Four Things to Reconsider - Call Centre Helper · years’ experience in optimising business...
Transcript of Four Things to Reconsider - Call Centre Helper · years’ experience in optimising business...
Copyright© 2011, The Call Center School LLC
Presented by:
Call Centre Helper Webinar
Four Things to Reconsider about Workforce Management in 2011
Copyright© 2011, The Call Center School LLC
Speaker Profile - The Call Center School
Penny Reynolds is a Founding Partner of The Call Center
School where she heads up curriculum development. She develops and teaches courses on a wide variety of call center topics, including workforce management, performance measurement, and call center technologies. Penny is a popular speaker at industry conferences and association meetings and a frequent contributor to industry trade publications. Her articles appear in numerous print and online publications as both a guest contributor and regular columnist.
Penny has authored four books: The Power of One, Power Phrasing, Call Center Staffing: The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management and Call Center Supervision: The Complete, Practical Guide to Managing Frontline Staff. She has also co-authored the five textbooks for University of Phoenix’s call center certification program. An honors graduate of Vanderbilt University, Penny was one of the first recipients of Call Center Magazine’s prestigious Call Center Pioneer award.
[email protected] +1 615-812-8410
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Speaker Profile – Invision
Chris Dealy is Sales Director at InVision Software Ltd.,
provider of InVision Enterprise WFM and iWFM.com – the cloud workforce management (WFM) solution.
With a background in Operational Research, Chris has over 30 years’ experience in optimising business processes for blue chip organisations. For the last 10 years, he has focused on Workforce Management, primarily in contact centres and call centres, across Northern Europe, for organisations including John Lewis, the RAC, the NHS, Computershare, H&M and ABN AMRO.
[email protected] +44 7917 772365
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Worth Reconsidering in 2011
Measuring forecasting success
Setting and measuring service goals
Increasing scheduling flexibility
Automating WFM tasks
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WFM Dilemma 1
How do I measure forecasting accuracy and improve it?
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Goals for Forecast Accuracy
What are your goals for forecast accuracy?
• Industry “benchmarks”
• Your current benchmark
Key Concept
Aim for your own improvement,
not someone else’s accuracy level.
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Measuring Forecast Accuracy
• Forecast Period:
Monthly
Weekly
Daily
Half-Hourly
Calculation Approaches:
Percent difference
Standard deviation
Correlation coefficients
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Calculating Percentage Error
Calculating Forecast Accuracy
Forecast Volume Actual Volume % Error
Monday 3533 3601 .019
Tuesday 2455 2544 .036
Wednesday 2611 2723 .047
Thursday 2990 3111 .040
Friday 2935 3078 .049
Saturday 1028 1103 .073
Total 15,552 16,160 .039
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Calculating Percentage Error
Calculating Forecast Accuracy
Forecast Volume Actual Volume % Error
Monday 3533 3494 - .011
Tuesday 2455 3156 + .286
Wednesday 2611 2854 + .093
Thursday 2990 2647 - .115
Friday 2935 2301 - .216
Saturday 1028 993 - .034
Total 15,552 15,445 - .007
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Which is better?
Calculating Forecast Accuracy
% Error % Error
Monday .019 - .011
Tuesday .036 + .286
Wednesday .047 + .093
Thursday .040 - .115
Friday .049 - .216
Saturday .073 - .034
Total .039 - .007
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What to Reconsider
Think differently about …
How you measure forecast accuracy
(variations, not averages)
What intervals you measure
(the smaller the better)
Root cause analysis for variations
(trend analysis versus missing business drivers)
Goals for improvement
(internal, not external benchmarks)
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WFM Dilemma 2
How do I set service goals and measure performance realistically?
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Service Measures
Service level or ASA
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
The danger of averaging
Other measures:
First call resolution
Schedule efficiency
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Service Measurement
SWPP Survey Results
60% use service level; 23% use ASA.
Most common goal: 80% in 20 seconds
44% measure success by daily average;
41% measure success by monthly number.
Only 12% measure success by periods of day.
