Real-Time Adherence – the art of smarter scheduling

Learn how to be a smooth operator using automated Workforce Management technology. Nick Brook at Teleopti shares 7 golden rules for releasing the benefits of Real-Time Adherence for smarter scheduling.

Life is tough for workforce management (WFM) teams. Employees call in sick or run late to their shift, the latest promotional marketing campaign is so successful that product demand and call volumes are going through the roof or demand drops and too many employees are hanging around waiting to handle enquiries. The mere thought of managing it all while accommodating shift preferences, part-time workers and shift swaps is enough to bring on a headache even before the first cup of morning coffee.

By far the biggest gripe is having to handle last-minute time-off requests with 55% of contact center professionals complaining about the issue. Even more worrying is that several factors are set to make matters worse. A 2018 Call Center Helper survey revealed that only 52.3% of organizations have deployed an automated WFM system with one in ten contact centers still relying on either pen and paper or whiteboards to schedule staff while low employee numbers continue to act as a hurdle to providing great customer service, rising from 24.5% to 30% since 2015.

Take the final leap into the cloud with Real-Time Adherence

Managing today’s multi-channel contact centers is actually easier than you might think with a little forward-planning and the right technology. If nothing else encourages that final leap into the cloud, perhaps the benefits of Real Team Adherence (RTA) will. Use the latest automated solutions for:

• Flexible planning ‘on the go’ – RTA technology monitors agent adherence to schedules and compares them with the live ACD status. Automated alarms flag up when schedules are in danger of being breached and a real-time data feed, updated in seconds, enables fast decision-making
• Add intra-day schedulers to the mix and reschedule the workforce during the day. Unplanned changes in customer demand and last-minute agent absences are overcome because break times, lunches and even the deployment of people between different skills groups can be accommodated in a matter of minutes. The changes might only be small but they can make all the difference between meeting service levels during peak periods and losing valuable contacts and customers - forever
• Business continuity planning – automated RTA solutions give organizations all they need to prepare for the unexpected such as storms that prevent people from getting to the office or major systems outages. High visibility of dynamic data makes tracking agent adherence and adjusting schedules to maintain service levels easier. Graphics make it possible to spot developing trends as they happen to facilitate fast re-forecasting or last-minute optimization
• Complete control now and in the future - make WFM technology a highly valuable planning tool. Running a series of ‘what if’ scenarios can predict staffing needs for regular seasonal fluctuations like Christmas, upcoming new marketing campaigns and even right-size the contact center to support your organization’s long-term business and expansion programs.

Seven golden rules for smarter scheduling

Before making changes take a step back and learn from the mistakes of experienced WFM users. Here are the golden rules:

1. Respect the past – history is always relevant. Access to accurate data along with a recorded audit trail of previous forecasting activities provides a solid foundation for future forecasts.
2. Accept that change is the only constant - factor channels, agent preferences, and unplanned absences into forecasts. That way, the contact center is always ready to react to the unexpected swiftly and effectively.
3. Never work in isolation - make sure planning teams work with other parts of the business to improve forecasting. Make it your business to know about promotions and advertising campaigns so when those enquiries come in and customer service is ready for action.
4. Schedule administrative tasks and training during quiet times – and let employees give their full attention to the customer during busy periods.
5. Add ‘travel time’ into schedules – for example, adding a cushion of 5 minutes either side of a 30-minute training session will make it easy for everyone to arrive on time without running and adhere to their schedules.
6. Flatten the spikes – don’t forget the ‘out of the ordinary’ events that can adversely impact the efficiency of the contact center such as systems outages, negative comments on social media or news in the press. Be sure to factor these into the WFM equation.
7. Aim for continuous improvement - processes require constant re-evaluation to increase efficiencies and gain a competitive edge. Reviewing processes and historical data should be a regular diary date, at a set time of the week and at least once a month.

Act now to stop that niggling headache turning into a full-blown migraine. Don’t rush in, take a considered, pragmatic approach and work with the right technology partner to keep your contact center running smoothly and at peak performance.

Want to learn more about one of the most important KPIs within the customer-service industry? Sign up for our on-demand session Setting realistic goals for adherence.

