If you operate on a feast-or-famine schedule – either too many calls, not enough people or too many people, not enough calls – here’s what you need to do now.
It might be time to upgrade or implement workforce management technology. According to Multi Channel Merchant, a effective contact center scheduling system should perform these eight functions:
- Automatically incorporate breaks, lunches, absences, etc., when producing a schedule. If not, you’ll spend costly time figuring all that into it.
- Incorporate historical call data that includes marketing campaigns, billing cycles and other variables that affect volume over years – not just a few months of records.
- Recognize special events such as discounts, catalog drops and promotions.
- Produce schedules on your time frame. If you need them done in minutes or days, get a demonstration to prove what can be done.
- Allow you to automate recurring information such as work volume and group recipients.
- Adjust for daily “surprises” such as unplanned meetings, large-scale absences and seasonal situations that might include vacations or weather-related incidents.
- Account for busy signals and abandoned calls when it calculates your workforce. If not, you’ll end up understaffed.
- Be scalable to accommodate growth without slowing down to install new software.
