You may meet all your qualitative and quantitative goals, but your contact center probably isn’t as productive as it could be. Here are three reasons why.
Researchers with Knowlagent found these three factors hurt productivity in most contact centers. We’ve included ideas for defeating them.
- Too much idle time – five weeks of it, in fact. Agents end up with about that much idle time in a year, taken in 90 second or two minute increments, experts estimated. Tip: Try workforce management tools that allow you to analyze call volume and schedule based on 15 minute increments.
- Too much off-line time. Agents spend as much as 12% of their work time on after-call work, training or on “must-read” messages or manuals. Leaders can control that. Tip: Make “must-reads” accessible so agents can look at them during those two-minutes of idle time. Offer training before or after regular hours with some overtime.
- Too little down time. Agents can’t decompress or reignite in 45-second breathers after tough calls. Tip: Give them regular 15-minute assignment shifts away from phone or online work. The change of pace actually helps them decompress and stay motivated.