Source: https://www.teleopti.com/blog/real-time-adherence-the-art-of-smarter-scheduling/

2023 Buyers Guide

Get Listed

Help Desk Software

 

1.)

eGain Corporation eGain CallTrack™ eGain CallTrack™ is a dynamic call tracking and case management solution that helps companies provide quick, high-quality, and cost-efficient resolution of customer issues across traditional and emerging interaction channels. It is one of the many innovative customer interaction products in eGain Solve™ suite, the unified customer engagement and knowledge management software suite, which helps businesses transform their traditional call centers into omnichannel customer engagement hubs. eGain CallTrack will enable you to track, manage and resolve cases and maintain service level agreements (SLA), across channels.

2.)

Happitu Happitu is your customer support team’s personal coach. It guides your team through every interaction with custom workflows, responsive scripting, and dynamic help topics. Documentation in Happitu is automated, detailed, and consistent. Go beyond handle times and service levels with the rich insights of Happitu – from granular interaction data to aggregate data and trends – you get the complete CX journey! We intentionally built the Happitu Workflow Designer with your customer support team in mind. Using our intuitive tools that provide quick and safe iteration, you eliminate the need to involve IT or Development. Yes, you will no longer have to dread submitting a change request to Devin from IT! Try it free for 45 days!

3.)

Knowmax Knowmax Knowmax is an omnichannel knowledge management platform. Our mission is to transform contact centers into resolution centers and drive customer self service. The platform is an industry-agnostic enterprise-grade knowledge platform with components helping in easy findability of actionable information at the right time across the desired touchpoint.

4.)

LiveAgent LiveAgent Help Desk LiveAgent is a cloud-based Help Desk Software with over 195+ compatible integrations. Streamline all customer communication channels and manage them from a single shared company inbox. Enjoy social media integration, unlimited ticket history, call recordings, hybrid ticket streams, and more. Companies like BMW, Yamaha, Huawei, Orange, or Forbesfone use LiveAgent to deliver customer wow to 150M end-users worldwide.

5.)

Nuxiba Technologies CenterWare Nuxiba's Help Desk Software is ideal for delivering top-level contact help desk services. It not only tailors to your existing technology resources but also allows you to set staff priorities that forward clients to the most knowledgeable agents. Give personalized assistance, and analyze performance with our real-time monitoring, recording, and reports. Integrate Salesforce or VTiger CRM systems, be TCPA compliant, protect your cardholder's data during calls, and more! Request a quote or demo today and start the journey to increase your first-contact resolution percentages in less than three months!

6.)

OneDesk OneDesk's software combines Helpdesk & Project Management into one application. No need to purchase, integrate and switch between applications. Your team can support your customers and work on projects in one place. Aimed at SMBs as well as departments at large enterprises, OneDesk is frequently used by project managers, customer service, IT, professional services and more. This easy-to-use, feature-rich, and highly configurable software can manage both ticket & task workflows.

7.)

Teckinfo Solutions Pvt. Ltd. ActivDesk Help Desk Software ActivDesk Help Desk Software is an intelligent ticketing software for multi- channel customer interaction & engagement. It streamlines the entire ticket management process. With its SLA & escalation management, it enables your help desk to deliver enriching customer experience.

 

View more from Calabrio

Recent Blog Posts:

Data is everything in the new era of customer service	May 20, 2019
Real-Time Adherence – the art of smarter scheduling	May 8, 2019
Evolving employee engagement with Workforce Management (WFM)	April 30, 2019
Guest Blog: There’s a brighter future for contact centre agents	April 12, 2019
Centralized or de-centralized WFM: 5 ways to strike the perfect balance	April 8, 2019
How patient are your customers? Erlang A may have the answer	March 25, 2019
Evaluating if the integration between your WFM & CX platform will be a big “Yes”	February 25, 2019
The whole organization is a customer service center – not everyone knows it yet!	February 4, 2019
Resistance to change – the arch nemesis of customer experience	January 22, 2019
5 steps to supercharge your customer service with contextual intelligence	January 7, 2019