The most significant risk in contact center operations is not always making the wrong move; it’s making no move at all. Operations leaders who delay action on modernizing capacity planning processes pay a steep and often invisible price.
Consider the realities: in a multi-skill, multi-channel environment, customer demand is volatile and unpredictable. Phone, chat, email, and social volumes shift daily, and cross-trained agents create both opportunities and risks. Even small missteps compound quickly. Being just 1% off in forecasting volume and handle time for a 500-agent center can mean up to $600,000 in wasted labor costs or in missed service level targets annually.
The cost of inaction goes beyond the balance sheet. Agents shoulder the burden when understaffing drives relentless occupancy, burnout, and turnover. Customers feel the impact through long wait times, unanswered chats, or inconsistent service. And executives, without reliable forward-looking models, are forced to make gut-based decisions that fail to protect margins or the customer experience.
Some leaders believe they can afford to “wait and see.” In reality, waiting only locks in inefficiencies. Competitors who embrace advanced planning, scenario modeling, multi-skill optimization, and integrated recruitment and training planning, gain agility. They reduce overstaffing waste, protect their people from burnout, and preserve customer loyalty. The organizations that stand still fall further behind each quarter.
Every week of inaction compounds losses that could have been avoided with better foresight.
For today’s multi-channel, multi-skill contact centers, proactive capacity planning is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a survival skill. The leaders who act decisively will protect profitability, empower employees, and strengthen the customer
experience. Those who don’t will eventually pay the price, and by then the cost of catching up may be insurmountable.
Note: This week’s tip is provided by Mark Alpern, COO and Co-founder of Cinareo, the only cost-effective, fit-for-purpose what-if scenario modeling platform. He can be reached at ma*****@*****eo.com or (647) 283-7373. Mark likes all things about contact centers including WFM, but in particular, capacity planning. Feel free to set up some time at cinareo.com. Follow Mark on LinkedIn, and join him with Daniel Piper of Setek Solutions on November 6 in a webinar as they reveal why strong workforce plans can still fail.