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Analysing and Reporting Service Level
Time of Day Call Volume Daily % SL (in 20 sec)
6:00 – 7:00 85 4.5% 100%
7:00 – 8:00 90 5.0% 95%
8:00 – 9:00 95 5.5% 95%
9:00 – 10:00 145 8.0% 90%
10:00 – 11:00 185 10.0% 65%
11:00 – 12:00 195 10.5% 70%
12:00 – 1:00 165 9.0% 70%
1:00 – 2:00 185 10.0% 65%
2:00 – 3:00 220 12.0% 60%
3:00 – 4:00 210 11.0% 90%
4:00 – 5:00 145 8.0% 90%
5:00 – 6:00 125 6.5% 95%
Average: 82%
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What to Reconsider
Think differently about …
Setting a realistic speed of answer goal
Determining interval should you measure/report
Focusing on other measures as primary call center goals
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WFM Dilemma 3
How do I get a better match of workforce to workload? How can I
increase schedule flexibility?
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Schedule Inflexibility
6 am 10 pm
Pe
op
le
Think of your shifts like LEGO building blocks.
The more sizes and types of blocks, the better you can build your model.
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Optimized Schedule
6 am 10 pm
Pe
op
le
The Result:
A better fit with less understaffing and overstaffing
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Full vs part-time mix
Different shift lengths
Days on/off mix
Staggered start times
Scheduling Strategies
As you build schedules, expand your mix:
Flexibility is the key.
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What to Reconsider
Think differently about…
Mix of full-time and part-time
Variety of shift definitions
“Buying” and “rewarding” flexibility
Virtual “at home” agents
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WFM Dilemma 4
How do I accomplish WFM tasks efficiently and cost-effectively?
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WFM Software Considerations
As you consider purchasing WFM software for the first time or a replacement of your existing system,
there are 4 Factors to consider:
WFM System Considerations 1. System Features and Capabilities 2. Support Services 3. Operating Platform 4. Cost
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WFM Software Considerations
1. Features and Capabilities
Data collection
Forecasting
Scheduling
Intra-day management
Real-time adherence
What are your “must have” and “nice to have” software capabilities?
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WFM Software Considerations
2. Support and Services
Planning and installation WFM team IT/technical support
Training System training/initial and ongoing Workforce management concepts
Support services Ongoing customer support Professional services
User community
What are your internal capabilities and can you access necessary resources?
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WFM Software Considerations
3. Operating Platform
Traditional premise-based systems Hardware/servers
IT support
Upgrade schedule and process
Ability to size to call centre growth/decline
Is the traditional premise-based system holding you back in terms of
flexibility and growth?
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WFM Software Considerations
4. Cost
Software cost Upfront license cost
Ongoing maintenance costs
Hardware cost
Capital investment/ROI and payback
Have you done a proper cash flow analysis to evaluate the best use of your money?
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The InVision Value Proposition
1. Features and Capabilities
Flexible, full-featured forecasting
Efficient scheduling mechanism with instant schedule views
Multi-activity and back-office scheduling
Comprehensive intra-day pictures
Real-time adherence monitoring and reporting
Training/meeting planner
Standard and custom reports
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iWFM Capabilities and Features
Forecast
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iWFM Capabilities and Features
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iWFM Capabilities and Features
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WFM Software Considerations
2. Support and Services
Easy and fast deployment
Online learning as well as classroom options
Experienced consultants Applications
Call centre operations
Strategic labour consulting
User community
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WFM Software Considerations
3. Operating Platform
On-Premise Cloud
Capital Expenses
Hardware Costly None
Software license Up-front fee None
Ongoing Fees Annual maintenance Per agent fee
Implementation High effort Simple
Training Variety Variety
Upgrades Complicated, delays Automatic, immediate
Availability Subject to downtime More reliable
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WFM Software Considerations
4. Cost
per agent per month
No capital investment. Immediate ROI. “Do the math”!
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Questions
Penny Reynolds
+1 615-812-8410
Chris Dealy
+44 7917 772365