September 7, 2024
Customer support departments are key drivers of a successful business. One can't manage all its processes easily as it requires balancing multiple responsibilities, such as scheduling hundreds of support agents, overseeing each and every communication account, creating campaigns that improve sales, and tracking team performance—everything under the pressure of time.
To run things smoothly, you need to create a solid workforce management strategy that helps you build efficient workflows and deliver results.
If you are a bit unfamiliar with this topic, don’t worry; we have got you covered.Â
In this blog, we will walk you through every detail of a workforce management strategy in call centres so you can better serve both your employees and customers.
Let's get started.Â
Workforce management (WFM) for call centres is a series of techniques designed to forecast workloads, assign staff, manage schedules and track performance.Â
The main intent of creating a workforce management system is to have the right number of properly skilled people in the right place at the right time.
When it comes to workforce management for call centres, there's no one-size-fits-all mantra. Just as some people prefer books while others prefer movie adaptations, there are workforce management components that may be ideal for your strategy, while others will never work no matter how hard you try.
That's why it's important to research and try all the components given below to find what works for your business operations:
As the name suggests, forecasting in a call centre refers to predicting the future— more specifically, how much work your call centre is going to have in a specific time frame.
You can start by determining the number of people that will likely contact your business and then the time required to handle those contacts in a certain time frame— so that you can match available resources to the demand.
Your plans should also account for how many different types of work you will get and how long it takes to complete them. For example, answering a call versus resolving an issue through chat takes a different amount of time. A very simple customer inquiry through chat is likely to take much less time to process, on average, than a complicated, high-level technical support call.
When it comes to forecasting, it's always a work in progress. You can begin with an annual forecast and then shift to a quarterly basis. You can do it simply by incorporating numbers of a quarterly forecasted call volume. Remember there can be an increase or decrease in your call volume due to changes in time frame as well if a certain product is launched in that quarter.
Matching resources with incoming work is a critical step in managing a call centre effectively. However, it's also more difficult to do so.
Most call centres are supporting a broader range of products and services, which means you need to have a wide range of experts available on demand.
On the other hand, in agents' personal lives, several things might be pulling their time, such as training, breaks, holidays, volunteer work etc . Also, several employees these days only want to be involved in work that is interesting, meaningful, and supports their lifestyle.
To balance this out and create effective scheduling, start by involving agents in identifying scheduling priorities. Not only will this make the process collaborative and foster trust among agents, it will also give them the opportunity to provide perspectives that you might not have considered and could end in excellent results.
When it comes to actually creating the schedule, your primary target should be to match the number of agent schedules to actual workload requirements. Since in-house agents can have certain level restrictions, you can hire part-timers and home agents to optimise the process.
Try to create a schedule that is flexible and can be adjusted on the go. Even from the moment you create a schedule to the actual day you implement it, changes can occur, such as a change in demand or stuff. Therefore, it's better to be well prepared.
Working in a call centre can pull your agents attention in many different directions. They might be losing their precious time on doing mundane tasks rather than focussing on things that can make a difference.
To fix this issue and keep your agents productive, your best bet is to monitor their work hours—and a workforce management software can help you with that. The integrated time tracker into these solutions can track your agents PC activity and see exactly how much time your agents spend on calls, handling customer emails, etc.
Also, most WFM tools calculate agent utilisation rates with a fair degree of accuracy. Utilisation rates are basically the percentage of time an agent spends on tasks versus their total available work time. For example, if you pay an agent for 10 hours and they spend 7 of those hours logged in pc and 3 hours off the on breaks and in meetings, the utilisation rate is 70 percent. Tracking and understanding utilisation rates helps you create better scheduling practices for the future.
Given variations in the workload throughout the year, month, and even in a day, a fall-off in execution over time can be possible. The only remedy is to constantly monitor and report on the ongoing execution effort of your agents.
To make your job easier, almost every tool you use today to interact with customers comes with an integrated performance management dashboard that can help you analyse performance metrics such as average handling time, first response time, etc. Used properly, all this information can help you notice any irregularities in your workflow, so you can prevent them on time and lead to better results.
Once you have analysed the data, make sure to present the information to agents in a clear, concise, and actionable format. It should become the primary opportunity for both parties to have a discussion and turn the outcome information into action. Additionally, if any metrics show underlying improvement, tell the reason why, and be sure to acknowledge their contributions and celebrate.
For agents, trying to manage multiple tasks—such as answering large numbers of customers, meetings, training, and creating reports—at once can become stressful and challenging.Â
Implementing workforce management programs in call centres is a great way for employers to show not only they value their opinions but also prioritise their well-being.
By involving your agents in creating schedules and throughout the whole workforce management strategy, you can create a schedule that actually works for everyone. This will help the agents stay more committed to their roles and motivated to provide the best customer service.
In a customer-facing setting, proper time management is critical for successfully winning minds.
With the right workforce management tools and strategies, you can save yourself a tonne of time. Automated scheduling takes into account your team’s availability and predicted call volume, so you don’t have to worry about manually piecing it all together.Â
Most of your customers don’t want to wait in long lines; they want immediate answers from the agents that are concise and effective. And when they do not receive that, their patience wears thin, and you end up with  angry customers.
Effective workforce management can help you keep wait times to a minimum by making sure you’ve got the right number of agents on hand during peak hours.Â
Hiring new employees for your company is challenging, but it's a whole different story when you are onboarding them into your company.
A solid workforce management system can make the onboarding process smoother and quicker by assigning hires to the departments that have flexibility to offer information and training.
Plus, you can track their progress on a day-to-day basis, thereby making sure they’re on the right path to achieving success.
Each company has its own unique structure and specific needs. To develop a workforce management strategy that perfectly fits with your business, start by clearly defining your goals, identifying the roles you need, and outlining the responsibilities for each position. Then, monitor the progress and development of your team members over time.
Ultimately, your goal should be to create a culture that supports your company values, boosts customer advocacy, and celebrates team success.
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