Introduction
Managing agent costs while providing outstanding service
is a tough balancing act. Agents account for approximately
70 percent of the costs for an external support center
and 80 percent for an internal help desk. With the complexity
of multiple channels - e-mail and Web chat - the management
challenge has been growing almost exponentially.
Far from Optimized!
Despite deploying best-in-class software for
managing workforce, large Contact Center/BPO operations
are far from optimized in using their resources. This
is because:
- Most managers are experts at making the current
schedule work. However, the current schedule is
most rarely the best for deploying capital and personnel.
In many cases, schedules are inherited for reasons
best known to the organization.
- Spending more time on trying to get their current
schedules adhered to seems to be the order of the
day, which leaves far too little time for 'schedule
re-engineering'
- Arriving at a better routing / schedule and quantifying
the benefits to make a business case for a change
is easier said than done. There are far too many
complex interlinks between the various elements
of a Contact Center (people, process, and technology)
that demand expert assistance.
- Changing routing strategy and schedules is usually
a stressful event for Contact Center managers and
employees
But is there further scope for optimizing workforce?
Even a quick study of a large Contact Center or BPO
can bring out certain evidence such as:
- The workforce schedule variance report looks much
the same as it did the previous year
- Mismatch between work load and current schedules
still exist. Far more important is the sensitivity
between the two variables - even a 1 percent improvement
in the mismatch provides for tremendous savings.
- The work splits configured on the ACD branch out in all directions without
a logical pattern. It is not unusual to observe
80 percent of the splits just routing 20 percent
of interactions.
- Capacity created to handle relatively newer channels such
as e-mail and chat is being underutilized while
the capacity that handles an existing traditional
channel like the phone is overloaded
|
|
 |
|
