What are the three Tests of Time?
December 28 – I don’t know about you, but my job is rapid-fire. Everywhere I look there is something I could do. I can’t possibly get it all done. Actually, I don’t feel like doing some of it. Besides, some of these tasks or activities would require me to get more training. I’m sure your […]
A new handle time metric.
December 21 – Here is a concept I’ve been noodling on. For those companies that focus on handle times as part of their performance management system, or part of their employee coaching and quality scoring, there is a worry that handle times can be manipulated by agents. Agents simply hang up or wrap a call […]
Look at individual agent needs for schedule flexibility.
December 14 – Think about the needs of your agents differently. Many are balancing blended environments right now that could even include children at home full-time. These are unique times that everyone continues to adapt to. Make sure your leaders are engaging in conversations with their agents on their individual needs. You could be making […]
What to Do When Workforce Management Forecasting Keeps Going Wrong
November 23 – Put yourself in the shoes of a workforce management (WFM) analyst for a moment. You look at agent data for most of the afternoon and put together what you think is a solid forecast. Two days later, you’re still wondering what went wrong again and your boss is looking for long-term answers. […]
Forecasting: Shift from Probabilities to Possibilities.
November 16 – Change is a hallmark of contact center strategic planning (without this, strategic planning would be unnecessary). But the kind of change that the contact center industry has typically encountered has been that which is somewhat slow and predictable. Contact center forecasting has always been successful, because performance drivers like contact volumes and […]
Getting and staying aligned in multiple locations.
November 9 – If you manage multiple locations, whether in the same country or different countries, it is important that you are using the same terminology and formulas. It won’t work if everyone has a different interpretation on which codes are considered shrinkage or calculates service levels differently. Aligning and having common terms is important […]
Try these techniques to deal with low holiday call volume.
October 26 – In some call centers, call volume can be very low on holidays. In addition to using holiday bids to staff on these days, here are several practices that act as a win-win for both the bottom line and the agents, and are great morale boosters. If you have more than one center, […]
Stop putting out fires!
October 19 – Many of us spend our days putting out fires and then don’t have the time to do other more productive tasks. So if you’re putting out fires all day, what do you need? No, not just a fire extinguisher. You also need an arson investigation! While you do need the fire extinguisher, […]
“Network” isn’t just an Oscar winning film…
October 12 – When I first started practicing WFM, things were a little bit different than they are today. N’Sync dominated the charts, President Bartlett just took over in the West Wing, and my cell phone still had these things called “minutes.” WFM was a little bit different too. We didn’t have all of these […]
Getting back to basics.
October 5 – All too often, we fall back on technology to give us the information and results that we want and need. Think about it — when was the last time you did something the hard way with a good old-fashioned pen and paper to find the answer to a problem? While it may […]
Who is responsible for service level in a multi-site environment?
September 28 – Who is responsible for service level in a multi-site environment? There is no right answer here – it depends on how things are setup. In a multi-site environment where forecasting and scheduling are done centrally, you cannot always hold site managers responsible for the service level! There are multiple ways to manage […]
Solicit feedback for the WFM team during Performance Management review time.
September 21 – As we begin to wrap up this year, Performance Management reviews start coming into mind. What have we done well? What could we have improved upon? What do our clients (agents, supervisors, managers) believe can help them? Use this time to solicit feedback for continuous improvement of the WFM team. You […]