Definition and calculation of a utilization percentage.
September 14 – We recently had a member send in a question regarding the utilization percentage calculation for agents. She was frankly confused and finding many different kinds of calculations including this measure being frequently interchanged with agent occupancy. So we went to one of our experts, Maggie Klenke, to get “the scoop” on utilization. […]
Look at schedule adherence from a historical perspective.
August 31 – Schedule adherence has always been a challenge for workforce management teams to calculate, document, and seamlessly disposition time associated with “out of compliance time.” The primary schedule compliance efforts have centered upon real-time adherence: “Where is Bob, and why is he not taking calls?” This is an important function and has a […]
Use a “SWAT” team to improve service delivery results while getting back in touch with your frontline.
August 24 – Ever have those days where you just need a couple more people on the phones to reach your service targets? Or perhaps there is that one day of the month where you know it’s going to be busy and you have already exhausted all your on-phone resources, like the day after a […]
Are you using surveys to improve the service you provide?
August 17 – Surveys can be great tools toward improving the service you offer your internal customers and/or identifying areas of opportunity within your organization. They can be easily created on one of the many websites out there (such as surveymonkey.com) many of which are free for basic use. The results can be anonymous, making […]
Make sure to analyze your day-end performance in your center.
August 10 – One of the most important aspects of workforce management analysis is seeing how the business/team has performed on an intraday basis. In the call center environment, we have peak intervals and off-peak intervals. To measure day-end performance on service level, calls offered, and calls answered, we need to check what transpired during […]
What is the right agency occupancy for your center?
August 3 – Occupancy rates indicate the approximate amount of times you expect your agents to be productive, i.e., actually on the phone, taking calls, performing after call work, answering e-mails, etc. An occupancy rate of 90%, for example, means that your agents, on average, are working 54 minutes and have six minutes of idle […]
Making use of overstaffing.
July 27 – No matter how well optimized your workforce is, there will inevitably be times you experience overstaffing. Sometimes this occurs for just a few intervals while other times it may occur for a few days. It can even occur for several weeks. As workforce managers, what are we to do when faced with […]
Don’t forget to investigate attrition in your center.
July 20 – Attrition is a crucial measurement to managers interested in keeping costs down and customer satisfaction high. Customer satisfaction suffers when a steady stream of inexperienced CSRs handle calls, and the cost of replacing an agent can approach 150 percent of the employee’s annual salary. Other costs associated with attrition take the form […]
Consider the impact of events on your forecast over time.
July 13 – As you look at the impact of events on your call forecast, consider not just the immediate result, but how various events play out over time. For each business factor it’s important to judge what type of effect the event will have as well as its longevity. A Step Response is one […]
Keep the lines of communication open in an outsourced environment.
July 6 – Forecasting and scheduling in an outsourced environment takes strong coordination and open lines of communications. When calls are shared between an outsourcer and the client, the forecast must be done centrally for the total workload. At that point, a percentage of the load can be assumed for the outsourcer (with technology aligned […]
Do you know the value of one second of Average Handle Time (AHT)?
June 29 – Realistically, Workforce Planning professionals don’t always have the luxury of creating complete scenarios to weigh the costs and benefits of different suggestions, and the environment when that is most likely to happen is when ideas begin to be discussed/ evaluated in staff meetings. When the ideas and discussion are flowing too quickly […]
Take the SWPP Knowledge Assessment!
June 22 – In the last 15-20 years, contact center WFM staff have become in many cases more knowledgeable about how to push buttons in their tools than how to apply WFM theory. This is not good in that it prevents you from innovating solutions to problems. If you do not know why the buttons […]