Contact centers: A Story of Efficient Scheduling

Fremont, CA: The exponential increase in customer demand, combined with the deployment of entire workforces to work remotely, made managing contact center capacity far more difficult than usual. To thrive in today's post-lockdown world, brands must focus on maximizing the skills and talents of their agents in order to maintain and increase customer satisfaction.

The world has changed. Every industry is confronted with new challenges and adapting to new ways of doing business. Due to the increase in demand across multiple inbound and outbound channels caused by the pandemic, contact centers are undergoing rapid evolution and have been forced to accelerate their plans and innovate. And now we are faced with a new set of circumstances: lockdown restrictions are easing across countries, but there is still a long road before us before life as we know it returns. But what does this mean for the contact center's future? So, it appears that we are in for a busy period.

Concentrate on Employees

Everyone, including agents, is adjusting to working from home and will need to implement more flexible working practices as economies emerge from recession and people adjust to the new normal. These adjustments will have to be made while managing fluctuations in customer demand and across various inbound and outbound channels. With this in mind, now is the ideal time to pause, re-evaluate, and implement efficient scheduling processes.

Contact centers must strive to assign their agents to the most appropriate task in order to maximize agents' talents and achieve the highest levels of customer service in today's environment. When they get it right, agent morale and productivity will rise, as will customer satisfaction. And, in the end, this is where a contact center's success is determined.

Optimize Call Center Staffing 

Some WFM solutions are now based on the optimal net staffing concept. This takes into account and calculates the fact that the contact center will always be under or overstaffed, leaving businesses with either a deficit or surplus of hours.

On the other hand, traditional approaches calculate schedule efficiency based on a simple calculation of available intervals during the day that meets the acceptable criteria threshold. This approach has the potential to significantly distort the actual situation. The key to success is to strive for optimal net staffing, which focuses on optimizing the hours and agents available to maintain service quality. This simple change in mindset will free your team leaders and resource planners from the constraints of static shifts and routine activity placements, as well as start and finish times.