The measures behind realistic schedules.
July 3 – Have you ever wandered through your contact center, and asked yourself, “Where is everybody?” If so, you’re not alone. But chronically ignore this question, and your customers will run into unpredictable service and, most likely, painful queues. Getting a realistic handle on the things that tug at agents’ time will enable more […]
Abandon Rates are a terrible service goal. Here’s why.
June 26 – Abandons or Abandon Rates do not make good service calculations because in order to really use them you have to consider the mean time to abandon and that can vary quite a bit. People abandon at different times for different reasons and most of them aren’t under the control of the contact […]
Close down the exception factory.
June 12 – The one facet of Workforce Management that can counted on to stir controversy whenever it comes up is handling adherence in a way that is fair. It’s tough to balance being equitable to agents who don’t want to feel like their supervisor is standing outside the restroom with a stop watch with […]
Explaining call center staffing needs with “The Scheduler’s Dilemma.”
June 5 – Leaders in all businesses want to see their staff be as productive as possible. This naturally leads to questions about why occupancy isn’t higher, or why it is necessary to have wait time between calls in order to meet a service level. One successful, quick, and humorous way to communicate this need […]
Asking a few small questions can go a long way!
May 29 – Take a journalistic approach to workforce management and ask these questions: WHO do we support? WHAT needs do they have, and are we meeting them? WHEN are we following up with them? WHERE do our customers need the most support, and are we meeting that need? WHY do they need us? (Make […]
Heal those growing pains when changing WFM software.
May 22 – American Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first developed her “five stages of grief” model based on her observations of people suffering from terminal illness. She later expanded her theory to apply to any form of catastrophic personal loss, such as the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, major rejection, etc. […]
Use actual, not planned shrinkage numbers.
May 15 – Planning in advance for off-phone activities and staff absences is essential to determining proper staffing levels. Planned off-phone activities and absences, also known as planned shrinkage, typically range anywhere from 25% to 55% but could be more or less in specific situations. It is important to adequately plan for these activities. If […]
Diverse shift options can benefit both WFM and your agents.
May 8 – Are your shift options limited? If so, you may be missing a great opportunity to make your agents happy and improve your ability to staff to difficult scenarios. Some of the most popular shift options involve working a compressed work week (4 days versus 5). The most common variation of this is […]
Survey your agents to see what they REALLY think.
May 1 – It is easy to assume that we know what schedule preferences our agents will like the best. We found out that maybe it isn’t so easy. Our team conducted a survey of all our agents to get their feedback on a variety of staffing issues and got some great information. Our biggest […]
More definitions for “utilization.”
April 17 – Last week’s tip gave three different definitions for the term “utilization” in contact centers. Utilization is one of those call center terms often defined differently by people in the industry that doesn’t seem to have a “standard” definition. And there are even more definitions of this term. For those of us with financial […]
What does “utilization” mean in your center?
April 10 – Utilization is one of those call center terms often defined differently by people in the industry so there is no “standard” definition that I know of. However, there are a few possible definitions that might be helpful and hopefully your team can agree on one (or even your own unique variation) to […]
Educate your supervisors on IDP reports.
April 3 – Everyone knows WFM can be the bad guy when it comes to requesting time off the phones, but we all know it happens without us approving it. What if they took the time off when we want them to? Educating Supervisors on the use of Intraday Performance (IDP) reports can work in […]