capabilities that go beyond just the daily scheduling of agents in the call center.
Sure, these solutions are great for the basic task of ensuring that agents are showing up for their shifts on time, not taking excessive lunch breaks and not clocking out early – as well as for ensuring that agent time is being used efficiently while agents are “on the clock.” But there are other ways that these powerful software solutions can help organizations deliver better customer service through more “intelligent” scheduling of agents.
As we discussed in previous articles, today’s call center scheduling solutions (aka workforce management solutions) sport advanced analytics capabilities that allow call center managers to forecast, with a surprising degree of accuracy, how many agents are needed for any given shift. This is generally achieved through integration with the call center automated call distributor or ACD.
But there are other factors, beyond historical call volume, both internal and external, that can impact the volume of contacts coming into a call center on any given day. A cataloger, for example, might be deluged with calls following a holiday season catalog drop; an e-commerce company might get a flood of contacts following the airing of a new television commercial; or a direct merchant might get barraged with calls due to a new online promotional offer.
These are factors that need to be calculated in with an organization’s staffing plans – and, providing there are measurements from previous campaigns, they can be programmed into the call center scheduling solution to arrive at more accurate forecasting and scheduling.
In addition, there are “internal” factors that can affect the overall call center performance that should be factored in as well – and here what we’re really talking about is the building of call center “teams” based on agent skill set and other criteria.
Most call centers today are “multi-channel,” meaning they handle multiple types of contacts including phone, Web chat and email. Although most organizations cross-train their agents to handle two or more channel types the truth is some agents are better at handling certain channels than others. For example, some agents might have great verbal skills but poor typing skills and are therefore best suited to working the phones. On the other hand, some agents might have great typing and computer skills, but not-so-hot verbal skills, in which case they are best suited to Web chat and email.
The goal is to be able to schedule the right “mix” of agents, based on skill set, in order to deliver good customer service as efficiently as possible. These criteria (“Bobby is good at email, but Shelley is good on the phones,” etc.) can be programmed into the call center scheduling solution – which by the way can also draw on historical data from the call center’s Web chat and email servers -- to arrive at accurate forecasting for all channels. The system can then be used to schedule agents not only based on the forecasted volume for each contact type, but also based on the agent skills needed to handle those contacts.
Remember that a schedule driven by forecast and basic agent requirement will work, but it won’t necessarily boost call center performance and productivity. When developing a schedule using a workforce management system, call center managers need to include factors beyond basic things like schedule adherence, shrinkage, breaks, training, and time off. If not all agent activities are being factored in, it will lead to understaffing and lower service levels including abandoned calls.
Sure, these solutions are great for the basic task of ensuring that agents are showing up for their shifts on time, not taking excessive lunch breaks and not clocking out early – as well as for ensuring that agent time is being used efficiently while agents are “on the clock.” But there are other ways that these powerful software solutions can help organizations deliver better customer service through more “intelligent” scheduling of agents.
As we discussed in previous articles, today’s call center scheduling solutions (aka workforce management solutions) sport advanced analytics capabilities that allow call center managers to forecast, with a surprising degree of accuracy, how many agents are needed for any given shift. This is generally achieved through integration with the call center automated call distributor or ACD.
But there are other factors, beyond historical call volume, both internal and external, that can impact the volume of contacts coming into a call center on any given day. A cataloger, for example, might be deluged with calls following a holiday season catalog drop; an e-commerce company might get a flood of contacts following the airing of a new television commercial; or a direct merchant might get barraged with calls due to a new online promotional offer.
These are factors that need to be calculated in with an organization’s staffing plans – and, providing there are measurements from previous campaigns, they can be programmed into the call center scheduling solution to arrive at more accurate forecasting and scheduling.
In addition, there are “internal” factors that can affect the overall call center performance that should be factored in as well – and here what we’re really talking about is the building of call center “teams” based on agent skill set and other criteria.
