Page 26 - October November 2014

26 Telecom Reseller
October/November 2014
Three Steps for Ensuring You Have

here are three things you need to know to
The Right People, in the Right Place,
achieve optimal adherence:
l Understand the Root Cause of Adherence
Violations
l Numbers can be misleading. Verify that an
agent who appears to have fallen below the at the Right Time
center’s adherence targets in a given week or
month has not become a victim of someone’s
failure to record exceptions in the schedule.
l Be Realistic When Setting Adherence Goals
Typically, adherence goals should be in the K
90% to 95% range, meaning agents should be yKer
management systems are inaccurate forecasting work caused by comparable occurrences in the
engaged in scheduled activities 90-95% of the time over the course of a week or a month. his and an inability to generate requirements at the interval level. Both of these problems, coupled past.
allows latitude for minor scheduling oversights by Lori Kyker, Pipkins, Inc. (www. with inadequate scheduling algorithms, can Calculate requirements and schedule
and unforeseen developments. Attempting to Pipkins.com)
prove costly and negatively impact a company’s accordingly
force 100% compliance will backire, both by Ibottom line.
Once scheduling requirements are known, use
alienating agents and by tacitly encouraging n his seminal book “Good to Great”, Jim an algorithm that maximizes the achievable
them to end calls prematurely in order to meet Collins used the analogy of illing a bus to It’s all about the algorithms!
quality of service. Avoid using a simple
adherence targets.
emphasize the importance of having the
Workforce management sotware should use “hours-net-to-zero” scheduling algorithm.
right people, in the right place, at the right time. mathematical algorithms for accurate call Scheduling systems that use a simple net-to-
Allow for Grace Periods
Collins researched how companies go from volume forecasting and scheduling based on zero algorithm cannot distinguish between
Adherence rules should include grace periods being good to great and concluded the key is data exclusive to each center’s target service schedules that deliver good and bad service. If
that must be observed before the agent is utilization of the right people. In his famous levels, luctuating call volumes, agent skill sets, under- or overstaing during diferent intervals
deemed to be out of compliance. Being too quote, Collins stated “hey start by getting the and “what if ” scenario requirements. Accurate throughout the day nets to zero, you are not
rigid will afect morale and customer service. right people on the bus, the wrong people of forecasting takes into account all the historic truly meeting your service level objectives
Diferent thresholds should be established for the bus, and the right people in the right seats.” dynamics. Correlated forecasting, which is during those intervals. Wasted labor expenses
diferent activities. A late start at the beginning Collins poses this question in his “Twelve forecasting for speciic
can occur through overstaing,
of a shit or a late return from lunch may have Questions for Leaders”: Do we have the right events that cause wide Algorithms should while under- staing results in lost
a grace period of 2 minutes, while a late lunch people on the bus, and are 95% of our key seats luctuations in the volume of relect real life revenue.
start may have a grace period of 5 minutes.
illed with the right people? While Collins was calls that must be processed, customer behavior Use real time adherence (RTA)
he best option for monitoring adherence is referring to leadership, this principle can apply can only be performed
to monitor agent’s adherence to
a visual system that allows for at-a-glance agent monitoring.
to contact center staing as well.
Staing issues oten have “make or break” by the most sophisticated systems.
and include curve schedules
Monitoring adherence on a real-
his system frees supervisors from sitting
consequences for companies. Bottom line Algorithms should relect mapping and time basis can identify problems
at desks and enables one-click edits. A global proits are negatively impacted by inadequate real life customer behavior in early stages to permit corrective
monitoring system can be used to track scheduling that results in under- or overstaing. and include curve mapping pattern recognition.
action to be taken with agents
multiple in-house contact centers as well as here are three steps you can take that will and pattern recognition.
before service levels plummet.
monitor the performance of outsourced call ensure you are able to properly staf to meet Real-time adherence tools can
In environments where
centers. Adherence violations at any contact service levels objectives while maintaining agent workloads regularly ebb and low due to help by automatically alerting managers
center in the network can be instantly spotted adherence.
marketing activities and other deinable when agents are out of compliance. his
and investigated with a click from a map
variables, Historical Trend Analysis is the only makes it possible to lag minor lapses before
that portrays each center’s location and its Start with an Accurate Forecast
way to ensure proper staing because it is the they turn into major crises. Supervisors can
compliance levels graphically instead of through Proper staing to avoid under- and overstaing only methodology that can incorporate complex view adherence status at any time in a special
text-heavy reports.
starts with an accurate forecast. Accurate historical trends in its calculations. Without window that is refreshed every 30 seconds or
forecasting is imperative to achieve the balance pattern matching to predict diferent customer on the timetable of the user’s choice. When
Conclusion
of having your agents consistently in the right behavior for diferent events, the risk of over- or an agent’s “state” does not match the schedule,
Until and unless you have resources and tools to place at the right time. In a skill-based routing understaing increases dramatically. Historical the system typically spotlights the discrepancy
ensure accurate forecasting, staing, and agent environment, accurate forecasting is the critical Trend Analysis not only accurately predicts the by a visual device such as color-coding. he
adherence, you will walk a delicate balancing component of workforce management.
continuation of trends, but the more advanced more comprehensive systems arm supervisors
act between proit and loss. his problem can Many workforce management systems lack algorithms also incorporate pattern recognition with important additional information by
be mitigated by full utilization of a quality workforce management system that ofers time critical functions and lexibility to meet the needs of contact centers; or, their platform is to ine-tune forecasts for special events like promotional mailings or national holidays.
indicating the nature of the violation (e.g. late start, improper activity, logged out early) as well
tested solutions with proven results. Make
unable to maintain suicient historical call Each time a particular event reoccurs, the as the agent’s current state (e.g. ACD inbound,
the right decisions in the beginning and avoid data to generate accurate forecasts. he most forecasted call volume is automatically adjusted logged of, ater-call work), and the duration of
future problems.
common problems found with workforce
to relect the increase or decline in incoming
the problem.

p1-28_TR_Oct/Nov_2014.indd 26
10/11/2014 22:54