ICMI's Customer Management Insight - December 2007 - (Page 49) EXPERT’S ANGLE scenario, occupancy is 100 percent because service level is so low that all callers spend at least some time in queue. When service level gets better, occupancy goes down. Therefore, average calls taken per individual also will go down. Some managers can’t stomach this reality — heaven forbid any “unproductive” time. However, the time agents spend waiting for calls is sliced into 12 seconds there, two seconds there, and so on, the result of random call arrival. In most call centers, agents handle various non-phone tasks when the inbound call load slows down. In fact, “blended” environments make a lot of sense because no one has a perfect forecast all of the time, and schedules don’t always perfectly match staff to the call load. But don’t be misled. When non-phone work is getting done, there are either: a) more agents on the phones than the baseline staff necessary to handle the call load at service level; or b) the service level objective is sacrificed. Don’t try to force occupancy higher than what base-staffing calculations predict it will be. The real question you have to ask yourself is this: “Which is more important — service to callers or staff productivity? Are your callers are valuable enough to justify some idleness in the name of excellent service? Some are absent, or in a team meeting. Some are in the restroom the possibilities go on and on. This is one of those “real-world” call center issues. However accurately Erlang C or computer simulation calculates base-staffing needs, you can still miss your service level objective by a long shot because you don’t have the staff you expected in the right places at the right times. Schedules need to realistically reflect the many things that can keep agents from actually being at their desks, taking calls. Most call center managers know that. Some, however, incorrectly add a fixed percentage to base staff, such as 15 percent or 20 percent. That approach will not be sufficiently accurate, because the things that keep staff off the phones fluctuate throughout the day and week. Breaks vary throughout the day. Absenteeism is usually higher just before and after weekends, and non-phone work will ebb and flow. As a result, planners need to account for these activities in a way that reflects their variation. Frankly, the whole idea of “shrinkage” really bugs some financial people. And understandably so. “You mean to tell me we need to hire 45 people so we can have 34 on the phones handling calls?” Yep. Agents are not machines, and will not be 100 percent available. culating trunks often require input in hours, these numbers can be readily used as is. The actual traffic carried by trunks in a half-hour will, in each row, be half of what is given. Note an important principle: Staffing and trunking needs are inextricably associated. The more staff you have handling a given call load, the less the load on the communications network. In other words, staffing affects these costs in any case where the company is paying for usage. Spending some on staffing can save on network services costs. There may be other considerations — busies and abandonments (likely at low service levels), and answer delay (whereby the ACD doesn’t immediately return “answer supervision” to the longdistance carrier) may lower toll-free costs. Nonetheless, the tradeoff between staff and network costs is direct and reasonably predictable. Despite the inseparable relationship between staff and trunks, many call centers budget for these costs independently. Staff and trunks are a classic example of the need to look at the “big picture.” Knowing these tradeoffs will lead to better decisions. And you’ll be equipped to refute the faulty logic, “We aren’t achieving a very good service level because we had to cut costs ” 5. You Need More Staff on Schedule than On the Phones Many call center managers, at one time or another, have looked at a supervisor monitor or have done a count out on the floor and wondered, “Where is everybody?” Some are on break. Some at lunch. icmi’s insight 6. Staffing and Telecommunications Budgets Must Be Integrated The last column in the table on the page 2 provides the hours, or erlangs, of traffic that the trunks will carry. It is the product of (talk time + average speed of answer) x number of calls in an hour. Since Erlang B and other alternatives used for cal- 7. The Demands on Call Center Agents are Increasing The agent jobs that are emerging in the post-automation call center world are those that add value through problem identification and problem resolution. Most “look it up and say it” agent jobs have been, or will be, automated. Customers are increasingly better | DECEMBER 2007 49 www.icmi.com http://www.icmi.com
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