Most call centers today are “multi-channel,” meaning they handle multiple types of contacts including phone, Web chat and email. Although most organizations cross-train their agents to handle two or more channel types the truth is some agents are better at handling certain channels than others. For example, some agents might have great verbal skills but poor typing skills and are therefore best suited to working the phones. On the other hand, some agents might have great typing and computer skills, but not-so-hot verbal skills, in which case they are best suited to Web chat and email.
The goal is to be able to schedule the right “mix” of agents, based on skill set, in order to deliver good customer service as efficiently as possible. These criteria (“Bobby is good at email, but Shelley is good on the phones,” etc.) can be programmed into the call center scheduling solution – which by the way can also draw on historical data from the call center’s Web chat and email servers -- to arrive at accurate forecasting for all channels. The system can then be used to schedule agents not only based on the forecasted volume for each contact type, but also based on the agent skills needed to handle those contacts.
Remember that a schedule driven by forecast and basic agent requirement will work, but it won’t necessarily boost call center performance and productivity. When developing a schedule using a workforce management system, call center managers need to include factors beyond basic things like schedule adherence, shrinkage, breaks, training, and time off. If not all agent activities are being factored in, it will lead to understaffing and lower service levels including abandoned calls.
Beyond agent skill sets, there is also the element of agent performance. Let’s face it – some agents are better performers than others – they meet their goals, in terms of call completion rates, calls handled per hour, and other key stats and KPIs.
When building a “team” of agents for a particular shift, it is also important to consider the performance of the agents who are being scheduled, in addition to their specific skill sets. If half of an organization’s call center agents are only “so-so” performers, but the other half consistently performs above expectations, it would only make sense that call center managers would want to achieve “balance” in terms of agent performance.
Using a call center scheduling solution, organizations can “rank” agents by performance and schedule accordingly. It could be that the company just launched an important campaign and wants only the very best agents working the night shift. Or it could be that the company has segmented its customer base into tiers – including “new,” “basic” and “premium” customers and needs a certain number of top-performing agents to handle the premium customers each shift. Or it could be that the call center manager only wants to open up shifts for bidding to higher performing agents.
When building a “team” of agents for a particular shift, it is also important to consider the performance of the agents who are being scheduled, in addition to their specific skill sets. If half of an organization’s call center agents are only “so-so” performers, but the other half consistently performs above expectations, it would only make sense that call center managers would want to achieve “balance” in terms of agent performance.
Using a call center scheduling solution, organizations can “rank” agents by performance and schedule accordingly. It could be that the company just launched an important campaign and wants only the very best agents working the night shift. Or it could be that the company has segmented its customer base into tiers – including “new,” “basic” and “premium” customers and needs a certain number of top-performing agents to handle the premium customers each shift. Or it could be that the call center manager only wants to open up shifts for bidding to higher performing agents.
Organizations can even take this one step further and build agent teams based on personality. Studies have shown that a good relationship with colleagues drives motivation and performance in call centers – and just like any other job, certain “mixes” of agents who get along well tend to yield higher performance and better results. Using call center scheduling software, organizations can actually team up the “right people” in the call center, thus improving performance and boosting both customer and agent satisfaction.
While achieving this level of “custom” or “tailored” scheduling sounds difficult and time consuming, it’s important to realize that once you start entering information into the WFM system, and establishing parameters based on these elements, it becomes many times faster and easier to schedule and get the full value of the system. The real strength of workforce management software is that it schedules agents on an automated basis – based on the business rules and other criteria that you enter.
In this regard, today’s call center scheduling solutions go far beyond just the simple scheduling of agent time: They can be used to accurately schedule a tailored team of call center agents, based on the forecasted call volume as well as what specific skill sets are needed for each shift -- while at the same time delivering the degree of schedule flexibility that you want to permit.
With call center scheduling software, call center managers can build agent teams which are specifically tailored for each shift, which in turn drives efficiency and higher productivity.
Monet Software offers a Web-based call center scheduling solution geared for small and medium-size call centers. Its Monet WFM Live offering requires no upfront investment in new equipment or architecture, yet it offers full functionality, including the ability to accurately forecast call volumes and effectively schedule, and manage the performance of, call center agents.
Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard